What to expect:
OnionOS is possibly the best retro gaming operating system on the scene. It comes preloaded on all Miyoo Mini Plus’ bought from GoGameGeek now. So today I am going to check out the OnionOS build on a Miyoo Mini Plus they sent me, along with a quick refresher review on why this is THE retro gaming device for 8 and 16 bit systems.
So I have mentioned GoGameGeek, they explained to me that you can actually buy these preloaded SD cards with their custom version of OnionOS. This is a great way to get set up easily without too much drama.
OnionOS key features:
- Onion have an excellent info section on the OS here https://onionui.github.io/docs
- We will just go through the highlights and things that you may find difficult to navigate
- GoGameGeek boot logo
- GoGameGeek have curated a really nice roms library
- They appear to have added shaders and filters for you too
- GameSwitcher: press the menu button once at any point to see screenshots of your recent games
- Package manager: essentially your App Store where you can manage emulators and apps
- Tweaks: allows you to fully customize the system. I like being able to set where the system starts up to
- Themes: excellent selection
- App manager: download the OTA updater, they also have a music player which I know a lot of people like
- Boxart scraping supported in the latest release
- Retroachievements
- Native Pico8
- Recently Nintendo DS support was added
- GLO - per games core adjustments
How to add Pico8 to Onion V4.3
You’ll need to provide 2 files for the RASPBERRY PI version of pico-8:
- pico8_dyn
- pico8.dat
Download these files here: https://github.com/XK9274/pico-8-wrapper-miyoo/releases
- Download the .tar.gz file and unzip it with something like 7zip: https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
- Drag the app folder from the releases page into SDCARD/App/ (so it becomes /mnt/SDCARD/App/pico)
- Now purchase Pico8 here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?#getpico8
- Download the Rasberry pi version and extract the zip folder
- Now go back to your SD card and add a “bin” folder to the app/pico/ folder if it doesn’t already exist
- Now drag the pico8_dyn and pico8.dat files from the Pico8 folder you just bought to the app/pico/bin/ folder
- Insert the SD card back into your device and start it up
- Navigate to apps and open Pico8 Wrapper
- Press MENU + SELECT to exit Pico8
- Also make sure you’re connected to the internet
Unique to GoGameGeek:
- They tell me the overlays and tweaks are specific to this version of the OS
- For me the key difference is the ROMSET, although it’s fairly sketchy, their romset is really nice though. They’ve curated A LOT of games across many systems with seemingly no bias so you can explore devices and consoles that you never saw in real life like ATARI Lynx or NeoGeo Pocket
- Also it ships with a SanDisk card which is excellent quality
THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE
- General navigation: quick switch, single press to game switcher, long press to menu, X to search, screenshots in the gameswitcher, opens where you left off after shut down. This workflow is what makes OnionOS so special
Shortcuts I like:
- Volume indicator throughout
- X in menu system opens search
- Menu + volume = brightness setting
- Double press menu button to quick switch to your previous game (multi tasking!)
- MENU + L / R = rewind / fast forward
- MENU + L2 / R2 = Load State / Save State
- L2 + R2 = Change Colour Palette in GB games (particularly nice because I really don’t like the normal setup where simply pressing L2 or R2 changes the palette so you end up changing the colour while saving)
Better overlays:
- Gameboy:
- Open a Gameboy game
- Menu + SELECT > On-screen Overlay > Overlay Preset > GB-GBC > Frame > DMG-480p-mini.cfg
- Settings > Video > Scaling > Integer Scaling ON / Keep Aspect Ration ON
- Quick Menu > Overrides > save content directory overrides
- Gameboy Color:
- Open a GBC game
- Menu + SELECT > On-screen Overlay > Overlay Preset > GB-GBC > Frame-Grid > GBC-480p-final.cfg
- Settings > Video > Scaling > Integer Scaling ON / Keep Aspect Ration ON
- Quick Menu > Overrides > save content directory overrides
- Gameboy Advance:
- Open a GBA game
- Menu + SELECT > On-screen Overlay > Overlay Preset > GBA > GBA-480p-scan.cfg
- Quick Menu > Overrides > save content directory overrides
- Gamegear:
- Open a Gamegear game
- Menu + SELECT > On-screen Overlay > Overlay Preset > GG > Frame > Gamegear_new.cfg
- Settings > Video > Scaling > Integer scaling ON / Keep aspect ratio ON
- Quick Menu > Overrides > save content directory overrides
FUN!
- Video player for the true retrophiles!
- Music player… I do not have a sinle mp3…
- Themes - here’s a cool theme made by TechDweeb! And so many more in v4.3
Things I like about the MM+:
- Screen
- Navigation
- Themes
- Dpad - one of the best modern retro dpads
- Design is so retro
Things I don’t like about the MM+:
- I can’t find a way to disable the LED light which is an absolute pain on the clear shell - the best I can do is undervolt it to reduce the brightness: Tweaks > Advanced > LCD undervolt BUT this reduces the overall screen brightness (which saves on battery life)
- Ergonomics: here’s where my previous video had a critical flaw - something like the Anbernic RG35XX is far more comfortable to hold.
- No HDMI output - if you’re looking for something to consolise this is NOT for you
- I tried an OTA update and it didn’t work. Fortunately their update guide is excellent https://onionui.github.io/docs/installation/update - also the GoGameGeek tweaks were not lost when I updated
Major competing devices:
- RG35XX H Plus more power but OS isn’t great, but it has HDMI out
- RGB30 more expensive but more powerful and amazing screen for older systems and to play Pico8