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The 35XX isn’t even two months old yet we already have a custom OS made for it. Taking a lot of inspiration from OnionOS for the Miyoo Mini, we have Garlic OS by Black Seraph.
Garlic OS is a frontend for RetroArch, something that Black Seraph had gotten working on the 35XX before.
Garlic OS is mostly a small frontend at this point, but one that looks better than the default OS included on the new 35XX systems that I had mentioned in my previous review.
The biggest benefit to Garlic OS is its passionate Dev, Black Seraph. With very prompt updates and bug fixes and tweaks, it is quickly cementing itself as the only option for 35XX.
Right now, there are a lot of new features including a new design by user Midnite which will be incorporated as the default theme going forward, for both Garlic OS and RGUI. Right now, you need to manually add the theme, but trust me, it’s worth it!
You can add new images to the game selection in GarlicOS with the recent addition. Images need to be 640×480, named the same as the ROM itself with a .extension.png, and put in the Roms/CFW/skin/games folder.
Honestly, the work Black Seraph has done is incredible and with such rapid updates too. I think that Garlic OS should be your primary option for using the 35XX. But there are caveats that could prevent you from making this your main driver.
First off, some of the sounds just don’t sound right on the mono speaker that even the 353V gets right, like some MegaDrive Games. The gameplay also isn’t as smooth as higher-end devices, which might be fine for some games, but not great for fast-paced games.
And without GPU being unlocked, I wouldn’t really try out shaders at the moment, which is a shame since some of them are really nice like the Anti-Aliasing ones RetroArch includes. Though, again, Black-Seraph is working on these changes.
I think really, the best option is to wait it out and see what improvements are made. You can catch the RG35XX development in the Retro Handhelds Discord Server.
