Customize a retro handheld gaming console with Onion OS

Gaming Upgrade

© Lead Image © file404, 123RF.com

© Lead Image © file404, 123RF.com

Article from Issue 295/2025
Author(s):

Adding custom firmware to a handheld gaming device enhances your gaming experience and lets you write custom apps. We show you how with Onion OS on a Miyoo Mini Plus.

The Miyoo Mini Plus [1] and Anbernic [2] family of handheld gaming consoles offer a wide range of retro gaming options. These consoles start around $50, and they have emulators for all the major old-school gaming platforms. The handheld hardware comes in several different form factors, but they all run Linux under the hood (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Miyoo Mini Plus and the Anbernic RG35XX resemble the Nintendo Game Boy, while the Anbernic RG40XX looks more like a Sony PlayStation Vita.

While the firmware that ships with these consoles locks you into a fairly limited interface, you can find custom firmware that offers some enhanced functions and usability features. For the RG35XX/RG40XX hardware, some of the custom firmware choices include Knulli [3] and muOS [4], with GarlicOS [5] being extremely popular on RG35XX units. For the Miyoo handhelds, Onion OS [6] is the most commonly used custom firmware.

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