2020-08-28, 13:18
Any chance of a Kodi and RetroPlayer port for OpenDingux (formerly Open Dingux) open source Linux distribution on MIPS (mips32) architecture to primarily use for retro game emulation?
Maybe a of you few retro game console emulator fans here know already that a flood of inexpensive portable retro game video console has become available from China. Many of which use the same "OpenDingux Tony System" and are based on MIPS architecture, however, before the new RG350 series of hardware those handheld game consoles had slow CPUs and not based on an open platform so not even worth even thinking about porting Kodi to them.
OpenDingux with a Linux kernel 3.x for MIPSel CPU hardware is now supported by Libretro and RetroArch (as well as most of its emulator cores) since back in January this year.
OpenDingux distro for retro game emulation itself has itself been around for about 10-years and has today a big community called "Dingoonity" is available at dingoonity.org
The name OpenDingux is originally taken as from handheld gaming consoles by a Chinese company called Dingoo which was known for its Dingoo A380 handheld game console and they called its Linux operating-system distribution for "Dingux", and whether or not the people developing OpenDingux today has the right to call their distribution for "OpenDingux" is a separate discussion. OpenDinguxis therefor though something referred to as "NoDingux".
RetroFW (also known as RFW) distro / linux kernel / firmware is a popular fork of the OpenDingux distro which is also worth mentioning as quite handheld game consoles based on similar hardware ship with it instead of OpenDingux.
Specifically, I would like to use Kodi and RetroPlayer running in Linux on the latest Ingenic JZ47xx / J47xx (especially those with JZ4770 or J4770 SoCs) and Ingenic X1830 based, which are all devices released in the last year or so. Ingenic is a silicon-chip designer and manufacturer vendor based in Beijing, China, perhaps best known for their MIPS Xburst processors (including newer versions such as JZ4780 and X1830).
Best Ingenic JZ4770 reference hardware today is the currently the very popular and inexpensive ANBERNIC RG280M and RG350 series of handheld game consoles, (also referred to as Retro Game 280M, 350 or RG-350, and their variants like RG350P and RG350M. RG350, all of which is also sold under different brand names), as well as Bitboy PocketGo 2 V1 + PocketGo 2 V2 / New PocketGo v2.
All of the RG350 series and PocketGo 2 V2 / New PocketGo v2 have a Dual-Core 1.0GHz MIPS32 rev2 + SIMD2 CPU (Ingenic Semiconductor JZ4770 XBurst 1 / XBurst1 based SoC), 512MB RAM of DDR2 memory, and Vivante GC860 GPU capable of OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics. RG350M (Metal shell) does, however, feature 640x480 resolution compared to the others which only ship with 320x240 resolution displays.
Only known game-handheld to use Ingenic X1830 with OpenDingux is the GKD 350H (a.k.a. GameKiddy RG350 H) so that is not good reference hardware for that reason. Most handhelds with the slightly less powerful Ingenic JZ4760 / JZ4760B ships with RetroFW firmware instead of OpenDingux.
The same RetroArch and libretro core emulators port should in theory also work on the older GCW Zero (2013-2017) which is based on the same type on the processor as the RG350 hardware is almost an improved replica/clone of it.
ANBERNIC RG350 and RG350P were the most popular models in 2019 and now in 2020 the most popular so far this year is the RG350M which has a higher resolution display and aluminium shell.
RG350 portable games consoles use the same type of architecture as the MIPS Creator CI20 developer board by Imagination Technologies which has the slightly faster ImgTec JZ4780 with Dual-Core 1.2GHz CPU and PowerVR SGX 540 GPU:
Some developers started to port Kodi to it a few years back but I do not think a new port was ever released?
Any interest in the Kodi community for handheld game consoles for retro gaming?
- https://wiki.dingoonity.org/index.php?ti...ngux:About
- https://wiki.dingoonity.org/index.php?ti...evelopment
- https://github.com/OpenDingux
Maybe a of you few retro game console emulator fans here know already that a flood of inexpensive portable retro game video console has become available from China. Many of which use the same "OpenDingux Tony System" and are based on MIPS architecture, however, before the new RG350 series of hardware those handheld game consoles had slow CPUs and not based on an open platform so not even worth even thinking about porting Kodi to them.
OpenDingux with a Linux kernel 3.x for MIPSel CPU hardware is now supported by Libretro and RetroArch (as well as most of its emulator cores) since back in January this year.
OpenDingux distro for retro game emulation itself has itself been around for about 10-years and has today a big community called "Dingoonity" is available at dingoonity.org
The name OpenDingux is originally taken as from handheld gaming consoles by a Chinese company called Dingoo which was known for its Dingoo A380 handheld game console and they called its Linux operating-system distribution for "Dingux", and whether or not the people developing OpenDingux today has the right to call their distribution for "OpenDingux" is a separate discussion. OpenDinguxis therefor though something referred to as "NoDingux".
RetroFW (also known as RFW) distro / linux kernel / firmware is a popular fork of the OpenDingux distro which is also worth mentioning as quite handheld game consoles based on similar hardware ship with it instead of OpenDingux.
Specifically, I would like to use Kodi and RetroPlayer running in Linux on the latest Ingenic JZ47xx / J47xx (especially those with JZ4770 or J4770 SoCs) and Ingenic X1830 based, which are all devices released in the last year or so. Ingenic is a silicon-chip designer and manufacturer vendor based in Beijing, China, perhaps best known for their MIPS Xburst processors (including newer versions such as JZ4780 and X1830).
Best Ingenic JZ4770 reference hardware today is the currently the very popular and inexpensive ANBERNIC RG280M and RG350 series of handheld game consoles, (also referred to as Retro Game 280M, 350 or RG-350, and their variants like RG350P and RG350M. RG350, all of which is also sold under different brand names), as well as Bitboy PocketGo 2 V1 + PocketGo 2 V2 / New PocketGo v2.
All of the RG350 series and PocketGo 2 V2 / New PocketGo v2 have a Dual-Core 1.0GHz MIPS32 rev2 + SIMD2 CPU (Ingenic Semiconductor JZ4770 XBurst 1 / XBurst1 based SoC), 512MB RAM of DDR2 memory, and Vivante GC860 GPU capable of OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics. RG350M (Metal shell) does, however, feature 640x480 resolution compared to the others which only ship with 320x240 resolution displays.
Only known game-handheld to use Ingenic X1830 with OpenDingux is the GKD 350H (a.k.a. GameKiddy RG350 H) so that is not good reference hardware for that reason. Most handhelds with the slightly less powerful Ingenic JZ4760 / JZ4760B ships with RetroFW firmware instead of OpenDingux.
- https://www.amazon.com/s?k=anbernic+rg350+rg350m
- https://retromimi.com/collections/handhe...lloy-shell
- https://retromimi.com/collections/handhe...cts/rg350p
- https://retromimi.com/collections/handhe...me-console
The same RetroArch and libretro core emulators port should in theory also work on the older GCW Zero (2013-2017) which is based on the same type on the processor as the RG350 hardware is almost an improved replica/clone of it.
ANBERNIC RG350 and RG350P were the most popular models in 2019 and now in 2020 the most popular so far this year is the RG350M which has a higher resolution display and aluminium shell.
RG350 portable games consoles use the same type of architecture as the MIPS Creator CI20 developer board by Imagination Technologies which has the slightly faster ImgTec JZ4780 with Dual-Core 1.2GHz CPU and PowerVR SGX 540 GPU:
Some developers started to port Kodi to it a few years back but I do not think a new port was ever released?
Any interest in the Kodi community for handheld game consoles for retro gaming?
