Introduction
Hey, everyone! Long time no see! It's been ages since I did a Kenshira Plays episode, so this article is going to double as an extra special one, because we're gonna look through a collection of games spanning a variety of genres through the eyes and ears of Ambernic's RG Arc D Emulation handheld running both Android and Linux Operating System. Furthermore, you'll get to hear what it sounds like with screen reader installed onto the hardware. What's even better is that it's significantly cheaper than windows based portables which often go for several hundred bucks a pop. It'll take a bit of work to get screen reader going, but I went through all the hard work so you could avoid most of the tedius stuff I had to do. Also, this knowledge will possibly apply to other chinese handhelds that can boot into both Linux and android operating systems as well. Please note that I will not tell you where to get roms, Bios, or APK files, so don't ask. With that said, Let's get into the presentation proper!
What is this?
The RG Arc D is a portable gaming machine similar to a Switch or PSP, with on-board controls, screen, stereo speakers and internal hardware that allows you to play anything up to Sony Playstation, many Sega Dreamcast and Sony PSP games. It is in the shape of a Sega style controller, measuring about 3.75 inches from front to back, about 7 inches long, and a half inch deep, with an added quarter inch where the grips stick out from the left and right undersides. It has an outward curving top edge, slightly curved prongs on either side of the bottom for gripping, 6 face buttons on the right side in 2 rows of 3. From left to right, A, B, and C are indented buttons on the bottom row, while X, Y and Z are on the top row, each with appropriate lettering imprinted into the buttons. A circular d-pad with raised arrows sits on the left side, 2 shoulder buttons on either side of the top edge of the unit, start button above the face buttons on the right side of the front panel, select button above the circular pad on the left side on front panel, stereo speakers below the buttons on either side of the front panel, with a power button, volume rocker buttons, a function button, mini HDMI port and 2 USB C ports from right to left along the top edge between the shoulder buttons. The bottom edge curves slightly inward towards the center of the unit, with mini SD card slots on either side of the 3.5mm headphone jack at the center. The left slot is slot 1, and houses the Operating System, while the right slot is slot 2, and houses the Games card. These are not covered slots, but you slide the cards in face up and press them into the unit at the friction point to lock them into place where they lock into place just beyond the entry point. To take them out, you press the card in with the tip of your nail to unlock them, then pull them out once they pop towards you.
The Arc D has a slightly matted finish to minimize friction while in your hands. Sandwiched between the arrows and buttons is a landscape oriented 4-inch screen. Although there are no outward indicators, there is a built in forward-facing microphone for voice recording near the select button on the left side of the unit. It also has built in rumble to give rumble feedback during usage and for games that support it. The speakers, though a bit hollow sounding, can get quite loud during certain games and with certain emulators. There is a rectangular sticker indentation on the underside of the unit at its center. Also on the underside of the unit, there is a flat about quarter-inch raised section on either side for gripping, about an inch wide along its widest point, just like an actual controller. The Arc doesn't have analog joysticks, nor are the triggers analog, but it's fine, most of the games you will be playing won't require any of that, and for those that do, there are work-around solutions in both operating systems. It probably won't be as powerful as the latest android phones, but that's also fine, the purpose of the device is to emulate retro games. It does use a touch screen, so you can navigate the Android OS with swipes and tap gestures once a screen reader is installed, which I will discuss in a later section. Otherwise, you can use arrows and buttons to navigate both Linux and android OS.
About Linux Operating System
As I briefly mentioned in the introduction, the RG Arc D comes with 2 opperating systems, Linux and Android, running android 11 without google play services installed. That's going to be important, I will explain why later. The Linux side is using an operating system called Emulation Station, which is a user interface that combines Retroarch with other standalone emulators. You boot into it simply by holding the power button for a couple seconds while an SD card with the operating system is inserted into slot 1, thus turning the unit on. After innicial setup, which I will describe later, it will take about 20/30 seconds to fully boot up. Tapping the power button will enter hibernation mode, and tapping it again will wake the device up. Holding the power button for just over half a second will bring up a prompt where you can restart, sleep, or power off fully, while holding the power button for 5 seconds will shut the device off completely. All of this is also true while in Android OS.
Emulation Station has menu sounds, (on by default), as well as menu music, (off by default), and you can adjust the volume of the system or just the music from within the first start menu options. I won't go too deeply into the menus here, as there are very many, but I'll give an overview of what you can do from within this section. If you already have a smartphone, I highly recommend you use a service like be my AI in conjunction with your phone's camera to read the onscreen menu which will generally appear on the left side of the screen. The menu does have smart wrapping from top to bottom, and moving left or right will advance you 10 items and will not wrap once you reach the edge of either side.
The first section in this left/right wrapping menu is the apps section. Here you can access system setup options, and image viewer. Next to the right is emulators, where you'll find standalone programs to run games. The games you need to put into the specific emulator folders on your games card using a pc. Emulators in this section won't show unless there are games for it in the appropriate folder. The third section is Retroarch, but run through emulation station. Emulators here are listed in alphabetical order and won't show unless you have games in that specific folder on your sd card. Most of these sections will be filled out if you got an Arc with a game card. The fourth section is your favorites. You can add a game to your favorites list by pressing x while on a game, going down once, and pressing A. I think it can only hold a few games at a time, but other favorites will appear at the top of the list under the appropriate emulators for those games. The final section contains your last played games. You can clear this list from within the setup menu. You can also customize the menu music to your liking. Just put 1 or more songs in either mp3 or ogg format in the /ambernic/music folder on your games card to replace the default menu music. If there is more than 1 track, the songs will play randomly, but you can skip to the next song by pressing select, then pressing A, as you will hear me do in the audio demo near the end of this article.
AS stated before, you can do all kinds of things from this menu, and I encourage exploration through the usage of Be My AI. I also recommend updating the ambernic Linux OS for this specific device asap as it provides a quick way to switch between d-pad and joystick with a press of a hotkey. Updating is easy and accessible, just run Rufus on your computer and flash the new operating system image onto the game card. Then insert it into slot 1 of the device and power it on. At first it will ask you to press A for Chinese, or B for English. After making your selection, it will begin setting up everything automatically and may take a few minutes, just wait till it's done. This process is similar to the installation process when you power up your device for the first time. Once everything is done, you won't have to worry about this anymore. There are no power up or power down sounds, so that's why I recommend having menu music switched on, just turn it low if you find it getting in the way of menu sounds. When you hear the menu music, you're ready to go and can do whatever you need to get to the game you want to play.
The games in the emulator and Retroarch folders appear in numerical and alphabetical order, so use that to arrange the games however you like via your computer. Not everything is going to work 100 percent, so use trial and error to determine how you want to fill out your library. It's going to take a while to get things just the way you want, but it's worth it in the end. Personally, I delete the games that have trouble running so I don't encounter them in the future. I can quickly discuss what each of the face buttons does in the main emulation station menu. A confirms a selection, X brings up game-specific options, B cancels and takes you to the previous menu, Y randomly highlights a menu item without activating it, useful for when you can't decide what to play. C and Z take screenshots of the menu. Start brings up a settings menu where you can customize menu and emulator options. Select lets you change menu music and view the digital manual for the device. Up and Down scrolls up and down 1 item. Left and Right scrolls back and forward by 10 items. The shoulder buttons change between the 5 sections on the main menu. That's a basic overview of how the Linux operating system works. Next I'll discuss the Android operating system, then explain the steps necessary to install a working screen reader.
The Android OS, and Installing a Screen Reader
To boot into Android OS, either remove the card in slot 1, or hold the function button before powering the device on. It will take about 30 seconds to fully boot up, but afterwards, it will function similarly to an Android phone or tablet. The screen will time out after 1 minute by default, so to unlock it, press the power button, then swipe up with 1 finger, 2 if you have a screen reader installed. The default screen is your home screen with a wall paper and any additional apps you install later. At the start there are no apps here, so you can't really arrow or button to anything. However, select brings up a few home menu options, while start enters the search box where you can search for a specific app. You can swipe down from the top of the screen to bring up your notifications, and swiping down from the lock screen brings up the menu where you can activate game mode, which gives you a list of emulators and their descriptions instead of the default home screen. You'll be able to do this accessibly once a screen reader is installed. Remember when I said earlier that Google play wasn't installed on the RG Arc D? That means you can't search for and download apps from Google Play. Furthermore, apps that rely on Google Services may not work correctly or install properly, so you'll need to find and download them another way.
For now, swipe up to reach your app grid. The Android OS has a menu sound, different from that of Emulation Station. You can use this to navigate the grid and whatever list menus you encounter from here on out. The grids and lists do not wrap in any direction. I suspect that this is true for other Ambernic devices with Android OS installed, because many reviews I saw of them had similar menu sounds and layouts. There are 2 built in file browsers, Explore, and Files, which you can use to get to any APKs stored on your sd card or external flash drive you might want to try installing.
Note that the Arc D only comes with Retroarch Arch64, which doesn't have accessibility, so you'll need to download the other Retroarch with accessibility from the gidhub page and install it via the package installer which comes built into Android OS. Even after that, turning on accessibility won't make Retroarch talk just yet, the default system voice not actually having a voice, and the lack of a screen reader are preventing it from working, so there's still a few things we need to do. From here on out, I highly recommend using Be My AI or having sighted assistance as I walk you through installing a screen reader onto the Android Operating System.
First, I recommend installing Android Accessibility Suite, which should enable Accessibility in the settings menu, even though Talkback won't work. Don't worry it's fine. Just get an APK of the program however you can. I just used APK extractor to get it off of my phone. We'll resolve the talkback issue later with another screen reader. For now, you can try using the package installer or APK Mirror installer for the following steps. Remember that you can access your files through the Explore or File apps from within the apps grid. Be sure to follow steps 5 and beyond in exact order as Prudence screen reader won't function under the default system voice if it isn't talking.
Install APK Mirror Installer: optional.
Install Android accessibility suite if you haven't already done so yet.
Download and install Prudence Screen Reader. I tried with Jieshuo and it didn't work, but it may for a different device.
Download and install 1 or more voice synthesizers. Google speech recognition and synthesis should work, but I got eloquence to work too, but may or may not for you depending on device. Prudence already comes with E-Speak.
Go to Settings in the Apps grid and activate it.
Swipe up once to get to the next page and try to touch the Accessibility settings. You can't navigate the base settings menu with the arrows, just the submenus within.
From within Accessibility, activate Prudence screen reader. Should be the second option, just under Accessibility Menu.
Don't click on use Prudence just yet. Instead, Go all the way down to settings and activate it. You can scroll to system messages with the arrows too, but you can't activate those, so in this case, just scroll all the way down and go up once.
Go down once to TTS Settings and activate it.
From here you will have a list of voices to choose from. Checking one will uncheck the rest. Check the one you want, as long as it's not the default.
[(]Now back out twice, either with the function button or with the B button. This should take you out of Prudence settings and back into the Prudence main menu.Now you can turn on Prudence screen reader by scrolling to the topmost option and selecting it. If it asks for permissions, grant it.
Go through the short Prudence tutorial lessons.
Now be sure to set up Prudence screen reader shortcut to holding the volume keys.
Prudence should be talking now, and you can go back to the voices and set them how you like, even experiment to see if the default system voice talks for you. If not, just swipe right and check the next box until you find a working voice. Set up the rest of the gestures and menus however you like from within prudence. If you looked through Retroarch and earlier and didn't see accessibility, but have yet to install the version that does, do so now. This Retroarch should now be in your home menu, and you can activate it from here. APK Mirror Installer will appear here also if you ended up getting it. Try to get your device connected with your internet. Prudence may have trouble interacting with the default digital keyboard, but you can use an external one, or download and install GBoard instead. Don't forget to enable it in settings,
To enable accessibility in retro arch, open the app, tap left once, tap up 7 times, press A, then press right. Retroarch should now start talking when you move between menus. If you were like me and activated accessibility in retroarch before installing a screen reader, it will start talking right away if you managed to save your configuration before hand. I like to make a few UI and sound adjustments afterwards. First, from within UI Settings, I turn wrapping off. Doesn't really matter now that Retroarch is talking, but it makes it easier to navigate. Afterwards, I scroll all the way down and set the menu to XMB, which is similar to the PS3 and PSP layout. This makes it so that your games are arranged vertically by systems horizontally on the right side of the menus. Next, I head to sound, go down to sound menu, turn on the mixer, and turn on all the different sounds, for notification, cancel, confirm, menu bgm, and scroll. Don't forget to save your configuration. To do this, back out to the main menu, go down to configuration, and activate "save current configuration".
I do not think that Accessible Retroarch and Arch 64 can use the same cores, so Don't forget to download cores for whatever systems you want to play if you can't find anything to run your games. In layman's terms, cores are what Retroarch calls emulators, and there may be several per system, as well as several that can play more than 1 systems. VBA for example can play gameboy, gameboy color, and gameboy advance. You can import your games into Retroarch, from the main menu, go down to import content, then choose scan directory, then scan whatever directory your games are in. I recommend scanning directories one at a time as it can take a really long time depending on how many games you have in a directory. The scanned games should now appear in as part of one or more playlists you can search, be it by genre, by developer, by system and more. If a game or group of games doesn't appear in a playlists, there are various forums discussing how to resolve the issue, just look it up. One final note before I move onto the next section. Some emulators will work better in Linux, and some will work better in Android, so I do recommend you learn and experiment with both operating systems to see what works for you.
Game Mode
The emulators used in game mode are either those installed into Android OS on the device, or found in Arch64. You can change which emulator is being used by default, but I haven't figured out how to configure controls accessibly here yet. Unlike in accessible Retroarch, using the arrows doesn't read what it selects, so swiping and tapping are your best methods for navigating these screens. Not all emulators are accessible, but a handful of them are, as you will hear demonstrated for one of them in the upcoming audio demo. Speaking of which:
Audio Presentation Notes
In the demo below, I'll begin with the Android OS and play through a variety of games, first through final burn alpha, then through retroarch. Since the screen reader is working, I'll let it explain what I'm playing as I scroll through the items. Afterwords, I'll show what emulation station in Linux OS sounds like, and play through a couple Dreamcast games there as well, mainly 2 of my favorites, Sword of the Berserk, and Soul Calibur. The first is a third-person hack 'n slash action game. It has quick time events for branching paths, but the buttons never randomize, so you can look them up if you decide to give it a try. The stereo audio is great in this game, and having unlimitted long ranged weapons that bounce off the walls and a sword that you can clang off the wall makes it possible to feel your way around the environment. The second game is a weapon based 3d fighting game, and sequel to Soul Blade for Playstation. I sunk so many hours into this back in the day it's not even funny, especially during highschool graduation. There isn't stereo audio in this title unlike the prequel, but the music is just as good, if not better. There is quite a bit to unlock in both games that make modern games unlockables pale in comparison. This audio presentation is brought to you by the digital audio work station on my PSRE473, which means cleaner audio for you, without external interference. Now, without anymore delay,
here is an audio demo of Ambernic's RG Arc D in action.
It's about an hour long, so grab a snack and a drink, then sit back and enjoy.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading all the way through, and for checking out my recording. I hope that this has been an informative experience for you, and that it might encourage you to try out some form of handhelds in the future. I especially want people to know that you don't need to spend hundreds to have an accessible handheld gaming machine, so there are other options besides the new xbox handheld machine that's coming, besides the Switch 2 if Nintendoes ever decide to implement a screen reader, besides the ROG Ally or Steam Deck, all of which will run you 4 to 5 hundred bucks a pop at least. The Arc cost me around a hundred bucks and took me a bit to get going through trial and error, but thanks to that experience, I was able to outline the steps above to get you going. That said, there are cheaper machines than this, some like the r36 s from Pal Kiddy which come with speech out of the box! This has been something beyond my wildest dreams for the longest time, and I am so glad that it has become a reality today thanks to modern technology! If you have any questions or comments,
I have created an emulation handheld thread where I and others discuss this very subject.
Thus concludes another hardware review article, plus a brand new episode of Kenshira plays at that. Hope you guys enjoyed the presentation. If there is any additional information or corrections to be made, please let me know via pm, or through the discussion thread I linked above. This is Kenshira The Trinity, Signing off!