A free, custom game-menu (frontend) for a range of MIPS-based Hichip handhelds - R36SX, SF3000, SF3500, GB350 and more (full list below). It replaces the stock menu and runs hundreds of retro systems.
Supported devices: R36SX (v2.6 & v2.7), R36 HD (and R36SX clones - see install guide), SF3000, SF3000 HD, SF3100, SF3500, and GB350.
For a manual R36HD setup, start with the R36HD stock backup, restore it to a freshly FAT32-formatted card, copy the TreeFrogUI release payload to the card root, then copy install_first/r36sx/ to the root. R36HD uses the R36SX v2.6-compatible boot/menu stack; do not restore the protected v2.7 stock menu afterward. See the complete R36HD clone installation procedure.
☕ Consider donating to extend device support: ko-fi.com/proszty
💬 Join the TreeFrogUI community server on Discord. TreeFrogUI is free and made by one person. Every device I support, I bought with my own money. Donations are what let me buy the next handheld and add support for it (R36SX v2.7, SF3000 V3, SF3500, SF3100, GB350, HDMI clones, and more).
If TreeFrogUI gave you some fun, please consider chipping in. It genuinely decides whether the next port happens.
- 🧰 How to install it - use our TreeFrogUI Installer, or follow the manual installation steps
- 🕹️ How to add games + which folder - where to put your ROMs
- 🔌 Use a USB/OTG drive as a game library - play ROMs directly from external storage
- 🎨 How to customise it - themes, fonts, game art / box art / thumbnails, backgrounds
- 🖼️ Get box art in three clicks - download Mini Scraper, choose your SD card, then press Add artwork
- ⬇️ Download the latest version
- 💬 Report a bug / give feedback
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
TreeFrogUI (frogui_libretro.so) |
ROM browser and launcher, runs inside picoarch |
| 57 emulator cores | NES, SNES, GBA, Mega Drive, PC Engine, Amiga, Atari ST, and more |
| build system | Cross-compile everything from source using the SF3000 toolchain |
See cores.md for the full folder→core mapping table.
- Minimalistic but powerful UI - Clean, fast game selection screen with quick navigation.
- 57 emulator cores - Now supports 57 emulator cores compared to only 14 in the stock OS. This includes standout additions such as PICO-8 (via Fake08/Retro8), Quake (via Tyrquake), Cave Story (via NXEngine), Doom (via PrBoom), PlayStation 1 (via PCSX ReArmed), plus classic computer systems like Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.
- Highly configurable cores - Configurable settings for all cores, allowing for retro features like console palette swaps, LCD ghosting emulation, and more.
- In-game saves - Fully supported across all compatible cores for seamless session saving and loading.
- Quick Resume - Automatically boots back into the last played game upon device boot, skipping the frontend.
- Auto-Save/Auto-Load - Auto-saves state on pause/quit and auto-loads it on any game launch (Quick Resume boot or a manual pick from the frontend). Independent of Quick Resume - turn it on to always pick up mid-game, however you launch.
- Clean, configurable menu - Smooth background crossfades, an optional horizontal system carousel, an optional Hide Empty Folders setting, and right-stick drift filtering so accidental touches don't trigger phantom presses while navigating.
- Rich theming options - Custom background images, fonts, and 30 built-in themes.
- Game switcher - Optional OnionOS-style recents carousel: big box art, or a screenshot of where you left off (every game is auto-screenshotted on exit), resumes the game. Turn it on in Settings (Game Switcher), it replaces the recents list.
- Start in Recents - Optional: boot straight into your recents (list or switcher) every time, in Settings.
- Play-time stats - Tracks how long you play each game, shown in the browser.
- Ebook reader - Read EPUB / MOBI / PDF / CBZ / FB2 on the go (MuPDF-powered): put files in
roms/Ebook/, adjustable text size + font (custom TTFs supported), progress saved per book. See the ebook guide. - Video player - Drop ordinary MP4 / MKV / AVI / MOV / WMV files into
roms/videos/. Playback uses the firmware hardware decoder; its MinUI-style controls inherit your active theme colors and follow each device's native panel orientation. No conversion required. - Simple music player - Put MP3 / M4A / AAC / WAV / FLAC / OGG / Opus files in a folder under
roms/music/. Each folder acts as a playlist with alphabetical auto-advance, X/Y previous/next, sequential/loop/random modes, embedded ID3v1/ID3v2 metadata and album covers, and a themed interface. Rockbox remains available for advanced library features. - Image viewer - Browse JPG / PNG / BMP / GIF / WebP / TIFF files from
roms/images/, with Fit/Fill, reliable 1x–4x JPEG/PNG zoom, D-pad panning, and the same themed controls as the music and video players. - Offline updates - Copy the official
update.zipdirectly to the SD-card root and reboot. It is checksum-verified, applied for the correct device, and deleted only after success. See the installation guide. - OTG game library - Plug in a FAT32 USB drive with a
roms/folder and choose it as a separate SD/OTG game source in Settings. See the OTG storage guide. - Proper PCSX4ALL support - Configurable PlayStation 1 emulator core with native support for
.iso,.bin/.cue, and other disc formats. - Flexible display scaling - Easily adjust display scaling modes (Zoom, Aspect Ratio, and Integer Scaling) to suit your preference.
R36SX supports the complete hardware aspect-ratio menu. SF3000/SF3500 expose Integer, Native, and Fill only because their rotated stock display drivers do not provide an arbitrary HCGE viewport/crop control; see the display-scaling guide.
How to add games:
- On your PC, open the SD card. Find the
romsfolder (it's at the root, the top level of the card). - Inside
roms, make a folder named for the system you want, exactly as in the table below. Example: for Game Boy Advance games, makeroms/GBA. - Copy your game files into that folder.
- Put the card back in, launch TreeFrogUI, and the system shows up.
The folder name is what picks the emulator (so GBA runs Game Boy Advance, FC runs NES, etc). Some systems accept a few different names, all listed below.
| Folder Name(s) | Target Console / System | Core Shared Library (.so) |
|---|---|---|
| FC, nes | NES / Famicom | fceumm_libretro.so |
| NES, nesq | NES / Famicom (fast) | quicknes_libretro.so |
| nest | NES / Famicom (accurate) | nestopia_libretro.so |
| fds | Famicom Disk System | fceumm_libretro.so |
| SFC, snes | Super Famicom / SNES | snes9x2005_plus_libretro.so |
| snes02 | SNES (accurate / alt) | snes9x2002_libretro.so |
| GBA, gba | Game Boy Advance | gpsp_libretro.so |
| mgba, gbaf | Game Boy Advance (accurate) | mgba_libretro.so |
| gbav | Game Boy Advance (alt) | vba_next_libretro.so |
| gb, dblcherrygb | Game Boy / Color | gambatte_libretro.so |
| gbgb | Game Boy (Gearboy) | gearboy_libretro.so |
| gbb | Game Boy (TGBDual) | tgbdual_libretro.so |
| MD, SMS, sega | Mega Drive / Genesis / Master System | picodrive_libretro.so |
| 32x | Sega 32X (may run slow) | picodrive_libretro.so |
| GG, gg | Game Gear | gearsystem_libretro.so |
| gpgx | Mega Drive (accurate) | genesis_plus_gx_libretro.so |
| segacd | Sega CD / Mega CD | genesis_plus_gx_libretro.so |
| PS, ps1, psx | PlayStation - 📖 setup guide | pcsx_rearmed_libretro.so |
| psp | PSP - optional standalone SF3000 PPSSPP port, falls back to ppsspp_libretro.so |
ppsspp / ppsspp_libretro.so |
| pce | PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 - 📖 notes | mednafen_pce_fast_libretro.so |
| pcesgx | PC Engine SuperGrafx | mednafen_supergrafx_libretro.so |
| pcfx | PC-FX | mednafen_pcfx_libretro.so |
| pc8800 | NEC PC-8800 | quasi88_libretro.so |
| ngpc | Neo Geo Pocket / Color | race_libretro.so |
| geolith | Neo Geo AES/MVS | geolith_libretro.so |
| wswan | WonderSwan / Color | mednafen_wswan_libretro.so |
| wsv | Watara Supervision | potator_libretro.so |
| vb | Virtual Boy | mednafen_vb_libretro.so |
| a26 | Atari 2600 | stella2014_libretro.so |
| a5200 | Atari 5200 | a5200_libretro.so |
| a78 | Atari 7800 | prosystem_libretro.so |
| a800 | Atari 800 | atari800_libretro.so |
| lnx | Atari Lynx | handy_libretro.so |
| atari-st | Atari ST | castaway_libretro.so |
| amiga | Commodore Amiga - 📖 setup guide | uae_libretro.so |
| c64 | Commodore 64 | vice_x64_libretro.so |
| c64sc | Commodore 64 (accurate) | vice_x64sc_libretro.so |
| c64f, c64fc | Commodore 64 (Frodo) | frodo_libretro.so |
| vic20 | Commodore VIC-20 | vice_xvic_libretro.so |
| msx | MSX | bluemsx_libretro.so |
| spec | ZX Spectrum | fuse_libretro.so |
| zx81 | ZX81 | 81_libretro.so |
| col | ColecoVision | gearcoleco_libretro.so |
| amstrad | Amstrad CPC | cap32_libretro.so |
| amstradb | Amstrad CPC (CPC+) | cap32_libretro.so |
| thom | Thomson MO/TO | theodore_libretro.so |
| xmil | Sharp X68000 | x68k_libretro.so |
| pico286 | DOS / PC (8086-286, standalone) - 📖 setup guide | pico286 + x86BOOT.img |
| Quake | Quake | tyrquake_libretro.so |
| quake2 | Quake II (heavy) - 📖 setup guide | vitaquake2_libretro.so |
| prboom | Doom / Doom II / Final Doom / Heretic / Hexen | prboom_libretro.so |
| wolf3d | Wolfenstein 3D - 📖 setup guide | ecwolf_libretro.so |
| outrun | Out Run | cannonball_libretro.so |
| cavestory | Cave Story | nxengine_libretro.so |
| flashback | Flashback | reminiscence_libretro.so |
| xrick | Rick Dangerous | xrick_libretro.so |
| jnb | Jump 'n Bump | jumpnbump_libretro.so |
| gw | Game & Watch | gw_libretro.so |
| pico8 | PICO-8 (fake08) - also accepts legacy fake08 folder |
fake08_libretro.so |
| retro8 | PICO-8 (retro8) | retro8_libretro.so |
| lowres-nx | LowRes NX | lowresnx_libretro.so |
| tic80 | TIC-80 fantasy console | tic80_libretro.so |
| pokem | Pokémon Mini | pokemini_libretro.so |
| m2k | MAME 2000 (MAME 0.37b5 romset) | mame2000_libretro.so |
| cps1 | Capcom CPS-1 arcade | fbalpha2012_cps1_libretro.so |
| cps2 | Capcom CPS-2 arcade | fbalpha2012_cps2_libretro.so |
| cps3 | Capcom CPS-3 arcade (experimental, slow) | fbalpha2012_cps3_libretro.so |
| neogeo | Neo Geo arcade | fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro.so |
| int | Mattel Intellivision | freeintv_libretro.so |
| fcf | Fairchild Channel F | freechaf_libretro.so |
| cdg | CD+G Karaoke | pocketcdg_libretro.so |
| chip8 | CHIP-8 | jaxe_libretro.so |
| arduboy | Arduboy (Ardens - fast) | ardens_libretro.so |
| arduous | Arduboy (arduous/simavr - cycle-accurate, slower) | arduous_libretro.so |
| vec | Vectrex | vecx_libretro.so |
| o2em | Odyssey² / Videopac | o2em_libretro.so |
| gme | Game Music Emu | gme_libretro.so |
| gong | Pong clone | gong_libretro.so |
| vapor | VaporSpec | vaporspec_libretro.so |
| rockbox | Music player (MP3/FLAC/OGG…, standalone) - 📖 setup guide | rockbox |
| music | Simple themed music player (MP3/M4A/AAC/WAV/FLAC/OGG/Opus, standalone) | video_player |
| videos | Hardware video player (MP4/MKV/AVI/MOV/MPEG/TS/WebM, standalone) | video_player |
| images | Hardware image viewer (JPG/PNG/BMP/GIF/WebP/TIFF…, standalone) | image_viewer |
See cores.md for detailed build status and source repositories of TreeFrogUI external cores.
PICO-8 (fake08): place carts in roms/pico8/ (the legacy roms/fake08/ folder still works). Both .p8 (text source) and .p8.png (cart image) formats are supported.
Arduboy: the arduboy folder uses the Ardens core (a fast custom AVR emulator) and accepts both .hex and .arduboy files. The arduous folder runs the older simavr-based arduous core (cycle-accurate but much slower; .hex only) - use it only if a game misbehaves under Ardens.
A few systems need more than "drop the ROM in the folder" - either extra companion files or a bit of one-time setup. Full instructions live in their own guide:
| System | What's different | Guide |
|---|---|---|
Arcade (cps1/cps2/neogeo/m2k) |
Romsets are version-locked per core, Neo Geo needs a BIOS | 📖 docs/cores/arcade.md |
DOS / PC (pico286) |
Needs FreeDOS (bundled), floppy vs hard-disk images | 📖 docs/cores/pico286.md |
Rockbox music player (rockbox) |
Standalone app, themes | 📖 docs/cores/rockbox.md |
Commodore Amiga (amiga) |
Needs your own Kickstart ROM | 📖 docs/cores/amiga.md |
Wolfenstein 3D (wolf3d) |
Needs the game data and the engine's own resource pack | 📖 docs/cores/wolf3d.md |
Doom / Heretic / Hexen (prboom) |
Supply a legally obtained IWAD (doom1.wad, heretic1.wad, hexen.wad, etc.) |
Put the IWAD in roms/prboom/ |
Quake II (quake2) |
Game data goes in a required baseq2/ subfolder |
📖 docs/cores/quake2.md |
PlayStation 1 (PS/ps1/psx/ps1r) |
Two cores, BIOS strongly recommended | 📖 docs/cores/ps1.md |
Make it look how you want. Full step-by-step in the 📦 Customisation Guide. The quick version:
Theme - in TreeFrogUI: Settings → Theme, press Left/Right. There are 30 built-in colour themes. Style offers the standard Vertical list, an animated Horizontal carousel, or an Onion-style System View with a paged console-icon grid. Icon Pack changes System View artwork without changing its background or colours. Friendly System Names expands folder codes such as ps and gba in every style.
Background Theme Pack - Settings → Appearance → Background Theme Pack. Choose Art Book NextUI (adapted from Leviathanium's NextUI-Themes), Nao Black (adapted from Leviathanium's Nao-Black theme), or another installed pack. Background Images must be on for the selected pack to appear.
Font - Settings → Font, press Left/Right. Or drop a .ttf/.otf in frogui/fonts/ and pick it. The default is BPreplayBold (the bold font used by MinUI/NextUI).
Wallpaper (one image for every screen) - drop a .png, .jpg, .jpeg, or .bmp into frogui/wallpapers/, restart TreeFrogUI, then select it under Settings → Appearance → Wallpaper. Wallpaper Fit controls its placement: Fill covers the display and crops the excess, Fit shows the whole image with bars, Stretch fills the display without cropping, Center keeps the original size, and Tile repeats it. Choose None to use per-system backgrounds again.
Hide extensions / backgrounds - Settings → Appearance: Hide Extensions drops the .gb/.gba from names. Background Images must be on for wallpapers or per-system art to appear; turn it off for a plain themed background.
Game art / box art / cover / thumbnail (the picture shown for each game) - the easiest option is Mini Scraper. Download and extract the desktop app for Windows, Linux or macOS, then:
- Open Mini Scraper and choose your SD card or ROM folder.
- Confirm the detected TreeFrogUI format and leave the first artwork source selected: Automatic (Libretro Thumbnails) · no login.
- Press Add artwork.
No account, Node.js or manual image renaming is required. Mini Scraper finds matching artwork and creates TreeFrogUI's .res/ folders and filenames automatically.
To add artwork manually, drop a PNG / JPG / BMP in a hidden .res/ folder next to the ROM, named after the ROM. MinUI/muOS-style Imgs/, images/, and Images/ folders are also supported:
roms/GBA/Advance Wars.gba
roms/GBA/.res/Advance Wars.png ← the box art
No conversion is needed - use PNG or JPG, any resolution; large images are downscaled automatically (maximum displayed size 250×200), and PNG transparency is supported. Rule: <rom folder>/.res/<rom name without extension>.png (or .jpg). Old raw .rgb565 thumbnail sets still work - see Box art, game covers and thumbnails.
Title screens and screenshots can use the same folders with a suffix such as -title, -titlescreen, -screenshot, -screen, or -preview (for example Imgs/Advance Wars-title.png). Box art is preferred; the title/screenshot is used when box art is missing, including the Recents preview.
TreeFrogUI's built-in colour themes are maintained as part of TreeFrogUI. The external background packs and System View icon packs are credited here so the original artists remain easy to find:
- The bundled background packs are Art Book Next (legacy pack), Art Book NextUI, and Nao Black. Art Book NextUI and Nao Black are adapted from Leviathanium/NextUI-Themes; the test artwork sets Elementerial, Iconic, and PlayStation-X are documented in the customization guide.
- The bundled icon packs are Arcticons (joelchrono / Arcticons Team),
Cosy (KyleBing), CyberOnion (Aemiii91), Dot-art (Yoshi-kun),
Hakchi Pixel Art (faustbear), NSO (Cheetashock), Onion PS Text
Icons (hanessh4), Pixel (Ben Jelter / Jeltron), and Silhouette Black
and Silhouette White (Dreambrace). Full upstream links and terms are in
assets/icon-packs/README.md.
Background image (per system / screen) - drop a .png, .jpg, .jpeg, or .bmp in frogui/, named after the screen or folder:
frogui/main.png ← main systems list
frogui/recents.png ← recent games
frogui/favourites.png ← favorites
frogui/FC.png ← the FC (NES) folder (name must match the roms folder)
Use the native panel size for the cleanest result: 640×480 on R36SX, R36 HD and GB350; 854×480 on the SF3000 family. Per-system backgrounds stretch to the panel. Use dark, muted images so menu text stays readable.
See the Customisation Guide for exact sizes, naming, theme list, and fonts.
While playing a game, SELECT is the function key (like the MENU button on other handhelds). Hotkeys follow the OnionOS layout:
SELECT + START- open the in-game menu.SELECT + R2- save state.SELECT + L2- load state.SELECT + R1- fast-forward: off, 2x, 3x, off (audio mutes). Off by default, turn it on per core in the menu (Audio and video).SELECT + B- hold to rewind. Off by default, turn it on per core in the menu (it uses RAM and slows the game).SELECT + L1- screenshot: grabs the current frame (game, menu, anything on screen) to a.bmpin thescreenshots/folder on your card.
Fast-forward and rewind are now per-core toggles (menu, Audio and video). They stay off until you enable them, so cores that don't need them keep full RAM and speed.
PCSX4ALL (PS1) is a standalone emulator with its own menu and hotkeys.
Some cores need BIOS/firmware files. Place them in the system folder the core expects (check individual core docs), typically alongside the ROMs or in a bios/ subfolder. PS1, Amiga, and Wolfenstein 3D have more involved setup - see their guides in the table above.
| System | File needed |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 1 | any 512 KiB PS1 BIOS in cubegm/bios/ - PCSX4ALL matching is case-insensitive and prefers scph*. 📖 full guide, strongly recommended |
| GBA (gpsp) | gba_bios.bin (official Nintendo GBA BIOS) |
| Odyssey² / Videopac (o2em) | o2rom.bin in cubegm/bios/ (exact filename; MD5 562d5ebf9e030a40d6fabfc2f33139fd) |
| Amiga (UAE) | Kickstart ROM - 📖 full guide |
| Atari ST (castaway) | TOS ROM image |
| Wolfenstein 3D (ecwolf) | Game data + ecwolf.pk3 - 📖 full guide |
| Famicom Disk System (fds) | disksys.rom in cubegm/bios/ |
| Neo Geo (geolith / neogeo) | neogeo.zip BIOS in cubegm/bios/ |
| Sega CD / Mega CD (segacd) | bios_CD_U.bin / bios_CD_E.bin / bios_CD_J.bin (region BIOS) in cubegm/bios/ |
| PC-FX (beetle-pcfx) | pcfx.rom |
| PC-88 (quasi88) | NEC PC-88 BIOS files |
TreeFrogUI keeps logging off by default so it doesn't wear out your SD card. If something misbehaves and you want to capture what happened (or a maintainer asks for a log), turn logging on:
- Power off and take the SD card out, put it in your PC.
- At the root of the card (same level as
cubegm,roms,frogui), create an empty file namedlog.txt.- Windows: right-click → New → Text Document, name it exactly
log.txt(make sure it's notlog.txt.txt). - Mac/Linux:
touch log.txtat the card root.
- Windows: right-click → New → Text Document, name it exactly
- Put the card back, boot, and reproduce the problem.
- Power off, bring the card back to your PC, and read/share
/log.txt(the previous boot is kept aslog.txt.prev).
The log records the boot sequence, which device was detected, the display path (use_hw=1 hardware / use_hw=0 software), and any crashes with their exit codes.
To turn logging back off: just delete log.txt from the card. No file = no logging = no extra SD writes.
If you never create
log.txt, nothing is written and there's zero logging overhead, which is how the release ships.
- SF3000 cross-toolchain (MIPS32r2, little-endian, hard-float) extracted to
~/sf3000-work/sf3000toolchain/. Download it here: game-de-it/sf3000 · sf3000_toolchain_v0.1 The build scripts expect~/sf3000-work/sf3000toolchain/mipsel-buildroot-linux-gnu_sdk-buildroot/opt/ext-toolchain/bin/mips-mti-linux-gnu-*. git,make,nproccmake(only for the cmake-based cores: TIC-80; a static build from Kitware works, no root needed).build_all.shskips those cores with a warning if cmake is absent.
# Workspace root holds all the source repos as siblings
mkdir -p ~/sf3000-work && cd ~/sf3000-work
# Main repo (build scripts, patches, staging, docs)
git clone git@github.com:tzubertowski/treefrog-ui.git sf3000_treefrogui
# Frontend + standalone emulator sources (separate repos, built in place)
git clone -b r36sx git@github.com:tzubertowski/FrogUI.git FrogUI
git clone -b r36sx git@github.com:tzubertowski/TreeFrogUI_picoarch.git picoarch
git clone git@github.com:tzubertowski/TreeFrogUI_pcsx4all.git pcsx4all
git -C picoarch submodule update --init libretro-common # libpicofe is vendored
cd sf3000_treefrogui
./clone_cores.sh # clones all libretro core upstreams into cores/
./build_all.sh # applies patches/, builds cores + pico286 + TIC-80 (needs cmake)
# .so cores land in build/ ; pico286/pcsx4all binaries go to staging cubegm/
cp build/*.so /mnt/sdcard/cubegm/cores/Repos: treefrog-ui (this), FrogUI (launcher core), TreeFrogUI_picoarch
(libretro frontend, our fork), TreeFrogUI_pcsx4all (standalone PS1). pico286
is reconstructed from patches/pico286-sf3000.patch onto the upstream xrip/pico-286
clone, so it needs no separate repo. BIOS, romsets, and the FreeDOS x86BOOT.img
are user-supplied (see the BIOS section).
Release maintainers and automation agents should follow the canonical
release process. It documents numeric-line delta selection,
the release/artifact/ and release/latest/ layout, validation, and publishing
the full ZIP together with the root-ready update.zip.
cd frogui
make -f Makefile.sf3000 frogui_libretro.so
cp frogui_libretro.so /mnt/sdcard/cubegm/cores/The stock boot is never touched or replaced. Instead TreeFrogUI hooks the stock menu's own autorun feature to launch itself:
[boot] stock rkgame (verified, untouched)
│
└─► autorun → our hijacked core forks cubegm/zhijack.sh
│
└─► picoarch frogui_libretro.so ← TreeFrogUI is a libretro core
│
│ user selects ROM
│
└─► fork()
│
[parent] [child]
waitpid() picoarch <game_core.so> <rom>
(blocks) │
│ game runs
│ user exits
│ │
resumes ◄──── child exits
TreeFrogUI menu
This "hijack" approach exists because newer devices (SF3500-class) verify
icube and rkgame at boot - replacing those files outright shows a "sdcard is
damaged" error. Hooking the autorun instead works on every supported device.
picoarch handles display (/dev/dis + framebuffer), audio (ALSA), and the libretro core lifecycle. TreeFrogUI is just another .so loaded by picoarch - it renders the file browser UI and uses fork+waitpid to launch games without losing the display connection.
Input comes from cubevol (SF3000 button daemon) via shared memory at /tmp/joy_key. TreeFrogUI reads it directly since picoarch doesn't route input callbacks to cores on this device.
treefrog-ui/
├── frogui/ ← FrogUI source (git submodule, sf3000 branch)
├── cores/ ← emulator core sources (populated by clone_cores.sh)
├── build/ ← compiled .so output (gitignored)
├── patches/ ← patches applied to externally-owned core repos at build time
├── build_all.sh ← build all cores
├── clone_cores.sh ← clone all core source repos
└── cores.md ← folder→core mapping reference
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
vecx (Vectrex) |
❌ needs OpenGL - not available on SF3000 |
ardens (Arduboy, default) |
✅ built directly (no cmake); C++14 libretro target |
arduous (Arduboy, alt) |
✅ simavr-based, built directly (cycle-accurate, slow) |
o2em (Odyssey²) |
✅ included; requires your own cubegm/bios/o2rom.bin |
vice (C64) |
commented out - large build, enable manually in build_all.sh |
| picoarch binary | not included - obtain from SF3000 multicore project |
Note
Right analog stick. The right stick cannot work as a real analog stick, and no software update can change that. On this console it's physically wired to act exactly like the X / A / B / Y face buttons: nudging it is the same as pressing those buttons, just on/off, with no "how far" or "which angle" info. The console never hands analog data to apps like TreeFrogUI. So the right stick simply mirrors the face buttons (tiny accidental movements are ignored, so it won't fire on its own). Hardware limitation, not a bug or missing feature.
Note
TreeFrogUI gives you true hibernation instead of sleep. Turn on Quick Resume (Settings → Quick Resume) with Auto-Save/Auto-Load and the device boots straight back into your game at the exact moment you left off - pick up mid-race, mid-battle, anywhere. It survives a full power-off, so it's better than sleep: zero battery drain while it's off. Stock power-button sleep/standby itself is not supported and won't be (it can hang the display on wake on R36SX and SF3500-class devices), so Disable Sleep is on by default - you're not missing anything, hibernation covers the "put it down, pick it back up" use case completely.
Note
One package now supports six devices, auto-detected at boot from the device
tree: R36SX (v2.6 / v2.7), SF3000, SF3000 HD, SF3100, SF3500,
and GB350. SF3000 HD, SF3100 and SF3500 share the same 854×480 panel + driver
(HD/SF3100 report as "SF3500" in the log, expected). GB350 is a 640×480 4:3
device. See the install guide for the per-device stock backup and
the matching install_first/<device>/ folder.
Want TreeFrogUI on a device that isn't supported yet? SF3000 V3 (bootloader protection), the SF3000 Pro (different firmware entirely, no rkgame stack, so the autorun hijack doesn't apply), other HDMI-out clones, and more are on the wishlist.
The catch: porting needs the actual hardware in hand. Bootloaders differ, input and display wiring differ, the protected variants need live debugging. There's no way to do it blind.
Every device supported so far was bought out of my own pocket. There are far more clones out there than I can reasonably keep buying.
If you want to see a port happen, chip in: https://ko-fi.com/proszty. Join the TreeFrogUI community server to discuss development and device support. Donations go straight toward buying the next device to port to.
- Jose Silva — USB OTG storage and external-ROM-library work.
- MartStartIV — USB OTG storage work, testing, and the Spanish translation. YouTube
- Maheshivara — Brazilian Portuguese translation.
- @Q_ta — Japanese translation.
- @ozkaoz — R36SX physical FN-button input support in TreeFrogUI_picoarch#1.
- picoarch - libretro frontend adapted for SF3000
- FrogUI - original launcher by tzubertowski, fork of FrogUI
- angree - Amiga (UAE4ALL) and Atari ST (castaway) ports for SF-series handhelds
- goph-R - SF3000-RE reverse engineering project and boot logo specs
- SjslTech - YouTube - R36SX testing & contributions
- All libretro core authors
This project is a compilation of multiple components, each retaining its original license:
- TreeFrogUI for SF3000 (UI Port): Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. It is a heavily modified fork of FrogUI, created by Tomasz Zubertowski, Desoxyn, and Q_ta.
- Attribution: Changes have been made to support the SF3000 hardware architecture, resolution, input handling, and directory layout.
- ShareAlike: Any modifications or derivations of the UI frontend code must be distributed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
- NonCommercial: This software is strictly for non-commercial use. Selling or bundling it with commercial devices is prohibited.
- Assets & Images: The logo and original UI font were taken from the upstream FrogUI repository, while the default system background images were sourced from the Art Book Next ES-DE theme by Anthony Caccese. These assets are used under their respective open-source and creative commons licenses.
- Default UI font: BPreplay (BPreplayBold) by George Triantafyllakos / Backpacker, used under its free license (same font used by MinUI / NextUI). Bundled in
frogui/fonts/; selectable/replaceable in Settings → Font. - picoarch (Frontend Integration): Uses code from
libpicofe(triple-licensed under GNU GPL v2+, GNU LGPL v2.1+, or the MAME license) and neonloop's wrapper code (licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License). - Emulator Cores: Each emulator core located in the
cores/directory is built from its respective upstream repository and retains its individual open-source license (such as GPL, BSD, MIT, or MAME license). See cores.md and individual core subdirectories for details.
See the root LICENSE.md file for the full copyright notices and license texts.