Living with Subor Retro Game (RS97)

This post has been updated:

Check out the new firmware guide and tinkering notes: /archives/9750/

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I loved handhelds as a kid, and the habit stuck. I bought a PSV, I bought a Switch, and I still enjoy just holding a handheld and fiddling with it.

Recently I was bored, stumbled onto this whole open-source handheld scene online, saw a bunch of crowdfunding projects, and ultimately—because I’m broke—went with the cheap Subor Retro Game (RS97).

It sells for 299. There are two brands, Subor and Coolboy, but they’re literally the same thing: both are mass-produced from some open-source handheld template called K101.

The stock system was stupid, and the performance was laughable. But thanks to “Situ,” a forum guru from Taiwan on the Forums, a custom Dingoo firmware got developed, and the handheld got a second life. Later some foreigners picked up the firmware and kept improving it, which is honestly a lot of fun.

The firmware is already at version 1.4. Earlier versions were a pain to flash—you had to disassemble the thing. Disassembly isn’t actually that hard; the system inside is just a 4GB TF card, and you can swap in your own. But the latest 1.4 doesn’t require a swap: it can dual-boot two systems from two cards, which is the better way.

There’s an English tutorial for flashing 1.4: here.

Roughly: first download the dual-boot package, unzip it onto the external TF card, boot into the system, and select install.dge in the file browser to install.

Then download the whole system components package, unzip it onto the external TF card—Fat32 format recommended.

Then boot the handheld. It’ll enter the internal system first, then switch over to the external system, which is the 1.4 open-source firmware.

At this point your handheld is free to play with. It comes with a bunch of emulators; you just need to find a directory and copy stuff over.

But there’s still room to tinker. First, the battery.

It uses a Nokia BL-5B battery, and on Taobao you can find third-party 1000 mAh batteries with more capacity than the stock 800 mAh, and they’re cheap.

The other thing is the buttons feel stiff. That also has a solution.

“Brother Zhou,” an old-timer on the Forums, offers a set of custom conductive pads that noticeably improve the feel. Highly recommended.

Honestly there’s a little story about buying this thing. After I ordered, Brother Zhou shipped it, but he wrote the wrong tracking number—sent via ZTO but wrote SF Express—then ZTO lost the package, and finally it was found again. Brother Zhou’s computer had broken, he couldn’t log into Wangwang on his phone, and he called me personally to explain. Anyway, it arrived, and it works great.

You can also put a screen protector on it. I suggest a Ricoh camera film.

With the battery swapped and the conductive pads replaced, there’s still more to tinker with: painting the shell, swapping the screen.

Brother Zhou says this machine has several screen variants; the best should be the AUO panel, while the current one is a domestic panel with mediocre viewing angles.

But honestly, who’s asking for viewing angles on this thing? It’s so small… holding it in your hands, you really don’t want anything more.

Finally, let me recommend my favorite FC game: robocco wars, ロボっ子大戦, little robot wars. Side-scrolling action; the level design and music are among the most vivid memories of my childhood.