This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/sbcgaming by /u/milosmisic89 on 2024-09-05 17:36:25+00:00.

I posted this in the DataFrog sub but I figured it would get more traction here:

So I bought this little device and customizing it has been pretty hard due to most of the info being thrown around in Discord chats. In the end I finally did what I wanted so I figured I’d share. The multicore version provided here came from discord and it enables sram saves for all cores (something which both stock and the main version of multicore don’t yet have) and the gpsp gba emulator that combines a best version and a best option file (seriously I tested Aria of Sorrow on Purple Neo and this new version and it works amazing with this new combo.)

Before anything this is the main knowledge repository for SF2000 and should be your one stop shop : GitHub - vonmillhausen/sf2000: Information regarding the SF2000 handheld console even though it is a little bit outdated.

This is my pack:

DatafrogSF2000MulticoreSRAMnGBAGuide

(after this I recommend you to go download the whole ARCADE and Roms/m2k folder from the Purple Neo Pack it’s about 3gb since setting Arcade roms is a hassle and it would just be better to have them all anyway)

And you can skip to 2) c) if you just want to learn how to add your roms

So let’s start you will need 2 programs one called tadpole and another called ZFBImagesTool. (they are also in my pack or you can download them)

I suggest buying a new sd card (not using the cheap stock one) and it doesn’t have to be big for example I use an 8gb one and still have about 2gb of space free.

1. Building a new card:

Either open the tadpole program and select OS/build a new card which will format the card into fat32 format and set it up or format it yourself.

Then go to OS/firmware and select 1.71 which is the latest one.

then in the same menu select bootloader fix and battery fix (you NEED this) and follow the messages tadpole gives you.

Then go to OS/emulator bios/ and update gba bios.

You can also delete background menu music by going into OS/background music and select “empty”

You can choose themes to download and apply as well

copy the contents of MulticoreALPHAwSavenGBAFIX.7z folder into your SD card

2. Adding your own roms

a) Arcade roms

This is bit of a hassle since sf2000 uses a very specific romset (apparently MAME 0.106 and Final Burn Alpha v0.2.97.42 romset) so the best I can say is download the whole ARCADE folder from the Purple Neo release and paste in the root of the card and also to download ROMS/m2k folder as well. (My pack comes with JUST the zfb shortcuts to roms which you will have to download by yourself)

Then there are 2 ways of adding roms in multicore:

b) unsorted without artwork

add your roms in the proper ROMS/xxx (xxx being the name of the core):

nesq - nes

snes - super nintendo (snes02 is the older version)

sega - sega mega drive genesis

Gbgb - game boy

GB - Game boy Color

Gba - Game Boy Advance

ngpc - Neo Geo Pocket Color

pce - PC Engine

m2k- mame 2000 (for those older mame games not in Final Burn)

etc

Then go to the root of your sd card and click on make-romlist.bat this will build a romlist inside of your ROMS folder but all of your roms will be in one long list. Also no artwork and you can only access your roms in the settings/userroms folder of the device (not in system categories)

c) sorted per system with artwork

This is little harder to do but I think it’s worth it if you want your roms to appear in system categories with artwork

So you put your roms in the ROMS/xxx (xxx being the name of the core) folder so now we need to use another tool called ZFBimagesToolSparda. You see the sf2000 firmware uses these zfb files as shortcuts to roms or files that contain both roms and artwork as well. We are going to use them as the former.

To prepare for this we are going to need artwork for all of your roms

example: we have a Streets of Rage 2 (USA).md rom for the Sega Genesis - we need a Streets of Rage 2 (USA).png screenshot as well. - IT HAS TO BE THE SAME NAME

You can try to download images by yourself or you can use the Retroarch thumbnails if you already have them or what I recommend is to use a program called Skrapper and point it to your folder with roms for that system and set it up to download the images your want. Once you have them you can put them in one folder for that one system.

When you open the ZFB program there are several sections:

-input folder - you point the program to your images folder

-Output folder - you point the program to one of the root system folders on your sd card depending on which system you want to put them in

FC - nes

SFC - snes

MD - sega

GB - game boy

GBC - game boy color

GBA - Game Boy Advance

(In the Streets of Rage 2 example we will pick MD folder)

-core folder - here you will specify which multicore core will it use in this case “sega” core

-extension folder - here you write the extension of your roms - in this case- md

Once you click the “create zfb files” it will put the zfb shortcuts in that system category folder. So when you open the main menu you will see the games but they will use the multicore emulators.

Now what to do with new systems that do not exist in the root folders? Well what I did was just add them to some other system folder like for example I added NeoGeoPocketColor roms to the GBC folder. I just pointed the ZFB tool to it, my images folder and specified the ngc extension and ngpc core. And they would appear in GBC system menu.

—After adding roms DO NOT FORGET to open tadpole and go to “rebuild rom list option” - VERY IMPORTANT!—

—TIP!!! Use the European version of SNES roms since they run at 50fps in PAL compared to the USA NTSC 60fps so they would be easier to run without issues.------

This is basically it.

I hope I helped and got you to spend like 10-15 bucks on this little cheap device that could. (with help from the community)

HUGE thanks to everyone from the Retro Handheld Discord that are still working hard on updating the sf2000 experience. They are the real MVPs!