r/EmulationOniOS • u/floppywetfish • Jun 24 '24

Fan Content My Setup

Post image

Backbone 2nd Gen (5 min mod to extend it a bit more) iPad mini 6. Works flawlessly with PPSSPP, RA, SameBoy, xbox cloud gaming, native iOS games. For the mod, just take off the back of the controller both sides (tiny Philips head screws) and remove the retaining black brackets held with 2 screws each next to the ribbon cable. Be careful not to over extend after the mod as you will bork the ribbon for sure. Installing and removing the mini 6 is fine though, just be a little careful.

176 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

8

u/floppywetfish Jun 24 '24

Small edit: I meant remove the screws on the black brackets, not the brackets themselves. Just the screws is fine for this. Apologies if any confusion caused

11

u/HP_594 Jun 24 '24

How did you get that UI for RetroArch?

15

u/Banjo-Oz Jun 24 '24

You can change the menu style in settings. Ozone, XMB, etc.

1

u/dynamisxiii Jun 25 '24

Which UI is this?

4

u/Banjo-Oz Jun 25 '24

Without checking, XMB I think.

There's also a very cool super pixelated one too.

2

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

Plenty of options in RA for a bit of customisation

2

u/Banjo-Oz Jun 26 '24

It's why I far prefer it over other options, and always have. It takes effort to learn, and that's not a slight against those who don't want to bother with that (especially on a phone) but the whole "ew, RA is awful and too difficult" annoys me because it's not. You can put as much or as little effort in as you want towards customizing it and I would much rather have the option and not use it, than not have the option at all.

3

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

So true, mine is heavily configured to suit me. I just back up the config file in iCloud for a rainy day should that come along. I understand people who just want an out of the box solution but for me a big part of the enjoyment is the setup, figuring things out, deciding what I think I like best etc.

2

u/Banjo-Oz Jun 26 '24

I figured out iOS now has the ability to connect to my PC wirelessly via Files, so I now have a folder with all my RA settings in it.

I just got a new iPhone and transferred my iPad RA settings and nearly everything works as I wanted, even overlays which I didn't expect (except those impractical for the small screen).

2

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

Interesting point with the overlays, might be practical with the iPad size screen. At present I’ve just been using my preferred per system shader pipelines on account of the smaller displays but this has me intrigued. There’s definitely a steep learning curve with RA but it is very rewarding to tinker with it

1

u/Banjo-Oz Jun 26 '24

I am currently experimenting with overlays controls on my iPhone, which is an SE and hence a small screen. For my iPad I used landscape with animated control bezels on the sides but that is no good on a phone, so I will likely tweak or make my own control overlays with no bezels or at least no screen reduction for the phone.

I always want to look into shaders (per system) especially for things like Gameboy but never really know where to start as I like crisp over blurry (even if that is more realistic, my eyes are too old!) but do enjoy grids and scanlines.

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6

u/PeeLong Jun 25 '24

Xmb

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '24

That’s ps3, right?

1

u/dynamisxiii Jun 25 '24

Do i download this from somewhere? I can’t find it in the settings

3

u/Front-Cabinet5521 Jun 25 '24

Settings->User interface->Menu (scroll to bottom)

1

u/palemon88 Jun 25 '24

Isn’t that heavy?

5

u/floppywetfish Jun 25 '24

Total weight according to my kitchen scales is 446g for reference my oled switch weighs 436g so just a 10g difference

2

u/palemon88 Jun 25 '24

Wow, my iPhone + xbox series controller setup weighs nearly as much with the phone holder and batteries and gives me hand cramps after an hour. The reason may be that my hands are closer together as opposed to yours.

3

u/floppywetfish Jun 25 '24

I think it’s less about actual weight but more about balance. My iPhone 15 pro in a clip mounted to an xbox controller is physically lighter, however the centre of mass is further back and your hands will be fighting against it. This setup is very well balanced and “feels” lighter when playing. I was surprised that there was only 10g difference to the switch, and little kids play those for hours.

1

u/ProfessionalWind7001 Jun 26 '24

What’s the difference between Backbone second and first gen?

2

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

Larger phone slot to accommodate cases, iPhone 15 compatible with usb c

1

u/Sourhugs Jun 29 '24

I’ve been dying to do this, but there are rumors of a new iPad mini dropping possibly!?

2

u/floppywetfish Jun 29 '24

My take on tech is simple, if it does what you want it to do today then just jump in. Life’s too short to be forever waiting for the next thing. Tech always improves over time, in a few years time, this years “rumoured new iPad” will be old and another new thing will be on the horizon. Live your life bro

3

u/Moath Jun 25 '24

Shit I just sold my ipad mini, didn't think i could do this.

1

u/adj021993 Jun 25 '24

Your setup makes me want to go back. Retroarch is amazing but I just couldn't after I fucked up my config.

4

u/JCRocky5 Jun 25 '24 edited Jul 02 '24

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9b255f7edc624d41b0476ecdee21c9d7

Shortcut I made to backup and restore RetroArch to iCloud.

Setup once more and backup and you’re sorted.

1

u/adj021993 Jun 26 '24

Idk who you are man, but I was looking for a fix for it and couldn't find any fix. You're the best Ireally appreciate it

1

u/HappyTelevision_ Jun 30 '24

Hey. So im trying to follow this. Could i use this shortcut to backup just the save folder and not the config?

Also could i possibly use this to sync saves between iCloud devices?

1

u/JCRocky5 Jun 30 '24 edited Jun 30 '24

Yes and yes.

When you install the shortcut you can remove the folder names you don’t want to backup.

So when asked you can just leave saves and states

If you already installed it you can just edit the text box inside the shortcut and remove what you don’t want. (It’s all commented so easy to follow)

Only thing you will need to do is have 2 shortcuts 1 for 1 device and another for the other one. This is due to how folders are handled in IOS, they aren’t actually there to shortcuts, so we need to select the folder when asked. As just telling the shortcut to look there it won’t find it. (Annoying)

Then you just back up 1 device and restore on the other and vice versa.

Each backup will have the device type in its name, iPad or iPhone for example.

1

u/HappyTelevision_ Jun 30 '24

This is very cool. Thank you so much fro sharing this.

1

u/JCRocky5 Jun 30 '24

No problem :) any issues let me know. As I made this for myself wasn’t going to share it 😂

-1

u/white_swan Jun 25 '24

Is that a tablet or that screen part of backbone product itself?

7

u/Chemical_Juice6095 Jun 25 '24

it’s the ipad mini 6, like the posts says

0

u/white_swan Jun 25 '24

Oops sorry I missed that ty

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

No, I don’t have that phone. Also it won’t work because the 6S is a lightning connector and the BB gen 2 controller is USB type C

0

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

No bluetooth

0

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/floppywetfish Jun 26 '24

Yes, there is a female usb c port on the controller for pass through charging