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I. Getting Started

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tiduscrying edited this page Aug 1, 2021 · 2 revisions

First Steps/Getting Familiar

In the box, you likely received your system, a USB-C cable and an SD Card (either in a little case or inside your unit itself). Boot your system up and let's get a bit familiar with the default user experience (we'll be referring to it further as just "stock").

By default, the Trimui's stock interface is laid out with multiple sections:

  • Favorite - where favorited games from across the system's various emulators live
  • Retrogame - where all emulated systems live (more info on included systems below)
  • Game - where pre-included Linux games live. Only three are included, despite the website promising more.
  • File - a basic file browser that will let you see images, launch executables, and update the stock OS or move to a custom launcher.
  • Setting - applet that will let you change default values such as brightness, volume, background music and UI language. You can even run hardware tests from here!

Supported Systems

Under Retrogame, you will have options for all of the supported systems. Selecting a system will bring you into a list of the titles on your SD card for you to launch. Out of the box, the supported systems are:

  • Arcade
  • NeoGeo
  • FC (Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • SFC (Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • GB (GameBoy, Gameboy Color)
  • GBA (GameBoy Advance)
  • MD (MegaDrive/Genesis)
  • SMS (Sega MasterSystem/Game Gear)
  • PCE (PC Engine/Turbo Grafx 16)
  • PS (PlayStation)

On stock OS each system will vary a bit on how playable they are. Everything up to 16 bit (SNES, TG16, Genesis) will run fantastic and look extremely crisp on the Trimui's screen, but systems such as Arcade and PlayStation will have some issues with fancier titles.

Playing Games

Selecting each system will bring you into a list of games on your SD card. Selecting a title will launch the emulator and bring you straight into the game.

In game, you can select the middle MENU button on your system to bring up TrimUI's stock menu system. Here you have options for changing the volume, adjusting brightness, creating save states, and exiting your game. Some systems, such as GameBoy have additional settings for setting the screen aspect ratio.

Settings

The settings pane has the following options:

  • Keys Map
    • Set to default normally, but can also be set to rotate 90 for vertical arcade shooters.
  • Language
    • Out of the box, the system will likely come in Chinese if purchased off retailers such as AliExpress or Banggood. Some Amazon sellers or various online shops may change the language before shipping your unit out.
    • If the system is in Chinese, press RIGHT until you see the icon with a gear. This is the settings app. Press the rightmost/east button (hereon referred to as "A") to bring up a new menu. The first option is for controls. Scroll down once more until you see a little "i" icon. Select it with "A" and then select 001 English to change the UI into English. Further languages are available in this list, if desired.
  • Volume
    • Value out of 20.
  • BGM Volume
    • Value out of 20. Can be silenced completely to disable background music entirely.
  • Brightness
    • Value out of 10.
  • Refresh Roms
  • Factory Reset
    • This will clear all settings to the stock UI. Contents of your SD card will NOT be deleted
  • Device Info
    • This section lists your model (either Trimui Model S or Powkiddy A66), Serial, Firmware Version, CPU frequency, Memory amount and SD card space.
  • Hardware Test
    • This applet is useful for testing the keys, display and USB connectivity. Note that the stock UI doesn't include any USB functionality, despite the instruction manual saying it does. USB Bridge/ADB connectivity is a feature of both MinUI and GMenuNX respectively.
    • SD card and Stress tests shouldn't be run at random but more for testing specific issues.

Screen Tearing

Out of the box, the stock UI exhibits a great deal of screen tearing, visible in many games with horizontal scrolling. It appears that the screen is "cut" or "torn" in half, making part of the image almost split from the rest during motion. This has been remedied a bit with further firmware updates but most significantly with firmware version 0.104. Most units will come with this pre-installed out of the box, but details on upgrading your system will be included in this Wiki.

Both custom launchers MinUI and GmenuNX have done a great deal on their own to further resolve issues with screen tearing. Recent updates to both have resulted in almost getting rid of the issue entirely! It is therefore STRONGLY recommended switching to either once your system is up-to-date and all backed up.

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