Buy the Anbernic RG Nano here: https://bit.ly/3RguuNX
Recommended Accessories
- MicroSD Card: 128GB or 256GB (with the platforms this plays, you would be safe with either of these options)
- MicroSD Card Reader: UGREEN SD Card Reader
- Charger: UGREEN 65W Charger (use the USB-A port for charging)
Preparation
Clone SD card: The SD cards that come with these devices are unbranded, low quality and prone to failure. The suggestion is to always replace them as soon as you receive the device. For instructions on how to clone your SD card, see here. I would highly suggest doing so before following this guide.
Stock Setup Guide
This setup guide assumes you want to start from scratch, with a brand new branded SD card and you will be providing your own ROMs & BIOS files. If you cloned your drive above, you can skip flashing the firmware.
Flash Firmware
The first thing you need to is grab the latest firmware, and you can get that from here. Scroll down and find RG NANO in the firmware list. Click Download Now.
On the RG Nano firmware page, copy and paste the link into your browser bar.
Open the Flash system folder, and right click and download the file ending in .img.
Now we’re going to use Rufus to flash this image. You can download Rufus from the rufus.ie website, and I would suggest the Portable version.
Connect your SD card to your PC using an SD Card Reader, and open Rufus. Select the .img file we just downloaded, and click Start.Â
When it’s done, safely eject the SD card and pop it into your RG Nano and turn it on.
You’re going to see it doing a few things in the top left, leave it alone until it asks you to select your language. Select your language, B is English.
You should see a clock now, and if you push Start, you’ll enter the firmware.
Adding ROMs & BIOS
If you’re starting from scratch following the above, or if you just got your RG Nano and want to know how to add or remove games, let’s do it.
Connect your SD card to your PC using an SD card reader.
You should see a whole bunch of folders, and a lot of them are system named – Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, SNES and so on.
Should be pretty self explanatory at this point, but inside of those folders are the games, so feel free to add or remove for each system. Keep in mind that your ROMs will need to be unzipped, for most systems.
For PS1 BIOS files, you need to put your BIOS files inside of the PS1/bios folder.
How to update Stock firmware
- Head to the Anbernic website’s firmware download page located here.
- Find the RG Nano and select Download now.
- Copy the latest version’s download link into your browser and navigate to the “system update and upgrade” folder.
- Download the .fwu file.
- Connect your SD card to your PC using an SD card reader.
- Put the .fwu file right onto the root of the SD card.
- Eject the SD card and insert it into your device, then turn it on. Let it do its thing and when you see the clock, you’re done!
Where to find ROMs & BIOS files?
Custom Firmware Options
Custom firmware is a replacement for the stock firmware that we setup above. If you would like to try out any custom firmware, I would recommend using a separate brand new SD card and keep your stock one just in case you want to switch back.
DrUm78
This setup guide assumes you want to start from scratch, with a brand new branded SD card and you will be providing your own ROMs & BIOS files. We will be installing DrUm78 for this guide.
Head to the DrUm78 Github page here, and download the latest release – it’s the one that has RG_Nano in the name and ends in .img. Do not download the one that ends in .fwu.
Now, connect your branded SD card to your PC, I have a recommendation above. Download Rufus if you don’t have it already.
Open Rufus, then choose select and you want to select the .img file we just downloaded above.
Click Start and let it do its thing.
When that’s done, safely eject and pop the SD card into the RG Nano and turn it on. Let it do it’s thing until you see the main screen.
You’re done setting up DrUm78! Follow the other steps for adding ROMs & BIOS files.
Adding ROMs & BIOS files to DrUm78
Connect your SD card to your PC.
Head inside of the SD card, and you should see a bunch of folders for all of the systems that the device supports.
It should be pretty self explanatory at this point, but you want to move your ROMs for each system into the corresponding system folder.
For BIOS, inside of the system folders, you’ll see a bios folder. Inside of that bios folder is where you should move your bios files.
Updating DrUm78
Head to the DrUm78 Github page here, and download the latest release – for updating, it’s the one that has RG_Nano in the name and ends in .fwu.
Connect your SD card to your PC and move the .fwu file onto the root of the SD card.
Safely eject and pop the SD card into the RG Nano and turn it on. It’ll update automatically when you turn it on.
Can the RG Nano run a larger battery other than the 1050 mah it comes with? If so, what’s the largest it can take and where can I purchase such a replacement based the measurements,etc? Thanks for the great reviews!