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Welcome to The FunKey Wiki, the host of information, tutorials, and user-generated content for the FunKey S!



NEWS

What's up, FunKey? Episode 13
Hello! It's Friday once again and we hope that you're doing great! For this 13th post-campaign update there are several topics on the agenda!

Instant Action
As requested, here's another demonstration of the FunKey S Instant Action feature.



Through the use of a magnet that detects when the system is opened or closed, the Instant Action feature will allow players to automatically save their game progress whenever they close the system, with that save automatically loaded within seconds once the system is opened again at a later point. That's really a game-changer! On the subject of game-changers, have a look at these pictures of two Retro Grey FunKey S units modified with button color layouts from Nintendo systems! Which layout is your favorite? NES or SNES? 🎮



FunKey-OS
Today is the day is we release our distribution on GitHub! This repository contains all the sources required to build FunKey-OS, the Open-Source distribution at the heart of the FunKey S retro-gaming console. As the FunKey S console is based on an Allwinner V3s ARM Cortex-A7 1.2GHz CPU, an Operating System is mandatory in order to access all the hardware resources without re-inventing the wheel.

FunKey-OS is based on Linux, and is built from scratch using the buildroot tool that simplifies and automates the process of building a complete Linux system for an embedded system like this. Technically, Funkey-OS is a buildroot (v2) based external tree for building the bootloader, the Linux kernel and user utilities, as well as the optimized retro-game launcher and console emulators.

Production
In the last week all PCBAs have been assembled, with quality control testing currently ongoing. Nearly a third of the PCBAs have undergone and passed all tests so far, with the remainder expected to undergo and pass all tests in the next several days. Production is running according to schedule, with thousands of injected plastic parts and buttons also ready to be assembled into FunKey S units!

Before we wrap up this week's post, we would like to respond to concerns we have seen regarding the amount of time it takes us to write and upload these weekly updates. As we are a team of four, it is our community manager who is tasked with writing these updates, which are reviewed and approved by the entire team prior to publication. Be assured that this does not distract us from overseeing FunKey S production and will not have any negative impact on the quality or delivery time frame of the FunKey S units. 😄

That will be all for today! Let us know if you have any questions and have a nice weekend!

-The FunKey Team

This post has been copyedited and reformatted from the original version on Kickstarter

View past news in

FAQ

What is the purpose of this wiki?


The purpose of this wiki is to serve as a database of information related to the FunKey S. This includes information about the FunKey S hardware, firmware, compatible homebrew games, and third-party software released for the device. After the FunKey S is released, more pages will be created to host tutorials, user-generated content, and other resources to assist people who have or are interested in getting a FunKey S.

What is the FunKey S?
The FunKey S is a foldable portable emulation device that is designed to fit onto a keychain. Through emulators on its FunKey-OS operating system, the FunKey can emulate a wide variety of systems, including the NES, PS1, and GBA. Greatly resembling the larger Game Boy Advance SP, the FunKey S is currently sold in three colors, Original Purple, Retro Grey, and Atomic Purple. The system comes with a 32GB MicroSD card to store the system's firmware and any software the user wishes to install onto the device and can be replaced by the user with higher capacity MicroSD cards up to 128GB. To facilitate attaching the device to a keychain, the FunKey S has a metallic needle built into the bottom left corner of the device around which a keychain lanyard can be tied.

What is included with the FunKey S?
Included with the FunKey S is a 32GB MicroSD card to store the device's firmware and added software, a Micro-USB cable to charge the device, update its firmare, and add games, a keychain lanyard to attach the device to a keychain, and four replacement button sets (red, blue, yellow, and green) that can be used to change the colors of the system's buttons.

What buttons does the FunKey S have?
The system has thirteen buttons built into it: four directional buttons, four action buttons, two trigger buttons, a START button, and two system buttons. The top-right system button is the Menu button, while the one to the left of the START button is the Fn button. The Menu button has two purposes: a short press activates the system menu, allowing the user to modify settings or return to the main menu, while a long press turns the system on or off. The Fn (Function) button is used to activate alternative inputs on various buttons of the FunKey S. In terms of buttons used for gameplay, pressing the Fn button prior to START, L, or R will activate SELECT, L2, and R2, respectively. The other uses of the Fn button are shortcuts to modify several system settings without needing to go to the system's settings menu. The settings that can be modified with the use of the Fn button are brightness (X and B), volume (Y and A), zoom (RIGHT and LEFT), and aspect ratio (DOWN). While FunKey S systems come by default with either white or grey buttons (depending on which system color is ordered), aside from the L and R buttons these can be swapped out individually with the included green, blue, red, and yellow extra button sets.

Which systems can the FunKey S emulate?
The currently supported systems are the NES, Master System, Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive), Game Boy, TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine), Atari Lynx, Game Gear, SNES, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Neo Geo Pocket, WonderSwan, and Game Boy Advance. Support for emulating other systems is planned for future updates to FunKey OS.

What software is pre-installed onto the FunKey S?
The FunKey S runs FunKey OS, a custom Linux-based operating system. The system comes with several emulators and games out of the box, with future updates to the operating system adding support for more emulators. Users can add their own games to the device by connecting it to a computer and placing ROM files in the game folders of the corresponding emulators.

Where can I find additional software for the FunKey S?
While users can install ROM dumps of physical games that they own onto the FunKey, there will also be other software available for the FunKey S as well. Since FunKey OS will be made open-source, developers will be free to release new apps and games for the FunKey S, which will be downloadable by FunKey S owners. Additionally, hundreds of free homebrew games have been released for various systems over the past three decades, many of which being available for download on homebrew lists across the Internet. The FunKey Wiki maintains software lists for all consoles that the FunKey S emulates, including specific lists for freeware, commercial software, and utilities.

Where can I find game box art?
Users searching for game box art are recommended to visit Libretro's GitHub page of thumbnail repositories. Due to several of these lists being truncated or having sub-par box art scans, however, it is also suggested that users visit the subsequently linked-to repositories for NES, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, GBA, and PS1 game box art. Since the image representing a game on the FunKey S is the image in the file directory that shares a name with that game, users may also use custom box art or other images to represent their games on the FunKey S.

Since large image files take longer to load in on the main menu of the FunKey S, for an optimal scrolling experience it is recommended that users downscale their thumbnails to at or below 240x240, the maximum resolution of the FunKey S.

What are the technical specifications of the FunKey S?
  Dimensions (folded)

  Dimensions (unfolded)

  Display (240x240 LCD IPS)

  Weight

  Operating system

  Processor

  RAM

  Refresh rate

  Storage

  Audio

  Battery

  Ports

 Dimensions (folded)

 Dimensions (unfolded)

 Display (240x240 LCD IPS)

 Weight

 Operating system

 Processor

 RAM

 Refresh rate

 Storage

 Audio

 Battery

 Ports

How long does the FunKey S battery last?
On a twenty-minute full charge, the FunKey S has an average battery life of an hour and forty-five minutes. The device's battery life is impacted by CPU usage in addition to brightness and audio levels, so depending on those factors, the experienced battery life can deviate by roughly thirty minutes in either direction from the average. In practice, this means that low-intensity emulation such as that of the Game Boy will result in above-average battery life, while high-intensity emulation such as that of the PlayStation will result in below-average battery life. Additionally, the device has a LED light to indicate when it is charging, with its current charge being indicated by a battery symbol in the top right corner of the main menu.

Why doesn't the FunKey S have more than 64 MB of RAM?
While several handheld emulation systems with similar capabilities to the FunKey S include several times more RAM than it, the lightweight Linux distribution used by the FunKey S in addition to its carefully chosen and optimized collection of emulators allows it to emulate games at relatively high levels of accuracy while using comparatively little RAM. The inclusion of additional RAM in the FunKey S, while possible, would not result in improved performance or additional emulation capabilities.

Why doesn't the FunKey S have a 60 FPS refresh rate?
The display of the FunKey S refreshes at a maximum rate of 50 FPS due to that being the maximum writing speed of data being sent from the processor to the internal graphics memory of the display, which, if not limited by the processor, would have a maximum refresh rate of 120 FPS. Since NTSC games are still emulated accurately, however, games with framerates higher than that of the FunKey S function normally, only missing ten frames each second while experiencing no screen tearing between the remaining frames.

Why doesn't the FunKey S have USB-C and auxiliary (headphone jack) ports?
The small form factor of the FunKey S made the use of Micro-USB instead of USB-C necessary and left no room for an auxiliary port for headphones or external speakers. While the Micro-USB standard supports the output of video and audio data signals by a host device, the limited space inside the device also made adding this functionality to the FunKey S not possible. Despite this, the FunKey Wiki lists such hardware suggestions at the wiki's Suggestion Center, as there is a chance that they could be implemented in future devices released by the FunKey Team.

Are there any games that aren't emulated properly on the FunKey S?
While the average emulation quality of the FunKey S emulators is relatively high, the device does have several games that are not able to be emulated properly on it for a variety of reasons. These include incompatible controls, unemulated specialty hardware, and emulation imperfections, among others. The current list of games that are believed to be incompatible with the FunKey S is listed here.

Where can I buy a FunKey S?
The FunKey S is currently available on BackerKit for €65 (~US$77) plus applicable taxes and shipping costs. Device shipment is expected to occur in December 2020, however, those who did not fill out their surveys prior to the cutoff date or pre-ordered via BackerKit rather than Kickstarter or Indiegogo might receive their devices at a later point.

Where can I get accessories for the FunKey S?
Although the FunKey Team is not currently selling any accessories for the FunKey S aside from what is included with it, the editors of this wiki have compiled a list of products that can be used in conjunction with the FunKey S, including adapters, power banks, cables, pouches, and keychain decorations. To match the FunKey S keychain aesthetic, all accessories listed have been checked to not exceed size or weight levels that would make putting them on a keychain difficult and/or inconvenient. Additionally, all items on the list have been checked (to the best ability of the editors) for description accuracy, payment security, and product reliability. Despite this, prior to buying any accessory please be sure to verify that it meets your requirements, as neither the FunKey Wiki editors nor the FunKey Team is responsible for the reliability of third-party products.

Can I develop software for the FunKey S?
As both the hardware specifications and operating system of the FunKey S will be made open-source, users will be able and encouraged to create their own software for the device and share it with others. After the FunKey OS has been made open-source, the wiki's Developer Center will be updated with relevant information to assist users in making their own software for the device. The FunKey Wiki will also maintain a database of all publicly available software developed for the FunKey S, so developers who wish to create an article for their software or add it to one of the lists can either edit the wiki themselves or ask a wiki editor to do so for them.

Who is the FunKey Team?
Based in the city of Bordeaux in southwestern France, the FunKey Team is comprised of four people: Vincent, Michel, David, and Killian. Having originated from the Keymu system designed by Vincent and Michel in 2017, the group expanded and developed the FunKey S based on positive viewer and media reactions to their initial Keymu prototype.

How can I contact the FunKey Team?
While the FunKey Team's numerous social media pages are represented with the icons at the top of this page, they can be contacted directly via the contact page on their website. If you wish to email them, questions regarding the FunKey S can be sent to their [mailto:support@funkey-project.com support] email address, while other inquiries can be sent to their [mailto:contact@funkey-project.com contact] email address.

Where can I find FunKey S news updates?
In addition to the email newsletter on their website, the FunKey Team posts regular updates about the FunKey S on Kickstarter. Recent news updates are regularly reformatted and posted on the main page of The FunKey Wiki, with summaries of past news updates available at the The FunKey Times.

Who edits The FunKey Wiki?
The FunKey Wiki is a community-managed database of FunKey S information, operated and edited independently of the FunKey Team. Currently, the Administrator of and primary contributor to The FunKey Wiki is CoolieCoolster, but anyone is free to contribute to the improvement of the wiki!

How can I edit The FunKey Wiki?
Since The FunKey Wiki uses the MediaWiki wiki engine, the same markdown format that is used to edit other MediaWiki wikis such as Wikipedia is also used here. If you wish to learn the MediaWiki markdown format, MediaWiki has several tutorials on their website in addition to a Discord server where users can ask questions, but if you have any specific questions about editing or templates used on The FunKey Wiki, you may also ask the FunKey Wiki admin.

How can I translate The FunKey Wiki?
Users who are fluent in a language other than English are encouraged to translate one or more of the wiki's pages into that language to improve the helpfulness of the wiki. To translate any page marked for translation, select the "Translate" text above the list of the available languages at the top of that page. If a page has already been translated into a language that you speak fluently, you are free to analyze and improve the translation. If you have translated a page but are unsure on how to implement the translation, feel free to ask the FunKey Wiki admin for assistance. For more information about translating on the FunKey Wiki, visit the Translation Center.

What platform does The FunKey Wiki run on?
The FunKey Wiki is powered by MediaWiki, an open-source wiki engine that is used by many wikis, including Wikipedia. The FunKey Wiki is hosted by Miraheze, a non-profit wiki farm that hosts thousands of wikis ad-free at no charge. If you wish to support the hosting of The FunKey Wiki or create a wiki of your own, visit their website!