Main Page

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



NEWS

FunKey News #9
Hello everybody! It's been a while since our last update, so it's time to freshen things up! We'd like to start by thanking the several artists in the FunKey community who have created new RetroFE themes! Many such themes have been popping up on the community Discord server in the past weeks, and we think that they're incredible! We often see the amazing mixture of collaboration, assistance, and third-party support that occurs there, so keep it coming! 💪 The subject many of you have been waiting for us to discuss is production and shipping, which we're glad to say is going great! With 300 devices being manufactured daily, we will soon be ready to announce the shipment window for this production batch. As the majority of the messages we have received in the past weeks have concerned the shipment of these devices, we would like to thank you for patience and understanding as production of this batch nears its conclusion. Lastly, while our Crystal Blue FunKey S giveaway ended with the announcement of the three winners on our Instagram page, we've been glad to see the community's positive reaction to the color! While we have yet to come to a decision regarding whether or not to add it to our store page, the color's popularity certainly motivates us to do so! That's all the announcements we have for today, so have a great weekend and take care!

Cheers, 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. As the FunKey Wiki is run by the community independently of the FunKey Team, there may at times be erroneous or inconsistent information listed. If there is a piece of information that you are unsure or have further questions about, you are encouraged to [mailto:support@funkey-project.com contact] the FunKey Team directly. If you see information that you know is incorrect, you may leave a message on the talk page of the wiki admin, who will fix the error as soon as possible.



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 S can emulate a wide variety of systems, including the Sega Genesis, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance. Greatly resembling the larger Game Boy Advance SP, the FunKey S is currently sold in three colors: Original Purple, Retro Grey, and Atomic Purple. While the device includes a 32 gigabyte MicroSD card by default to store system firmware and any software the user wishes to install onto their device, this can be swapped out by the user with MicroSD cards up to the two terabyte limit of the MicroSDXC standard. 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 an included keychain lanyard is tied.

What is included with the FunKey S?
Included with the FunKey S is a 32 gigabyte MicroSD card to store the device's firmware and added software, a Micro-USB cable to charge and transfer files to the device, a keychain lanyard to attach the device to a keychain, a user manual, and four sets of extra buttons (red, blue, yellow, and green) that can be used by the user to customize their device.

What buttons does the FunKey S have?
The system has thirteen buttons built into it: four directional buttons, four action buttons, two shoulder buttons, a START button, and two system buttons: Menu and Fn. Centered at the top of the control panel, the Menu button serves 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. Sharing a button with SELECT, the Fn (Function) input extends the system's limited button count via the use of button combinations. In conjunction with the shoulder buttons, Fn activates the L2 and R2 trigger inputs of the PlayStation, while its use with the directional and action buttons grants access to the volume, brightness, zoom, aspect ratio, and screenshot shortcuts. While this functionality does in rare cases override button combinations used by games, each such case can be solved by the device's per-game or per-console button remapping capabilities. In addition to the white or grey buttons installed by default, packaged with the FunKey S are green, blue, red, and yellow button sets that the user may use to further personalize their device.

Which systems can the FunKey S emulate?
The currently officially supported systems are the NES, Master System, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive (along with its Sega 32X and Sega CD add-ons), Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Game Gear, SNES, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Neo Geo Pocket, WonderSwan, and Game Boy Advance. Additionally, third-party emulators can be used to emulate officially unsupported systems via the Gmenu2x launcher. Such systems currently include Arcade, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Neo Geo, Pokémon Mini, SG-1000, and Virtual Boy. While a native port of Super Mario 64 to the FunKey S was made possible by that game's decompilation, general Nintendo 64 emulation is currently not, and likely will not be, possible.

What software is pre-installed onto the FunKey S?
The FunKey S runs FunKey-OS, a purpose-made open source Linux distribution. Launchable from one of the device's two application launchers, the device's seven default emulators enable the emulation of twelve consoles out of the box, with Game Boy Advance and improved PlayStation emulation requiring the addition of BIOS files by the user. While the list of consoles emulated out of the box is expected to grow with future firmware updates, third-party emulators can also be used to give the device additional emulation capabilities. While the device includes 61 homebrew games to help demonstrate its functionality, users may also add their own games and box art to the device's emulated system folders to expand their FunKey S game catalogue. Should the need arise, users can edit or delete any file on the device via Commander, the included file management application, without the need to connect the FunKey S to a computer. As FunKey-OS is open source, the files used to build it are publicly available on the FunKey Team's GitHub page.

Why are there no commercial games included with the FunKey S?
As the unlicensed distribution of copyrighted games in any circumstance is illegal piracy, the FunKey S only comes with freely-distributable homebrew games hand-picked for their quality. This means that users seeking to emulate copyrighted games on the device must extract their own game backups and transfer them to the device's console folders. Alternatively, many games originally released in a physical format are now available digitally on platforms such as Steam, with the ROMs of those games often extractable for personal use in external emulators such as those of the FunKey S. A list of such games is available on this page of the FunKey Wiki.

Where can I find additional software for the FunKey S?
While users can put ROM backups of their own physical and digital commercial games onto the FunKey S, there is also much freeware and commercial software that can be legally acquired and used on the device. As the system's operating system is both well-documented and open source, third-party developers have released dozens of natively-running original and ported programs for the device that are not limited by the bottleneck of an emulator. In terms of emulatable software, however, the FunKey Wiki also maintains lists of hundreds of freeware and commercial games, as well as several dozen utilities and public domain e-books.

How many games can fit on the FunKey S?
As the game library file sizes of all the cartridge-based consoles emulated on the FunKey S add up to only 13.4 GB, a user could, in theory, have thousands of games on their FunKey S without needing to upgrade its 32 gigabyte MicroSD card (with 27.8 gigabytes of this being accessible with the factory configuration). Since CD-based games (PlayStation, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD) have significantly larger file sizes than cartridge-based games, only fifty to sixty CD-based games could fit on the FunKey S before a larger MicroSD card would be needed. While 27.8 gigabytes of available storage is more than enough to fit the game libraries of most users, any user with more than fifty CD-based games should check the total file size of their game library to see whether or not they require a larger MicroSD card. The chart below documents the average game file sizes for each of the thirteen consoles that the FunKey S officially emulates, with several file size totals corresponding to theoretical game libraries that have the same number of games from each system. As illustrated by the proportions listed below, the number of games a user can fit onto their FunKey S is directly related to number of CD-based games present in their game library. For instance, the average PlayStation game takes up the same amount of space as approximately 2,566 NES games, 2,277 Master System games, 1,395 TurboGrafx-16 games, 433 Sega Genesis games, 2,740 Game Boy games, 2,667 Atari Lynx games, 1,717 Game Gear games, 363 SNES games, 414 Game Boy Color games, 368 Neo Geo Pocket games, 313 WonderSwan games, or 78 Game Boy Advance games.

Is multiplayer possible on the FunKey S?
As neither link cables nor additional controllers can be connected to the FunKey S, multiplayer modes that require these features are not playable on the device. However, multiplayer modes that are implemented in a hotseat manner (one controller with one system) are playable on the FunKey S. While the majority of games that implement this mode do so using a "pass-and-play" method where players take turns (usually turn-based sports, strategy, and tabletop games), several instead have two players use the same controller simultaneously. Users interested in seeing which games emulatable on the FunKey S use hotseat multiplayer may view the wiki's comprehensive list of such games.

Where can I find game box art?
Users searching for box or cover art specifically for games on their FunKey S are recommended to visit the wiki's database of game art, all of which having been resized to more efficient resolutions that maximize at 240 pixels horizontally and/or vertically. Should you be searching for art that is either missing from the wiki's database or that has a higher resolution than 240 pixels, however, several other sources are recommended as well. As an all-encompasing source, Libretro's GitHub page of thumbnail repositories is helpful, however, due to its lists at times being truncated or having sub-par box art scans, for the following systems it is recommended that you use these linked-to art repositories instead: NES, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, GBA, and PlayStation. 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 use any JPG or PNG format images to represent games on the FunKey S.

Where can I find Gmenu2x wallpapers?
To complement the set of default Gmenu2x wallpapers, the FunKey Wiki maintains a database of minimalist FunKey S wallpapers here. Users may also use any 240-pixel square PNG format image as a Gmenu2x wallpaper on their FunKey S. Once acquired, Gmenu2x wallpapers should be put in the /mnt/FunKey/.gmenu2x/skins/240x240/Default/Wallpapers location of the FunKey S file system. If you don't see the .gmenu2x folder, your computer's Unix-based operating system is hiding hidden folders. To enable the viewing of such folders on MacOS, use the Shift+Cmd+Period key combination. To do so on ChromeOS, click the three-dot icon at the top-right of the Files application and select the Show hidden folders option.

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

  Dimensions (unfolded)

  Display & Resolution

  Weight

  Operating system

  Processor

  RAM

  Refresh rate

  Storage (MicroSD)

  Audio

  Battery

  Ports

 Dimensions (folded)

 Dimensions (unfolded)

 Display & Resolution

 Weight

 Operating system

 Processor

 RAM

 Refresh rate

 Storage (MicroSD)

 Audio

 Battery

 Ports

Where can I find FunKey S device schematics and 3D files?
The FunKey Team has FunKey S schematics, STL files, and a project STEP file for the device's shell components available on Grabcad. Schematics for the device's electrical components are available on the FunKey Team's GitHub page. As the device's hardware is open source, users are free to download, modify, and redistribute the listed files.

How long does the FunKey S battery last?
On a sixty minute full charge, the FunKey S has a median battery life of two hours. Since the device's battery life is impacted by CPU usage and brightness and audio levels, there can be significant deviation from the median by roughly thirty minutes in either direction. 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 blue LED light that indicates when it is charging, with a battery symbol in the top right corner of the main menu indicating the current charge level. While a low-charge indicator is displayed on-screen before the FunKey S runs out of charge, should this occur, an autosave of the current game is automatically generated prior to shutdown and returned to when the system is recharged and reopened.

Does the FunKey S support RTC (real-time clock) functionality?
The FunKey S supports the RTC functionalities used by Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, such as Harvest Moon GBC, Pokemon Crystal, and Pokemon Emerald. It does this by siphoning an extremely small amount of charge from the device's battery, allowing games that employ the feature to keep track of time. RTC functionality is still preserved even if the FunKey S is turned off or runs out of charge, as there is a buffer of charge reserved for such an instance. To best make use of the RTC feature, it is recommended that users rely solely on in-game saves for games with RTC functionality, as save states and autosaves can affect the RTC timing of games.

Can FunKey S save game data be transferred?
For games with in-game saving, transferring save data to or from the FunKey S is done by simply moving each game's save data file into or out of the device's different emulated system folders. Supported save data file formats for the device's default emulators are SAV for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo Entertainment System, SRM for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, BRM for the Sega CD add-on, and MCD for the PlayStation. Note that PlayStation MCD files should be placed in the memcards folder within the PlayStation folder of the FunKey S and named card#.mcd, with the hashtag symbol replaced by the first number starting from one that isn't already used by an existing MCD file. For games without in-game saving, save data can only be transferred via save states to matching emulators on other devices, as save state formats are usually emulator-specific. PlayStation save states cannot be transferred to other devices with the PCSX-ReARMed emulator, however, as modifications made to the emulator for the FunKey S make its save states, as with FunKey S autosaves, system-specific.

Can the FunKey S be used as an external storage device?
While the primary purpose of the FunKey S is the ability to use emulated and natively-running games and applications, it can also be used as an external storage device. While the slow transfer speed of its Micro-USB port and four gigabyte file size limit of its FAT32 file system make it less ideal for general file storage than most USB sticks, SD cards, and external hard drives, the FunKey S having an operating system gives it the additional ability to interact with its stored files. Such capabilities include the ability to view and edit text files via the Commander application and view video files via the MPlayer application, as well as the general ability to move, rename, or delete any stored file via Commander. As an external storage device, the FunKey S is also able to stream media files at qualities higher than it can stream itself to televisions, radios, and other media players with such functionality. Users wishing to transfer files to the FunKey S faster than the device's Micro-USB port is capable of can alternatively open their device, remove the MicroSD card, and transfer files to the card directly.

Why does the FunKey S need emulated system BIOS files?
Emulators function using either low-level emulation (LLE) or high-level emulation (HLE), with the former directly emulating the processes of the original system and the latter merely simulating them. While both methods are commonly used and have distinct benefits, the truer 'emulation' of LLE means emulators that use this method require the system ROM of the original hardware to function. This ROM, known as the BIOS, performs system-critical tasks for many systems, with neither the original hardware nor an LLE emulator of that hardware being functional without the associated BIOS file. In the case of the FunKey S, while the majority of its emulated systems do not require BIOS files, there are two that do: the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. While some PlayStation games can be emulated without a BIOS file and alternate, albeit slower, Game Boy Advance emulators that don't require BIOS files are available, to properly emulate either system using the default emulators a BIOS file for each is required. As with video game ROMs, BIOS files are protected by copyright restrictions and thus also cannot be legally distributed with the FunKey S. Users may extract BIOS files from PlayStation and Game Boy Advance units that they own and add them to the FunKey S emulators for those systems to improve functionality for the former and enable functionality for the latter. Additionally, while Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games do not require the presence of BIOS files to be accurately emulated, games for their respective add-ons, the Sega CD and TurboGrafx-CD, do. A tutorial for adding emulator BIOS files to the FunKey S can be found here.

Why doesn't the FunKey S have more than 64 megabytes of RAM?
The FunKey S has 64 megabytes of RAM due to that being the amount built into its system on a chip (SoC), the Allwinner V3s. 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 would not result in improved performance or additional emulation capabilities.

Why doesn't the FunKey S have a 60 FPS refresh rate?
The FunKey S display refreshes at a maximum rate of 50 FPS due to that being the most data the device's processor can send to the display's internal graphics memory each second. If this were not a limitation, the display would otherwise have a maximum refresh rate of 120 FPS. As NTSC games are still emulated at 60 FPS, however, ten frames are dropped each second rather than gameplay being slowed down to match the differing frame rate. As this issue was anticipated during the designing of the FunKey S, however, several software and hardware techniques were implemented to avoid screen tearing between the remaining 50 frames of NTSC games.

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 use with 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 FunKey Team devices.

Are there any games that aren't emulated properly on the FunKey S?
While the average emulation quality of its default emulators is relatively high, the FunKey S cannot emulate several games out of the box for a variety of reasons. These include incompatible controls, unemulated specialty hardware, and emulation imperfections, among others. A list of all the games known to be incompatible with the device's default emulators is located here. Many of these games, however, can still be played via one of the several third-party emulators available for the device.

How do I combine a PlayStation game's multiple BIN files into a single BIN file?
As all of a PlayStation game's BIN files are listed in the FunKey S game list, to minimize the time is takes to scroll through one's game library, each game should only have one BIN file. If your PlayStation game has multiple BIN files across multiple disks, follow these instructions. If these BIN files are all for one disk, to merge them you will first need to download IsoBuster. Once this is done, open the program and select Open Image File, indicated by an icon of a folder containing a blue downwards arrow. Navigating to and selecting the CUE file of the game in question will make a CD icon appear in the IsoBuster interface, which you then right click, selecting the Raw .bin option under the Extract CD  category. After you save the BIN and CUE files, place these new files into the PS1 folder of the FunKey S.

How do I combine files from multiple PlayStation disks into a single ROM file?
If the files from multiple disks of a PlayStation game are added to the FunKey S, they will all appear in the game list, complicating game library navigation and disk transferring. To merge all of these files into a single PBP file, begin by downloading PSX2PSP. Once this is done, extract the folder from the RAR archive, open it, and select the Clasic mode shortcut. From within the program select the Options button at the bottom left, which will open a page where you should change the Compression level to 1 (worst) and the toc setting to CUE File. Once this is done, save your settings to return to the main program interface. From here, press the three dot icon next to ISO/PBP File 1 - No file selected at the top left and select the BIN file of the first disk. Repeat this process for each subsequent disk by selecting the arrow icon to the left of the aforementioned three dot icon, selecting each disk number in turn. Once this process is complete, select the folder on your system where you wish the PBP file to be saved to and press the Convert button at the bottom of the program window. Once the conversion process is finished, navigate to the completed EBOOT.PBP file, rename it, and place it into the PS1 folder of the FunKey S.

Where can I buy a FunKey S?
The FunKey S is currently available for pre-order on the FunKey Project store page. While the device itself costs €65 (~US$76.75), additional shipping and taxation costs will make the total cost higher. The amount these additional costs add up to depends on an order's country of destination, with shipping fees for most users being between €7 (~US$8.25) and €10 (~US$11.75) and value-added tax rates ranging from €12.41 to €19.71 per device only charged to European Union customers. For French and non-EU customers, an order's per-unit shipping fee can be lowered by buying multiple devices at once, with the lowest per-unit fee applied to orders containing five or more devices. A comprehensive list of shipping fees for each country the FunKey S ships to can be found here.

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, research has been conducted to ensure that all listed accessories do not exceed size or weight levels that would make putting them on a keychain inconvenient. While the editors of this wiki have conducted extensive research to confirm that all products listed are compatible and reliable, neither the editors nor the FunKey Team are responsible for the reliability of third-party products. Therefore, prior to making any purchase, users should verify that a listed product adequately meets their needs.

Can I develop software for the FunKey S?
As both the hardware specifications and operating system of the FunKey S are open source and documented on the FunKey Team's GitHub page, users are able and encouraged to develop their own software for the device. To facilitate this, an SDK has been created and made available for FunKey-OS software development. Additionally, a development guide is available on the documentation page of the FunKey website. The FunKey Wiki maintains a database of all third-party software developed for the FunKey S, so developers who wish to create an article for their program 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. Founded by Vincent and Michel in 2017 as a joint effort to create the group's first system, the Keymu, the FunKey Team subsequently expanded to include David and Killian to develop and commercially release the FunKey S as an improved version of the Keymu.

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 of 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 is the FunKey S manufactured?
FunKey S production is contracted out by the FunKey Team to a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China. After all components arrive and are assembled at that facility, the devices are shipped directly by a nearby shipping firm to international customers.

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 their Kickstarter page. Recent news updates are regularly reformatted and posted on the main page of the FunKey Wiki, with summaries of past news updates available in the The FunKey Times. Users wishing to discuss recent news updates are recommended to join the FunKey Community Discord Server.

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!

Who runs the FunKey Community Discord Server?
As with the FunKey Wiki, the FunKey Community Discord Server is run independently of the FunKey Team by community volunteers. While some moderation does occur to ensure that the server remains a productive forum for FunKey S discussion, users are free to share their FunKey S complements and criticisms alike.

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!