R36H Manual: Setup, Buttons & Hotkeys
A plain-English R36H manual covering what goes in each card slot, how to charge and shut down safely, what every button does, and the hotkeys the stock ArkOS-based software uses. Sellers' printed leaflets are short and vary, so this page brings the essentials together.
📦 What's in the box
Box contents vary by seller. Listings commonly include:
- The R36H handheld
- A USB-C charging cable
- A pre-loaded microSD card with the system and games (capacity varies by listing)
- A short printed guide
⚠️ First thing: back up the stock card
Bundled cards are often low quality. Before playing for long, copy the whole card to a computer or clone it to a quality card. The card also holds the .dtb files that identify your board revision. See the SD card guide.
💾 Card slots: TF1-OS and TF2-GAME
The R36H has two microSD slots, labelled TF1-OS and TF2-GAME. The system card always goes in TF1-OS. The second slot is for an optional games card. If your listing shipped a single card holding both the system and the games, leave TF2 empty.
🔋 Charging
- Charge over USB-C. Tech Tactician measured a 5V/1.5A input and a full charge in under two hours.
- Use a standard phone charger, not a high-voltage fast charger.
- The battery is a removable 3000mAh cell. See battery life and replacement.
- Charge-light behaviour varies between batches, so check your seller's leaflet for what the LED colours mean.
⚡ Power on and shut down
- Power on: press and hold the power button until the screen lights. The first boot after a fresh card can take longer while the system sets itself up.
- Shut down: use the system menu. Press Start on the main menu and choose the quit or shutdown option.
Avoid hard power-offs
Holding the power button to force the device off while the system is writing to the card can corrupt the card. Use the menu shutdown, and only force power off if the device is frozen.
🎮 Buttons
| Button | Function |
|---|---|
| D-pad | Navigate menus; movement in games |
| A / B / X / Y | Confirm, back and in-game actions (mapped per system) |
| Left stick | Analog movement in PS1 and N64 games that support it |
| Right stick | Camera or second analog input in games that use it |
| L1 / R1, L2 / R2 | Shoulder buttons and triggers |
| Start | Start or pause in games; opens the main menu |
| Select | Select in games; hotkey modifier (see below) |
| Power | Power on (shut down from the menu, see above) |
The R36H has no dedicated FN button, so Select does the hotkey job. If you flash a new image, pick the R36H device type (listed with the R33S in ArkOS), otherwise hotkeys may not work. Full detail is in the button mapping guide.
⌨️ Hotkeys
| Action | Combination |
|---|---|
| Exit the current game | Select + Start |
| Open the RetroArch menu | Select + X |
| Save state | Select + R1 |
| Load state | Select + L1 |
| Fast forward | Select + R2 |
Select + Start and Select + X are documented in the ArkOS wiki. Save, load and fast-forward are common defaults in ArkOS-based images but can differ between cards. Check RetroArch → Settings → Input → Hotkeys on your own card.
▶️ Play your first game
- With the system card in TF1-OS, power on and wait for the main menu.
- Use the D-pad to choose a system (for example, SNES) and press A.
- Pick a game and press A to launch it.
- Press Select + Start to return to the menu.
🛠️ If something goes wrong
- Black screen or boot loop: see troubleshooting and the screen fix guide.
- Not sure which board you have: see how to identify your R36H.
- Adding your own games: see how to add games.
- Changing firmware: see firmware preparation.