How to rotate the image in arcade shmups on Game Stick GD10 (Emuelec)?

[Nikokaro]

Hi everyone. I just bought a Game Stick x2 plus (GD10) on Aliexpress, primarily to play arcade and SNES/MD games with my son, and all work great. It's an Android device with an Emulec interface, which includes Retroarch and various cores. Does anyone know how to set "tate mode" (vertical mode for arcade shoot-em-ups), which rotates the screen 90 degrees (filling the TV screen)? I can't find the appropriate option in either the Emulec main menu or the Retroarch one (there you can enable image rotation, but it doesn't actually do anything), and I can't access the settings for the individual emulators (various Mame and FBA cores). Does anyone own this console or a similar one? Do you know how to fix the problem and how to access the Mame and FBA settings? Thanks.

Edit: I should point out that the console software, contained on a micro SD card, was created on Linux and contains partitions that are unreadable on Windows. I can examine the SD card's contents with DiskGenius, but making changes with that software in a Windows environment is still highly risky.

 

[JuanMena]

There ya go @Nikokaro

 

[Nikokaro]

There ya go @Nikokaro

Hi. How's it going? Unfortunately, on this damn console, you can't access the Retroarch menu (as you can easily do on a tablet or smartphone) after launching a game; there's only the generic initial menu. If it were that easy, I would have found it right away. You need to have some knowledge of the Emuelec interface to understand the problem. I hope someone with a similar console (GS x2, GS GD10, GS Lite 3D) can figure out how to proceed in this matter.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestion Juan.

 

[JuanMena]

Hi. How's it going? Unfortunately, on this damn console, you can't access the Retroarch menu (as you can easily do on a tablet or smartphone) after launching a game; there's only the generic initial menu. If it were that easy, I would have found it right away. You need to have some knowledge of the Emuelec interface to understand the problem. I hope someone with a similar console (GS x2, GS GD10, GS Lite 3D) can figure out how to proceed in this matter.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestion Juan.

Try holding L + R + Select + Start.
That's the "Open Menu" button combo if it's truly using RetroArch.
Googling Emuelec brings a lot of different results, like, a download from Github and lots of bootleg looking "consoles", so I'm assuming it's a frontend of some sort. But if it's really using RetroArch as you mentioned, then, the button combo should do.

 

[Nikokaro]

Try holding L + R + Select + Start.
That's the "Open Menu" button combo if it's truly using RetroArch.
Googling Emuelec brings a lot of different results, like, a download from Github and lots of bootleg looking "consoles", so I'm assuming it's a frontend of some sort. But if it's really using RetroArch as you mentioned, then, the button combo should do

While playing a game, start+select takes me to the Retroarch "quick menu", with only a few options (continue, reset, load, save, exit, and a few others). All the emulation options found on smartphones/tablets/Windows are missing here Your combination always takes me in this small menu. Maybe these options are intentionally hidden?
I have to sleep now. I'll read any replies tomorrow. Thanks and have a good day, Juan.

 

[JuanMena]

While playing a game, start+select takes me to the Retroarch "quick menu", with only a few options (continue, reset, load, save, exit, and a few others). All the emulation options found on smartphones/tablets/Windows are missing here Your combination always takes me in this small menu. Maybe these options are intentionally hidden?
I have to sleep now. I'll read any replies tomorrow. Thanks and have a good day, Juan.

Okay, that's weird.
I'm guessing you're seeing the "RGUI" Menu, which was made exclusively for the Wii and it's used "for low end devices". RetroArch is there, there's absolutely no way someone could've just taken things out of it, that's not possible without editing the source code heavily.
What you're probably seeing is a "customization" by hidding elements as RetroArch allows you to do so, so rest assured the options are there, they're just hidden.
If you have a way to plug in a keyboard to your device, maybe you could get better results by accessing the entire RetroArch Menu. To open it up, you press F1 on your keyboard.
RetroArch has a "Quick Menu" which opens when you open the menu while in game. And the "Main Menu" which is what we need is open when you exit the game.

Last thing I can think off... is there a ".ini" or a ".cfg" file when you plug your device to a computer? Maybe with some text editing you can bring back the entire menu. Sometimes even deleting the whole ".cfg" or ".ini" will restore the RetroArch menu (it'll simply create a new one upon launching). Before you attempt this, make backups of whatever you want to delete.

 

[Nikokaro]

As I mentioned, I can boot to Retroarch from the Emuelec start menu, but I can't set individual cores (Mame/FBA/FBNeo) for screen rotation during vertical games.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the micro SD card contains Linux partitions, and on Windows they are only visible via DiskGenius software, but editing, adding, or deleting files in a non-native environment is very risky.
Anyway I have already backed up the entire SD image (img) to PC using Win32 Disk Imager (52 GB!).

 

[JuanMena]

Oof...
I don't use Linux, so i'm guessing this needs propietary software.
Lemme check a bit around forums.

Post automatically merged: Dec 11, 2025

According to this Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Emuelec/co...r device to the,settings and save the changes.

It is possible to access the general settings of "Emuelec", so it should be possible with Linux. Google says that "Emuelec" uses several config related files, among them, the "retroarch.cfg" which you'll need to manually edit in order to make settings visible again.

Post automatically merged: Dec 11, 2025

@Nikokaro
Another google search says that "Updating to 4.3 lets you use more settings like Video Scaling, Rotation and Frameskip and Shaders" and that you can also bring the Quick Menu by pressing L3 + R3. Have you tried updating?

You sure you can't go from the Quick Menu (when you press Select + Start) to the Main Menu? Usually takes you to press "B" or whatever button is "Cancel" or "Back".
Depending on how it's set, RetroArch defaults "A" to "Back". So try opening your Quick Menu and then pressing either "B" or "A" to go back from Quick to Main Menu.

 

[Nikokaro]

"Emuelec" uses several config related files, among them, the "retroarch.cfg" which you'll need to manually edit in order to make settings visible again.

I just noticed that DiskGenius only lets me read Linux partitions; to edit or add files, I'd have to purchase a license.

Updating to 4.3 lets you use more settings like Video Scaling, Rotation and Frameskip and Shaders" and that you can also bring the Quick Menu by pressing L3 + R3. Have you tried updating?

I'm already on version 4.3 of Emuelec, and the L3+R3 combination does nothing, alas.

So try opening your Quick Menu and then pressing either "B" or "A" to go back from Quick to Main Menu.

I'll try that as soon as I can, but it seems to me that the B (back) button doesn't do anything in that menu.

All of this proves that this is a customized version of Emuelec, and the developer wanted to prevent certain changes to the emulation settings, for some absurd reason.

 

[JuanMena]

I just noticed that DiskGenius only lets me read Linux partitions; to edit or add files, I'd have to purchase a license.


I'm already on version 4.3 of Emuelec, and the L3+R3 combination does nothing, alas.


I'll try that as soon as I can, but it seems to me that the B (back) button doesn't do anything in that menu.

All of this proves that this is a customized version of Emuelec, and the developer wanted to prevent certain changes to the emulation settings, for some absurd reason.

There's gotta be a way to access those files, if possible, try with Windows instead of super useful and totally not broken Linux.

 

[Nikokaro]

There's gotta be a way to access those files, if possible, try with Windows instead of super useful and totally not broken Linux.

I'm afraid the most reasonable solution is to download a clean version of Emuelec (for my Amlogic s905x processor) from their website and install it on another micro SD card. But then I'd have to copy there all the games I want, and I don't feel like all that...

 

[JuanMena]

I'm afraid the most reasonable solution is to download a clean version of Emuelec (for my Amlogic s905x processor) from their website and install it on another micro SD card. But then I'd have to copy there all the games I want, and I don't feel like all that...

Oh the irony... my sister got scammed with these thingies (4K GAME.STICK LITE 2.4G WIRELESS) and now I'm dealing with a broken "64GB" card it came with.
Just bumping because on this amazing learning journey about Chinese Technology that allows you to play KOF XV and turns out it's KOF 2002 MAGIC PLUS is as meaningful as having every single fricking version of Donkey_Kong.sfc and Donkey_Kong_.smc and Donkey_Kong(Ch).zip just to meet the "Thousands of games" quota...
Enough rambling: OpenWorld (not sure if illegal? I'm just a n00b that uses a PC with RetroArch that... JUST WORKS)
@Nikokaro that might actually have more options than wathever the technicians flashes the TF Card with? Just letting you know my dude.

 

[Nikokaro]

Oh the irony... my sister got scammed with these thingies (4K GAME.STICK LITE 2.4G WIRELESS) and now I'm dealing with a broken "64GB" card it came with.
Just bumping because on this amazing learning journey about Chinese Technology that allows you to play KOF XV and turns out it's KOF 2002 MAGIC PLUS is as meaningful as having every single fricking version of Donkey_Kong.sfc and Donkey_Kong_.smc and Donkey_Kong(Ch).zip just to meet the "Thousands of games" quota...
Enough rambling: OpenWorld (not sure if illegal? I'm just a n00b that uses a PC with RetroArch that... JUST WORKS)
@Nikokaro that might actually have more options than wathever the technicians flashes the TF Card with? Just letting you know my dude.

Hi Juan. Yeah, I knew about this alternative software and its website, but it's not compatible with my Stick. Mine has a more powerful processor, with a different architecture, and I can play games up to n64, PSP, and Dreamcast. I'm glad you were able to install OW anyway: it's a great alternative. Yes, in that version of the Stick (m8), many titles are duplicated, but you can still delete them and add others. Not so bad, come on! The strong point is that it's easily portable, and very effective and fun for playing 8- and 16-bit titles, up to Mame/FBA, with friends/family.
A friendly hug.

 

[JuanMena]

Hi Juan. Yeah, I knew about this alternative software and its website, but it's not compatible with my Stick. Mine has a more powerful processor, with a different architecture, and I can play games up to n64, PSP, and Dreamcast. I'm glad you were able to install OW anyway: it's a great alternative. Yes, in that version of the Stick (m8), many titles are duplicated, but you can still delete them and add others. Not so bad, come on! The strong point is that it's easily portable, and very effective and fun for playing 8- and 16-bit titles, up to Mame/FBA, with friends/family.
A friendly hug.

Oh, no, I actually haven't installed anything yet.
I'm still struggling with this thing.
I found three options:
- "GStickOS" (literally RetroArch for these things)
- OpenWorld (altenative OS from the one that comes by factory)
- Literal presumed OS Backup from Internet Archives (I'm currently downloading it)

GStickOS failed.
Now will try the supposed backup.
Then I'll try OpenWorld if previous fails.

If not, I'll probably laugh at my sister for buying this I... of course I'm not kidding on the mocking, but actually will try to get her money back as I have some saved... I don't use the money so I guess I could ease the "I got scammed" guilt.

 

[Nikokaro]

Oh, no, I actually haven't installed anything yet.
I'm still struggling with this thing.
I found three options:
- "GStickOS" (literally RetroArch for these things)
- OpenWorld (altenative OS from the one that comes by factory)
- Literal presumed OS Backup from Internet Archives (I'm currently downloading it)

GStickOS failed.
Now will try the supposed backup.
Then I'll try OpenWorld if previous fails.

If not, I'll probably laugh at my sister for buying this I... of course I'm not kidding on the mocking, but actually will try to get her money back as I have some saved... I don't use the money so I guess I could ease the "I got scammed" guilt.

But what's wrong with your Stick? Is the original chinese SD card not working? Even if it's a fake size (smaller than advertised), does it work or not? Have you backed up the SD card with Win32 Disk Imager? Once copied to another high-quality SD card, you can add or remove games using DiskGenius (if your Windows version doesn't detect Linux partitions).

 

[JuanMena]

But what's wrong with your Stick? Is the original chinese SD card not working? Even if it's a fake size (smaller than advertised), does it work or not? Have you backed up the SD card with Win32 Disk Imager? Once copied to another high-quality SD card, you can add or remove games using DiskGenius (if your Windows version doesn't detect Linux partitions).

Don't know.
It was a present, dad told me. They plugged it into the TV today and didn't worked anymore. Says "Please Insert TF Card" and after googling found that these are prone to fail due fake SDs overwriting boot sectors randomly or something. So I'm trying to fix it by reflashing.

 

[Nikokaro]

Don't know.
It was a present, dad told me. They plugged it into the TV today and didn't worked anymore. Says "Please Insert TF Card" and after googling found that these are prone to fail due fake SDs overwriting boot sectors randomly or something. So I'm trying to fix it by reflashing.

It's well known that the first step with these contraptions is to make a copy of the chinese SD card on your PC (.img file) and copy it to a new, high-quality SD card. You'll see, it will then work again. Don't tell me you've already erased the original SD card?

If you create the image on a PC with Win32 Disk Imager, you'll also find the actual size of the SD card. You'll then need to copy this to an SD card slightly larger than the image: these Sticks often read SDHC but not SDXC cards.

 

[JuanMena]

It's well known that the first step with these contraptions is to make a copy of the Chinese SD card on your PC (.img file) and copy it to a new, high-quality SD card. You'll see, it will then work again. Don't tell me you've already erased the original SD card?

No. Plugging the original SD card only shows:

Was actually worried for SD because I assumed that "Please Insert TF Card" meant that it was corrupted or something.
Then, I learned about the fricking Linux partitions and what not.

So, in theory, the SD Card should work but it's missing the "OS" (which I assume is a Linux partition?) and I've been testing with spare SDs.
If I'm honest, I'm not experienced with this things because I've learned to not trust Chinese crap, but here we are... I'm just trying to not let my sister's money go to waste (although controllers worked with RetroArch in my PC so I guess... whatever she paid for the thing it's kind of worth it just by the controllers alone)


PS: It's already 6 AM and I'm about to reflash the supposed backup back to the original TF card (since I don't have a "64 GB card" and I'm aware of the complete fakeness of it.)

EDIT: Very reminiscing to reflashing NAND chips (boot firmwares) for Chinese Tablets... so I'm just going through this route.

 

[Nikokaro]

No. Plugging the original SD card only shows:
View attachment 550334


Was actually worried for SD because I assumed that "Please Insert TF Card" meant that it was corrupted or something.
Then, I learned about the fricking Linux partitions and what not.

So, in theory, the SD Card should work but it's missing the "OS" (which I assume is a Linux partition?) and I've been testing with spare SDs.
If I'm honest, I'm not experienced with this things because I've learned to not trust Chinese crap, but here we are... I'm just trying to not let my sister's money go to waste (although controllers worked with RetroArch in my PC so I guess... whatever she paid for the thing it's kind of worth it just by the controllers alone)


PS: It's already 6 AM and I'm about to reflash the supposed backup back to the original TF card (since I don't have a "64 GB card" and I'm aware of the complete fakeness of it.)

EDIT: Very reminiscing to reflashing NAND chips (boot firmwares) for Chinese Tablets... so I'm just going through this route.

You can find all the backups of all existing Sticks here: https://archive.org/details/game-stick-consoles
But you need to know the actual size of the SD card, to download the appropriate image.
Keep me updated.

 

[JuanMena]

You can find all the backups of all existing Sticks here: https://archive.org/details/game-stick-consoles
But you need to know the actual size of the SD card, to download the appropriate image.

That's the issue.
The thing claims "64GB", and it currently has 22 free out of 58.
Now... I understand the shenaningans, it's literally the same with tablets.
The issue here is that, for one, I can't know the SD Card size because it's obviously fake,
The backup I got is 31 GB.
I'm assuming that it's not about space, it's more about "OS" talking reliably with HDMI, RAM, "pRoCesSOr", and whatever else might be there.
So, if assumptions are correct, I just downloaded the right "OS" which is M8-V5.

The RetroArch alternative, GStickOS is blocked from "V3" onwards... so that narrows things down quite nicely, meanin I'm either dealing with a "V4" or "V5" but since I saw the background of the thing before I'm just matching the "OS" that matches the background (which came with V5 thingies)

Size might not matter as greatly as I assume, because the fake SD cards only cares about:
- Boot sector mathing the fricking combination of HDMI-RAM-pRoCesSoR
- The rest are ROMS with a database file.
- The rest are fake space (and since there's 22GB free our of 58 in the "64GB card" and after looking at the roms repeating themselves around 10 times (not kidding) I'm about 50% sure that the image I'm about to flash is the right one... except that it's failing to decompress... so I gotta redownload again.

Alternatively I could open the thing up and simply check the PCB to know the exact version, but I'm saving that as a last resort.