Qinux BitBip 89 – can I add my own games easily?

Adding games means messing with files, so that combo doesn’t really exist. I tried it once, got the folder structure wrong, and spent an hour wondering why nothing showed up. If that sounds annoying, just stick with what’s already loaded.

I got mine mainly for the plug and play setup, so I haven’t touched the game files at all. From what I’ve seen, the storage is pretty limited anyway, so even if you figure it out you’re not fitting much extra on there.

I actually found it pretty straightforward, way easier than I expected going in. My brother sent me a folder of old arcade games he had lying around and I figured it would be a whole project, but it ended up being like twenty minutes of fiddling. I just plugged the stick into my laptop, found the folder where the games live, and dropped the new files in next to the existing ones. Unplugged it, plugged it back into the TV, and there they were in the menu. No drama at all.

The one thing that tripped me up was file names. A couple of mine had weird characters in them and those didn’t show up until I renamed them to something plain. Once I did that they were fine. I’m not someone who messes with this kind of stuff normally, I mostly just wanted to play some old favorites from when I was a kid, and it worked out.

So I’d say go for it. Back up the original files first if you’re nervous, then you can always put things back the way they were. That took me two minutes and gave me peace of mind. The worst case is you copy something wrong and just delete it again. It’s not like you can break the console by adding a file. Mine’s been running fine with the extra games for a couple months now and I haven’t had any issues.

I dropped a few of my own roms on mine last month and it worked fine once I found the right folder. Not hard, just fiddly. If you can copy files to a USB stick you can do it.

It’s doable but I wouldn’t call it beginner stuff. You’re basically poking around in folders and hoping the format matches. If you’re the type who gets nervous messing with files, just leave it.

I’m still on the fence about buying one of these, so the whole “can I add my own games” thing is something I’ve been trying to figure out too. What I’ve gathered from poking around is that it kind of depends on which version of the firmware you end up with, because the folder setup isn’t always the same across them. So someone might find it easy while someone else with a slightly different unit hits a wall. That part bugs me a little since you don’t really know what you’re getting until it’s in your hands. I don’t need to load a ton of stuff, just a handful of games I actually care about, but I’d rather know upfront whether that’s realistic before I commit. Curious whether the ones people bought recently have been consistent or if it’s a total toss up depending on the batch.

I grabbed a couple of my old favorites off a USB stick and they showed up after a reboot. Not instant, but nothing broke. I’d say go for it if you have the files handy.

Adding games is the easy part. Keeping them organized so you can actually find them later is where it gets annoying. Mine turned into a mess of files and half the names showed up wrong on the menu.