Halo: Combat Evolved gets online multiplayer on Anbernic RG35XX H, with a 23-player match reported at up to 60 fps

The original Halo: Combat Evolved can now be played in online multiplayer matches on the Anbernic RG35XX H, following a series of updates to an unofficial native port. The developer reports joining a public 23-player Slayer match on Blood Gulch at approximately 50-60 fps, with performance remaining mostly between 58 and 60 fps.

The project builds on OpenCE, formerly known as halo-ce-universal, a community decompilation project reconstructing the original Xbox game's code. Rather than emulating Xbox hardware, the port runs native ARM64 code on the handheld's Allwinner H700 processor and Mali-G31 graphics chip.

An October 6 update introduced a public server browser, online and local-network multiplayer, and network campaign co-op functionality with compatible OpenCE builds. This allows the handheld to connect to compatible OpenCE installations on PCs or other handhelds. The developer had not personally tested online campaign co-op on the handheld when announcing the feature.

The subsequent October 7 release, version v2026.10.07, addresses several performance and compatibility issues. It adds tested support for muOS, fixing crashes that previously occurred in menus, during respawning and when pausing the game.

The developer also reports that the server browser now runs at 60 fps, up from 18-26 fps, after optimising text rendering. The 60 fps figure applies to the server browser rather than multiplayer gameplay.

Other changes target the handheld's limited resources. Shader management improvements free approximately 50 MB of additional memory after six levels, while changes to the audio mixer reduce its workload to roughly a quarter of its previous level on the device.

As a result, the developer reports that the beach battle in The Silent Cartographer now runs at 33-46 fps on muOS, compared with 9-23 fps previously. The same sequence reaches 45-58 fps on Knulli. These figures are developer-reported and may vary depending on the scene and configuration.

The release also fixes graphical corruption that could cause character models to stretch or disappear, alongside a bug that prevented music from resuming after loading.

The port is available through GitHub, with packages for Knulli and PortMaster. Neither includes copyrighted game assets, so users must provide their own original Xbox game data.

Although the project remains experimental, the latest updates bring online multiplayer, broader firmware compatibility and substantial performance improvements to a compact retro gaming handheld without conventional Xbox emulation.