Heres how to do it.
What Is RetroArch?
Its for people who want to use specific emulators for specific games.
Its for people who want to set up custom visual configs for every game.
Step One: Download RetroArch
Before you do anything, you gotta download RetroArch.
Just select your operating system and download the software inside the folder.
Once thats complete, unzip the file.
But its good to double-check.
When you first open up RetroArch, youll see a pretty simple interface with a lot of nonsense words.
(you could press Z to go back a menu.)
it’s possible for you to also use your controller, if it works out of the box.
Scroll down to Input and press X to select it.
Scroll down to User 1 Bind All and press X to select that.
Youll get a graphic overlay to set up your controller.
Pick up your controller and follow the on-screen prompts.
As youd expect, the d-pad will move you around the menu screen as well.
While youre in the Input menu, its worth scrolling up to the Menu Toggle Gamepad Combo option.
Head to options > Video.
Here, youll find atonof options, mostly for stuff that doesnt matter right now.
you’re free to tweak more later if you want.
In RetroArch, emulators are referred to as cores.
Here, youll see a long list of various emulators.
RetroArch does not come with any emulators initially, so youll need to download the ones youll use.
Scroll to one on the list, and press X to select and download it.
To start, I recommend grabbing a couple different ones for each console you want to emulate.
That way, you’re free to choose which emulator a game uses on a per-game basis.
Some emulators are better with certain games than others.
To do so, just go for the Update [item] option and RetroArch will do the rest.
Update Autoconfig Profiles: This is the automatic controller configuration file.
Select this update if your controller doesnt seem to work.
Update Cheats: As the name implies, this downloads all the various cheat files available for games.
Update Overlays: Overlays are an optional images that sit over the game screen.
Once you run those updates, you’ve got the option to set up your emulators.
But first, you should probably tell RetroArch where those games are located.
Youll also likely want to play around with a couple of parameters before you load you first game.
This makes the next steps a little easier.
If you have your ROMs grouped in folders by console, youll need to scan each folder separately.
With that, RetroArch will automatically add your ROMs to the system.
Just press right or left to cycle through them.
before you dive in, I recommend going to controls > Configuration and set Configuration Per-Core to On.
This allows you to customize prefs on a per-emulator basis instead of a universal setting for everything.
Pick the game you want to play.
opt for emulator you want to use.
Select Start Content to start the game.
If all goes well, your game should start up.
Now lets take a quick look at how to get into the in-game options.
Tap the gamepad combo you set up in Step Two (mines R3+L3).
This pulls up the RetroArch in-game menu.
it’s possible for you to load up your game in the future by simply selecting Load State.
Now you wont have to try and beat Battletoads in one sitting.
If this all sounds a bit cumbersome, dont worry.
Once you get past the initial setup process, RetroArch does everything else automatically.
While this guide will get you up and running, weve barely scratched the surface of RetroArch here.
There are countless other advanced menu items and parameters to dig into if you want.
