Thanks for this @adinwalls! been hoping for something like this. Look like for the screen dimming you can do input controls -> virtual gamepad on the drop down -> gear icon -> then configure your gamepad to cursor keys, z, x, enter key. screen stays bright and you can turn off touchscreen controls.
Thank you. I followed your tutorial and it worked exactly the same way. I love Pico-8 and it is a joy to now be able to play it on my Ayn Odin. The fact that it also has splore makes it better than other solutions including the Retroarch core and the android app P8GO (which was giving me weird issues like buttons not being detected and pressing the D pad causing the screen to become brighter). Didn't experience the D pad issue you mention on this video, D pad works as intended on my device and no screen dimming.
Thanks for this guide. This works awesome on the RP3+ as well, I just installed it using this guide. This is so much better than trying to play pico8 on retroarch. Also, I am not sure if it was a winlator update, a Pico8 update or just it being different hardware but for my RP3+ the d-pad works just fine.
UPDATE: There have been some small changes to this setup, so check out my up to date written guide: www.adinwalls.com/2024/03/25/pico8-on-the-retroid-pocket-4-pro-android/
Thanks for that. I got it up and running on the Odin 2, with no D-Pad issues happily. The sound could be better, but I'll play with the settings and see if I can improve it at all.
I tried this suggestion after having some slowdown, For me that was a bit blurry so I doubled your suggestion to 256x256 and it seems to be running well on my rp3+.
I was seriously ready to bang my head against a wall trying to get pico8 to run on retroarch with outdated guides. This is really quite nice. Thank you so much! Works great and I'm very much enjoying running pico8!
Hey this workaround makes the upcoming ZPG Unicorn much more attractive! As for the dpad, I vaguely remember being able to map controls through winlator
Nice guide, I made this work months ago to finally be able to play Pico-8 on android. But this is not running native, it's a windows emulator, that's why you download the windows .exe :)
Is it supposed to work on a Retroid pocket 4 non pro? When I try it starts up the container for a while and then just stops like it crashed or something
This worked great for me. Dpad worked fine on my rg405m. Launching from the shortcut seems like pico 8 takes your physical controls as a controller so it might be something you need to configure on your device
Just tried this on the Quest 3 and Winlator just crashes when I launch PICO-8. 😔 I didn't mess around the container configuration though, entirely possible its something that can be fixed.
Based on your upload date, I’m guessing it’s incompatible on new Winlators? I’m on 7 and I get a black screen when I run the shortcut. Gonna try 5(on RP3+)to see if it has your identical options available. Let me know which version if it is older than 5.0, the image guide 404’d on your website. I made it to the end but it won’t load the open screen of pico 8 so far. New Winlator doesn’t have the precise options of Turnip+Zink or LLVMpipe. I’m guessing I need the older winlator? I’m going to play around with settings until I get a combination that works with your advice. Or maybe I should uninstall and start over on the older winlator?
Hey man I know there was a big update since this video. I know RetroGameCorps did a video recently with some new features like the dpad is now mapped easily.
@@adinwalls fixed it! Thanks. I did some basic brain stuff, figured you’d use the one most recent from when your video came out, 5.0 released just a few weeks before your video was posted all versions above came after your video. That’s the one, now I’m living the good life on pico-8 and an added bonus, I can play a few pc games that were terrible on App Store/google play or N64 ports. Added bonus for anyone out there, the lower the res you set in winlator, the more screen space you can squeeze on the “convert to full screen option” so now I’m playing all the pico-8’s at a smooth 16:9 or 4:3 with minimal or zero black bars on the corners with limited to zero warping effects. Feels so good. Most pico-8 instructions elsewhere were “it’s easy just invent the entire universe” but yours worked once I figured out which winlator you used. I’m playing pc RTS games on my retroid pocket, and I can even map a tolerable Bluetooth controller setup. Going on a long hike and camping trip soon, I can’t wait to casually fry up some fish at the campfire, watch a movie on the phone and play some strategy games. World’s cheapest most compact “glamping” (glamping = practical show off camping slang) adventure awaits! Crazy how much a retroid pocket can do if you put in the time and find the proper succinct instructions.
Hey there, I just updated the written guide because I am setting up the RG Cube and because of your comment! I realised that not a lot changed from the older version. I think your install wasn’t working due to a graphics driver setting. Simply change that driver and you should be good to go. And yes, I read yesterday that 640x640 fills the cube’s 720x720 screen. I think it has something to with pixel ratios. You can also brute force it and just increase the resolution until it fills the screen.
@@adinwalls I can’t be sure if I’m happier I finally have a working pico 8, or that I casually tried some dead software leftover on my handheld from another winlator branch and it worked on the dedicated pico 8 version 5.0 of winlator. What a great bonus.
Bro mine just loads and says "type help for help". Can't press enter on my keyboard or at least it does nothing. I do not load into that same menu as you do.
@adinwalls pico8. It loads the lexaloffle hub, but I o ly get the acreen where it says type help for help. Which when I do and press enter, nothing happens. Escape takes me to the red screen where you can enter script, but the -splore at the end of that line in desktop editing does nothing for when I open the shortcut from the desktoo
Great stuff, but definitely not running natively. Winlator is using WINE to provide the Windows API to the Pico binary. WINE is not an emulator as such, but nor can this be said to be running directly under pure Android.
This one was a banger man, this is super cool :) I hope the DPAD gets figured out, once it does it will be amazing to add to my Odin 2! I wonder what other things are possible to add with winlator?
Your method didn't work for me. But Retro Games Corps method of going into the shortcut settings in Winlator, Advanced/Exec Arguments and putting -splore there, worked for me.
Sorry about that. I know there have been updates but I tried my tutorial the other day and everything still worked. Are you sure you didn't miss a step. Also what device were you using.
@@adinwalls well my enter button on my keyboard (Gboard) does not work when in pico8 for some reason. It just dims the whole screen a tiny bit once and then does nothing
@adinwalls I know that. I used your guide to play the other 15% if carts that DONT work in Fake08. I.e. praxis fighter, cosmic collision, and a bunch of others I wanna play. But for some reason, my winlator doesn't work like yours does.
Thanks. Been trying to get this to work on my phone for a while. But i still can't get it to work. It completely ignores my -splore addition. It just boosts up Pico without going to the splore feature
Fixed - Tried to run it directly from the desktop shortcut🙈 Now i just need to stretch it all the way out to the top and bottom of the screen on my Retroid pocket 2s, like it does on my phone
Made it work! Thanks! This would be perfect if we could also play our offline downloaded carts from the main site but couldn't find any directory which I can point to look unlike the one implemented on mm+
Thanks, I have changed my Rp2s in Pico 8 machine using your guide. On Winlator 6 D-pad works fine. I hope that this will be enough to avoid RGB30 purchasing but man this 4" 1:1 screen looks amazing. Something deep inside me continuously whisper: buy me 😂 I wish that Pico 8 will be natively supported on Android some day.
Sorry this very well may be a dumb question but I’m following the guide on my Retroid and getting stuck because I don’t have a keyboard or mouse connected I suppose. Anyway I have a Mac that I’m hoping I could use to manage the files and follow the guide and load onto my Retroid. Is that possible?
Thanks for the vid Adin, being able to run the Windows client of PICO-8 on Winlator is awesome! Makes me think, what other PC games and programs can we get running on these Android devices? 😃 Since PICO-8 has a Linux client too, I wonder if you can use that on Android handhelds? Android is technically a flavor of Linux, so maybe it'll run better? *Box64droid* is basically Winlator for Linux programs, might work with PICO-8, and circumvent the d-pad issue... Another thought: getting old PC games to run on Android via these PC emulation apps -- pre-2005 games with controller (DirectInput) support aren't common, but they exist, and they might be lightweight enough. Maybe some 'modern' indies are also lightweight enough too... 😄
@@adinwalls That's not what I mean, sorry if I worded my ideas badly. What I meant is, I'm wondering if it's possible to run _non-ported_ PC games on Android, using Winlator and Box64droid. Example: _Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004_ , that's obviously not getting an Android port, and it was never released on consoles either. Winlator might be able to get this game running on Android!
Thanks for putting this info out there! I tried doing this myself on winlater and got stuck trying to launch pico on the desktop. It said “type help for help” so I just gave up. Now I can launch splore pretty seamlessly vs. playing on a browser.. is there a way to play the carts offline on android? I can use the pico 8 retroarch core for my Linux handheld but i can’t run my carts on android using the same technique. Your thoughts?
@@adinwalls So I figured out that retroarch (AArch64) won’t work even with the correct core. so I downloaded the stable retroarch (1.17.0) and it worked with the retro 8 core. Now I’m trying to figure out why daijisho or es-de isn’t picking up my core. I’m wondering if I can’t have 2 versions of retroarch downloaded at the same time
Finally popped Winlator on my AyaNeo Pocket Air to mess with Pico8. Crazy thing is, it’s a Mali GPU. So I selected the universal GPU driver. Sound and functionality was good. It no video. Switched to to Turnip (adreno) driver and it jumped into life. But it shouldn’t have. Which is great but Android really sucks for things like this.
@@adinwallsTrue. But seeing as you recorded this using an RP4 which is also Mali and you also used Turnip, then you saved me time faffing with other avenues to stumble down. So cheers for that!
@@adinwalls it is not but using winlator, doing a container, and using a emulator, to Run a emulator, is a bit weird. To BE honest love Ark OS and Jel OS native builds. But yes wish Lexaloffle build android Emulator
Thanks for that 👍But, ummm...what's the point of using a Windows emulator to play pixelated indie retro-like games? The whole point of this device is retro games, and I bet many of them have better gameplay than the games in this Pico8, with better screen support, too. If you go to the trouble of installing a Windows emulator on this thing, try to run Windows games on it, like Fallout: NV or something 😃 But again, thanks for that!
@@adinwallsIn that case, how about using pico-8 in Retroarch instead of Windows? Shown here: th-cam.com/video/Lub1CF_Z4O8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZmvOSYJspRnVI-6z&t=583 Maybe it offers better support or something, not sure
Happy you are getting sponsers. You deserve it. Make that South African bank!
Thanks for this @adinwalls! been hoping for something like this. Look like for the screen dimming you can do input controls -> virtual gamepad on the drop down -> gear icon -> then configure your gamepad to cursor keys, z, x, enter key. screen stays bright and you can turn off touchscreen controls.
Cool thanks for that note
Thank you. I followed your tutorial and it worked exactly the same way. I love Pico-8 and it is a joy to now be able to play it on my Ayn Odin. The fact that it also has splore makes it better than other solutions including the Retroarch core and the android app P8GO (which was giving me weird issues like buttons not being detected and pressing the D pad causing the screen to become brighter). Didn't experience the D pad issue you mention on this video, D pad works as intended on my device and no screen dimming.
Thanks for doing this!
I'll be coming back to this one.
Please do!
Thanks for this guide. This works awesome on the RP3+ as well, I just installed it using this guide. This is so much better than trying to play pico8 on retroarch. Also, I am not sure if it was a winlator update, a Pico8 update or just it being different hardware but for my RP3+ the d-pad works just fine.
Yes it’s relevant to any Android device.
Great guide. I’m literally sitting here editing a video about the same thing. I think I’ll wait a while to post it.
UPDATE: There have been some small changes to this setup, so check out my up to date written guide: www.adinwalls.com/2024/03/25/pico8-on-the-retroid-pocket-4-pro-android/
Where did it say how
to fix the d pad? All it says is that it works.
This would work on a non-pro retroid pocket too?
Whoa! Been waiting for this!
Cool!
WOW! I'm only 2 days into the retro game hobby and now I have Pico-8 on my system---THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool!
Thanks for that. I got it up and running on the Odin 2, with no D-Pad issues happily. The sound could be better, but I'll play with the settings and see if I can improve it at all.
Good to hear
I just used Fake-08 in RetroArch and it runs great on my RP4P.
Great guide but would change one setting, set the resolution to custom 128x128. Masive performance boost.
I tried this suggestion after having some slowdown, For me that was a bit blurry so I doubled your suggestion to 256x256 and it seems to be running well on my rp3+.
I was seriously ready to bang my head against a wall trying to get pico8 to run on retroarch with outdated guides. This is really quite nice. Thank you so much! Works great and I'm very much enjoying running pico8!
I’m so glad! Thank you
Hell yeah, pico-8! =D I was just lamenting the other day that there is no Pico-8 on Android, but you might've solved my problem!
I aim to please ! 😂
I remember that convo! That's why I tagged you in my server on this share! 💚(Commenting to help the algorithm!)
Hehe team… er… content creation promotion?!
@@adinwalls team retro handhelds hoarders anonymous
Thank you, Adin!
Hey man now worries thanks for checking it out
Hey this workaround makes the upcoming ZPG Unicorn much more attractive! As for the dpad, I vaguely remember being able to map controls through winlator
Hey man yes there is mapping but I couldn’t get it working
Nice guide, I made this work months ago to finally be able to play Pico-8 on android. But this is not running native, it's a windows emulator, that's why you download the windows .exe :)
Did you also use Winlator or is there another way to do it?
@@cracklecracklemf8224 there's an app called infinity which is ok for most games...
Is it supposed to work on a Retroid pocket 4 non pro? When I try it starts up the container for a while and then just stops like it crashed or something
@liamconverse8950 it should work, maybe make sure you never missed a step
@@adinwalls Oh yeah I was trying the lastest version of Winlator 8.1, in the video you used version 5 which doesn't crash on start up
This worked great for me. Dpad worked fine on my rg405m. Launching from the shortcut seems like pico 8 takes your physical controls as a controller so it might be something you need to configure on your device
Thanks for sharing
Just tried this on the Quest 3 and Winlator just crashes when I launch PICO-8. 😔 I didn't mess around the container configuration though, entirely possible its something that can be fixed.
Try selecting different cpu cores and a different graphics driver.
Wow, that is a really great option. For me, no D-pad would be a deal breaker, but I bet someone will figure that out pretty soon.
Yes I hope so the dpad thing does suck
Yup no matter what I do, I cannot get it to load anything but the command line hub. Spore will not work.
Maybe just start from scratch. There must be a step you missed. Some of these steps seem insignificant but are critical to it working.
anyway how can i add my own Pico8 carts to winlator?
Keep up the great work aidin
Thank you
Can you make a video on how to add pc games to winlater and set it up?
Based on your upload date, I’m guessing it’s incompatible on new Winlators? I’m on 7 and I get a black screen when I run the shortcut. Gonna try 5(on RP3+)to see if it has your identical options available. Let me know which version if it is older than 5.0, the image guide 404’d on your website.
I made it to the end but it won’t load the open screen of pico 8 so far. New Winlator doesn’t have the precise options of Turnip+Zink or LLVMpipe. I’m guessing I need the older winlator?
I’m going to play around with settings until I get a combination that works with your advice. Or maybe I should uninstall and start over on the older winlator?
Hey man I know there was a big update since this video. I know RetroGameCorps did a video recently with some new features like the dpad is now mapped easily.
@@adinwalls fixed it! Thanks. I did some basic brain stuff, figured you’d use the one most recent from when your video came out, 5.0 released just a few weeks before your video was posted all versions above came after your video. That’s the one, now I’m living the good life on pico-8 and an added bonus, I can play a few pc games that were terrible on App Store/google play or N64 ports.
Added bonus for anyone out there, the lower the res you set in winlator, the more screen space you can squeeze on the “convert to full screen option” so now I’m playing all the pico-8’s at a smooth 16:9 or 4:3 with minimal or zero black bars on the corners with limited to zero warping effects. Feels so good.
Most pico-8 instructions elsewhere were “it’s easy just invent the entire universe” but yours worked once I figured out which winlator you used. I’m playing pc RTS games on my retroid pocket, and I can even map a tolerable Bluetooth controller setup. Going on a long hike and camping trip soon, I can’t wait to casually fry up some fish at the campfire, watch a movie on the phone and play some strategy games. World’s cheapest most compact “glamping” (glamping = practical show off camping slang) adventure awaits! Crazy how much a retroid pocket can do if you put in the time and find the proper succinct instructions.
Hey there, I just updated the written guide because I am setting up the RG Cube and because of your comment! I realised that not a lot changed from the older version. I think your install wasn’t working due to a graphics driver setting. Simply change that driver and you should be good to go. And yes, I read yesterday that 640x640 fills the cube’s 720x720 screen. I think it has something to with pixel ratios. You can also brute force it and just increase the resolution until it fills the screen.
@@adinwalls I can’t be sure if I’m happier I finally have a working pico 8, or that I casually tried some dead software leftover on my handheld from another winlator branch and it worked on the dedicated pico 8 version 5.0 of winlator. What a great bonus.
Bro mine just loads and says "type help for help". Can't press enter on my keyboard or at least it does nothing.
I do not load into that same menu as you do.
Are you talking about Pico8 or the actual Android installation on the device.
@adinwalls pico8. It loads the lexaloffle hub, but I o ly get the acreen where it says type help for help. Which when I do and press enter, nothing happens. Escape takes me to the red screen where you can enter script, but the -splore at the end of that line in desktop editing does nothing for when I open the shortcut from the desktoo
Great stuff, but definitely not running natively.
Winlator is using WINE to provide the Windows API to the Pico binary. WINE is not an emulator as such, but nor can this be said to be running directly under pure Android.
This one was a banger man, this is super cool :)
I hope the DPAD gets figured out, once it does it will be amazing to add to my Odin 2!
I wonder what other things are possible to add with winlator?
I think you can try any .exe file
Your method didn't work for me. But Retro Games Corps method of going into the shortcut settings in Winlator, Advanced/Exec Arguments and putting -splore there, worked for me.
Sorry about that. I know there have been updates but I tried my tutorial the other day and everything still worked. Are you sure you didn't miss a step. Also what device were you using.
I want to install the sims 2 is posible with this app? I see an app called exagear I think, and is the same.
What about all of my 1500 cartridges i have in my SD card? Can i not play those with this?
Yes you can
@@adinwalls well my enter button on my keyboard (Gboard) does not work when in pico8 for some reason. It just dims the whole screen a tiny bit once and then does nothing
@-Airwalk1616- oh sorry I misunderstood the question. Your carts can be played using Fake08 in RetroArch.
@adinwalls I know that. I used your guide to play the other 15% if carts that DONT work in Fake08. I.e. praxis fighter, cosmic collision, and a bunch of others I wanna play. But for some reason, my winlator doesn't work like yours does.
Can it run offline?
Not with this method
@@adinwalls is there a method that can?
I just noticed today that the native app on my RGB30 runs offline. So this might too. But haven’t had a chance to test it.
@@adinwalls any chance it can run offline on a retroid pocket 2s?
I can confirm it works offline after you updated "featured" and the other options and play the carts on RP2s
Isn't there an option for tate mode? Like on the 35xxH
Is there a way to now play offline games by downloading the carts? Or can this only work with splore?
You can use the Fake08 emulator for that.
@@adinwalls bummer, the hit rate on fake08 is pretty bad in terms of game compatibility
Thank you for this, Adin.
No worries thanks for watching
Thanks. Been trying to get this to work on my phone for a while.
But i still can't get it to work. It completely ignores my -splore addition. It just boosts up Pico without going to the splore feature
Fixed - Tried to run it directly from the desktop shortcut🙈
Now i just need to stretch it all the way out to the top and bottom of the screen on my Retroid pocket 2s, like it does on my phone
@@clausgedved8728set the screen size as 4:3 1024x768 It works on my 2s, -splore also works fine. Newest Winlator 6.
No es mejor usar retroarch y ya está con el core de Fake8?
That's definitely an option. I just prefer using it natively.
great guide. thanks
This is great! So far, I've been playing only via fake08 emulator in RA. It'd be awesome if this works too with RP2S
Hey man I think it will.
Made it work! Thanks! This would be perfect if we could also play our offline downloaded carts from the main site but couldn't find any directory which I can point to look unlike the one implemented on mm+
Thanks, I have changed my Rp2s in Pico 8 machine using your guide. On Winlator 6 D-pad works fine. I hope that this will be enough to avoid RGB30 purchasing but man this 4" 1:1 screen looks amazing. Something deep inside me continuously whisper: buy me 😂 I wish that Pico 8 will be natively supported on Android some day.
Haha then don’t watch my video today….
I’m sure an APK is around the corner
Sorry this very well may be a dumb question but I’m following the guide on my Retroid and getting stuck because I don’t have a keyboard or mouse connected I suppose. Anyway I have a Mac that I’m hoping I could use to manage the files and follow the guide and load onto my Retroid. Is that possible?
Should be fine to load files with a mac
I am able to play only Celeste. Everything else says unable to load bbs. What do I do?
Just make sure your WiFi is connected. It may just take a few tries.
Was that a TechDweeb nod at the end? =D
At the end? I don’t think so. I get comments that my videos end suddenly so I was trying something different 😊
@@adinwalls haha. I liked the abrupt endings; I find them really charming.
@crystal_is_cozy okay cool. Yes you have to take the criticism on TH-cam with a grain of salt I guess
Thanks for the vid Adin, being able to run the Windows client of PICO-8 on Winlator is awesome! Makes me think, what other PC games and programs can we get running on these Android devices? 😃
Since PICO-8 has a Linux client too, I wonder if you can use that on Android handhelds? Android is technically a flavor of Linux, so maybe it'll run better? *Box64droid* is basically Winlator for Linux programs, might work with PICO-8, and circumvent the d-pad issue...
Another thought: getting old PC games to run on Android via these PC emulation apps -- pre-2005 games with controller (DirectInput) support aren't common, but they exist, and they might be lightweight enough. Maybe some 'modern' indies are also lightweight enough too... 😄
Yes I think there are already doing PC ports for Android.
@@adinwalls That's not what I mean, sorry if I worded my ideas badly. What I meant is, I'm wondering if it's possible to run _non-ported_ PC games on Android, using Winlator and Box64droid.
Example: _Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004_ , that's obviously not getting an Android port, and it was never released on consoles either. Winlator might be able to get this game running on Android!
@relsre oh right! I guess it just depends on the processing power needed but it’s worth exploring.
@@adinwalls Yep! I wonder how well devices like the RP4P and RG556 will do on these tasks.
For some reason I like to be called a Nerd 😁🤘🏾
it’s a badge of honour!
This is an Android exclusive process right?
Correct
bro thanks so much i have a rp4 and i want to play celeste
Awesome.
Thanks for putting this info out there! I tried doing this myself on winlater and got stuck trying to launch pico on the desktop. It said “type help for help” so I just gave up. Now I can launch splore pretty seamlessly vs. playing on a browser.. is there a way to play the carts offline on android? I can use the pico 8 retroarch core for my Linux handheld but i can’t run my carts on android using the same technique. Your thoughts?
I looked at this in my setup guide. The cart setup does work you just need to choose the correct emulator.
@@adinwalls So I figured out that retroarch (AArch64) won’t work even with the correct core. so I downloaded the stable retroarch (1.17.0) and it worked with the retro 8 core. Now I’m trying to figure out why daijisho or es-de isn’t picking up my core. I’m wondering if I can’t have 2 versions of retroarch downloaded at the same time
Where my over 35 nerds at?
Do you have to purchase it or is there a free version 😅
lol no you have to purchase it. All the games within the app are free
Finally popped Winlator on my AyaNeo Pocket Air to mess with Pico8. Crazy thing is, it’s a Mali GPU. So I selected the universal GPU driver. Sound and functionality was good. It no video. Switched to to Turnip (adreno) driver and it jumped into life. But it shouldn’t have. Which is great but Android really sucks for things like this.
Oh that's weird. But it can be a trial and error sort of thing.
@@adinwallsTrue. But seeing as you recorded this using an RP4 which is also Mali and you also used Turnip, then you saved me time faffing with other avenues to stumble down. So cheers for that!
There is p8 player apk, it is emulator for android
Yes but I didn't find it to be very good
@@adinwalls it is not but using winlator, doing a container, and using a emulator, to Run a emulator, is a bit weird. To BE honest love Ark OS and Jel OS native builds. But yes wish Lexaloffle build android Emulator
You could actually use retroarch 32 and fake8 to play pico 8.
Yes, this was an excercise to get the Pico8 fantasy console running.
yeah you can, but you only be able to play the old P8 games properly, because all (not necessarily) new games won't run/will run with bugs
Thanks for that 👍But, ummm...what's the point of using a Windows emulator to play pixelated indie retro-like games? The whole point of this device is retro games, and I bet many of them have better gameplay than the games in this Pico8, with better screen support, too. If you go to the trouble of installing a Windows emulator on this thing, try to run Windows games on it, like Fallout: NV or something 😃 But again, thanks for that!
Because of the pico8 awesomeness
@@adinwallsIn that case, how about using pico-8 in Retroarch instead of Windows? Shown here: th-cam.com/video/Lub1CF_Z4O8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZmvOSYJspRnVI-6z&t=583
Maybe it offers better support or something, not sure
@megaloth1955 the pint of this is to enable the Splore interface rather than running carts from RetroArch