This video reminds me of one of those infomercials where the actor opens the cupboard and all the pots come falling out and he trips all over everything.
RetroArch genuinely has the worst UX in any program I have ever attempted to use. The fact that people defend it instead of, I dunno, trying to fix it and make it even remotely usable, is amazing to me. And its so much worse on PC imo.
See this is why I shared this, so many have issues setting it up even remotely properly that standalone emulators are the only way I suggest emulating anything. Sure it would be cool if there was a more up front method like Retroarch but what it lacks is ease of use.
there should always be standalone emulators available, Retro arch is basically using those stand alone emulators' "core" functions when downloading 'Cores' Even when old emulators are no longer supported, they can still be found in places like Internet Archive.
On a full desktop with multiple controllers from different vendors, standalones are a nightmare to map seamlessly. Most likely something will go wrong and you'll have to remap it later on. So I use Retroarch mostly.
I never experience this with Android or even my Rog Ally which most of my non retro emulators are standalone. I think the reason the controller connection might happen is due to different controllers being attached which I've experienced myself. I don't not like or know how to use Retroarch either, it's just clunky for most new people so the easy to use Android emulators are the best in my opinion.
I like both standalone and retroarch for different reasons. But I definitely understand the frustration of trying to figure out retroarch. It is not user friendly in my opinion but is nice when used with a front-end that does most of the work for you.
Says "The search doesn't work" after typing "Gameboy" instead of "Game Boy". Even never having seen Retroarch on Android, I'd bet that searching for "SNES" and "Super" both bring up Super Nintendo cores, and that "Game" would have found the cores he wanted. "Gameboy" doesn't return anything because that's not a thing. Could they potentially add typo fuzzy searching? Maybe, but that's not where the best time is going to be spent when we're talking about emulator development.
I'm not sure what you're getting at as the search is not even a fraction of why I don't recommend Retroarch over EASY TO USE standalone emulators. The search however is terrible, yes Game Boy is 2 words but if you search Gameboy on Google or the Google Play store I bet you'll find anything related to Game Boy. I'm also nearing 35 so I know what I'm looking for in regards to searching for this but this video is showing/proving what others tend to do with Retroarch because it's not user friendly or easy to understand. I could have gone all day about this but I'd rather game then spend hours tinkering when apps like GBC.emu work right out the box. Where Retroarch you need to go online, look for "how do I play games with Retroarch?", then someone mentions CORE you're like "oh here's the section for cores but what do I do now? Download OR Load?" now 10-15 minutes has past. Now I need to search again "which core is best for Game Boy on Retroarch for my device?" alright let me look for this one let's Search for this one because there's a lot here. "Alright I found it, now how do I actually load and play my games?" another 10-15 minutes past searching online for an answer. "Okay now I figured that out, god the screen looks bad how do I edit stuff like resolution/gamepads etc?" there goes more time. Where stand alone emulator, GooglePlay Search Gameboy Emulator. Done pick one and install, now select open content play your frigging game no tinkering needed unless you have a wireless controller then you might need to set it up EASILY. But you don't need to search online for hours figuring out how to use it because it just works. BuhByee!
I used to think the same until one day they taught me how to use it correctly, optimize retroarch, choose good cores that in the end are the same loose emulators, and retroarchivement which was what made me fall totally in love with retroarch, in addition to the ease of multiplatform I can use the same configurations on my PC, PsVita, Switch and now on a retroemulator console, I understand that the interface and the multiple options are terrible but by learning one falls in love with the system
Daijisho has Retro Achievements built into it, it's not a matter of how to use Retroarch "it's an absolute pain to use Retroarch" especially for beginners. I don't hate the tool however there are so many that come to me and ask this question because "Russ from RGC always recommends it" is what they say and I flipping despise the tool for simplicity. Stand alone emulator process is so easy, slap a front end on your device like Daijisho and be on your way to playing games. Retroarch you need to spend way too much time figuring out where the cores are, what cores to use, how to find your games, setup your buttons, figure out how to configure your video settings, hope the config saves, then MAYBE play your game.. Oh wait don't forget to load your core first that's why you can't play the game. Then if you want to slap a front end on your device like Daijisho you run into errors or leaks in the memory of Retroarch freezing because there's a URI error hanging in the background that the end user doesn't know about.
@@DNAMobileGaming if Front end like daijisho already installed, why do we need to load core? just hit play and it will run with core associated with the content. no need for that hassle. Unless you dont have Front End installed then all you have to load the content and after that it will show you related core that can run your content and that's it, no need for all that you said.
@BuriBuriZ Daijisho and ESDE always have issues as you still have to navigate to Retroarch to setup/download the core. I personally never said I have issues with Retroarch either I just don't recommend it because it's easier to use standalone. Daijisho also scrapes your packages too see what apps/emulators you have on your device as well so if you have all these standalone apps installed it will pick the package name correctly.
@@DNAMobileGamingI mean you either download retroarch cores or standalone emulators it's the same thing I'd argue downloading retroarch cores is easier because it's all together in a list and the list isn't even that big
@@dm.3145 so tell me this, why do so many people have issues with it? I personally know how to setup it up because of hours wasted tinkering. That's the thing, hours of tinkering rather than actually gaming? I'd rather game. The stand alone emulators are literally user friendly and right in your face about how to set them up. I don't hate one or the other but prefer stand alone because they are easier to setup.
I often tell people new to Emulation to start off with Retro Arch and get them to set to XMB (PS3 really) as this interface is more relatable to modern day consoles.
Yeah the PS3 layout helps a bit but a lot still get confused by a lot of the UI. Sure it's like anything you have to learn it but honestly the .emu Applications are very much download, install, play then tweak later if you want. Where Retroarch is download, install, search for "whatever a core is", which core do I choose, research which core to use, find where game paths are, figure out how to load games, set game path for core, load core, hope it works, then tweak later.
Yeah I agree, sure you should watch a guide here and there for the Robert Broglia Emulators which do use a lot of the cores that Retroarch does, however once you understand one of their UI layouts it's pretty simple to understand the rest. I hope they implement multiplayer into GB/GBC/GBA soon though as for now I still use MyOldBoy/MyBoy for MP..
Retroarch is a centralized UI for many standalone emulators (cores). It's all the good emulators for every system all in one application. Lakka is the Linux OS version of Retroarch. No windows needed. Maximizes your CPU and RAM resources, compared to installing Retroarch on top of Windows. Great for older computers with limited power. Makes old laptops into gaming kiosks. 😅💻🎮
Well for PC it's actually fine Android I have never liked Retroarch for these main reasons as I did have way more reasons and could have turned this into a longer video. I don't know what it is about the UI on Android or how the configurations save but I waste more time trying to do this and with a front end like Daijisho standalone emulators always win. Besides most of the best standalone emulators are using the same best cores that Retroarch does as well.
Retroarch works well i. Conjunction with a front end. It makes it easy to set up universal settings for a large portion of your systems. Things like crt shaders controls are auto mapped and you can set up hot keys for save states And quitting straight back to your front-end. All those things you struggle with you don't need to touch like importing your library because the front end has taken care of that. Figuring out the cores to download? There two easy options for you. Just download all the cores for the systems you have or within your front end it will likely only have a couple of core options to pic so just make sure you have those particular options downloaded. This may sound like alot to do but its really not and once you have this set up you will have an actually nice to look at interface than has nice artwork perhaps even vedio clips of your games and you wont even have to look at retro arch. You can have it set up so it save states when you exit and auto loads that stat when you play it again as well. It makes using your device like actually using a console. Id recommend using retro arch up until ps1 because then stand alon emulators have actal benefits like enhancements and performance etc. Duckstatoin for ps1 for example n64 mupan64 though the parallel core in retroarch is actually very good. Redream for Dreamcast dolphin for GameCube and neather sx2 for ps2 Now for eas of use on ps1 if you use psxrearmed core as you don't need a bios
See Standalone goes like this, Download front end Daijisho, install standalone emulator that can be searched on Google Play based on key terms of Gameboy Emulator for example. Download platform for Gameboy, tell Daijisho "hey these are where my roms are" select rom and play. All of the .emu emulators do everything you've stated but the UI of those emulators are amazing and easy to use for a lot of people that have never touched emulation. You don't need to tweak anything technically but if you need to change video settings, just select video in listview. I use Retroarch on other platforms like my 3DS/PS4 and I have used it for years, but the reason I don't recommend it is because of ease of use not because I don't think it's good. Also surprised that you don't need a bios for psxrearmed, very risky mind you Daijisho has the DS Bios staring right at you when you look at the files. Mind you bios and all that fun jazz has always been a grey area, I feel like it's the fault of the company for not making their devices able to be reverse engineered.
Retroarch is for convenience of having multiple emulators in one app BUT its User Interface is Satanic, it overwhelms you with so many options. Command Prompt is more user friendly than Retroarch's UI and that's saying something.
Glad to see more people that have the same opinion, I don't hate the idea but honestly takes seconds to setup a standalone rather than tinkering for hours trying to setup Retroarch lol.
It's funny that so many people still despise RetroArch. As someone who has been using it for 10 years plus it's a lifesaver. My first tip is to get the RetroArch bios pack that way every core works as intended. In the case of Android GBA I still prefer RetroArch. Here's a tip there's one core that runs all three Gameboy systems (mGBA). When it comes to frontend support it's great too. For PC I use Retrobat and for Android Arc Browser. Retrobat integrates into the install. Arc Browser supports all of the cores and runs smoothly on my Odin 2 pro. I have 37 systems and RetroArch runs 28 of them
It's the UI that bugs people a lot I know you can change the way it looks too but there has been way too many cases of configs not saving and that too bugs me. Plus if setup properly, a simple front end acts just the same as setting up each standalone emulator does in my opinion. I use Daijisho for Android, configure every emulator the way I like it, tell Daijisho where my games are and just select a game and play. That's another issue that some have, they try to use Retroarch for their backend with Daijisho for example and get the infamous black screen. Which that is just because they didn't setup their cores but Daijisho doesn't know which core generally by default to look for so Rertroarch just hangs there. I started using Retroarch myself about a decade ago. To this day I still choose standalone because I can literally just install the app/emulator select a game and play without needing to do anything else. This is why I finally released this video as so many have asked this question over the past year now and finally answered it lol.
There is emulation station for android and is far better than any other frontended for android with many many themes which change completely everything.. Arc is dead.
I guess that makes sense for those that use those I still to this day don't and don't understand what they do even though I've been around emulation for nearly 20 years.
@@DNAMobileGaming what don't you understand? Retro achievements? There are basically like playstation trophies that gives you a record of what things you've done in games
@@rorynolan2322 I understand that aspect but all of my lifetime of gaming the achievement of finishing a level, collecting all of the bananas, finding all the Yoshi coins, I never thought I needed a trophy to make me happy. So that's why I ask what does this even do? If you complete every retro achievement do you get a prize from the Retro Achievement society? I just don't see a point in having something else running collecting my data personally.
@@DNAMobileGaming think of them as 'Xbox achievements' made popular during the time of Xbox360. Achievements are noted along with points when ever certain things done in games. It's kind of a throwback to early Arcades and their 'Points' system. Some people feel satisfaction when they get highscores or reach a milestone and its recorded. For most its not a big deal, but for completionists its part of the fun.
Yeah I get that but I never even cared much about those either mind you I did try to complete every achievement on a few games including Fallout 3 but I just don't get it for Retro Games that is all.
Well it's not the fact of being easy to use, what's easier is searching for the app that plays GB/GBC installing it picking your game and playing. Where Retroarch you need to understand what a core even is, then find out which core is best (which yes most GB cores are fine), then try to figure out the clunky UI and hope the configuration you setup actually saves. Then you need to set your file path which will hopefully scrape your games properly and then figure out how to change your button layouts, and then change your button layout for the main UI of Retroarch to suit your needs because that part to this day always confuses me even though I know where to do this. I could have shared so much about this but had this question again the other day so I finally released my reasonings. If you find it easy then awesome use it, but there are a ton that don't find it easy even after watching famous TH-camr RGC share a guide or two about lol
RetroArch is great for the following: PC Engine (NON CD OR SUPER), WONDER SWAN (COLOR), NEO GEO POCKET (COLOR), GB, GBA, GBC, Gamegear, SMS, Genesis, NES, SNES, VirtualBoy. I have had ZERO luck with PC emulation like Commodore, Atari consoles never worked, Coleco also no good, Arcades are hit or miss, they tend to sort a few in the wrong categories. BUT NEVER GOT DOS, SCUMMVM, MSX 1 and 2, SG-1000, ETC to work. EVER... Same with 3DO or Saturn.
@@leecollins5479 It's not. It's confusing for people new to emulation. It's been years but it's still stupid difficult to simply select a rom and press play.
"Then you need to set your file path which will hopefully scrape your games properly" hmm? you put the games in a folder and you scan it? Even if you don't use retroarch you still have to put your games in a folder and you still need to find it?
I've mentioned this a few tmes in comments on your videos, but I'd much rather just use stand alone emulators. It's much easier to flush an emulator if it's no longer being developed or a new, better one comes along. RetroArch is useful for things where there's not a stand alone emulator like O2EM. But if there's a stand alone, I go with that.
@@DNAMobileGaming I've been around. I don't have any Playstation other than the first one, so I've skipped those videos. I have watched the Duo videos and I'm considering getting one towards the end of the year or beginning of the next year. Though, I have been looking at the linux handhelds for one main reason, Portmaster.
I use it for the REWIND and CHEATS function. I have and paid for most Android Standalone Emulators, they're fine. Some have decent cheat implementations. Dolphin and PS2 allow you to use Action Replay ISOs, and that whole system works more flawlessly than I'd expect. The issue, Each Emulator handles cheats differently, and it's annoying. Though, for the more complex emulators, like Saturn, PS1, PSP, Dreamcast, N64, DS, Standalones are where its at. Since the whole hunting down the SPECIFIC BIOS, and putting them in the PRECISE location in Retroarch almost never works and is a pain.
Oh yeah I forgot about the bios nonsense 🙄 at least Duckstation says "hey you got your bios right" so you can then select it and it adds it automatically. Retroarch you need to find the folder it goes into and that part also never made sense to even me. I get the cheats aspect but I really don't use cheats except patches plus all of these standalone have save states for those that want to use them.
It's great on Android with a bluetooth controller. With the Netplay feature you can play any multiplayer game online with strangers. Makes for quick games of Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat while standing in line at your local arcade waiting to play more Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. 😂
It's a Fortress of cores not emulators, the main code on Retroarch just handles the backend of the emulation side and has a front end of a mess to me but hey that's my personal opinion.
I get that the UI is intimidating at first, but I find the comparison a bit disingenuous. Retroarch as a frontend is way simpler to me to set up compared to other front ends were you need to setup the frontend plus each emulator. Each emulator being a core and each system having many core option is a point a agree a bit more, but systems with one clear emulator to chose likely have the same core to chose (mgba itself) As an emulator on android, you scan the files like any emulator, and you don't need to mess with any configuration if you don't want to, just like any emulator. The notion that you need to download the core and chose it once you select the game is the only valid extra step you need to learn to play a game. Everything else is optional as they are in any emulator I find it funny because I got into retroarch because I couldn't figure out MAME and it was more practical to me to have one program instead of many individual emulators
Let me work backwards, you have many emulators technically the moment you download that core. Retorarch is just a front for all the cores which are used in a lot of standalone applications. That's why retorarch takes up so much space because it still has the backend (core) and the cores configs are setup by you when you load it. The UI of Retroarch is just not there even changing it to xmb many times over the years I've used it, I've ran into "I thought I scaled, setup, configured this core already?" but it didn't save even upon exiting. Also when you have 3-5 different cores for one system, any new person isn't going to know that Gambatte is any good they might just see "oh this one says Gameboy so I'll pick the first one" and call it a day. I've personally use MyBoy/MyOldBoy for I'd have to say near 7 years or more and those two standalone emulators are still my go to on Android at least. When it comes to front end, Daijisho does all the work except for setting your scoped storage game paths. Setting these paths in Retorarch always confused me too so I always gave up and just went through Retroarch to pick my game of choice rather then setting a path. That entire section is a mess on Android at least to me. I've spent too many hours trying to figure this out that I'd rather just use a straight forward UI like Daijisho that says pick your game path and doesn't hide this feature. I like hearing what others have to say about this, as this really isn't a hate thing but a why I never recommend Retroarch. Ever since JohnGBC way way back I always chose standalone emulators and even on my 3DS (PSX excluded) I use standalone over Retroarch if I can.
@@DNAMobileGaming Points I will give to you: a list with many uninstalled cores to choose from is confusing, but I'd argue choosing emulator from some systems is also confusing (how many mupen versions are there?), but if you know what emulator you'd use for a system, you likely know what core to use also. And if you intend on playing only a few systems, like gameboy+snes, by all means, getting mgba and whatever is the current best standalone option for snes on android, but once you get tomore systems a frontend is starts making itself valuable and I stand by retroarch. Daijisho and Dig I find very ugly and setting up themes would me my version of learning an additional thing to set it up the way I like it. I might help that I was a longtime user of retroarch on windows, but I also prefer retroarch do launchbox and standalones except for more recent systems (the dolphin core does not compare to the standalone in windows)
@@persechini yeah this isn't really directed at me though I know how to use Retroarch but I just don't use it often because I truly find standalone for the most part easier and clean especially for really new gamers in the emulation scene. I've just had too many issues too with it that I just stick with standalone others may suggest it which is fine if people want to spend a while learning it. I'd just rather select my games and play them and quickly change one main feature which is just scaling the games to look good.
@@DNAMobileGamingIf you're having problems with core settings not saving that's because you're doing it while in a game so those settings only configure to that single game, what you need to do, is do it through the retroarch menu before you get into a game like you have to go and configure each library to use a core once and the scale setting, You set it up on the back before you open a game so that way it saved as a global setting not as a per game setting.. Also it doesn't save it automatically as a per game setting unless you actually save it as a configuration in the submenu when you're in a game like holding start and select or whatever your hotkey is. If you don't save it as a configuration then it doesn't save as a configuration whether that's per game configuration or global configuration
@Zx7o. So here's how Retroarch works in my mind. Load core after Googling which one is best. Configure core while loaded. Load game. When I navigate back into RA the configuration doesn't always save or save at all. This is the problem I face plus the entire UI is just not straight to the point. There should be a basics for beginners and advanced toggle for those that want to mess with things like changing the fps to match your device and so on.
I agree with you 100! I found the RAs UI not user friendly. Maybe for veterans of emulators, but for someone who just wants to play a game and not spend an hour setting up, stand alone emulators have their benefits.
They definitely do, and I know some more powerful emulators like YUzU need some tweaking but the UI is all there and makes sense. If I had to time it, I can probably setup every emulator I play in 15 minute or less except Yuzu.
Retroarch has terrible UI and in my opinion doesn't look nice. I don't care too much about the features usually. I just like playing on a device I always have with me or using a controller of my choice as long as it works. Another thing about retroarch is that some emulators stop updating and just make a core for retroarch instead of updating the standalone app. I use retroarch as a last resort option.
See I'm not the only one, I've even sworn up and down that my configurations had been saved for the core I selected then when I went back into Retroarch later they were gone lol. I could have spent longer on this but I said my peace with the main reasonings.
This video reminds me of one of those infomercials where the actor opens the cupboard and all the pots come falling out and he trips all over everything.
RetroArch genuinely has the worst UX in any program I have ever attempted to use. The fact that people defend it instead of, I dunno, trying to fix it and make it even remotely usable, is amazing to me. And its so much worse on PC imo.
See this is why I shared this, so many have issues setting it up even remotely properly that standalone emulators are the only way I suggest emulating anything. Sure it would be cool if there was a more up front method like Retroarch but what it lacks is ease of use.
I prefer standalone emulators when available, but sadly that's not always the case
there should always be standalone emulators available,
Retro arch is basically using those stand alone emulators' "core" functions when downloading 'Cores'
Even when old emulators are no longer supported, they can still be found in places like Internet Archive.
On a full desktop with multiple controllers from different vendors, standalones are a nightmare to map seamlessly. Most likely something will go wrong and you'll have to remap it later on. So I use Retroarch mostly.
I never experience this with Android or even my Rog Ally which most of my non retro emulators are standalone. I think the reason the controller connection might happen is due to different controllers being attached which I've experienced myself. I don't not like or know how to use Retroarch either, it's just clunky for most new people so the easy to use Android emulators are the best in my opinion.
I like both standalone and retroarch for different reasons. But I definitely understand the frustration of trying to figure out retroarch. It is not user friendly in my opinion but is nice when used with a front-end that does most of the work for you.
Good way to put it!
Says "The search doesn't work" after typing "Gameboy" instead of "Game Boy". Even never having seen Retroarch on Android, I'd bet that searching for "SNES" and "Super" both bring up Super Nintendo cores, and that "Game" would have found the cores he wanted. "Gameboy" doesn't return anything because that's not a thing. Could they potentially add typo fuzzy searching? Maybe, but that's not where the best time is going to be spent when we're talking about emulator development.
I'm not sure what you're getting at as the search is not even a fraction of why I don't recommend Retroarch over EASY TO USE standalone emulators. The search however is terrible, yes Game Boy is 2 words but if you search Gameboy on Google or the Google Play store I bet you'll find anything related to Game Boy. I'm also nearing 35 so I know what I'm looking for in regards to searching for this but this video is showing/proving what others tend to do with Retroarch because it's not user friendly or easy to understand. I could have gone all day about this but I'd rather game then spend hours tinkering when apps like GBC.emu work right out the box.
Where Retroarch you need to go online, look for "how do I play games with Retroarch?", then someone mentions CORE you're like "oh here's the section for cores but what do I do now? Download OR Load?" now 10-15 minutes has past. Now I need to search again "which core is best for Game Boy on Retroarch for my device?" alright let me look for this one let's Search for this one because there's a lot here. "Alright I found it, now how do I actually load and play my games?" another 10-15 minutes past searching online for an answer. "Okay now I figured that out, god the screen looks bad how do I edit stuff like resolution/gamepads etc?" there goes more time.
Where stand alone emulator, GooglePlay Search Gameboy Emulator. Done pick one and install, now select open content play your frigging game no tinkering needed unless you have a wireless controller then you might need to set it up EASILY. But you don't need to search online for hours figuring out how to use it because it just works.
BuhByee!
I used to think the same until one day they taught me how to use it correctly, optimize retroarch, choose good cores that in the end are the same loose emulators, and retroarchivement which was what made me fall totally in love with retroarch, in addition to the ease of multiplatform I can use the same configurations on my PC, PsVita, Switch and now on a retroemulator console, I understand that the interface and the multiple options are terrible but by learning one falls in love with the system
Daijisho has Retro Achievements built into it, it's not a matter of how to use Retroarch "it's an absolute pain to use Retroarch" especially for beginners. I don't hate the tool however there are so many that come to me and ask this question because "Russ from RGC always recommends it" is what they say and I flipping despise the tool for simplicity. Stand alone emulator process is so easy, slap a front end on your device like Daijisho and be on your way to playing games. Retroarch you need to spend way too much time figuring out where the cores are, what cores to use, how to find your games, setup your buttons, figure out how to configure your video settings, hope the config saves, then MAYBE play your game.. Oh wait don't forget to load your core first that's why you can't play the game. Then if you want to slap a front end on your device like Daijisho you run into errors or leaks in the memory of Retroarch freezing because there's a URI error hanging in the background that the end user doesn't know about.
@@DNAMobileGaming if Front end like daijisho already installed, why do we need to load core? just hit play and it will run with core associated with the content. no need for that hassle. Unless you dont have Front End installed then all you have to load the content and after that it will show you related core that can run your content and that's it, no need for all that you said.
@BuriBuriZ Daijisho and ESDE always have issues as you still have to navigate to Retroarch to setup/download the core. I personally never said I have issues with Retroarch either I just don't recommend it because it's easier to use standalone. Daijisho also scrapes your packages too see what apps/emulators you have on your device as well so if you have all these standalone apps installed it will pick the package name correctly.
@@DNAMobileGamingI mean you either download retroarch cores or standalone emulators it's the same thing
I'd argue downloading retroarch cores is easier because it's all together in a list and the list isn't even that big
@@dm.3145 so tell me this, why do so many people have issues with it? I personally know how to setup it up because of hours wasted tinkering. That's the thing, hours of tinkering rather than actually gaming? I'd rather game. The stand alone emulators are literally user friendly and right in your face about how to set them up. I don't hate one or the other but prefer stand alone because they are easier to setup.
I often tell people new to Emulation to start off with Retro Arch and get them to set to XMB (PS3 really) as this interface is more relatable to modern day consoles.
Yeah the PS3 layout helps a bit but a lot still get confused by a lot of the UI. Sure it's like anything you have to learn it but honestly the .emu Applications are very much download, install, play then tweak later if you want.
Where Retroarch is download, install, search for "whatever a core is", which core do I choose, research which core to use, find where game paths are, figure out how to load games, set game path for core, load core, hope it works, then tweak later.
RetroArch is not very noob friendly, you need to watch couple of tutorial video or guide to get it really going
Yeah I agree, sure you should watch a guide here and there for the Robert Broglia Emulators which do use a lot of the cores that Retroarch does, however once you understand one of their UI layouts it's pretty simple to understand the rest. I hope they implement multiplayer into GB/GBC/GBA soon though as for now I still use MyOldBoy/MyBoy for MP..
Retroarch is a centralized UI for many standalone emulators (cores). It's all the good emulators for every system all in one application.
Lakka is the Linux OS version of Retroarch.
No windows needed. Maximizes your CPU and RAM resources, compared to installing Retroarch on top of Windows. Great for older computers with limited power. Makes old laptops into gaming kiosks. 😅💻🎮
Well for PC it's actually fine Android I have never liked Retroarch for these main reasons as I did have way more reasons and could have turned this into a longer video. I don't know what it is about the UI on Android or how the configurations save but I waste more time trying to do this and with a front end like Daijisho standalone emulators always win. Besides most of the best standalone emulators are using the same best cores that Retroarch does as well.
Retroarch works well i. Conjunction with a front end. It makes it easy to set up universal settings for a large portion of your systems. Things like crt shaders controls are auto mapped and you can set up hot keys for save states
And quitting straight back to your front-end. All those things you struggle with you don't need to touch like importing your library because the front end has taken care of that. Figuring out the cores to download? There two easy options for you. Just download all the cores for the systems you have or within your front end it will likely only have a couple of core options to pic so just make sure you have those particular options downloaded.
This may sound like alot to do but its really not and once you have this set up you will have an actually nice to look at interface than has nice artwork perhaps even vedio clips of your games and you wont even have to look at retro arch. You can have it set up so it save states when you exit and auto loads that stat when you play it again as well. It makes using your device like actually using a console.
Id recommend using retro arch up until ps1 because then stand alon emulators have actal benefits like enhancements and performance etc. Duckstatoin for ps1 for example n64 mupan64 though the parallel core in retroarch is actually very good. Redream for Dreamcast dolphin for GameCube and neather sx2 for ps2
Now for eas of use on ps1 if you use psxrearmed core as you don't need a bios
See Standalone goes like this, Download front end Daijisho, install standalone emulator that can be searched on Google Play based on key terms of Gameboy Emulator for example. Download platform for Gameboy, tell Daijisho "hey these are where my roms are" select rom and play.
All of the .emu emulators do everything you've stated but the UI of those emulators are amazing and easy to use for a lot of people that have never touched emulation. You don't need to tweak anything technically but if you need to change video settings, just select video in listview. I use Retroarch on other platforms like my 3DS/PS4 and I have used it for years, but the reason I don't recommend it is because of ease of use not because I don't think it's good.
Also surprised that you don't need a bios for psxrearmed, very risky mind you Daijisho has the DS Bios staring right at you when you look at the files. Mind you bios and all that fun jazz has always been a grey area, I feel like it's the fault of the company for not making their devices able to be reverse engineered.
I love the UI and customizability of Retroarch, but if you have a lower end Android device, the sperate emulator apps will have better performance.
It's like Linux, so it's a big barrier of entry to people new to emulation who just wanna select a rom and press play.
Retroarch is for convenience of having multiple emulators in one app BUT its User Interface is Satanic, it overwhelms you with so many options. Command Prompt is more user friendly than Retroarch's UI and that's saying something.
Glad to see more people that have the same opinion, I don't hate the idea but honestly takes seconds to setup a standalone rather than tinkering for hours trying to setup Retroarch lol.
It's funny that so many people still despise RetroArch. As someone who has been using it for 10 years plus it's a lifesaver. My first tip is to get the RetroArch bios pack that way every core works as intended. In the case of Android GBA I still prefer RetroArch. Here's a tip there's one core that runs all three Gameboy systems (mGBA). When it comes to frontend support it's great too. For PC I use Retrobat and for Android Arc Browser. Retrobat integrates into the install. Arc Browser supports all of the cores and runs smoothly on my Odin 2 pro. I have 37 systems and RetroArch runs 28 of them
It's the UI that bugs people a lot I know you can change the way it looks too but there has been way too many cases of configs not saving and that too bugs me. Plus if setup properly, a simple front end acts just the same as setting up each standalone emulator does in my opinion. I use Daijisho for Android, configure every emulator the way I like it, tell Daijisho where my games are and just select a game and play. That's another issue that some have, they try to use Retroarch for their backend with Daijisho for example and get the infamous black screen. Which that is just because they didn't setup their cores but Daijisho doesn't know which core generally by default to look for so Rertroarch just hangs there. I started using Retroarch myself about a decade ago. To this day I still choose standalone because I can literally just install the app/emulator select a game and play without needing to do anything else. This is why I finally released this video as so many have asked this question over the past year now and finally answered it lol.
Arc browser? Could you please elaborate more about this?
There is emulation station for android and is far better than any other frontended for android with many many themes which change completely everything.. Arc is dead.
@PAULME_CH Daijisho is even better, Emulation Station is intrusive.
@@DNAMobileGaming emulation station support videosnaps. The other don't. I have use everything.
Some emulators don't have retroachivements support. That's the only reason I use retroarch most of the time.
I guess that makes sense for those that use those I still to this day don't and don't understand what they do even though I've been around emulation for nearly 20 years.
@@DNAMobileGaming what don't you understand? Retro achievements?
There are basically like playstation trophies that gives you a record of what things you've done in games
@@rorynolan2322 I understand that aspect but all of my lifetime of gaming the achievement of finishing a level, collecting all of the bananas, finding all the Yoshi coins, I never thought I needed a trophy to make me happy. So that's why I ask what does this even do? If you complete every retro achievement do you get a prize from the Retro Achievement society? I just don't see a point in having something else running collecting my data personally.
@@DNAMobileGaming think of them as 'Xbox achievements' made popular during the time of Xbox360.
Achievements are noted along with points when ever certain things done in games.
It's kind of a throwback to early Arcades and their 'Points' system.
Some people feel satisfaction when they get highscores or reach a milestone and its recorded.
For most its not a big deal, but for completionists its part of the fun.
Yeah I get that but I never even cared much about those either mind you I did try to complete every achievement on a few games including Fallout 3 but I just don't get it for Retro Games that is all.
retroarch is so easy to use.i dont know why people have issues with it
Well it's not the fact of being easy to use, what's easier is searching for the app that plays GB/GBC installing it picking your game and playing. Where Retroarch you need to understand what a core even is, then find out which core is best (which yes most GB cores are fine), then try to figure out the clunky UI and hope the configuration you setup actually saves. Then you need to set your file path which will hopefully scrape your games properly and then figure out how to change your button layouts, and then change your button layout for the main UI of Retroarch to suit your needs because that part to this day always confuses me even though I know where to do this. I could have shared so much about this but had this question again the other day so I finally released my reasonings. If you find it easy then awesome use it, but there are a ton that don't find it easy even after watching famous TH-camr RGC share a guide or two about lol
RetroArch is great for the following: PC Engine (NON CD OR SUPER), WONDER SWAN (COLOR), NEO GEO POCKET (COLOR), GB, GBA, GBC, Gamegear, SMS, Genesis, NES, SNES, VirtualBoy. I have had ZERO luck with PC emulation like Commodore, Atari consoles never worked, Coleco also no good, Arcades are hit or miss, they tend to sort a few in the wrong categories. BUT NEVER GOT DOS, SCUMMVM, MSX 1 and 2, SG-1000, ETC to work. EVER... Same with 3DO or Saturn.
RetroArch is not easy for beginner users at all..
@@leecollins5479 It's not. It's confusing for people new to emulation. It's been years but it's still stupid difficult to simply select a rom and press play.
"Then you need to set your file path which will hopefully scrape your games properly"
hmm? you put the games in a folder and you scan it? Even if you don't use retroarch you still have to put your games in a folder and you still need to find it?
I've mentioned this a few tmes in comments on your videos, but I'd much rather just use stand alone emulators. It's much easier to flush an emulator if it's no longer being developed or a new, better one comes along. RetroArch is useful for things where there's not a stand alone emulator like O2EM. But if there's a stand alone, I go with that.
Eh I haven't seen you around lately, I know you have! I agree extremely!
@@DNAMobileGaming I've been around. I don't have any Playstation other than the first one, so I've skipped those videos. I have watched the Duo videos and I'm considering getting one towards the end of the year or beginning of the next year. Though, I have been looking at the linux handhelds for one main reason, Portmaster.
I use it for the REWIND and CHEATS function. I have and paid for most Android Standalone Emulators, they're fine. Some have decent cheat implementations. Dolphin and PS2 allow you to use Action Replay ISOs, and that whole system works more flawlessly than I'd expect. The issue, Each Emulator handles cheats differently, and it's annoying. Though, for the more complex emulators, like Saturn, PS1, PSP, Dreamcast, N64, DS, Standalones are where its at. Since the whole hunting down the SPECIFIC BIOS, and putting them in the PRECISE location in Retroarch almost never works and is a pain.
Oh yeah I forgot about the bios nonsense 🙄 at least Duckstation says "hey you got your bios right" so you can then select it and it adds it automatically. Retroarch you need to find the folder it goes into and that part also never made sense to even me. I get the cheats aspect but I really don't use cheats except patches plus all of these standalone have save states for those that want to use them.
I've always used stand alone for 20 plus years lol. Retroarch is just too damn much, all I could really say
@@DNAMobileGaming Those are the standalones I like; "we don't care what it's named, point us to it, and we'll load it for you."
I don't know how mobile RA is but I love desktop RA
The odd thing is even on my 3DS it's alright but Android or even recently PS4 I just don't like it.
It's great on Android with a bluetooth controller.
With the Netplay feature you can play any multiplayer game online with strangers.
Makes for quick games of Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat while standing in line at your local arcade waiting to play more Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. 😂
Retroarch is good for online play if you can get the cores to works with games
What emulators allow you to play online? Unless you mean local multiplayer? Then MyBoy/MyOldBoy is perfect for this.
@@DNAMobileGaming I play online using retroarch for Android as well as pc give it a try
RetroArch is the Dwarf Fortress of emulators
It's a Fortress of cores not emulators, the main code on Retroarch just handles the backend of the emulation side and has a front end of a mess to me but hey that's my personal opinion.
I use Retro arch old systems up to 3rd gen (SNES, Genesis,) and arcades.
The rest is standalone emulators in front ends like Playnite and Launchbox.
What happened with the PS4 ethernet dongle giveaway?
Nothing yet I will announce when that happens.
mr:dna how to translate gbc/gba language ? Example the pokemon is japanese vesion and how to translate in englesh
You can't do that it's coded into the game.
i only use retroarch because of Sega CD, 3DO, artia lynx, arcade, amiga 32 CD and commander because their is no apps for them
Maybe one day Robert Broglia will make an app for every emulator!
HOW DID YOU GET CD AND 3DO working? I've tried everything.
@@JCC3wasTaken there is MD.EMU and LYNX.EMU from robert brogila
@@tdata545 need help still?
@@DNAMobileGaming true, i hate they don't have their own app
I get that the UI is intimidating at first, but I find the comparison a bit disingenuous. Retroarch as a frontend is way simpler to me to set up compared to other front ends were you need to setup the frontend plus each emulator. Each emulator being a core and each system having many core option is a point a agree a bit more, but systems with one clear emulator to chose likely have the same core to chose (mgba itself)
As an emulator on android, you scan the files like any emulator, and you don't need to mess with any configuration if you don't want to, just like any emulator. The notion that you need to download the core and chose it once you select the game is the only valid extra step you need to learn to play a game. Everything else is optional as they are in any emulator
I find it funny because I got into retroarch because I couldn't figure out MAME and it was more practical to me to have one program instead of many individual emulators
Let me work backwards, you have many emulators technically the moment you download that core. Retorarch is just a front for all the cores which are used in a lot of standalone applications. That's why retorarch takes up so much space because it still has the backend (core) and the cores configs are setup by you when you load it.
The UI of Retroarch is just not there even changing it to xmb many times over the years I've used it, I've ran into "I thought I scaled, setup, configured this core already?" but it didn't save even upon exiting. Also when you have 3-5 different cores for one system, any new person isn't going to know that Gambatte is any good they might just see "oh this one says Gameboy so I'll pick the first one" and call it a day. I've personally use MyBoy/MyOldBoy for I'd have to say near 7 years or more and those two standalone emulators are still my go to on Android at least.
When it comes to front end, Daijisho does all the work except for setting your scoped storage game paths. Setting these paths in Retorarch always confused me too so I always gave up and just went through Retroarch to pick my game of choice rather then setting a path. That entire section is a mess on Android at least to me. I've spent too many hours trying to figure this out that I'd rather just use a straight forward UI like Daijisho that says pick your game path and doesn't hide this feature.
I like hearing what others have to say about this, as this really isn't a hate thing but a why I never recommend Retroarch. Ever since JohnGBC way way back I always chose standalone emulators and even on my 3DS (PSX excluded) I use standalone over Retroarch if I can.
@@DNAMobileGaming Points I will give to you: a list with many uninstalled cores to choose from is confusing, but I'd argue choosing emulator from some systems is also confusing (how many mupen versions are there?), but if you know what emulator you'd use for a system, you likely know what core to use also.
And if you intend on playing only a few systems, like gameboy+snes, by all means, getting mgba and whatever is the current best standalone option for snes on android, but once you get tomore systems a frontend is starts making itself valuable and I stand by retroarch. Daijisho and Dig I find very ugly and setting up themes would me my version of learning an additional thing to set it up the way I like it.
I might help that I was a longtime user of retroarch on windows, but I also prefer retroarch do launchbox and standalones except for more recent systems (the dolphin core does not compare to the standalone in windows)
@@persechini yeah this isn't really directed at me though I know how to use Retroarch but I just don't use it often because I truly find standalone for the most part easier and clean especially for really new gamers in the emulation scene. I've just had too many issues too with it that I just stick with standalone others may suggest it which is fine if people want to spend a while learning it. I'd just rather select my games and play them and quickly change one main feature which is just scaling the games to look good.
@@DNAMobileGamingIf you're having problems with core settings not saving that's because you're doing it while in a game so those settings only configure to that single game, what you need to do, is do it through the retroarch menu before you get into a game like you have to go and configure each library to use a core once and the scale setting, You set it up on the back before you open a game so that way it saved as a global setting not as a per game setting.. Also it doesn't save it automatically as a per game setting unless you actually save it as a configuration in the submenu when you're in a game like holding start and select or whatever your hotkey is.
If you don't save it as a configuration then it doesn't save as a configuration whether that's per game configuration or global configuration
@Zx7o. So here's how Retroarch works in my mind. Load core after Googling which one is best. Configure core while loaded. Load game. When I navigate back into RA the configuration doesn't always save or save at all. This is the problem I face plus the entire UI is just not straight to the point. There should be a basics for beginners and advanced toggle for those that want to mess with things like changing the fps to match your device and so on.
I agree with you 100!
I found the RAs UI not user friendly. Maybe for veterans of emulators, but for someone who just wants to play a game and not spend an hour setting up, stand alone emulators have their benefits.
They definitely do, and I know some more powerful emulators like YUzU need some tweaking but the UI is all there and makes sense. If I had to time it, I can probably setup every emulator I play in 15 minute or less except Yuzu.
I prefer stand alone emulators personally but..i will use R.A. for some systems that have no stand alone emu
@jonathanklouski true I haven't found a need for any other systems I play but finally decided to answer this question 😅
I use retroarch bc of the built in cheats for retro games that dont have saves, life infinite life cheats.
I agree. Only thing i use retroarch for is my vita. Its just not great. And you don't get the updated pcsx2 core making it more useless to me
I don't even use it for my Vita lol, I use the standalone for it too I love SNES/N64 on that thing!
Retroarch has terrible UI and in my opinion doesn't look nice. I don't care too much about the features usually. I just like playing on a device I always have with me or using a controller of my choice as long as it works. Another thing about retroarch is that some emulators stop updating and just make a core for retroarch instead of updating the standalone app. I use retroarch as a last resort option.
Valid points. I agree!
I hate retroarch, not friendly... Because I'm french and I don't speak english very well 😁
Oh I don't even know if you can change the language either which yes that would suck
@@DNAMobileGaming In the interface option you can change the language
I agree with you man retroarch is a mess even the button mappings are messed up too and that's what ruined my experience with retroarch.
See I'm not the only one, I've even sworn up and down that my configurations had been saved for the core I selected then when I went back into Retroarch later they were gone lol. I could have spent longer on this but I said my peace with the main reasonings.