RetroArch

RetroArch
retroarch
RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.
Developer:
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License:
GPLv3+
Website:
https://www.retroarch.com/

RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

It enables you to run classic games on a wide range of computers and consoles through its slick graphical interface. Settings are also unified so configuration is done once and for all.

In addition to this, you will soon be able to run original game discs (CDs) from RetroArch.

RetroArch has advanced features like shaders, netplay, rewinding, next-frame response times, runahead, and more!

Features

Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
and more...

Installation

user $ sudo zypper install retroarch

By default, the most popular emulation and game engine cores are installed. You can play Arcade, DOS, NES, SNES, N64, 3DS, GameCube, MD, PSP, PS1 games immediately. However, if you have ROM of other game consoles, you can install additional cores. Please read Cores section below.

Cores

You can search "libretro-" keywords in YaST Software Management or Zypper to find all core package.

Most cores are emulation cores. They enable RetroArch to play retro games of almost all arcades and consoles made before 2000. For more recent game consoles, like XBOX 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, you have to use standalone emulators.

Here are different cores for the same game console. For example, SNES has many cores: libretro-bsnes, libretro-higan, libretro-beetle-snes, libretro-bsnes2014, libretro-bsnes-mercury. Only one package, libretro-bsnes, is installed by default because it is the best in compatibility, accuracy and performance.

Here are other cores which themselves are games or script game engines:

libretro-2048 is a 2048 clone that support gamepad
libretro-craft is a tiny Mincraft clone
libretro-chailove is 2D game engine of ChaiScript

ROMs

Please go to the internet to look for ROMs. We don't recommend piracy. Internet Archive is the best place to find them.

Console Games

Console game ROMs are in common binary format. The same ROM can be used for all cores and standalone emulators.

No-Intro ROM Sets contain most console games from 1970s to early 2000s.

Arcade Games

MAME is the most popular arcade game emulator core. Here are different versions of MAME emulators and its romsets which are not fully compatible with each other.

Here are basically two types of romsets:

Merged. If several roms share same files, these files are merged into a separate rom. In the end, you need to download two or more roms to run a game. It is recommended to download the whole romset instead of picking only individual roms, because it is hard to know which rom your game depends on.
Non-merged. All required files are in a single rom tarball. Good for picking of a few games. The overall size of entire non-merged romset is bigger than merged romset.

In openSUSE official repository, we only shipped the latest version (0.219) of MAME:

libretro-mame, merged romset

In Packman repository, you can install early versions of mame and use their romsets, which are smaller and faster:

libretro-mame2000, non-merged romset
libretro-mame2003, non-merged romset
libretro-mame2003-plus, non-merged romset

Early MAME versions support less games and the emulation is not very accurate.

Scan ROMs

RetroArch can scan directory and automatically add ROMs to playlists by consoles. The detection is based on a database of checksum.

Open Source ROMs

In "Online Updater" → "Content Downloader", you can download some open source ROMs.

After download, go back to start screen, click "Load Content" → "Download Folder" and choose the file you downloaded.

Configuration

Joypad

Reset configuration

RetroArch is fully configurable. Sometimes, your configuration is broken. You can remove the configuration file:

rm ~/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg

or remove the entire config folder (you will lose all data of RetroArch!):

rm -r ~/.config/retroarch

Troubleshooting

Chinese/Korean language support

Language support of Chinese and Korean is very buggy. You might see a lot of tofu or question marks in the UI. This is because the default font configuration is broken.

The solution is simple: choose another font. Go to Settings > User Interface > Menu > Menu Fonts. Then you enter the file system interface to choose the location of your preferred font. Not all fonts are supported. For example, the default Noto CJK fonts are not listed. DroidSans Fallback is well supported without any issues:

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/DroidSansFallbackFull.ttf

Reset playlist

If you moved or deleted ROM files, you need to re-scan them. However, this won't remove the old entries in the playlist. You will find duplicated titles.

The solution is to delete the playlist file. You can find all playlist files in:

~/.config/retroarch/playlists

Delete the *.lpl file to reset.

Getting started

Support database

SDB article 1
SDB article 2
SDB article 3

External links