EmulationStation on Android Setup Guide
EmulationStation on Android Setup Guide
What is EmulationStation?
We'll be downloading EmulationStation for Android today, and this comprehensive setup tutorial will walk you through all of your options, how to configure emulators and much more. This guide is amazing.
EmulationStation is a front end for your emulators and ROMs, allowing you to launch them all easily and enjoy beautiful graphics, entertaining videos, and more. It makes it easier for you to play all your old Android games.
However, this is merely a frontend; you must supply emulators or ROMS.
In particular, I put off writing this tutorial until everything, including the hosting location, had been resolved. For those who still need to follow the development, EmulationStation was first made available on Android through the Amazon App Store before being taken down by Amazon. It is now only available on Patreon for $5.You can pay the $5 once and then unsubscribe from Patreon, and you will still receive emails with releases and updates. It's not a subscription.
This is the only way to obtain it soon, as the creator does not plan to release it on the Google Play Store.
Two Issues
However, as of the publication of this guide in March 2024, there are two cautions. Currently, this front end does not support Android apps and cannot be configured to run Android apps on its own. (If this changes, I'll update you.)
You can fix the home launcher issue by downloading AnyHome from the Google Play Store, setting EmulationStation as the home app, and then selecting AnyHome as the home app in Android's settings. All of that is functional, and the device immediately boots into EmulationStation upon booting up. If you press the home button, the device returns to EmulationStation.
However, doing so will prevent you from accessing your Android apps again. You lose everything, including your browser, other apps, or the Google Play Store. When EmulationStation is set to home, you cannot minimize it or access the Android section or shortcuts. I would advise against making EmulationStation your home app because it's disorganized. A complicated workaround allows you to display your apps and make EmulationStation your home app, but there are better ways to do things. Therefore, I won't demonstrate or describe it here because I don't feel comfortable endorsing it.
My current approach is to simply click the EmulationStation app after the device loads.
Frontend Alternative – Daijisho
If those two problems bother you, you should stick with a more sophisticated interface, like Daijisho, until EmulationStation is completely functional. Even though EmulationStation has several advantages over Daijisho, the Android apps section is essential. If you prefer to go that way, I'll leave my video on setting up Daijisho in the description.
Setup Guide Start
For the rest of you, let's get right in. I recommend using Solid Explorer File Manager as your file manager app in advance; it's the greatest Android choice and must be installed on all devices. Since you'll need to move your ROMS over in a few stages, you should also have them ready to go, either on an SD card, on the device, or somewhere simple to transfer. You are in charge of emulators; if you have them installed, that is excellent; if not, don't worry; I will demonstrate both methods for configuring EmulationStation.
After registering for Patreon, download the most recent version of the EmulationStation APK. The download link is located directly in the most recent post. Completing this on your PC would be simpler, as would immediately moving the APK file to your device. That's my course of action. The same procedures can be used to update whenever there is a new version. Copy the APK to your smartphone; when you open it, it will say Update rather than Install.
Once the APK has loaded, open it, install it, and choose Start Setup.
Now that you have permission, ensure you enable access to all files.
If you have one connected, I strongly advise you to do this on your SD card containing your rooms. We now must choose the directory where EmulationStation will keep all its data, including films and scraped artwork. The good thing about that is that you can transfer that card to another Android device using EmulationStation, and it will preserve all of your artwork and other data.
To give you an idea of how much space it uses with a carefully picked Rom list—not thousands and thousands of games—this folder, which contains all of my artwork, movies, and other content, takes up roughly 13GB.
Proceed to your SD card and make sure you are naming it exactly that. Then, select the folder you created, which should be called ES-DE.
We must now choose or make our ROMs directory. Similarly, I recommend you store this on your SD card and make a folder named ROMs on the root of your SD card, just like you see on the screen. Next, choose "Use that folder."
Choose "create them" to instruct EmulationStation to generate all your rom subfolders within that roms folder. To make it simple for you to know where to move your game rooms, it will build folders for every system it can support.
After that, you can click "I understand," but you'll most likely see an error stating that no game files are available. All right, click Quit to end the session. We need to add at least one game to a Roms subfolder to proceed, which is why we see that problem.
Adding ROMs
Navigate to the ROMs folder we made on the SD card. You can see that every folder within is a system folder. Place your ROMs for each system in the appropriate folder, as this should be rather clear.
There are numerous systems; you only need to populate some folders. These are just the systems important to you, like my Super Nintendo ROMs in my SNES folder. Then, and so forth.
Special Trick for PS1 & Dreamcast Games
This is a unique approach for Dreamcast and PlayStation 1 titles that use several discs, as using EmulationStation will result in duplicate entries. Make a folder inside the PSX or Dreamcast folder for the game with several discs with the same name, without the disc number. You then want to append a.m3u at the end.
When it comes to Chrono Cross, the game names are Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 1).chd and Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 2).chd, you would create a folder called Chrono Cross (USA).m3u. (we removed the" (Disc 1).chd", including the space)
For another example, Dragon Warrior VII (USA) (Disc 1).chd and Dragon Warrior VII (USA) (Disc 2).chd represent the games' titles; thus, you would make a folder named Dragon Warrior VII (USA).m3u.
Then, place the game files and several disks within that folder.
Next, you should create a new file called Chrono Cross (USA), which has the same name as the folder. In the example above, Chrono Cross's Cross's m3u.
If you're using Android, edit that file using SE Text Editor in Solid Explorer File Manager. All you have to do is add the whole game name, disc number, and file type to each file line.
Therefore, the only two lines for Chrono Cross in that file would be:
Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 1).chd
Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 2).chd
Verify that there are no extra lines or spaces anywhere.
To keep your PS1 and Dreamcast ROMs neat and organized in EmulationStation, use these similar procedures for any titles you own that require multiple disks.
Now is a good time to move all of your ROMs into their respective EmulationStation folders. When you're ready, return. Let's go on.
First Boot Settings
Launching the ES-DE app should take you to the main system page, where you can navigate between the systems for the ROMs you uploaded. A touchscreen appeared as well, and we'll take care of that and a few other options right now.
Press Start, then select Disable Touch Overlay under Input Device Settings. You don't need this unless you're using a device with solely a touch screen. It eliminates the on-screen touch display.
You can choose what you want to view by backing out and going to Game Collection Settings, then Automatic Game Collections. I want the Last Played and Favorites options on the home screen to make it simple to access my favourites or last played.
Themes
Let's go to UI Settings after backing out one. The theme downloader will need some time to finish downloading the available alternatives. Following that, you can browse and select the theme you wish to use. My personal favourite is Art Book Next, so I'll choose that.
To make Art Boot Next for me, back out one and change the theme to the one you prefer. Your home screen will switch to your chosen theme when you back out again.
Scraping Media
After that, we can scrape our ROMs to obtain videos, artwork, and other materials.
After pressing Start and going to Scaper, you can adjust a few items here.
Under " Scrape These Games, " you can select to scrape all games or just the missing metadata, among other possibilities.
You can select which systems you wish to scrape using Scrape These Systems.
This is a required step under Account Settings; however, you should enter your Screenscraper.fr account details. All of this information is available on that website, and you will need to create an account for it to function properly.
Unless you know exactly what to alter, you can leave the Content Settings, Miximage Settings, and Other Settings at their original settings.
Then, press Start. As the program scrapes what you selected, you will now be confined to a window, which may take a very long time. I would advise focusing on one system at a time, perhaps once a day or once a week, while you're not using the device, rather than all of the systems. If you play many games and do all the systems, you might be glued to this screen all day.
If you need to in the future, you can always click stop and resume where you left off by setting the Scrape These Settings section to no metadata.
You can view the lovely artwork next to the game. If you stay selected in a game, you can also view videos, descriptions, and other information. It simply makes it feel more whole.
If you encounter a game that wasn't scraped, locate it in the list of games, press Select, and select Edit This Game's Metadata. When you scroll down to Scratch, it will look for options to show you on the right; if you're satisfied with one, press A to save it. However, if none of these work, try adjusting the game name to see if that helps you discover a match by returning a screen to the Edit Metadata Screen. Although it is a game, there are instances when utilizing Screenscraper would not allow you to locate the game.
After using Screenscraper to scrape your whole collection, you can return to Scraper, change the Scrape From to THEGENAMESDB, change the Scrape These Games to No Metadata, and then attempt to scrape again. That will only attempt to scrape games the screen scraper failed to locate.
Adding Vita games
After that, we can scrape our ROMs to obtain videos, artwork, and other materials.
After pressing Start and going to Scaper, you can now adjust a few items here.
Under " Scrape These Games, " you can select to scrape all games or just the missing metadata, among other possibilities.
You can select which systems you wish to scrape using Scrape These Systems.
This step is required under Account Settings; however, you should enter your Screenscraper.fr account details. All of this information is available on that website, and for it to function properly, you will need to create an account.
Unless you know exactly what to alter, you can leave the Content Settings, Miximage Settings, and Other Settings at their original settings.
Then, press Start. As the program scrapes what you selected, you will now be confined to a window, which may take a very long time. I suggest focusing on one system at a time, perhaps once a day or once a week, while you're not using the device, rather than all of the systems. If you play many games and do all the systems, you might be glued to this screen all day.
If you need to in the future, you can always click stop and resume where you left off by setting the Scrape These Settings section to no metadata.
You can view the lovely artwork next to the game. You can also view videos, descriptions, and other information if you are selected for a game. It simply makes it feel more whole.
If you encounter a game that wasn't scraped, locate it in the list of games, press Select, and select Edit This Game's Metadata. When you scroll down to Scratch, it will look for options to show you on the right; if you're satisfied with one, press A to save it. However, if none of these work, try adjusting the game name to see if that helps you discover a match by returning a screen to the Edit Metadata Screen. Although it is a game, there are instances when utilizing Screenscraper would not allow you to locate the game.
After using Screenscraper to scrape your whole collection, you can return to Scraper, change the Scrape From to THEGENAMESDB, change the Scrape These Games to No Metadata, and then attempt to scrape again. That will only attempt to scrape games the screen scraper failed to locate.
Adding Yuzu back in
Yuzu was no longer available as an emulator for Nintendo Switch games, as with EmulationStation version 3.0.0-19. However, we can add it back.
All you have to do is add the two files. After visiting this Github link, simply drop them into your ES-DE/custom_systems folder. Visit the GitHub repository, choose each file, and then select the "Download raw" option on the right side for both.
The two files should then be copied and pasted into the ES-DE/custom_systems folder. All you need to do is launch the EmulationStation app on your device. To confirm, go to Start, Other Settings, Alternative Emulators, and if Switch appears as an option, you're good to go. Keep this guide closed in case future software updates destroy or erase these files so you can add them back.
Why do your games not load
Configuring emulators is the exciting part, and it will be a blast. You can now view which systems you have available, which match the ROMs you've installed, and which emulator EmulationStation wishes to use by pressing Start, followed by Other Settings, and then Alternative Emulators. If you choose each system, you may view the emulator and core options for RetroArch. The majority of users will stumble into this area.
The straightforward explanation is that it depends entirely on the user. Although I know the emulators and cores I recommend and use in my video tutorials, you may have arrived with your setup, so you will need to know how to handle this portion.
However, this is the most crucial part of the movie; if you don't choose the correct options, your games will not open or run. I have an Android Emulation Setup Guide that you can follow if this is your first time installing anything on a new device. If you do so, I can make the appropriate options below.
If not, you'll need to choose the options that correspond to the emulators installed on your device. If you really want to, you can try booting up a game after changing the selection. If it works, you have the appropriate option; if you still need to, you have the right one. It is the act of hurling darts at a board.
Configuring Emulators
However, for those who already have emulators loaded, we still need to do more because, even with the correct emulators chosen, there's a good chance they won't load, so we'll need to fix them. Therefore, follow these instructions before you begin tossing darts at a board.
Step one is to enter each emulator and confirm that the emulator is looking in the correct ROM directory.
For instance, we must point AetherSX2 to the new location if you have AetherSX2 or NetherSX2 installed and your ROMs were previously located somewhere else before being transferred to the EmulationStation ROMs/ps2 area. Your games will only run if you do. These steps must be followed for every emulator. I can walk you through the process for some of the more well-known emulators here, and hopefully, that will give you a good understanding of any that I don't need to demonstrate.
RetroArch
You don't need to do anything for RetroArch. If you're using a RetroArch core for a system and you get a black screen or the game doesn't load, you either don't have that core installed or choose the incorrect core. It will load the appropriate core.
Dolphin (Official)
The hardest and worst is Dolphin (Official). Dolphin will show duplicates everywhere if you move your path to a different folder, even if it contains the same games. It's chaotic, and every game will duplicate itself. Jade deserves special recognition for figuring this out, but you must use Solid Explorer File Manager. I don't know if any other program has the necessary rights, but you should go to Internal Storage, Android, or Data; you might need to provide permission for org. Dolphin emu. Dolphin emu right away. Afterwards, go to Files, Configuration, and open Dolphin.ini to utilize the SE Text Editor.
Locate the lines beginning with ISOPath and remove each one. Then, launch Dolphin and select the new folder.
AetherSX2/NetherSX2
Go to Settings, App settings, Game List, and remove the existing path for AetherSX2 and NetherSX2. After that, select the + symbol in the lower right corner, go to the ROMs/PS2 folder, and add it.
MelonDS (Standalone)
Go to Settings, top right, ROMs, and modify the Search Directory to ROMs/nds for MelonDS (Standalone). After finishing a game, you must manually exit MelonDS to return to the EmulationStation front end.
PPSSPP (Standalone)
To utilize PPSSPP (Standalone), navigate to Games at the top, select Browse, and then select ROMs/PSP. After finishing a game, you must manually exit PPSSPP to return to the EmulationStation front end.
Citra Canary (Standalone)
To access Citra Canary (Standalone), go to Settings, choose Games Folder, and then select ROMs/n3ds.
Yuzu
Go to Settings, on the top left, Manage Game Folders, and remove the current one for Yuzu. Next, choose the ROMs/switch folder by clicking the plus symbol in the lower right corner. After finishing a game, you must manually leave Yuzu to return to the EmulationStation front end.
Other Tweaks
- Why do my game boxes rotate in a vertical direction?
Uncheck the Rotate Horizontally Oriented Boxes option under the Scraper and Miximage options.
- Can a particular game'sgame's emulator be switched out instead?
Select the game by highlighting it in the list, then select Edit This Game's Metadata, scroll down to Alternative Emulator, and select a different emulator for that particular game.