Setting up EmulationStation

There are a few steps

Getting started with EmulationStation isn't terribly difficult, but it can take some time if you're not used to this kind of thing. First, you have to download the latest version of ES-DE (EmulationStation - Desktop Edition). This is the current iteration of the project, since the original version was abandoned back in 2015. That original website still ranks fairly high on Google search results, so be sure you're going for the right version.

Once you've installed ES-DE, you can simply launch it and it will go straight into a very clean full-screen UI, but you'll notice that it says no ROMs detected. By default, the program will look for ROMs in the C:Users%username%ROMS folder, but you need to first create the directories inside of it. Simply choose the Create Directories option to create all the directories for just about every console ever. Now, when you navigate to the ROMS folder, you'll see folders for each console, and it's your job to move your game files into the folder for each respective console. There are a lot of folders here that you won't need, so delete the folders for any console you're not planning to use. You can also change the ROM directory, but you'll always have to create the sub-directories inside it and organize them properly.

Now, you can launch ES-DE again and all your games will show up, perfectly labeled under the right system. But you still can't play them, because you need the emulator itself. Your best option is to download RetroArch, because it allows you to install cores for various different emulators and they all work under the same unifying UI, which, importantly, works well with controllers, too. After launching RetroArch, you can install all the cores for the emulators you need. As a Nintendo fan, I went with the classics: NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance (since it can play original Game Boy games too), Nintendo 64, and even Nintendo DS. You might say the Nintendo DS isn't retro, but keep in mind, that system is now 20 years old.

Once all the cores are installed, you're mostly ready to play your games. But we're trying to make this a console, so you also have to pair a controller. For now, stay on the Windows desktop.

Connecting a controller

It should be relatively easy... but it isn't always

Both ES-DE and RetroArch are pretty widely compatible with all kinds of controllers, so in theory, if you have a controller lying around that works with your PC, you should be good to go. If it's a USB controller, you just need to plug it in and you're good to go. For wireless controllers, you need to add them using Bluetooth settings. Click the quick actions panel in the bottom of your taskbar (marked by the internet/battery/sound icons) and turn on Bluetooth, the click the little arrow to see a list of available devices. At the same time, ensure your controller is in pairing mode. Then, simply select the controller and it should connect automatically.

Now, you might think this is it, and in some cases, it might be all you need, but my experience was a bit frustrating. I was using a third-party Nintendo Switch controller, and while ES-DE worked totally fine, RetroArch refused to recognize it. Out of the box, RetroArch is set up to use xinput controllers, which is what's used by Xbox controllers. If you don't have an Xbox controller, you might have to go into the RetroArch settings and look for the driver options, then change both the input and controller drivers to dinput. For me, even that didn't work, though, and I had to set the controller driver to sdl2, so it was a bit frustrating.

Even then, while RetroArch, you may find that RetroArch works fine with this controller, but emulators themselves will recognize input as if it was a PlayStation/Xbox controller, where the confirmation button is at the bottom, rather than on the right. So I also had to manually remap those buttons so they matched the Nintendo layout.


Introduction

EmulationStation is the official graphical frontend of the RetroPie project.

EmulationStation is not an emulator, rather it is a polished game launcher that includes:

ES was originally developed by Aloshi (code) and Nils Bonenberger (UI) but, since they have moved on to other projects, the RetroPie project keeps its own fork. That fork has made some improvements like video support, faster load times, favourites, and controller integration among others. Any reference for versions in this doc is related to the RetroPie's fork.

Enabling Favorites, All Games, and Last Played systems

Since ES version 2.4.0 you can create a list of your favorite games. You can also have a list of all games, and your last played games. These lists are all optional and in the example below we'll see how to enable them.

Note: In order to use this feature, the theme you're using MUST support it.

  1. press Start to access the ES main menu and then select "GAME COLLECTIONS SETTINGS".
  1. Next, select the first option: "AUTOMATIC GAME COLLECTIONS".
  1. And then mark those you want to enable.
  1. After marking those you want, go back to the default ES user interface. Note that now you have more systems, like in the example below:
Adding games to Favorites

It's pretty simple: just move to the game you want to add and press the button you set to be Y. Pressing Y when the cursor is on a game already present in the Favorites, removes it from the list.


What is EmulationStation?

Today, we’re going to be installing EmulationStation for Android and this is going to be a full setup guide, going through all of the options available to you, configuring with emulators and so much more. It’s a doozy of a guide.

EmulationStation is a front end for your emulators and roms, so you can easily launch them all, have nice artwork, cool videos and all of that. Just makes things easy for you on Android to play all your retro games.

This is just a frontend though, it doesn’t have any emulators or ROMS with it, you have to provide that yourself.

I specifically waited to do this guide, as I wanted the dust to settle on all the issues this had, as well as where it was actually hosted. For those that haven’t followed the progress, EmulationStation first appeared through the Amazon App Store on Android, then Amazon removed it, and now it’s only available through Patreon for $5. It’s not a subscription, you can pay the $5 once, and then unsubscribe from the Patreon and you’ll still get emails with updates and releases.

The developer has no plans for this to go onto the Google Play Store, so this is the only way you’ll be able to get this for the foreseeable future.

Two Issues

Two warnings though, as of March of 2024, this guide’s release. Currently, this front end has no Android apps support and it can’t be set as the home launcher in Android by itself. (I’ll update if this changes)

The home launcher part is easily fixable, you can download the app AnyHome from the Google Play Store, and set EmulationStation as the home app, then in Android’s settings, you can set AnyHome as the home app. That all works and when you boot up the device, it boots right into EmulationStation, and if you push the home button on your device, it goes back.

But if you do this, you now have no way to get back to your Android apps. You lose your browser, you lose any other apps, the Google Play Store, everything. EmulationStation has no Android section, no shortcuts to them, and with it set as home, you can’t minimize it or get to them. It’s kind of a mess, so I would suggest not setting EmulationStation as your home app. There is an extremely convoluted workaround, that can get you a way to show your apps and use EmulationStation as your home app, but I don’t consider it a good way to do things and won’t be showing or explaining it here as it’s not something I feel good supporting.

The alternative right now, and what I’ve personally been doing, is just clicking the EmulationStation app when the device loads and that’s it.


App Approval

Leon Styhre answered several direct questions from users within Discord and revealed how the app approval process differed between Amazon and Google.

“Amazon was like heaven”, Styhre shared, “it took around 30 minutes to register a developer account, setup the store page and submit the app. Within 24 hours or so everything was done and it was approved and released”.

Their experience with the bringing Emulation Station to Android via Google has been a bigger challenge however. “Google keeps rejecting and refusing to respond to emails or pickup tickets”.

Styhre concluded by saying “Google is a complete nightmare”, although Styhre does suggest that they will try to launch Emulation Station on the Google Play Store again in the future.

Emulation Station has previously been available to players using Linux, macOS and Windows and the new version for Android is the same application for those systems allowing gamers to easily migrate their ROMs, gamelist files, scraped media and custom collections.

The newly announced Android support for Emulation Station will be good news for retro gamers rocking an Android device such as the new ANBERNIC RG556 or Retroid Pocket 4.

I would also like to mention how much we here at Retro Dodo respect the work of the Emulation Station team, they’re doing great things in the space and I am happy that they are charging the community as they deserve every single penny of it.

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