How to Setup RetroArch ? Being a gamer, you must be missing those retro games from the Nintendo’s and Arcades. Here is a much better way to get all that nostalgic feeling back without using a bunch of old school systems or using multiple emulators. The RetroArch is the all-in-one solution for all of our problems. And the guidance of how to setup RetroArch is all you need. RetroArch is a powerful emulator that can run almost any retro game you can thin of. Ant it can be accessed on Windows, Mac and Linux computers without any hazel.
Yet so amazing things to offer, it’s bit tricky to set things up. No need to panic, though, here is an easy representation of how to setup RetroArch emulator step-by-step. Consider yourself one step away from reaching your desired game from the past, cause you are about to relive your memories. Want to learn how to setup RetroArch ? Just go through the process given below.
Cut to the Chase
Download RetroArch
Step one, go to the libretro.com and click on the “Downloads” available in the top-right corner of your screen (in menus). Here you will get the latest version of the emulator. Be specific with your platform and choose accordingly where you want to go. For Example, if you are a Windows user, then go for the windows section.
Browse for it and you will find a 7-Zip archive file containing RetroArch emulator. Just extract the archive to a specific folder and you are good to go.
To launch the RetroArch Emulator, just double click on “retroarch.exe”.
Configure and Setup Your Controllers
As you run the RetroArch Emulator, you will see a user interface not that convenient but you’ll get used to it soon. Moving to the Configurations can be a bit more to ask as a lot of things seems new and you probably don’t know what to do, but trust me, its easier than it looks.
About the emulator, at first you cannot use it by user mouse cursor, instead use “Arrow keys” to scroll down the menu and switch between the options from left to right. Use “Enter key” to select an option, and “Backspace key” to jump back to the previous menu (level).
It may remain as a one time thing here, cause the next thing that needs to be done is setup your controller. The Xbox 360 controller works fine but you can still change the layout the way you want.
To have that, head to the Settings menu (using keyboard) present that the top most of menus represented with a double gear symbol and from there scroll down to the “Input” and hit enter.
Now select option named “Port 1 Controls” and scroll down to the option “Set All Controls” select this option and now you will be able to map the layout of your controller.
The binding works across all emulators and are designed to copy and act exactly like the controller associated with the selected system. So that, you can bind each button ideally with respect to the picture shown below.
After coming this far, you will be able to play your favorite game with controller the way you used to do. Though, you can still change the configuration if you want. One the controller is configured, then you can use it to navigate and select options in RetroArch Emulator without touching the keyboard.
If you wish to configure multiplayer rig, then use the same process and you will be done in no time.
Download Emulators
Now understand this, RetroArch Emulator isn’t an emulator itself, instead, it is a user interface (front end) which has capability of running multiple emulators. These emulators are represented as “cores” in RetroArch Emulator. And you will need the appropriate cores for you to play your desired games.
But you don’t have to go anywhere for it, you can download them from RetroArch itself. All you have to do is go to the Main Menu in RetroArch and scroll down till you find “Online Updater”.
Select “Core Downloader”. Here you’ll find number of cores of your choice. Just scroll through it and download as many cores as you want.
You may find multiple cores for same system, but don’t panic as they all are almost same with same purpose. Just choose your favorite one and prepare to initiate.
Add ROMs
Now that you have cores ready, now it’s time to add ROMs. We’ll proceed considering you already own a collection of ROMs of your favorite games with respect to the core (system).
The RetroArch has the ability to scan your folder of ROMs and will organize them for you. To do that, from main menu, go to “Load Content” and select the Drive that has ROMs. After that browse your folder full of ROMs and select it. You will see blue text at the bottom of the screen that will help you see the progress. Once done, select the ROM you want to play.
As shown in the image, you will be able to access your game collection. When you try to open any of them, you will be asked which core you want to run the game with. Select one and next thing you will see on your screen is your game up and running.
So this is the easiest way you can experience the good old nostalgia and have a good time reliving the memories. Got any questions related to How to Setup RetroArch ? Feel free to ask.