To play CPS1, use FBA Cores CPS1. To play CPS2, use FBA Cores CPS2. To play NeoGeo, use FBA Cores Neo. FBA core Made FBA Cores CPS1 - use this to play CPS1 games (all CPS1 ROMs fit into memory on Gamecube). Android Fixed regression where a button bound to AKEYCODEBACK would 'exit out' of RetroArch. I have download and tried several builds from retroarch on my PSTV. NONE of the individual cores work, the only one that works are the All In One.
This is a hakchi/hakchi2 module which adds libretro cores and RetroArch front-end to your NES Mini.
It will automatically detect unsupported NES games and run them instead of the default emulator. Save states will work as usual.
It can also run games for other consoles. This pack already contains the following cores:
- fceumm (Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, many mappers, UNIF support)
- nestopia (Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom Disk System)
The following cores are available as additional modules (in core_modules folder):
- snes9x2010 (Super Famicom/Super Nintendo)
- gambatte_libretro (Game Boy, Game Boy Color)
- mgba (Game Boy Advance)
- genesis_plus_gx (Sega Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear)
- stella (Atari 2600)
- mednafen_pce_fast (PC Engine/Turbografx 16)
- fb_alpha and fb_alpha_cps2 (various arcade machines)
- picodrive (Sega Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Sega 32X)
How to use this
If you are using hakchi2:
- Make sure that you are using hakchi2 version 2.14 or newer.
- Go to 'releases' tab and download the newest retroarch_with_cores.zip.
- Drag-and-drop it on hakchi2 window.
- Press 'OK' button and follow instructions.
That's all. You can play near all NES games now as well as SNES, Genesis, N64, etc.
Important notes
- To use RetroArch for any NES game, just add '--retroarch' to command line arguments. Use it if some of your NES games glitches with original NES Mini's emulator.
- Also you can add '--retroarch' for SNES games on SNES Mini to use RetroArch instead of original emulator.
- To open RetroArch settings menu press Select + Start in game.
- To add RetroArch shortcut to NES Mini's shell, download and drag-and-drop CloverApp.zip to hakchi2.
- Make sure that your FDS games have .fds extension (NOT .nes) if you want to run them with built-in emulator (kachikachi)
Additional notes for expert users
- If you need to specify NES core, use '--retroarch --core fceumm' to use FCEUmm for this game or '--retroarch --core nestopia' to use Nestopia. Code fceumm will be used by default.
- To make your own RetroArch modules, use the structure from libretro_core_template.zip. Use exisiting modules as a reference.
- To add your own BIOS images for custom cores, use bios_template.zip (please read the readme.txt inside).
- To load arcade games that come in the form of ZIP archives, you'll need to change /bin/zip in game's command line arguments to /bin/fba or /bin/cps2 depending on the core needed for the game to run (look at 'Additional Information' section for all avaiable /bin/<> commands). For some cores like Final Burn Alpha, BIOS image (e.g. neogeo.zip for Neo-Geo) must be in the game directory.
- Since version 0.5, you'll need to upload neogeo.zip only once. Just put neogeo.zip to any Neo-Geo game you want, synchronize and launch it once for every other game to work automatically or just upload neogeo.zip to RA's system folder using BIOS template. You won't have to include neogeo.zip anymore unless you uninstall hakchi and decide to install it again.
- If the file extension of your game is not supported by hakchi2, you may need to change the path in command line arguments (in Hakchi2's game options) to make it point to the corresponding core
- To use Nestopia instead of FCEUmm for all games by default, install use_nestopia.hmod module from additional_mods.zip.
- To use PicoDrive for all Genesis/Mega Drive games instead of Genesis Plus GX, install use_picodrive.hmod module from additional_mods.zip. Make sure that picodrive module is installed before installing use_picodrive!
- You can re-enable bilinear filtering in RetroArch's settings (Settings —> Video —> Bilinear Filtering)
- If you want to use RetroArch's XMB UI instead of RGUI, install xmb_assets.hmod from additional_mods.zip and change Menu Driver in Settings —> Driver —> Menu Driver to 'xmb'
- You need BIOS file to play FDS on SNES Mini while NES Classic Mini already contains it
Executables and arguments for all available cores:
Known issues
- Nintendo 64 and CP System II save-states are not working, battery backups work fine
- Default CRT filter is not working, scanlines shader added instead but it's not working with all systems.
Credits
NES Mini port by madmonkey
NES Mini shell integration by Cluster
Various additions, tweaks and fixes by pcm720
RetroArch/libretro project: https://www.libretro.com
(c) 2017-2018
For a growing number of people, Retroarch is the ultimate hub of everything emulation-related. It doesn’t do Retroarch justice just to call it a “frontend” for every console emulator imaginable because all the great emulators can be integrated into it, downloaded and loaded up as “cores” within seconds. Such a vast platform with so much going on inevitably runs into problems however. ROMs may fail to scan, emulators run too slowly, and controllers don’t get detected.
Here, we’ll run through the most common Retroarch issues, and fixes to get it working again.
Related: How to Set Up RetroArch, The Open-Source Cross-Platform Retro Game Emulator
1. Game Slowdown and Audio Crackling
These two issues often go hand-in-hand, and you may particularly have experienced them on some of the more demanding cores like the Vulkan-based PS1 core Beetle PSX HW. No matter what graphical settings you change, the game suffers a ‘dragging’ effect on both video and sound that makes it extremely unpleasant to play.
After lots of poking around and futile settings tweaks, we found the solution in the simplest of the places – Windows Power Options. Go to the Windows Control Panel -> Power Options then change the “Preferred plan” to “High performance”. This option may be hiding under “Show additional plans” which you may have to click to see it. With High performance selected, your CPU will stop unnecessarily throttling your games.
2. Retroarch Not Scanning Roms
When you want to add ROMs or games to Retroarch, you should first make sure the databases are up to date by going to “Online Updater” from the Main Menu, then selecting “Update Databases”. This will ensure that Retroarch has the latest information when it comes to detecting your roms.
If you try adding ROMs using “Scan Directory” or “Scan File”, bear in mind that Retroarch will only scan for the file types associated with your already-installed cores, so to scan for games in the “cue” format, you’ll need to have a PS1 core installed, for example.
Another complication with scanning for PS1 games is that you need to have a “cue” file along with the main image file (BIN or ISO) for Retroarch to scan it. It’s not too hard to create these (you can use this online tool): just create the cue file in Notepad, give it the same name as the main file (but with “.cue” at the end), then chuck it in the same folder as the main image file.
3. Retroarch Crashing Before Game Loads
It’s tough to address such a broad issue without writing an essay about it. There are so many reasons why Retroarch may crash that we’ve decided to pick out some of the most common ones so that they hopefully apply to a wide spectrum of people.
Update your graphics card drivers. This one applies particularly to people on mid-lower-end systems, which may struggle with the fact that Retroarch runs on the OpenGL graphics API by default. You should go to the “retroarch” config (CFG) file in your Retroarch directory, open it with Notepad (or, to make the information clearer, Notepad++), and change the “video_driver” option from “gl” to “d3d,’ then save your change. You won’t be able to use the slick XMB-style Retroarch UI anymore, but more importantly, you should be able to run games.
Another option for people on older operating systems or with older hardware is to download the “MSVC” versions of Retroarch instead of the default MinGW version. MSVC2005 is designed for pre-Windows XP systems, while MSVC2010 is from Windows XP onwards, but some people have reported that it helps them even when using Windows 10 on older machines, so it’s worth a pop.
4. Cores Not Downloading
So you’re trying to download the cores/emulators for all your favorite home consoles, but it’s not working. There’s a chance that the core updater in Retroarch isn’t linked to the place where it sources its cores.
Open the “retroarch.cfg” file in your Retroarch directory (again, Notepad or Notepad++), then one of the first options should be ‘core_updater_buildbot_url=”http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/x/x/x” where the x-es represent whatever system you’re on.
If this is blank, you need to manually enter the URL that you want to source your cores from. Go to “buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/” in your web browser, then navigate to the directory on the site that corresponds to your system (/windows/x86_64/, for example).
Eventually, you’ll reach a folder called “latest.” Click this to see all the cores available for your system, then copy the URL into the Retroarch config file. (If you want, you can actually download cores directly from here, and stick them in the “cores” folder in your Retroarch directory.)
Save the change in the config file, and Retroarch should now be able to download cores for you.
5. PS1 Cores Not Working
Of all the cores on Retroarch, the PS1 ones are probably the trickiest to get working. It’s not too complicated, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. First up, you’ll need to track down and download three very specific BIOS files for the PS1. (Just do a Google search.) The ones you need are SCPH5500, SCPH5501 and SCPH5502, and you need to chuck them in the “system” folder in your Retroarch directory.
Note: the SCPH files need to be named just as they are above. If the file is called “SCPH_5501” or whatever, that won’t do. You just need to rename it to “SCPH5501.”
Another thing is that the PSX games need to be extracted and have both the “bin” and “cue” files in the same folder to work properly.
Conclusion
These fixes are just the tip of the iceberg for getting Retroarch working again, and we accept that there are probably problems that we haven’t covered here. If you run into any Retroarch trouble, let us know in the comments, and we’ll research fixes to add to this list in the future. Happy gaming.
This article was first published in Dec 2017, and was updated in Dec 2018.