How to Set Up RetroArch, The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Games Emulator

Wish you could browse a massive collection of retro games from your couch without connecting a bunch of systems or cobbling together various emulators? RetroArch makes it possible. This all-in-one emulation station can run almost any retro game imaginable.

What Is RetroArch?

RetroArch isn’t itself an emulator; instead, it’s a free, open-source frontend capable of running a wide number of emulators. It simply provides a consolidated view of all your emulators in an easy-to-use interface. The individual emulators within RetroArch are called “cores,” and you’re going to need to download the appropriate cores for the games you want to run, but more on that later.

RetroArch is available on a great range of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, PlayStation, Xbox, Wii, and many more.

RetroArch is awesome but it can be a little tricky to set up. Today we’ll be focusing on the Windows (PC) setup, but the steps are similar for the other platforms.

First Download RetroArch

Head to the RetroArch home page, then click the “Downloads” tab. Here, you’ll find the latest release for your platform. Click on “Download Stable.” While you could download the Nightly, it’s a daily release that’s more experimental, as it’s primarily there for testing purposes.

The website should recognize your OS automatically and provide the correct download link, but if it doesn’t, you can scroll down and choose the installer manually.

Once the installer finishes downloading, launch it directly from the browser or your download folder. The installer is fairly straightforward. Follow the on-screen instructions, wait a few minutes for RetroArch to finish installing, then launch it from your desktop or the Start Menu.

Configure RetroArch and Your Controllers

The default RetroArch user interface can be overwhelming at first, throwing you directly into a menu of configuration options. Don’t worry: you can change the default theme to make it look and feel more like the PlayStation 3 interface.

To change it, head over to Settings > Drivers > Menu. Select “xmb,” then close and reopen RetroArch. You’ll be greeted with a more user-friendly interface.

While you can navigate the interface with your mouse, it’s easier to use the menu with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Up and down scrolls through the list; right and left jumps from one menu to another, indicated by the icons at the top of the screen. “Enter” lets you select a menu item, “Backspace” lets you jump back a level.

Of course, if you want to browse your collection from the couch with a gamepad, the first thing you want to do is set up your controller to work with RetroArch. In our tests, an Xbox One controller connected via Bluetooth worked out-of-the-box, but if your controller isn’t working to browse the menu—or you want to configure the buttons differently—we can change that.

With your keyboard, go to the Settings menu, which is represented by a two-gear icon at the top of the screen. Scroll down to “Input,” then hit Enter.

Now go to RetroPad Binds > Port 1 Controls > Set All Controls. Click that, and you can map each button to your gamepad. You’ll have a few seconds to press each button, so if you find that you run out of time too quickly, set each individual binding manually below or go back to the “Input” menu and increase the length under “Bind Timeout.”

RetroArch bindings work across all emulators and are designed to consistently mimic the gamepads that came with the appropriate systems. You can always go back to the “Input” menu to create new profiles and reconfigure the bindings to match the controller of the console you’re trying to emulate, but you can also configure things differently if you prefer.

Once this is set up, you can navigate the RetroArch menus using only your gamepad, so put the keyboard away if you don’t want it. If you’re setting up a multiplayer rig, repeat this process for all of your controllers. It will all be worth it, I promise.

Now Download Some Emulators (aka “Cores”)

Now that you’ve learned how to navigate RetroArch, it’s time to download some emulators, or “Cores,” as RetroArch calls them. Remember, RetroArch only provides the interface, so it’s up to you to configure the emulators.

But don’t fire up your browser: you can install cores from inside RetroArch. Head back to the first column in RetroArch, then scroll down to “Online Updater.”

Select “Core Downloader,” the first item in the resulting menu. From here, you can download a wide variety of cores. Scroll through the menu and download as many cores as you like. Cores are sorted by the systems they emulate, so download cores for all of your games.

If you’re not sure which core to choose for a particular system, don’t worry. You can experiment to find out which cores work best later. For the most part, however, they should be similar, so for now, just choose one that’s relevant to the game or collection you want to play.

Add Your ROM Collection

Now that you’ve added some cores, it’s time to add your ROMs. We’ll assume you already have a collection of ROMs for this guide.

RetroArch can scan a folder full of ROMs and organize them for you. From the main menu, head to “Import Content” and pick “Scan Directory.” Browse your file system until you find your folder full of ROMs, then select “Scan This Directory.” For instance, our ROM folder was located in documents, so we headed to C:\Users\*username*\OneDrive\Documents\ROMs.

Yellow text at the bottom of the screen will show you your progress. Once everything is done, head back to the home screen, and you’ll see a new icon: the controllers for each system for which you’ve added ROMs. Use the right arrow key or your controller to access these menus and browse the games.

From here, you can browse your game collection. Run them by pressing Enter and selecting “Run.” You’ll be asked which core you want to run the game with. Pick one, then press “Run” again, and you’ll finally be brought to a screen from which you can run the game.

Congratulations! You’ve now got a pretty cool emulation setup that you can control from your couch. Get to playing!

Keep Tweaking, If You Want To

Eagle-eyed readers no doubt noticed the thumbnails shown in the above step. You can find these thumbnails in the “Online Updater” section where you downloaded cores. Under “Playlist Thumbnails Updater,” select the systems for which you’ve added ROMs, and you’ll now have the thumbnails baked into the interface.

Actually, while you’re in the Online Updater, you might as well update the core info files, assets, and everything else. It’s just a matter of scrolling down the list and selecting everything.

Power users should also check out the “Settings” tab, where they can find Video, Audio, and a variety of other settings. Most people likely won’t have to tweak any of this stuff, but power users will love diving in and making RetroArch work perfectly.

RetroArch has simplified retro gaming on modern devices in many ways. First, it provides an integrated, easy-to-use interface, and second, it allows you to download dozens of emulators in seconds. If you haven’t emulated games before, this is your sign to try and relive some of that good old gaming nostalgia!