THIS is all that setup stuff I was talking about that makes retroarch so cumbersome and bad for the average user.Well I don't really want to bash the excellent and amazing work in RetroArch, but I understand the perspective.
I'm an experienced user (though relatively new to the Wii U) and I had some trouble getting RetroArch working. it's still flaky for me... I can load it using the forwarder but not from HBL. Not only that I get into some menu options and then can't get out (themes and appearance). I know I must have some issues with the installation or a bad nightly.
But.. the emulation IS very very good and there are just so many cores available. It's totally worth the time and effort.
That being said I really miss the dedicated emulator user experience. Just the dedicated GUI and plug and play experience. I'd like to be able to have my wife and 9 year old be able to just be able to go in the emulator and play games. SNES GX for the Wii is a good example of this, and for now SNES emulation is pretty much the most important thing to me. Isn't the SNES great? What a software library and legacy! But I digress...
The thing is that I think RetroArch can do much much more... part of the problem is certainly my ignorance but some kind of rich front-end would be a god-send. Stuff that I need to figure out (again many of these are because I lack knowledge and I'm somewhat lazy I guess):
1. Improving the GUI. The PC version has a better GUI. I don't understand why I can only get a weird and terrible washed out white menu system (where text is kind of hard to read) or a green low res font on black background. It sounds like others have been able to fix this, but not me. I'm sure the problem here is somewhere between the chair and the keyboard.
2. Setting up directories. I haven't figured out how to set custom directories for the respective cores.
3. Eliminating cores that I don't care about. I probably don't need or want 5 SNES cores and I'm not likely to play Amstrad CPC games (and others). This is probably dead easy (like delete the files easy) but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
4. Figure out thumbnails. RetroArch seems to have a thumbnail capability... I'd like to have game art and a nice looking chooser, so if that's what this is I'm in. I havent a clue how to make it work. I downloaded the thumbnails package but it doesn't do anything for me.
5. Set up favorites. I sort of have this working. It would be nice if I didn't have to select the core every time.
6. Themes and appearance leave me in a state where I can't back out and I have no options... if I mash a bunch of buttons the Search panel comes up. I can usually get out of search but that's it. Hard boot time every time.
This probably should be in the RetroArch thread but like I said I need to put some time into it.
At least it works for me now!
also, i think your white menu system is possibly because you have to download the "assets" package separately (because, of course you do ???). Look at the setting up xmb thingy here https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-wiiu-wip.447670/