Emulation Homebrew NXStation — ES-DE-style frontend for RetroArch on Switch

• Cloud Save — Settings → Cloud Save: link Google account, Backup Saves to Cloud, optional Auto Cloud Save when you return from a game (full ZIP of RetroArch saves + states)
• Cloud Restore — pick a backup from Drive, merge into your current RetroArch paths; local pre-restore ZIP; progress log; hold B 3 seconds to abort
• Settings hub — six sections instead of one long list: App & Launcher, Emulator and Systems, Appearance and Control, Cloud Save, Scraper, Help and About
• Playtime rankings — Y menu → Playtime Analytics: top games/systems by playtime and by how often you opened them
• Launch tracking — NXStation counts library launches even when RetroArch runtime logs are off
• cloud.log — backup/restore details at sdmc:/switch/NXStation/log/cloud.log
• Settings nav fix — D-pad works immediately (no more needing to open Y menu first)
• Auto backup polish — skips quietly when offline, no saves, or backup already running

• ES-DE-compatible folder layout and media (gamelist.xml, box art, thumbnails)
• ScreenScraper.fr integration — single game or batch scrape; caches on SD card for offline browsing
• Optional PDF game manuals from scrape (off by default) — read in-app with cover/spread, zoom, pan
• Google Drive cloud backup & restore for RetroArch save files and save states (Settings → Cloud Save)
• RetroArch as the emulator backend (per-system cores in config); optional standalone Tico cores for GameCube / Wii / 3DS
• List / carousel views (fade / slide / none transitions), favorites, last played (date + time)
• Search, jump-to-letter, random pick, screensaver
• Optional video previews in the game list (needs full RAM — see below)
• Launch zoom + fade handoff before RetroArch
• Playtime Analytics + Personality Metrics + play rankings (main carousel Y menu)
• NXStation session tracking for games launched from the library (playtime + launch counts)
• Organized Settings hub — App, Emulator, Appearance, Cloud Save, Scraper, Help
• Settings → Check for Updates from GitHub Releases
• Hide Empty Systems default On; edit roms_config.json then Scan / Rescan (no full restart)
• Built-in color themes (dark/light sets) and some customization
• Optional Home Menu forwarder install from Settings (Title Override required to install)

• Each backup is a new timestamped ZIP on Google Drive — full re-zip + upload, not an in-place patch
• Auto Cloud Save runs once when you return to NXStation after playing (if enabled, linked, online, and saves exist)
• NXStation cloud backups are not the same format as RetroArch’s own cloud backup
• Link Google account once under Settings → Cloud Save; see cloud.log if something fails

• Modded Switch with homebrew (Atmosphere, etc.)
• RetroArch for Switch installed (sdmc:/switch/retroarch_switch.nro and cores under sdmc:/retroarch/cores/ as usual)
• Title Override is required. Hold R on a game icon on the Home Menu, launch homebrew from there, then start NXStation. The normal Homebrew Menu applet mode does not have enough RAM for video previews, caching, and stable launching — the app will tell you if you started wrong.
• Optional: ScreenScraper.fr account for scraping; Wi-Fi when you scrape, check for updates, or use cloud backup
• Optional: enable RetroArch Save runtime log for richest playtime analytics (NXStation still tracks library launches without it)
• Cloud backup/restore: internet + linked Google account (Settings → Cloud Save)

• Download NXStation.nro from GitHub releases (or Settings → Check for Updates if you already have v0.1.8+)
• Copy to sdmc:/switch/NXStation/NXStation.nro
• Put ROMs in sdmc:/roms/{system}/ (example: sdmc:/roms/snes/)
• Launch via Title Override as above
• Optional: Settings → Cloud Save → link Google account before enabling auto backup

sdmc:/roms/
├── snes/
│   └── some_game.sfc
├── nes/
└── gba/

• Releases: GitHub — NXStation releases (v0.3.0: tag)
• Blog / v0.3.0 notes: nxstation.com/blog/0.3.0.html
• Source / issues: github.com/jiraiya78/NXStation
• Project page: nxstation.com
• Wiki: nxstation.com/wiki.html
• Blog index: nxstation.com/blog.html

• Early release — expect bugs, missing polish, and things I have not thought of yet
• No ROMs, BIOS, or RetroArch in the project; frontend only
• Standalone Tico cores are not included in playtime analytics the same way as RetroArch library launches
• Cloud save backs up RetroArch save/state files — not a full SD image or ROM library sync
• Some planned ideas (grid view, background music, in-app RetroArch auto save/resume) are not in yet
• I am not affiliated with Nintendo, RetroArch, ES-DE, or Tico — just a user building what I needed

tehrzky said:

so if put all my es-de themes, all function, design will work? tnx.
btw font color you use is hard to read. lol

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nWo said:

This looks awesome. Sadly I moved out of retroarch a couple years ago. Man, this would have been a DREAM back in those years. Nevertheless, for the current and new users, it's a total blast!! Thanks for your work.

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tehrzky said:

forum font. ik its because im using light theme of gbatemp. im just pointing that out that on light theme its hard to read the content.

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cebolleto said:

Amazing work!!

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Ligeia said:

There is a PS2 core on retroarch Switch ??

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• Library index cache on SD — ROM lists survive returning from RetroArch without a full rescan
• Virtualized game list — large libraries (600–900+ games) open and respond like small ones
• Manual & first-launch scanning with smooth progress UI
• Y-menu tools — Search, Jump to Letter, Jump to System, metadata popup, Rename/Delete ROM, per-system scan
• Custom ROMs path — point NXStation at a shared ROM root (e.g. sdmc/tico/roms) instead of sdmc:/roms
• Scrape reliability — skip titles that already have art, persist metadata per game, clearer errors
• Modal UI fixes — overlay no longer blocks A / X / Y / L / R after Jump to Letter; metadata dialog centered with proper focus

• Completion sound when a scrape batch finishes (NES-style placeholder)
• Scan Games in the Y menu on the main carousel (full library) and in the game list (current system only)
• First-launch library scan with a centered progress screen (system name + Processing X/Y games)
• Library index cache on SD (data/cache/library_index.json) so the ROM list survives NRO handoff relaunches (e.g. returning from RetroArch)
• Custom ROMs Path in Settings — browse for a different ROM root; triggers an automatic rescan
• Folders & Logs screen in Settings — all data/settings/log paths in one scrollable view
• Left analog stick browses the system carousel (hold to auto-repeat), in addition to D-pad and L/R
• Jump to System in the main Y menu
• Favorites / Last Played rows show a short system acronym (SNES, MEGADRIVE, PSX, …)
• Rename ROM and Delete ROM in the game list Y menu and on the metadata popup
• Metadata popup shows the ROM filename to tell similar/duplicate files apart
• changelog.md for release notes (in repo)

• Library scan runs once on first start; further updates are manual via Scan Games or Settings → Rescan Libraries
• Scraper log no longer auto-scrolls after a batch finishes so you can review entries before pressing B
• Screensaver video has top padding so previews are not flush with the screen edge
• Switch stays awake during scraping (screen may dim; auto-sleep disabled until scrape ends)
• Game list loads a system on demand if the in-memory index is missing but the library was previously scanned
• Startup reloads the library from cache when available; falls back to a one-time rescan only if the cache is missing
• Library scan progress (Processing X/Y games) updates smoothly at display refresh rate instead of jumping to the final count
• Game list is a virtualized/recycled list — only visible rows are built, fixing severe input lag on large libraries
• Settings About version reflects the actual build version instead of a hardcoded string
• Metadata opens as a centered popup dialog instead of a full screen
• Scraper status lines no longer repeat the title after OK
• Scraper errors use clearer wording (e.g. No match (HTTP 404), Server rejected (HTTP 403))

• Game list appearing empty after returning from RetroArch until browsing away and back
• Game list focus highlight showing behind the Y menu on large libraries
• Large lists (600+ games) stutter while building; Y menu blocked until the list finished building
• Scrape Missing Art skipping games that already have art on SD (checks ES-DE image folders, not only the scraped flag)
• Scrape metadata and library cache persisting after each successful game so aborted batches do not cause re-scrapes
• Game list refreshing from AppState after scrape so the next batch uses up-to-date metadata
• Jump to letter skipping starred games pinned at the top, landing in the alphabetical list
• Blank gap under the system name in the game list (empty recycler section header measured as a full row)
• Fast L/R page scrolling desyncing selection highlight from art/preview; A now launches the previewed game consistently
• Selection rectangle briefly flashing behind the system title when holding R during page scroll
• After Jump to Letter / Search / metadata / scan modals, A / X / Y / L / R stopped working (stuck overlay block)
• Selection highlight no longer floats over metadata popup or system scan screen; video preview stops while those are open
• Game list behind the metadata popup can no longer be navigated
• Metadata popup middle-centered again (content no longer wider than the dialog frame)
• Metadata popup focus limited to Rename / Delete; B closes; D-pad no longer selects the whole panel

• PlayStation 2 (ps2) from the default roms_config.json (no practical PS2 core on Switch)

sdmc:/switch/NXStation/NXStation.nro

• Check for Updates in Settings — pulls the latest NXStation.nro from GitHub Releases (restart after install)
• Last Played shows real date + time (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM), newest first, using the Switch clock / timezone
• Fixed Last Played times all collapsing to the same clock time after relaunch (JSON dump precision bug)
• RetroArch no longer sticks on the “Nintendo Wii/GameCube (Dolphin)” boot banner for other systems (including zip/7z)
• NXStation.log auto-trims at launch when larger than 512 KiB

• Removed 3ds from the default systems list (no practical RA 3DS core on Switch); existing configs auto-prune it
• Before each launch, NXStation rewrites retroarch-salamander.cfg libretro_path to the core being launched

• If Last Played times still look identical, re-launch those games once so timestamps are rewritten
• Existing settings/ and data/ on SD are kept
• In-app updater needs internet; first install of this version is still a manual NRO copy if you do not have the updater yet

• Atmosphere / homebrew + Title Override
• RetroArch Switch NRO + cores under sdmc:/retroarch/cores/
• ROMs under sdmc:/roms/ (or custom path in Settings)

zenjiki said:

Looks really nice and good to see RA alternatives coming out. Using Tico right now and wondering if NXstation also improves cores by adding Vulkan to PSP and Dreamcast core?

Just to clarify, does this just use the exact cores used on RA with no changes, and its just a different way to launch the cores?

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sdmc:/switch/NXStation/NXStation.nro

• PDF game manuals — scrape Manual (off by default); read in-app (cover+spread, zoom, pan)
• Playtime Analytics + Personality Metrics from RetroArch logs (enable runtime logging in RA)
• More default systems: Atari 5200/7800/Lynx/Jaguar/ST, GC, Wii, Saturn, Arcade, 3DS (28 total)
• Tico standalone cores for gc/wii/3ds — place NROs in NXStation/cores/, set Core Paths (experimental)
• Carousel fade; launch zoom + fade; Hide Empty Systems default On
• Website Wiki + Blog

• Enable RetroArch Save runtime log for analytics
• Edit roms_config.json then Scan — no restart needed
• Existing settings/ and data/ are kept

cebolleto said:

I finally found some time to play with this thing
It looks really cool and the best part of it is that it can share roms, screenshots and videos with pemu, another of my favorites on switch
I've found a a few issues and also have a few suggestions if you want to implement them

Bugs:
- The screensaver was freezing the app all the time, specially when putting it in the background. But even worse than that it was completelly freezing the switch, I thought I had to restart it a couple of times until I realized what was going on. After disabling it, everything was ok
- It eventually crashes, not sure if it's a memory leak or what, an error appears saying the app has been closed
- Closing the rom in retroarch return to the hbmenu instead of nxstation, which I think it's a limitation of the system... even after installing the forwarder
- There is no way to close the app... maybe pressing - or back in main menu will just do it? Or maybe an exit option in the menu?

Suggestions (mostly based on pfbneo which I use a lot)
- The scroll velocity should increment when you keep the down or up button pressed, that way reaching roms that are waaay below becomes easier
- It would be great if the font could be smaller and we have more room for the thumbnails and videos.Right now they look smaller compared to pfbneo
- Could we use the left stick to scroll the game description? This is something I've been missing on pbneo since the beggining. Also in the rom info

Other than that I am already using this as my main rom launcher right now, it supports way more systems than pemu does and the fact that you can dowload videos and thimbanils from the app is a phantastic feature, Thanks a lot for this!

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• That’s definitely unexpected behavior. The app has been very stable on both my original Switch and my Switch Lite, and those specific issues (screensaver crashes, random crashes, and dropping back to hbmenu) were actually resolved in earlier builds. Since you mentioned forwarder, I assume you are already running with forwarder, as without it is not the intended use.
• BTW, make sure you are using latest 0.2.2 version ;p. Beyond 0.2.2, you can just use in app updater to update in the future, so it much easier without having to copy from pc.
• My Switch Lite is currently running FW 20.4.0 / AMS 1.9.4 (need to double-check my docked Switch's exact version later!).
• Could you confirm if your NRO is placed at sdmc:/switch/NXStation/NXStation.nro?
• If you're still running into this, could you share the all the log file (/switch/NXStation/log/*.*) here or open an issue on the GitHub repo? That will help me trace what's triggering the crash on your end.
• On closing the app, I intentionally left out an in-app quit button since the Switch OS automatically manages single-instance apps via the Home button. It actually used to be mapped to - in an early prototype. That said, if you feel there's a strong reason or workflow where a direct quit button is necessary, I'm open to suggestions.

• Great idea! I’ll definitely implement dynamic scrolling speed when holding Up/Down in the next build. In the meantime, you can use L / R to jump quickly through lists. It’s not variable speed yet, but it should help move through long ROM lists a bit faster.
• Since layout preferences vary a lot between users, my long-term plan is to expand theme customization, ideally aiming for something as flexible as ES-DE over time. I'll be rolling this out in stages, with a focus on backward compatibility so newer updates don't break older themes.
• On the left stick for description/metadata scroll, that’s a neat suggestion. I can look into adding this as a toggleable setting in a future update.

• Carousel Transition — Settings → Fade / Slide / None (system carousel + game preview panel)
• Softer dialogs — scale + fade open/close; Y menu and popups no longer flicker on close
• Accelerated list scrolling — hold D-pad Up/Down (one row) or L/R (8-game pages); speed ramps while held
• Right Stick Scroll — optional setting to scroll game descriptions in the list preview and metadata popup
• Right stick isolation — stick no longer moves list focus or metadata buttons; reserved for description scroll + manual zoom
• Manual viewer — horizontal slide between spreads; Cover + Spread / Single Page layout choice is remembered
• Launch zoom fix — box art keeps correct aspect ratio during the handoff animation (no stretch)
• Video preview crash fix — browsing many games with MP4 previews no longer trips FFmpeg swscale on some H.264 files
• Scrape fix — individual scrape no longer targets the wrong game when favorites/sort change list order
• Preview panel fix — selection preview updates correctly after accelerated navigation
• L/R paging in Y menu, scrape menu, and Jump to System when lists scroll
• Default **system order** updated in carousel and Settings (Arcade → … → PC Engine)

Souldbminer said:

There is no source code on your repo...

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cebolleto said:

Hi, that was fast!
I double checked and now when I quit a game it returns to NXStation intead of HBMenu... maybe it wasn't working because I was launching it from HBMenu instead of the forwarder

I have also re-enabled the screensaver, it is actually a nice feature, to just sit down and enjoy random videos of my collection

The right stick to scroll the game description is definitelly a great feature, I can finally read it! There is a small issue though, it still auto scrolls by default, I think the auto scroll should be disabled when this option is enabled to avoid conflicts between them. I am also missing a visual scroll bar (there is one in the metadata window)

The scroll speed is also a nice feature, could it go even faster? PFbneo it's faster, I am probably used to that

I was thinking on a few more small features if you have time
- A small scroll bar on the rom list to give you an idea of how long it is (or maybe just a label with the current index similar to how retroarch does it 22/336 )
- The video plays very fast, could you add a video delay option? or being able to move between video, box art and thumbnail with left/right using the right stick (like in retroarch)
- The carrousel is nice, but having the option to select the current system using the same menu for the rom list could be a good adition. Instead of the rom list you'll have the systems list, with a thumbnail of any of them and a small description
- How do you create images for the carrousel? I have added zxspectrum but it is using the placeholder


I am really enjoying NXStation, thanks a lot for all the updates!!

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• Description auto scroll - you are right, I should stop that. After further test, the auto scroll resume after about 2.5 to 3secs, which feel quite ok but yes, i should stop that auto-scroll after user intervention.
• Missing visual scroll bar for game description - I believe removing visual scroll bar make the preview panel more cleaner overall, while having that in metadata is OK since it is a dedicated screen for that. I think am more prone to make that remain for now but we will see in the future.
• Scroll speed - the up/down keypad is definitely slower even at fast speed but have you tried using L/R? Or is it unconvenient to use it for browsing? BTW, I am thinking of trying 3 stage of speed, so we will see how this pan out in next update.
• Scroll bar for rom - Easy addition, adding this into setting as toggled option in upcoming update.
• Video preview delay - You are right. i might change the default delay to longer and might also add option in setting to change it to cater for various user preferences.
• Systems in List Form instead Carousel - This is also one of the themeable feature that I hope to implement when the theme feature fully flesh and probably in stages. For now, i will see if this can be implemented easily with toggleable option in settings. In the original prototype, the systems list is actually a list before it became carousel because i am using borealis which mostly by default a list UI. You see, prototyping and implementing UI is not that difficult but the performance cost and that jerky unsmooth feeling that come with it that will be more difficult to sculpt and tune.
• For the theme, i have create a quite detail wiki at https://nxstation.com/wiki.html#wiki-themes. Try refer to that but if it is still not working, it could be a bug. please do update me. I will also add zxspectrum into default system in upcoming update.

Souldbminer said:

Yet another closed source slop project. It is not ok to advertise having source code then not giving it. Time to RE it out of spite

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