So i have several standalone emulators on my PC. I have many of them so it gets annoying to find a different one because there's so many! I was gonna ask, should i delete my standalones and just get retroarch? Is retroarch better?
Retroarch or standalones?
- Thread starter Bagel Le Stinky
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Personally I prefer standalone as they always have more options and are a lot easier to use but that's just me 
RetroArch just never rubbed me the right way. Every time I wonder if it's gotten better and install the latest version (because I do like the concept of it), it's instability, an obtuse user interface, lack of customization compared to the standalone emulators it takes its cores from, crashes and lag all over. And it does this on Windows, Linux, my Switch, my Android phone, everywhere. I have never had a good experience with RetroArch. It's a shame, really. They can port the thing to work on a battery with an LED taped to it, but none of those ports work well.
In many cases standalone emulators will perform a little better and have more options.
However, here are a few reasons why I love and use RetroArch instead whenever possible:
However, here are a few reasons why I love and use RetroArch instead whenever possible:
- Big community and thus many tutorials
- Runs on many host systems which comes with many "sub-advantages":
- You can have multiple things at one single place (like a USB drive or stick) that you carry around all those host systems and use the directory settings on each host's RetroArch installment to point to that drive. This way you can keep (for example) the following things only once at one place:
- menu assets
- cheats files
- savegames (very nice!)
- savestates (very nice too!)
- thumbnails (for playlists)
- "system folder" (containing all the BIOS files for the many cores)
and of course
- roms - You only have to "understand" how RetroArch works once, then you can use that knowledge to enjoy it on many platforms while you may have to use standalone emulator X to emulate a Nintendo DS on a PC but standalone emulator Y to emulate a Nintendo DS on an Android phone
- While it's not certain that you can continue a savegame you've started on host X with standalone emulator X on host Y with standalone emulator Y, this is (in most cases) guaranteed with RetroArch - just copy over your save games from one host to another and continue or keep them at a central place like a USB drive (as written in 2.1.) that you attach to each host you're going to
- You can have multiple things at one single place (like a USB drive or stick) that you carry around all those host systems and use the directory settings on each host's RetroArch installment to point to that drive. This way you can keep (for example) the following things only once at one place:
- RetroAchievements
- Fantastic for big collections of different systems -> everything is organized in nice playlists with preview images / thumbnails for each game
- If your controller/gamepad is detected by RetroArch, it will work in all of its cores (given it has enough buttons for each system) while you have to hope for each single standalone emulator that it will work with your gamepad
Is there a way to link Retroarch via FTP to my server hosting my games.
I can do it via tinfoil but it only seems to boot rom files, itll boot Retroarch and load the game, but it cant do it if its an iso file.
So i was wondering can I add my server in Retroarch and map each folder to the console core and stream my games rather than clutter my sd card.
I can do it via tinfoil but it only seems to boot rom files, itll boot Retroarch and load the game, but it cant do it if its an iso file.
So i was wondering can I add my server in Retroarch and map each folder to the console core and stream my games rather than clutter my sd card.
This sort of stuff (minus the achievements, those are lame af) is why I really want to like Retroarch even though it's an absolute piece of shit. I really do hope it someday manages to not suck, because it's such a great idea!
stand alone is p much always better feature wise, but if you're just looking for relatively simple aio emulation retroarch is nice
Try running PCE accuracy on Mednafen... it's a real pain without Retroarch. I think 360/Xbox One controllers work out of the box because of windows. On retroarch DS4 and most usb controllers work out of the box
The PCE accuracy core is now on Retroarch (I think it is called PCE Beetle) and the least accurate is called PCE Fast. Using a AMD 3300X (Ryzen 3) with GT 1030 and Ryzen 3200G both work fine. I don't know the spec requirement s for Mednafen PCE Accurate but just like its Retroarch port PCE Beetle I assume any modern i3, i5 or Ryzen 2 will work without issues.
I wish there was a good GUI for mednafen but there isn't. Retroarch just works fine for Super CD, SuperGrafx, etc.
The PCE accuracy core is now on Retroarch (I think it is called PCE Beetle) and the least accurate is called PCE Fast. Using a AMD 3300X (Ryzen 3) with GT 1030 and Ryzen 3200G both work fine. I don't know the spec requirement s for Mednafen PCE Accurate but just like its Retroarch port PCE Beetle I assume any modern i3, i5 or Ryzen 2 will work without issues.
I wish there was a good GUI for mednafen but there isn't. Retroarch just works fine for Super CD, SuperGrafx, etc.
Last edited by weolkrman,
