Homebrew RetroArch Switch

Eosos

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Quick question from a total noob. I just installed retroarch after following this tutorial:

The tutorial essentially gets Atmosphere 0.8.5 up on the switch and then you can download things from the HB App Store. So I downloaded retroarch and installed the Mupen64 core.

1) Whenever I start a GBA ROM the game runs in a super small box up on the top right of the switch. Has anyone encountered and fixed this before? I'd like to do fullscreen and the video settings don't seem to affect anything (I've tried changing the aspect ratios)
2) I can't get a N64 game to run for the life of me. I did the max overclock in the settings of Retroarch, but the game never runs and I just get an 'unexpected error' message.

Any help is super appreciated!!
 

the_randomizer

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Quick question from a total noob. I just installed retroarch after following this tutorial:

The tutorial essentially gets Atmosphere 0.8.5 up on the switch and then you can download things from the HB App Store. So I downloaded retroarch and installed the Mupen64 core.

1) Whenever I start a GBA ROM the game runs in a super small box up on the top right of the switch. Has anyone encountered and fixed this before? I'd like to do fullscreen and the video settings don't seem to affect anything (I've tried changing the aspect ratios)
2) I can't get a N64 game to run for the life of me. I did the max overclock in the settings of Retroarch, but the game never runs and I just get an 'unexpected error' message.

Any help is super appreciated!!


Which GBA core are you running?
 

hallo23

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1) Whenever I start a GBA ROM the game runs in a super small box up on the top right of the switch. Has anyone encountered and fixed this before? I'd like to do fullscreen and the video settings don't seem to affect anything (I've tried changing the aspect ratios)
You should play around with the driver/video settings in retroarch. There are also specific core settings regarding the video settings. Just test around a bit.

2) I can't get a N64 game to run for the life of me. I did the max overclock in the settings of Retroarch, but the game never runs and I just get an 'unexpected error' message.

1.Are you launching Retroarch with a .nsp/full ram access?
2.Download this n64 core https://m4xw.net/nextcloud/index.php/s/n87e8ycGGgfTM6L and put in your retroarch\core folder on your sd card.
 
Last edited by hallo23,

spelda

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Hey guys, I have a question. I'm trying to install RetroArch as an .nsp via Tinfoil but I always get this error and don't know what I'm doing wrong.

For further information on how I modded to my Switch:

1. Bought it used (unmodded) on v7.0.1 and downgraded to v6.2 with AMS 0.8.4
2. I could run RetroArch v1.7.6 through the album fine but wanted the full ram for n64
3. I used the nro2nsp converter on my retroarch.nro file and tried to install it through tinfoil v0.2.1
4. I always get the following attached error

Now I can't even use RetroArch through the album anymore. It loads up fine and I can select a game but as soon as I want to run it RetroArch crashes. I tried several different games (gba,nes,snes,gbc) and non of them work anymore even though they worked before (the screen just stays white several seconds while trying to load and then it crashes).

Hope someone knows what the problem is. Thanks for helping!
 

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m4xw

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Hey guys, I have a question. I'm trying to install RetroArch as an .nsp via Tinfoil but I always get this error and don't know what I'm doing wrong.

For further information on how I modded to my Switch:

1. Bought it used (unmodded) on v7.0.1 and downgraded to v6.2 with AMS 0.8.4
2. I could run RetroArch v1.7.6 through the album fine but wanted the full ram for n64
3. I used the nro2nsp converter on my retroarch.nro file and tried to install it through tinfoil v0.2.1
4. I always get the following attached error

Now I can't even use RetroArch through the album anymore. It loads up fine and I can select a game but as soon as I want to run it RetroArch crashes. I tried several different games (gba,nes,snes,gbc) and non of them work anymore even though they worked before (the screen just stays white several seconds while trying to load and then it crashes).

Hope someone knows what the problem is. Thanks for helping!
Yea dont do any of this.
Follow this guide https://docs.libretro.com/guides/install-libnx/
 
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hallo23

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just tryed to play ps1 game but it did not show the rom or any of the cores.

PS1 game work with the "PCSX ReARMed" core.
But for some reason RetroArch has problems with adding PS1 .bins to a playlist so you have to setup the playlist by yourself.

You can try and use the Playlist buddy for that:
Making lists

One of the toughest parts involved in getting the best RetroArch has to offer is setting up the "playlist" files (.lpl) which allow you to make put preset games into an easily-accessible place in the GUI, rather than having to go through the filebrowser and reload cores.

These files are stored in the "playlist" folder. Like most other paths, you can set your own in Retroarch under Settings > Directory.

You can generate your list using Online Updater, though this is prone to fail if you have a large number of games. The PC build of Retroarch can generate lists and the format is compatible with the Switch; or alternatively you can use RetroArch Playlist Buddy to generate your playlists and thumbnails.

Here's how to set up Playlist Buddy:
View attachment 96632

In this example playlists and thumbnails will be stored in /retroarch/cores
To make the process painless always prefer NO-INTRO rom sets as they have a standard naming convention. It helps the program match your roms with the images in Retroarch database.

It's recommended that your "roms" folder has this folder structure:
tuto_ra_thumb_pl-png.146024
 

mikifantastik98

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I used the nro2nsp converter on my retroarch.nro file and tried to install it through tinfoil v0.2.1
Retroarch nro2nsp APP works very well.
but...
can only be installed with Goldleaf 0.5 (nightly)
tinfoil does not install this type of nsp ... on FW 7.0.x

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

You can try and use the Playlist buddy for that:
very good Tool !
thanks !!!
 
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Link2811

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Haha, I did the same thing today, after searching and no finding anyone talking about that (I wanted to know if it works for N64)

It's working flawlessly ! ^_^
 
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notimp

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That’s great info, thanks. Might explain why half of my N64 games are not being detected. The CRC thing is particularly frustrating if using translated roms.
Just built some manual playlists for another system, so I have the search/replace codes ready. :)

The following relies on a texteditor (that supports regex (Regular expression), or grep) only. Notepad++ for example does.

Presuming you can get a list of all your filenames in the folder.

First search for:
Code:
\n
and replace all with:
Code:
\n/media/retroarch/roms/n64/

Where /media/retroarch/roms/n64/ is the systems local path where your roms are stored at (its different on the Switch - the line above is for my PS Classic).

This will add the path to every filename, except the first one (copy that in manually), the lines in your text file should now look like this:

/media/retroarch/roms/n64/007 - Golden Eye (U).zip

Then do the following search/replace and you will end up with a wellformed lpl file. The line for the crc checksum of each rom is blanked out (so Retroarch will not use it).

Search:
Code:
/media/retroarch/roms/N64/([^\n]+)\.zip
Replace with:
Code:
/media/retroarch/roms/N64/\1\.zip\n\1\n/media/retroarch/cores/mupen64plus_libretro.so\nMupen64Plus\n\nNintendo - Nintendo 64.lpl

Result will be:

/media/retroarch/roms/N64/007 - Golden Eye (U).zip
007 - Golden Eye (U)
/media/retroarch/cores/mupen64plus_libretro.so
Mupen64Plus

Nintendo - Nintendo 64.lpl


for every game.

Replace with Core path, Core name and playlist name, as you see fit (for other systems). If your roms are not in .zip format, replace that as well.

Thats a thing of 10 seconds in a text editor. :) If you dont want to use the Playlistbuddy tool. :)
 
Last edited by notimp,

FanboyKilla

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So using nro2nsp to convert the retroarch.nro into an installable NSP gives full RAM access to it?

It doesn't convert the NRO to an NSP, all you're doing is creating an NSP file that is basically a "Shortcut" that redirects to the OFFICIAL RetroArch NRO file. People keep confusing this with the NSP file that RetroArch came with once upon a time. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING! The original RetroArch NSP wasn't a "Shortcut" like when using Nro2Nsp, but instead it basically contained what is now in the NRO file.

Seems to! Working great for me. Although, I’ll let @m4xw chime in and let us know why we should/ shouldn’t be doing it.

He already responded to this question in the dynarec thread and the only reason given was "it's not future proof in any way". So I guess as long as you realize that using NSP forwarding might not work in the future then apparently there is no other reason to worry about it.

Like I said in the quote above, I think most people are confusing using the original RetroArch NSP as being the same as using Nro2Nsp, which are clearly two different things. With Nro2Nsp you're basically creating a "Shortcut" that simply redirects to the official "retroarch_switch.nro" file. Whereas the OFFICIAL RetroArch NSP that was available from RetroArch was NOT a "shortcut" that pointed to the NRO file, but instead it basically contained what is now in "retroarch_switch.nro". There was never an NRO file that

Just take a look at the file sizes...
Original "Official" RetroArch NSP: 11 MB
Current "Official" RetroArch NRO: 10 MB
NSP file generated with Nro2Nsp: 609 KB

CLEARLY you can see that NSP files generated using Nro2Nsp do not contain the same data that the offical RA NSP did. That's because they are simply "Shortcuts" that point to the OFFICIAL "retroarch_switch.nro" file.

I have yet to experience ANY issues using these Nro2Nsp generated NSP's, and until someone comes forward and shows PROOF that using these Nro2Nsp are the devil, then I'm sticking with the more convenient solution.
 
Last edited by FanboyKilla,
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