16 KiB
EmulationStation Desktop Edition - User Guide
Note: This document is intended as a quick start guide, for more in-depth information and details on how to compile EmulationStation and perform more advanced configuration, please refer to the INSTALL.md document.
Note: This guide is currently under construction!
[[TOC]]
Getting started
Getting started with EmulationStation is very easy, just make sure to install the software properly, either manually as built from source code or using one of the supplied packages. On Windows you'll use the installer instead of a package.
The installation procedure will not be covered here as it differs between operating system, so please refer to your operating system documentation for information regarding this topic. EmulationStation Desktop Edition is currently supplied as .deb and .rpm packages for Linux and as a standard NSIS installer for Windows.
The following operating systems have been tested:
- Kubuntu 20.04
- Windows 10 (x86)
- Windows 8.1 (x86)
Upon first startup, ES will create its home directory, by default the location is ~/.emulationstation.
On Unix this defaults to /home//.emulationstation/ and on Windows it defaults to C:\Users<username>.emulationstation\
A settings file, es_settings.cfg will be generated with all the default settings, and a es_systems.cfg file will also be copied from the program resource folder. This file contains the game ROM and emulator settings and can be modified if needed. For information on how to do this, refer to the INSTALL.md document.
There's a log file in the home directory as well named es_log.txt, please refer to this in case of any errors as it should provide information on what went wrong.
After ES finds at least one game file, it will populate that game system and the application will start. If there are no game files, an error messsage will be shown, explaining that you need to install your game files into your ROM directory. Please refer to the game installation procedure below in this document.
Input device configuration
When first starting ES, the application will look for any attached controllers (joysticks and gamepads). If no devices are found, it will be assumed that only keyboard navigation is to be used and the default keyboard mappings will be applied. It's recommended to change these default values, and a message will be displayed describing just this. It's however possible to hide this notification permanently and continue to use the default keyboard mappings indefinitely if you're happy with them.
If a controller is attached when starting ES and no es_input.cfg input configuration file exists, you will be presented with the input configuration dialog. Just follow the steps as described to map the inputs.
If an es_input.cfg configuration file exists, you will not be presented with the input device configuration screen as that would normally just be annoying. If you however need to configure a device to control the application (i.e. you've replaced your controller), you can do so by starting ES with the command line argument --force-input-config or you can manually delete the es_input.cfg file prior to starting the application.
Main screen (system view)
When starting EmulationStation with the default settings, you will see the main screen first. From here you can navigate your game systems and enter their respective gamelists. If there are no game systems installed, you will not see this screen but rather an error message will be displayed, informing you that no games could be found.
Depending on the theme, the system navigation carousel can be either horizontal or vertical. The default theme rbsimple-DE provides horizontal navigation, i.e. you browse your systems be scrolling left or right.
Help system
There is a help system available throughout the application that provides an overview of the possible actions and buttons that can be used. It's possible to disable the help system (it's enabled by default).
Gamelist view
The gamelist view is where you browse and start your games, and it's where you will spend most of your time using ES.
Upon startup with the default settings, ES is set to the gamelist view style to AUTOMATIC. In this mode the application will look for any game media files (videos and images) and set the view style accordingly. If at least one image is found for any game, the view style DETAILED will be shown, and if at least one video file is found, the view style VIDEO will be selected. Note that this setting is applied per game system.
General navigation
The help system will provide an overview per screen on the navigation options for the application, however here is a general overview. These are the inputs you mapped in the previous input device configuration step.
Up and down
Navigate up and down in the gamelists, system view (if the theme has a vertical carousel) and in menus.
Left and right
Navigate between gamelists if quick system select has been activated in the options (it's enabled by default) or between system (if the theme has a horizontal carousel).
Start button
Opens and closes the main menu
Select button
Opens and closes the game options menu if in the gamelist view, or toggles the screensaver if in the system view (main screen).
Shoulder button left and right
Provides quick jumping in gamelists and menus, jumps 10 games in the gamelists and 6 entries in the menus. Also jumps forward in text edit dialogs.
Trigger buttons left and right
Jumps to the first and last entry of the gamelists, menus and text edit dialogs.
A button
Select button to open gamelists from the systems view, start games, choose menu entries etc.
B button
Back button, self explanatory.
X button
Selects random games and systems.
Y button
Marks games as favorites in the gamelist views. Used by some other minor functions as explained by the help system.
Main menu
This menu can be accessed from both the main screen and from the gamelist views. It contains the scraper, the quit menu as well as the application settings.
Here is a breakdown of the main menu entires:
Scraper
Scrape From
Filter
Systems
Content settings
Scrape Game Names
Scrape Ratings
Scrap Other Metadata
Scrape Screenshot Images
Scrape Box Cover Images
Scrape marquee (wheel) images
Scrape 3D box images
Other settings
Region
Language
Overwrite files and data
Interactive mode
Auto-accept single game matches
UI SETTINGS
GAMELIST TO SHOW ON STARTUP
GAMELIST VIEW STYLE
TRANSITION STYLE
THEME SET
UI MODE
DEFAULT SORT ORDER
SORT FOLDERS ON TOP OF GAMELISTS
SORT FAVORITE GAMES ABOVE NON-FAVORITES
GAMELIST FILTERS
QUICK SYSTEM SELECT
CAROUSEL TRANSITIONS
ON-SCREEN HELP
SHOW START MENU IN KID MODE
SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
SCREENSAVER AFTER
SCREENSAVER CONTROLS
SCREENSAVER BEHAVIOR
VIDEO SCRENSAVER SETTINGS
SWAP VIDEOS AFTER (SECS)
STRETCH VIDEOS TO SCREEN RESOLUTION
PLAY AUDIO FOR SCREENSAVER VIDEO FILES
SLIDESHOW SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
SWAP IMAGES AFTER (SECS)
STRETCH IMAGES TO SCREEN RESOLUTION
BACKGROUND AUDIO
USE CUSTOM IMAGES
CUSTOM IMAGE DIR
CUSTOM IMAGE DIR RECURSIVE
CUSTOM IMAGE FILTER
SOUND SETTINGS
SYSTEM VOLUME
PLAY AUDIO FOR VIDEO FILES IN GAMELIST VIEWS
NAVIGATION SOUNDS
GAME COLLECTION SETTINGS
AUTOMATIC GAME COLLECTIONS
CUSTOM GAME COLLECTIONS
CREATE NEW CUSTOM COLLECTION FROM THEME
CREATE NEW CUSTOM COLLECTION
SORT FAVORITES ON TOP FOR CUSTOM COLLECTIONS
GROUP UNTHEMED CUSTOM COLLECTIONS
SHOW SYSTEM NAMES IN COLLECTIONS
OTHER SETTINGS
VRAM LIMIT
FULLSCREEN MODE (REQUIRES RESTART)
POWER SAVER MODES
WHEN TO SAVE METADATA
GAME MEDIA DIRECTORY
PER GAME LAUNCH COMMAND OVERRIDE
SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS (REQUIRES RESTART)
SHOW HIDDEN GAMES (REQUIRES RESTART)
CUSTOM EVENT SCRIPTS
ONLY SHOW ROMS FROM GAMELIST.XML FILES
DISPLAY GAME ART FROM ROM DIRECTORIES
SHOW FRAMERATE
SHOW "REBOOT SYSTEM" MENU ENTRY
SHOW "POWER OFF SYSTEM" MENU ENTRY
CONFIGURE INPUT
QUIT
QUIT EMULATIONSTATION
REBOOT SYSTEM
POWER OFF SYSTEM
Game options menu
This menu is opened from the gamelists, and can't be accessed directly from the main screen. The menu changes slightly depending on the context, namely whether a game file or a folder is selected, and whether the current system is a collection or a normal game platform.
You open this menu by pressing the Select key.
Here's a summary of the menu entries:
Jump to..
This provides the ability to quick jump to a certain letter. If the setting to sort favorite games above non-favorites has been selected (it is enabled by default), then it's also possible to jump to the favorites games by choosing the star symbol.
Sort games by
This is the sort order for the gamelist. There's is a global sort order setting that can be changed in the main menu, and it's this sort order that is also shown here unless it's been modified during the program sessions. The sort order is persistent per game system throughout the program session.
Filter gamelist
Choosing this entry opens a separate screen where it's possible to apply a filter for the gamelists, which is persistent throughout the program session, or until the filter is reset. The option to reset the filter is also shown on the separate screen.
Edit this game's metadata / Edit this folder's metadata
This opens the metadata editor, which will be described in detail below.
Add/remove games to this game collection
This is only shown if the system is a collection. This will also be described in more detail below.
Metadata editor
In the metadata editor, you can modify the metadata for a game, scrape for game info and media files and delete media files or the entire game.
The following entries can be modified:
Name
This is the game that will be shown when browsing the gamelist. If no sortname has been defined, the games are sorted using this field.
Sortname
This entry makes it possible to change the sorting of a game without having to change its name. For instance it can be used to sort Mille Miglia as 1000 Miglia or The Punisher as Punisher, The.
Description
Usually provided by the scraper although it's possible to update this manually or write your own game description.
Rating
Ratings in half-star increments. Can be set as such manually or be scraped, if the scraper service provides ratings (currently only ScreenScraper does).
Release date
Release date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD).
Developer
Developer of the game.
Publisher
Publisher of the game.
Genre
One or multiple genres for the game.
Players
The amount of players the game supports.
Favorite
A flag to indicate whether this is a favorite. Can also be set directly from the gamelist by using the Y key.
Completed
A flag to indicate whether you have completed this game.
Broken/not working
A flag to indicate whether the game is broken. Useful for MAME games for instance where future releases may make the game functional.
Hidden
A flag to indicate the game is hidden. If the corresponding option has been set on the main menu, the game will not be shown. Useful for examle for DOS games to hide batch scripts, configuration tools etc.
Kidgame
A flag to mark whether the game is suitable for children. This will be applied as a filter when starting ES in 'Kid mode'.
Count as game
A flag to indicate whether the game should be counted. It's only used for the game system counter on the main screen, but is quite useful for multi-file games such multi-disk Amiga or Commodore 64 games, or for DOS games configuration executables that you want to keep in ES and therefore can't hide.
Launch command
Here you can override the launch command for the game, for example to use a different emulator than the default for the game system. Very useful for MAME/arcade games.
Play count
A statistics counter that counts how many times you're played the game. You normally don't need to touch this, but if you want to, the possibility is there.
Scraper
The scraper supports downloading of game metadata and media files from the Internet. Currently two scraper services are supported, ScreenScraper.fr and TheGamesDB.net.
Getting your games into EmulationStation
For most systems, this is very straightforward, just put your game files into the folder corresponding to the system name. These names can be found in the end of this document.
Supported game systems
Here is the list of supported game systems:
| Platform Name | Full Name | Recommmended game setup |
|---|---|---|
| 3do | 3DO | |
| ags | Adventure Game Studio | |
| amiga | Amiga | .hdf WHDLoad harddisk images or .adf disk images |
| amiga600 | Amiga 600 | .hdf WHDLoad harddisk images or .adf disk images |
| amiga1200 | Amiga 1200 | |
| amstradcpc | Amstrad CPC | |
| apple2 | Apple II | |
| arcade | Arcade | |
| astrocade | Bally Astrocade | |
| atari2600 | Atari 2600 | |
| atari5200 | Atari 5200 | |
| atari7800 | Atari 7800 ProSystem | |
| atari800 | Atari 800 | |
| atarijaguar | Atari Jaguar | |
| atarijaguarcd | Atari Jaguar CD | |
| atarilynx | Atari Lynx | |
| atarist | Atari ST | |
| atarixe | Atari XE |
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