# RetroArch - General Guide
RetroArch is a multi-emulator that play games with emulator cores.
---
### RetroArch Links
[Libretro - Webpage](https://www.libretro.com//)
[Libretro - Docs](https://docs.libretro.com/)
[RetroArch - Github](https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch)
[ES-DE User Guide: Supported Game Systems](https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/blob/master/USERGUIDE.md#supported-game-systems)
### RetroArch Docs - Guide Links
Here follows various quick bookmarks to specific section of the RetroArch Docs that is good to read and always updated with the lastest information.
[RetroArch - BIOS Guide](https://docs.libretro.com/library/bios/)
[RetroArch - Navigation Guide](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/navigating/)
[RetroArch - Cheat Guide](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/cheat-codes/)
[RetroArch - Arcade Systems Guide](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/arcade-getting-started/)
[RetroArch - Shaders Guide](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/shaders/)
---
## Where to put the games?
RetroArch supports a multiple of systems under:
`retrodeck/roms/`
RetroDECK follows the ES-DE folder layout:
The `ES-DE User Guide` (above) has an always updated list on what subfolder under `retrodeck/roms/` corresponds to what RetroArch core.
## What file formats are supported?
Different for each system / core.
Check each system on the `RetroArch Docs` and the `ES-DE User Guide` for the latest information (above).
## Does RetroArch require BIOS or Firmware?
It depends on the core.
Check each system on the `RetroArch Docs` and the `ES-DE User Guide` for the latest information (above).
## Folder structure
| Type | Folder | Comment |
| :---: | :---: | :---: |
| ROMs Folder |`retrodeck/roms/` | | |
| Saves Folder |`retrodeck/saves/` | | |
| States Folder |`retrodeck/states/` | | Save States depends on the core if it has support or not |
| Config Folder |`~/.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/config/retroarch/` | |
## Core List
RetroDECK always try to ship all cores in RetroArch
[RetroArch - Core List](https://docs.libretro.com/meta/core-list/)
| Core | System/Machine | Notes |
| :---: | :---: | :---: |
| [2048](https://docs.libretro.com/library/2048/) | Game | A port of the popular puzzle game 2048 to libretro |
| 3D Engine | - | This is a test core; it demonstrates how to create a hardware-rendered core in a libretro context |
| [4DO](https://docs.libretro.com/library/opera/) | 3DO | |
| a5200 | Atari 5200 | |
| Anarch | Game | A port of Anarch, 90s-style Doom clone shooter game |
| Ardens | Arduboy | A simulator for the Arduboy FX |
| Arduous | Arduboy | A emulator for Arduboy, a handheld game console with open source software, based on the Arduino hardware platform |
| [Atari800](https://docs.libretro.com/library/atari800/) | Atari 5200 | |
| Beetle bsnes | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| [Beetle Cygne](https://docs.libretro.com/library/beetle_cygne/) | Bandai WonderSwan/Color | |
| Beetle GBA | Game Boy Advance | |
| Beetle Lynx | Atari Lynx | |
| Beetle NeoPop | Neo Geo Pocket/Color | |
| Beetle PC-FX | NEC PC-FX | |
| Beetle PCE | NEC PC Engine/SuperGrafx/CD | |
| Beetle PCE FAST | NEC PC Engine/CD | |
| Beetle PSX | Sony PlayStation | |
| Beetle PSX HW | Sony PlayStation | A fork of Mednafen's PSX providing GPU-accelerated renderers for OpenGL and Vulkan |
| Beetle Saturn | Sega Saturn | |
| Beetle SuperGrafx | NEC PC Engine/SuperGrafx | |
| Beetle Supafaust | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| Beetle VB | Nintendo Virtual Boy | |
| BK | BK-0010/BK-0011(M)/Terak 8510-a | A port of the PDP11 emulator to libretro. This core emulates the PDP-11/03 platform. |
| BlastEm | Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) | |
| blueMSX | MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 | |
| bnes | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| boom 3 | Game engine | A port of the Doom 3 engine to libretro. There is a separate core for it's expansion pack 'Resurrection of Evil'. |
| boom 3 xp | Game engine | (See boom 3 note) |
| bsnes | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes 2014 Accuracy | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes 2014 Balanced | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes 2014 Performance | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes C++98 (v085) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes-hd beta | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes-mercury Accuracy | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes-mercury Balanced | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| bsnes-mercury Performance | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| Cannonball | Game engine | A port of the Cannonball, enhanced OutRun engine to libretro |
| Caprice32 | Amstrad CPC | |
| CDi 2015 | Philips CDi | |
| ChaiLove | Game engine | A free, open-source framework used to make 2D games in ChaiScript |
| Citra | Nintendo 3DS | |
| Citra 2018 | Nintendo 3DS | |
| Citra Canary | Nintendo 3DS | Based on Citra development branch |
| Craft | Game | A basic clone of the Minecraft sandbox game |
| CrocoDS | Amstrad CPC | |
| Cruzes | Game | (Further information required) |
| Daphne | Arcade | |
| DeSmuME | Nintendo DS | |
| DeSmuME 2015 | Nintendo DS | |
| Dinothawr | Game engine | A push-the-block-in-a-straight-line puzzle game in the spirit of Kickle Cubicle |
| DirectXbox | Xbox | |
| Dolphin | Nintendo GameCube/Wii | |
| DOSBox | DOS | |
| DOSBox-core | DOS | Provides some improvements over the DOSBox-SVN trunk, including native MIDI support, cycle-accurate OPL3 (YMF262) emulation, MT-32 emulation and experimental 3dfx Voodoo support |
| DOSBox-Pure | DOS | A port of DOSBox with a goal of simplicty and ease of use and gameplay. This core includes a streamlined workflow for launching games directly from ZIP archives with automated mapping of controls to gamepads and a native onscreen keyboard. |
| DOSBox-SVN | DOS | This core is based on DOSBox-SVN trunk and allows on-the-fly configuration and different sync methods |
| doukutsu-rs | Game engine | An open-source reimplementation of the Cave Story engine compatible with all official (and some unofficial) releases of Cave Story |
| DuckStation | Sony PlayStation | |
| Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup | Game | A preliminary port of the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup strategy game |
| EasyRPG | RPG Maker 2000/2003 | |
| ECWolf | Game engine | A port of the Wolfenstein 3D engine to libretro |
| EighyOne | Sinclair ZX 81 | |
| Emux CHIP-8 | CHIP-8 | |
| Emux GB | Game Boy/Color | |
| Emux NES | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| Emux SMS | Sega Master System | |
| EmuSCV | Super Cassette Vision | |
| Ep128emu | Enterprise 128 | |
| FAKE-08 | Pico-8 | A port of the FAKE-08 open-source reimplementation of the PICO-8 fantasy console to libretro |
| FB Alpha | Arcade/Console/various | (See FB Neo note) |
| FB Alpha 2012 | Arcade/Console/various | (See FB Neo note) |
| FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1 | CPS-1 | |
| FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2 | CPS-2 | |
| FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 | CPS-3 | |
| FB Alpha 2012 Neo Geo | Neo Geo | |
| FB Neo | Arcade/Console/various | Full list of supported systems: https://github.com/finalburnneo/FBNeo/wiki |
| FCEUmm | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| FFmpeg | Media player | A port of FFmpeg library which allows playback of a variety of audio and video formats |
| fixGB | Game Boy/Color | |
| fixNES | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| Flycast | Sega Dreamcast/NAOMI | |
| Flycast GLES2 | Sega Dreamcast/NAOMI | |
| fMSX | MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ | |
| FreeChaF | Fairchild ChannelF | |
| FreeInv | Mattel Intellivision | |
| FreeJ2ME | J2ME | a port of Java 2 Micro Edition emulator |
| Frodo | Commodore C64 | |
| FS-UAE | Commodore Amiga | |
| Fuse | Sinclair ZX Spectrum | |
| Gambatte | Game Boy/Color | |
| Game Music Emu | Music player | A port of Game Music Emu which allows playback of a wide variety of video game music formats |
| Gearboy | Game Boy/Color | |
| Gearcoleco | Coleco ColecoVision | |
| Gearsystem | Sega MS/GG/SG-1000 | |
| Genesis Plus GX | Sega MS/GG/MD/CD | |
| Geolith | SNK Neo Geo AES/MVS | Highly accurate emulator for the Neo Geo AES and MVS Cartridge Systems |
| gpSP | Game Boy Advance | |
| Gong | Game | A clone of Pong written for libretro |
| GW | Handheld Electronic | A simulator of various Game and Watch-style handheld electronic games |
| Handy | Atari Lynx | |
| Hatari | Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon | |
| HBMAME | Arcade/Console/various | HBMAME (HomeBrew MAME) is a derivative of MAME, and contains various hacks and homebrews |
| higan Accuracy | Nintendo SNES/SFC/Game Boy/Color | |
| Imageviewer | Imageviewer | A basic core for viewing still images in a libretro frontend |
| Ishiiruka | Nintendo GameCube/Wii | |
| JAXE | CHIP-8/S-CHIP/XO-CHIP | |
| Jump 'n Bump | Game engine | A reimplementation of the engine of Jump 'n Bump, a open-source MS-DOS multiplayer video game by Brainchild Design |
| Kronos | Sega Saturn/ST-V | A port of the Kronos, which is itself a fork of Yabause emulator |
| LowRes NX | Game engine | A port of the LowRes NX fantasy console to libretro |
| Lutro | Game engine | An experimental Lua game framework for libretro, based on a subset of the LOVE API |
| M2000 | Philips P2000T | A port of M2000, the portable Philips P2000 emulator to libretro |
| MAME (Current) | Arcade/Console/various | Based on MAME development branch. Full list of supported systems: http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/mame.php |
| MAME 2000 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2003 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2003 Midway | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2003-Plus | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2009 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2010 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2015 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| MAME 2016 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| melonDS 2021 | Nintendo DS | |
| melonDS DS | Nintendo DS/DSi | Enhanced remake of the melonDS core based on a newer version of the emulator. |
| Mesen | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| Mesen-S | Nintendo SNES/SFC/Game Boy/Color | |
| MESS 2015 | Multi (various) | (See MAME note) |
| Meteor | Game Boy Advance | |
| mGBA | Game Boy Advance | |
| Microw8 | Game engine | A port of a WebAssembly based fantasy console to libretro |
| Minivmac | Mac II | MacII variant of minivmac emulator |
| mpv | Media player | An port of MPV media player to libretro |
| Mr.Boom | Game | A clone of the classic Bomberman series |
| Mu | Palm OS | An emulator for the Palm m515 OS ported to libretro |
| [Mupen64Plus-Next](https://docs.libretro.com/library/mupen64plus/) | Nintendo 64 | |
| [Mupen64Plus-Next GLES2](https://docs.libretro.com/library/mupen64plus/) | Nintendo 64 | |
| [Mupen64Plus-Next GLES3](https://docs.libretro.com/library/mupen64plus/) | Nintendo 64 | |
| Neko Project II | NEC PC-98 | |
| Neko Project II Kai | NEC PC-98 | |
| NeoCD | Neo Geo CD | |
| Nestopia | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| nSide Balanced | Nintendo SNES/SFC/Game Boy/Color | |
| Numero | TI-83 | A TI-83 Emulator for Libretro |
| NXEngine | Game engine | An open-source reimplementation of the Cave Story / Doukutsu engine |
| O2EM | Magnavox Odyssey2/Philips Videopac+ | |
| Oberon | Oberon RISC machine | An emulator for the Oberon RISC machine, ported to libretro |
| OpenLara | Game engine | A port of the OpenLara free/open re-implementation of the engine used by the original Tomb Raider series |
| OpenTyrian | Game | A port of the OpenTyrian clone of the classic Tyrian shmup, ported to libretro |
| Opera | 3DO | |
| ParaLLEl N64 | Nintendo 64 | |
| PascalPong | Game | A free and basic clone of the classic Pong game, written for libretro |
| PCem | IBM PC | |
| [LRPS2](https://docs.libretro.com/library/pcsx2/) | Sony PlayStation 2 | |
| [PCSX ReARMed](https://docs.libretro.com/library/pcsx_rearmed/) | Sony PlayStation | |
| PicoDrive | Sega MS/GG/MD/CD/32X | |
| Play! | Sony PlayStation 2 | |
| Pocket CDG | Karaoke player | A karaoke music player, ported to libretro |
| PokeMini | Nintendo Pokemon Mini | |
| Potator | Watara Supervision | |
| PPSSPP | PlayStation Portable | |
| PrBoom | Game engine | A port of the PrBoom source port of iD's classic Doom engine |
| ProSystem | Atari 7800 | |
| PUAE | Commodore Amiga | |
| PUAE 2021 | Commodore Amiga | |
| PuzzleScript | Game engine | A port of PuzzleScript, open source HTML5 puzzle game engine |
| PX68k | Sharp X68000 | |
| QUASI88 | NEC PC-8000/PC-8800 series | |
| QuickNES | Nintendo NES/Famicom | |
| RACE | Neo Geo Pocket/Color | |
| Redbook | Music player | A libretro core for playing back Redbook-formatted audio, such as commercial audio CDs |
| REminiscence | Game engine | A port of the REminiscence engine, a reimplementation of the engine used by Delphine Software's Flashback |
| Retro8 | Game engine | A port of the Retro8 open-source reimplementation of the PICO-8 fantasy console to libretro |
| Rustation | Sony PlayStation | |
| RVVM | RISC-V Virtual Machine | |
| SameBoy | Game Boy/Color | |
| SameDuck | Mega Duck (Cougar Boy) | An adaptation of SameBoy to play Mega Duck games |
| SAME CDI | Philips CDi | SAME CDi is a S(ingle) A(rcade) M(achine) E(mulator) for libretro, forked from MAME, which only includes the Philips CD-i driver |
| [ScummVM](https://docs.libretro.com/library/scummvm/) | Game engine | A fork of the ScummVM adventure game engine ported to libretro |
| SimCoupe | SAM Coupe | |
| [SMS Plus GX](https://docs.libretro.com/library/smsplus/) | Sega MS/GG | |
| [Snes9x](https://docs.libretro.com/library/snes9x/) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| [Snes9x 2002](https://docs.libretro.com/library/snes9x_2002/) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| [Snes9x 2005](https://docs.libretro.com/library/snes9x_2005/) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| [Snes9x 2005 Plus](https://docs.libretro.com/library/snes9x_2005_plus/) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| [Snes9x 2010](https://docs.libretro.com/library/snes9x_2010/) | Nintendo SNES/SFC | |
| SquirrelJME | Java ME | A port of the SquirrelJME Java ME 8 Virtual Machine emulator to libretro |
| [Stella](https://docs.libretro.com/library/stella/) | Atari 2600 | |
| Stella 2014 | Atari 2600 | |
| Super Bros War | Game engine | A fork of Super Mario War, a fan-made multiplayer Super Mario Bros. style deathmatch game |
| SwanStation | Sony PlayStation | SwanStation is a fork of the Duckstation emulator |
| [TempGBA](https://docs.libretro.com/library/tempgba/) | Game Boy Advance | |
| [TGB Dual](https://docs.libretro.com/library/tgb_dual/) | Game Boy/Color | |
| [Theodore](https://docs.libretro.com/library/theodore/) | Thomson MO/TO | |
| TIC-80 | Game engine | A port of the free and open source fantasy computer TIC-80 to libretro |
| The Powder Toy | Game | A port of the Powdertoy physics sandbox/simulation engine to libretro |
| [TyrQuake](https://docs.libretro.com/library/tyrquake/) | Game engine | A port of the tyrquake engine |
| UAE4ARM | Commodore Amiga | |
| UME 2015 | Arcade/Console/various | (See MAME note) |
| Uzem | Uzebox | A port of Uzem, the official emulator for the Uzebox |
| VaporSpec | Game engine | A virtual game platform with capabilities similar to 80s game consoles |
| VBA-M | Game Boy Advance | VisualBoy Advance-M is a active fork of VisualBoy Advance emulator |
| [VBA Next](https://docs.libretro.com/library/vba_next/) | Game Boy Advance | |
| [vecx](https://docs.libretro.com/library/vecx/) | Vectrex | |
| [VeMUlator](https://docs.libretro.com/library/vemulator/) | SEGA Visual Memory Unit | A port of VeMUlator, a SEGA Dreamcast VMU emulator originally developed for Android |
| VICE x64 | Commodore C64 | |
| VICE x64sc | Commodore C64 | |
| VICE x128 | Commodore C128 | |
| VICE xcbm2 | Commodore CBM-II 6x0/7x0 | |
| VICE xcbm5x0 | Commodore CBM-II 5x0 | |
| VICE xpet | Commodore PET | |
| VICE xplus4 | Commodore Plus/4 | |
| VICE xscpu64 | Commodore C64 SuperCPU | |
| VICE xvic | Commodore VIC-20 | |
| Vircon32 | Game engine | A port of Vircon32 game console to libretro |
| Virtual Jaguar | Atari Jaguar | |
| VirtualXT | DOS | Runns PC/XT class software. Mainly intended for PC booters from the 80's. |
| vitaQuake 2 | Game engine | A port of the VitaQuake 2 source port of iD's Quake 2 engine to libretro. There is a separate core for each of the Quake 2 mission packs, 'Rogue', 'Zaero' and 'Xatrix'. |
| vitaQuake 2 (Rogue) | Game engine | (See vitaQuake 2 note) |
| vitaQuake 2 (Xatrix) | Game engine | (See vitaQuake 2 note) |
| vitaQuake 2 (Zaero) | Game engine | (See vitaQuake 2 note) |
| vitaQuake 3 | Game engine | A port of the VitaQuake 3 source port of iD's ioquake3 engine to libretro |
| vitaVoyager | Game engine | A port of the Lilium Voyager engine, which runs the Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force game and is itself based on the ioquake3 |
| WASM-4 | Game engine | WASM-4 is a open source low-level fantasy game console for building small games with WebAssembly |
| X Millennium | Sharp X1 | |
| XRick | Game engine | A port of the XRick, an open-source clone of the Rick Dangerous engine |
| YabaSanshiro | Sega Saturn | A port of the YabaSanshiro, which is itself a fork of Yabause emulator |
| Yabause | Sega Saturn | |
## Cores with rewind support
**Note:** Enabling rewinding can cause a big performance hit.
The following cores support the `Rewind` function.
| System/Machine | Core |
| :---: | :---: |
| 3DO | Opera |
| Amstrad - CPC | Caprice32 |
| Amstrad - CPC | CrocoDS |
| Arcade | FinalBurn Neo |
| Arcade | MAME 2003 |
| Arcade | MAME 2003-Plus |
| Arcade | Arcade (MAME 2010) |
| Atari - 2600 | Stella |
| Atari - 7800 | ProSystem |
| Atari - Lynx | Beetle Lynx |
| Atari - Lynx | Handy |
| Bandai | WonderSwan/Color |
| Commodore - 8-bit | VICE |
| Commodore - Amiga | PUAE |
| ColecoVision | GearColeco |
| DOS | DOSBox Pure |
| Enterprise - 64/128 | ep128emu |
| Elektronika - BK-0010/BK-0011 | bk |
| Magnavox - Odyssey2 / Phillips - Videopac+ | O2EM |
| Mega Duck / Cougar Boy | SameDuck |
| MSX | fMSX |
| Nintendo - Game Boy / Color | SameBoy |
| Nintendo - Game Boy / Color | Gambatte |
| Nintendo - Game Boy / Color | TGB Dual |
| Nintendo - Game Boy / Color | Gearboy |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | Beetle GBA |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | gpSP |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | Meteor |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | TempGBA |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | VBA Next |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | VBA-M |
| Nintendo - Gamecube/Wii | Dolphin |
| Nintendo - NES / Famicom | bnes |
| Nintendo - NES / Famicom | FCEUmm |
| Nintendo - NES / Famicom | Mesen |
| Nintendo - NES / Famicom | Nestopia UE |
| Nintendo - NES / Famicom | QuickNES |
| Nintendo 64 | Mupen64Plus-Next |
| Nintendo - DS | DeSmuME 2015 |
| Nintendo - DS | DeSmuME |
| Nintendo - DS | melonDS |
| Nintendo - Pokémon Mini | PokeMini |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Beetle bsnes |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes Accuracy |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes Balanced |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes C++98 v085 |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes Performance |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes-mercury Accuracy |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes-mercury Balanced |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | bsnes-mercury Performanced |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | higan Accuracy |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | nSide Balance |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Snes9x 2002 |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Snes9x 2005 |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Snes9x 2005 Plus |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Snes9x 2010 |
| Nintendo - SNES / Famicom | Snes9x |
| Nintendo - SNES / SFC / Game Boy / Color | Mesen-S |
| Nintendo - Virtual Boy | Beetle VB |
| NEC PC-8000 / PC-8800 series | QUASI88 |
| NEC - PC-98 | Neko Project II Kai |
| NEC - PC Engine SuperGrafxy | Beetle SuperGrafx |
| NEC - PC Engine / CD | Beetle PCE FAS |
| NEC - PC-FX | Beetle PC-FX |
| Thomson - MO/TO | Theodore |
| SEGA - MS/GG | SMS Plus GX |
| SEGA - MS/GG | Gearsystem |
| SEGA - MS/GG/MD/CD | Genesis Plus GX |
| SEGA - MS/MD/CD/32X | PicoDrive |
| SEGA - Saturn | Beetle Saturn |
| Neo Geo AES / MVS | Geolith |
| Neo Geo Pocket / Color | Beetle NeoPop |
| Neo Geo Pocket / Color | RACE |
| PlayStation | Beetle PSX |
| PlayStation | Beetle PSX HW |
| PlayStation | PCSX ReARMed |
| Vectrex | vecx |
| ZX 81 | EightyOne |
| ZX Spectrum | Fuse |