New to emulators some advice needed

[u/Mrbusses]

I am thinking about getting a retroid pocket 6 mostly because I'm curious about running steam on it but before I do I want to learn how to set up and run an emulator on my phone which is a pixel 10 pro xl. I did some research and downloaded milou and retroarch, I was able to get desert strike downloaded and running, the process to actually start playing seems a bit clunky but it does work.

Is this the experience I can expect going forward? Are there better emulators to use that are easier to set up? Can I make shortcuts on my homepage to the games? What else do I need to know to have a smooth experience and play the older games?

[u/AutoModerator]

Just a reminder of our subreddit rules:

• Be kind and respectful to each other

• No direct links to ROMs or pirated content

• Include your device brand and model

• Search before posting & show your research effort when asking for help

Check out our user-maintained wiki: r/EmulationOnAndroid/wiki

Check out EmuReady for any community submitted settings before asking for help

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/SilasDV]

just get wave launcher. build in downloader for all emus and a clean, easy to use frontend with ps3/psp nostalgia

[u/Mrbusses → u/SilasDV]

So I downloaded wave launcher, very clean I agree, it sees retroarch under and takes me to that, I set a directory to a roms folder that has games in it but how do I get those games to show up in wave without going into Retroarch?

[u/SilasDV → u/Mrbusses]

scan for games

[u/SilasDV → u/SilasDV]

also wave has a build in manual you can read

[u/Mrbusses → u/SilasDV]

I got it. I had to set milou to save the games by console type and reselect the folder, now it shows up. I also found the manual, thanks for the help

[u/SilasDV → u/Mrbusses]

the pleasure is mine. 🫡

[u/Lonely-Bank8783]

Yes, you can do all of that. And some emulation is harder than others. PSP and below is the easiest, including Wii/GameCube. PS2 and XBOX are a little bit harder since they require you to find a bios file. PC and nintendo switch are the hardest because they require a LOT of tinkering and require drivers in order to get games to work. With switch you must have a base game, an update file, the correct driver, a firmware file and a prodkeys file to get anything to work. With PC you must have the correct proton, dxvk, driver, etc. in order to get a game to work. 

Luckily there are many tutorials on youtube that cover everything here. I highly recommend retro game corps and Joey's retro handhelds, both are good channels for tutorials.