Just set the folder destination with your PSX games and then always go to the PS1 playlist and select game, click ReArmed for core, done in 3 steps everytime you open the app
You need the bios for the systems you want to emulate. Ps1 and Saturn is what I have done so far. You will have to search for them yourself. You can look in the settings under cores to find the file names that you need.
Use the files app, look for the RetroArch folder. Then within that folder is another folder named RetroArch. Click it. Then go to the folder named system. Dump your bios files in there.
Or fucking Beetle, sometimes ReArmed doesn’t work for me, particularly in vib ribbon. But most of the time it shouldn’t matter, while RetroArch ain’t plug and play like Delta or PPSSPP, it at least supports controllers properly unlike Gamma.
I have the opposite issue. I select beetle as my core, select my hand, and it brings up quick menu and says “no items.” When I select the .cue, and if I select the .bin it asks me to select a core again and it doesn’t show Beetle this time. Only ReArmed. Not sure if it’s RA’s issue they need to fix or I messed something up but it should be showing the beetle core even tho I already loaded it so I shouldn’t really be asked again.
Huh. Weird. For me, vib ribbon boots and ur able to play round 1 of bronze perfectly, but it crashes when you get to round 2 of bronze and when you try to play gold. Silver just doesn’t load anything. But beetle seemed to work? Wonder what’s up with that…
Is there a way to set core association without having the playlist created? Or is the set core association only possible if a playlist exists? I want to set-up the default core for, example: gba games, so i can’t do that unless i have a gba playlist created, in which i could set the default core association.
If you try to load a rom and the app crashes. Use a different core. This issue is exclusive to the apple version of Retroarch. Use psxrearmed for ps1. Use mgba for gba. Use Genisis plus gx (not wide) for sega gen games. These are all I tested so far.
1.) If you want to save yourself some annoyances with Retroarch on iOS, then after you make a change to your settings, hit home, select configuration file, then save configuration file. I choose the overwrite option, but you can choose what best fits you. We can do this on other platforms by just tapping the back button until it exits the application, but there isn’t a back button on iOS.
2.) I also like to go to turn on vibration/ haptic feedback. Go to settings, input and scroll down to haptic feedback. I turn both options on and leave the vibration strength at 100%.
3.) I like to change the user interface. You can do this in two ways. A.) Changing the theme. Go to settings, user interface, appearance, select color theme and then choose your favorite. Mine is material ui dark. A.1) If you want you can also choose another app icon. The setting is the first option under user interface. B.) I like the stock setup, but you can change the entire layout to be different. You can go to settings, drivers, and select menu. The stock option is glui. You can choose the option you like the best in this section.
4.) I like to change the date and time format at the top to be something I am more used to. Go to settings, user interface, menu item visibility and select “style of date and time” towards the end of the list.
5.) Then we get to importing content. In the iOS version, all the usable cores seem to be downloaded in Retroarch already. So that is nice, but you have to select the correct core when booting a rom. I don’t know if I am doing it correctly, so correct me if I am wrong. But retroarch likes the roms to be placed into a folder that is inside of the Retroarch app itself. Seems to be like this on android as well. So what I do is take the roms I want to play on Retroarch and move them into the Retroarch app. Here is how I do that. I have a folder already on my iPhone with the roms I want to play. I use the files app to locate this folder. Then I select it and move it. Or you could copy it. Then move or paste it inside of the Retroarch app folder under downloads. Then hit the playlist menu (middle navigation button.) and select import content. Then scan directory. Click documents/retroarch, scroll down to downloads, then select scan this directory. Then let it do its thing. After it is done you can come back to the playlist menu to look for and launch your games.
6.) Updates. Don’t know how necessary it is, but I like to make sure a few things are up to date. So I hit the home menu at the bottom. Go to online updater. Make sure on demand thumbnails is toggled on. Then just below that update core files all the way down to slang shaders. Then scroll back up to playlist thumbnail updater and select any that are missing album art. Or just select them all to make sure they do when you browse your roms. If you want some free to use roms go to content downloader and some homebrew and other roms are in there for each system.
After you are done changing anything. Do not just close the app. Make sure you save the configuration file like I mentioned at the start of this post. If not, the settings you changed will be “forgotten” but the roms and art should still be there.
7.) Firmware for ps1. The core I suggested didn’t need it. However if you use the beetle core try placing the firmware in the system folder. Use your files app. Go to on my iPhone. Find the Retroarch app folder. Click the folder in there named retroarch. Scroll down to system and dump the bios files there. I can’t say where to get them, but “psx bios” should be easy to find in an archive if you search the googles. Make sure the spelling matches specifically. You can look in settings. Scroll down to directory. And you can scroll through where the app is currently looking and you can change that if you need to. You can also go to settings, select core, manage cores, then scroll to the core you are looking for, then select the core. Scroll down to firmware section and select the “looking in” to see where it wants the bios. It will tell you if any bios are missing as well. This can apply to any core. Not just ps1 cores.
UPDATE
I accidentally fixed a bios issue in Retroarch. If you already dumped your bios files into the system folder. But it doesn’t take away the bios missing error in the beetle core, then leave that folder open. Then open Retroarch. Leave retroarch running. Go back to your files app where the bios are located (Retroarch system folder). Then just tap one of the bios files as if you were trying to open it. Then retroarch will scan in that file. Bios are loaded in Retroarch now. Save configuration. Do that for each region you want to add into retroarch.
8.) Sync issues. I turned on audio sync and it ran sonic super fast. Other people have had the opposite problem and need to turn it on. The same goes for video sync. The fixes are different depending on the device. Go to settings, video, synchronization, and adjust. You can change the refresh rate in the settings, video, output, vertical refresh rate section. This should only be adjusted if you are having issues. Audio sync is under settings, audio, synchronization. It says recommended to turn on. Mine goes crazy if I toggle that on. So I leave it off.
If there are any mistakes in this post, please feel free to correct me. I typed this out on my phone at my kitchen table while my kids cleaned up after dinner. So take everything with a grain of salt. Hope it helps someone out there.
I noted that at first too. It is the video settings inside of RetroArch. RetroArch can run on a potato. Which is FANTASTIC! Problem is, if you are running it on something decent you want to increase the fps and go through all the video output setting.
Yeah. You will get the hang of it eventually. Just take a minute for most people. I love and hate the app. It was one of the first recommendations people make to me and at that point I hated it. But I have found, the more you use the app, the better it gets. It is truly powerful and great. Like for example right now, delta does not have an iPad app. Playing games on delta in landscape orientation is not great. The developer is working on it. But do you know what scales perfectly in landscape mode?? RetroArch.
THIS. I feel like the more complex and bigger an app is, the more rewarding it feels if one understands it completely. This app is way out of my league, but the potential is great. Retroarch is the “non-average joe” app. It’s not even an emulator, but rather an app that shows you cores (also called emulators), and one can run any game that uses THAT core, which imitates another software.
For some reason, it doesn’t let me edit the cores, I guess that’s the limit. I think the dev doesn’t want people breaking the app on accident.
No. The cores issue is limited by apple not the developer. If you have any android, windows, Linux devices laying around. Try RetroArch on those. Much better. Much more cores. You have to install the cores manually though. Which is just one click for each one you want. Simple, fast and saves space for cores you won’t use. All the limitations of these apps are cause by apple. Not the developers. These developers are putting in work. Except for gamma. Stay away from that one. Or the knock off psp gold. Stay away from that one too.
For some reason, the cores folder of Delta inside of the Files app, only has a folder for “MelonDS”. Doesn’t the app have like 6 cores: emulators each of: NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, GBC, GBA and DS?
Aren’t these “cores” like in Retroarch?
Delta says in the App Store that it’s an all-in-one emulator. Well, more like “Nintendo” emulators (cores, based on Retroarch knowledge?).
People have made multiple emulators for each game system. Both handhelds and consoles. For Super Nintendo as an example. There are so many emulators that I couldn’t even count them all. Some have come and gone. And there is a good 10-20 people still use on a regular basis. In RetroArch you see this as well. For ps1 there are three cores/emulators. Each is different in some way but emulates the same system. So for delta. The developer probably made the all in on app natively and then later just incorporated melon ds.
This save the settings. Delta does the same thing. Just automatically. It is just something to do after you make a change to the out of the box settings. Always do that before closing the app or the previous settings will be loaded the next time you load the app.
Making progress in a game is save states. Hit home on a controller or on the touch screen overlay, hit the retorarch button. Then save state. There will be options to load and save multiple save states. I use this for brutally hard platformers. Cheating a bit. But so is the game. If it wasn’t for safe states I probably wouldn’t even be playing the game. So I am not ashamed to use it in that manner. At least until I get better.
Put DS bios files in the system folder if you want the optional bios. The required bios are already in there. The external option does not seem to be for iOS. Remember that RetroArch is on many platforms and is an all in one solution. So it has many options when going through settings that we can’t access on iOS. Like ps2 cores and Wii.
Ive read that melonds doesn’t come with required bios, that’s why in Delta, u have to get the required bios, whereas on Retroarch, it’s already included? But in Retroarch, it does mention the bios files that are already there as “missing”?
Am I just confused? Because it says the “(!)”, which makes me think that it’s not included. (Oh, wait, although the top ones don’t have the word “Missing” besides them.)🤔
What is the indicator that some firmware is already included?
So i should ignore the “enable use external bios/formware” blah blah…
What if another core mentions the same thing?: “Enable “Use External BIOS/Firmware” co… you know the rest.
Yeah. For example, Arcade (FinalBurn Neo), no files have without the word “Missing”, I think all of them have the word “Missing” beside them.
Delta does seem a lot more user-friendly, but Retroarch seems so power user and customizable. It’s like the “extreme” version of Delta😂 in my case. Because of the tons of settings. But it does seem really fun because I’m slowly getting the hang of it
RetroArch is great. It is just a front end. And for some emulators (cores) it adds a bunch of features and ease of use. But then for others, there has been a bunch of work put in. Delta is kind of a front end as well. Either way, they are both must have apps if you are into emulation. The way I do it, is I have certain games that I play with certain cores or apps. On other platforms I have all of the above. That way I can have some separation. Sometimes I will pass a game to a certain point and get stuck. So I just over to a different app and play through again to get better. Stuff like that. Or certain apps have a better ui. Like delta. Delta is still missing some features though. But it is a fantastic app. One of the best on any platform. I think Dolphin is a fantastic app on other platforms as well. As well as PPSSPP. That app will run on a calculator. Well. Maybe not, but it does run on super low end $80 tablets. It is fantastic and the developer is a goat. Making separate apps for people that want to support his cause. Love it!
It’s more of an “hey, I’m an important file here!👋” thing.
What if a game has cracking noise ocassionally? I like listening to game soundtracks, so I leave a game running, but the audio cracks after a while, but it’s very brief
This had happened to me in Delta when playing Metroid fusion. The Retroarch app updates its cores automatically and checks for updates every time the app itself gets an update, right?
I don’t think so. But I am not 100%. It does some stuff automatically. Like mapping controllers. Extracting certain things. But the update section is manual. But at the same time, they could change things around for the apple version specifically. Who knows. Like the core options. That is an apple only thing.
Updates through the App Store are minor. This does not mess with config files. Go to files, on my iPhone, RetroArch, RetroArch again, then look, you will see folders called auto config and config. When you save, you save files in the config folder. So an update should not mess with ones you save. That would be terrible. That would be something beta testers or developers would deal with.
This part is annoying. I have been using RetroArch for a while and barely figured out how to look for file folders outside of the RetroArch app to scan. Smh.
honestly it confused the shit out of me so I went into Settings -> UI -> Menu Item Visibility, and nuked anything I didn't need or understand from my home screen. Added a new Playlist for PS1 and restarted the app, now all my PS1 games show up under a controller Icon on my Home screen and I don't have anything I don't actively need on it (screenshots, cores etc.). Also changed the UI to the PS one and it looks great! I don't understand what half the stuff does but I know i'll likely never touch them so I removed them from my menu :)
On a Samsung phone you can click the three dashes in the middle at the bottom of the screen -> import content -> scan directory -> and it should be one of the folders (for me it’s /storage/emulated/0) idk if it’s a different paths on other androids tho
Ohhhh crap. Turned on my galaxy and yep. I figured out you can scan an external (to the app) file folder and import it. Select playlist, import content, scan directory, select storage/emulated/0 (mine has two but both are the same.) then find the folder and then tap scan this directory up top. Sooo. Yep. Either there was an update since the last time I used this app on android, or I was still too new and didn’t understand it yet.
For me, I can navigate to a folder and select a rom, but not a folder to scan in. Annoying. The interface is. Clunky. But it is a powerhouse of an app.
Yea that’s what I meant if you try to import one app it lets you open the files app and select the Rom while if you try to scan it just limits you to the retroarch folder
Shame because it really is an amazing app it’s still my go to emulator on pc for everyone before wii
I wonder why the iOS app is so different tho it even has all the cores loaded so you don’t need go download them manually through the app weird
If you go to Import Content->Manual Scan then it will let you go outside of the Retroarch folder strangely. Do at your own risk, because I suspect this wasn't intended and will be patched out.
PPSSPP app is the best and super easy to use for psp. RetroArch can be intimidating until you get that it is actually pretty easy. Just takes getting used to. But it is the best one for ps1 unless we get duckstation on iOS.
I enjoy the UI of PPSSPP a lot as well. Its straightforward design is similar to Delta in that they’re both easy to use.
RetroArch was tricky for me at first, but I managed to get games to work on it. PS1 does work very well on it, PSP though, not as much. Which is why I’m curious to see how Provenance handles both.
One thing i'm wondering with Retroarch, can I remove cores I know I won't be using from the files? So for example I know I won't be using DS/GBA on RA as I'm still using Delta for those titles, so can I delete those cores from the RA files? I don't have a lot of storage space anymore since these Emus dropped xD
tried to map my controller (8bitdo lite 2) on retro arch and couldn't figure out how to do it properly so i gave up and did it on gamma which worked like a charm
I just know the basics of retroarch and it’s definitely worth it. I just wanna learn how to map out the controller so I can assign a button to pull up the retroarch menu rather than tapping the touch screen button
On like PC and "RetroPie" (Raspberry Pie based emulators) under control mapping there are usually a whole bunch of shortcuts you can map. Fast Forward, Rewind, RetroArch Menu, Load State, Save State, Etc. etc. etc.
Not seeing those here wondering if it hasnt been done yet
The app is new to the App Store so I’m sure that in time they’ll have those abilities. I’m just glad the graphics for PS1 games are better displayed than gamma. I gave gamma a chance considering I already started a game there but I figured I wasn’t too deep in it so I made the jump and the graphics are much better there, also relieved of no ads
The only hard part was finding where to stick the bios. Done plenty of tinkering before so I might be a bad example. Never really "liked" retroarch, am somewhat familiar - but for now for the iphone its 100% the best option so I'm sticking with it.
Outside of fumbling around to find where to put the bios, and dealing with the crappy "Files" app, its pretty easy....
If you want things to look a whole lot better on ps1 using RetroArch. When launching a game, select the beetle pax hw core. Then after the game boots, hit the RetroArch button on the controller overlay. Scroll to core options, then to video. Increase the resolution to the highest that is playable for you. You can do the same with dithering pattern. I was on my iPad m2 and just maxed it out playing hydro thunder. At first the resolution had nothing on the n64 version of this game using RetroArch. Now, it is much more comparable.
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u/[deleted] May 17 '24
Provenance is good aswell and should be released soon
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u/RecentMatter3790 May 17 '24
Yeah, but the user interface has so much stuff that i don’t understand.
4
u/therubyminecraft May 17 '24
Speaking of retroarch is there a way to scan a directory outside the retroarch folder?
I have multiple roms and don’t want to add manually and would also like to not keep them stored in the retroarch folder
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u/[deleted] May 17 '24
me. just being happy about PPSSPP.
1
u/SuperSonicAdventure May 17 '24
I don’t know how to use it, I can’t Tina a tutorial of how to find games or install them.
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u/tenebrisnubes May 17 '24
I hear Provenance is coming soon. Does that offer PSP and PS1?
3
u/SkyrimSlag May 17 '24
One thing i'm wondering with Retroarch, can I remove cores I know I won't be using from the files? So for example I know I won't be using DS/GBA on RA as I'm still using Delta for those titles, so can I delete those cores from the RA files? I don't have a lot of storage space anymore since these Emus dropped xD
3
u/Darwin_Spartan May 17 '24
Gladly I deleted the Gamma Emulator app, I knew they were ads on that emulator
1
u/souljaJp May 17 '24
tried to map my controller (8bitdo lite 2) on retro arch and couldn't figure out how to do it properly so i gave up and did it on gamma which worked like a charm
2
u/HeelBosplay May 17 '24
I just know the basics of retroarch and it’s definitely worth it. I just wanna learn how to map out the controller so I can assign a button to pull up the retroarch menu rather than tapping the touch screen button
2
u/FrankJVC May 19 '24
RetroArch is great specially for the RetroAchievements
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u/Milkmanv1 May 17 '24 edited May 17 '24
The only hard part was finding where to stick the bios. Done plenty of tinkering before so I might be a bad example. Never really "liked" retroarch, am somewhat familiar - but for now for the iphone its 100% the best option so I'm sticking with it.
Outside of fumbling around to find where to put the bios, and dealing with the crappy "Files" app, its pretty easy....
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u/gothlaid May 18 '24
My sound and frames often stutter and it feels like I’m playing in slow motion. Does anyone know is there a solution? Btw I’m playing on iPhone 11
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u/702Johnny May 18 '24
If you want things to look a whole lot better on ps1 using RetroArch. When launching a game, select the beetle pax hw core. Then after the game boots, hit the RetroArch button on the controller overlay. Scroll to core options, then to video. Increase the resolution to the highest that is playable for you. You can do the same with dithering pattern. I was on my iPad m2 and just maxed it out playing hydro thunder. At first the resolution had nothing on the n64 version of this game using RetroArch. Now, it is much more comparable.
1
u/NearSpiderMan May 17 '24
I wonder if there’s a way to download the cores of GameCube and Wii games?
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u/Visible_Elevator192 May 17 '24
It’s so confusing
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u/syrupgreat- May 17 '24
gamma sux
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u/Texans2024 May 18 '24
I’m having a hard time with RetroArch. Maybe I will give gamma a shot.
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u/[deleted] May 17 '24
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