For a growing number of people, Retroarch is the ultimate hub of everything emulation-related. It doesn’t do Retroarch justice just to call it a “frontend” for every console emulator imaginable because all the great emulators can be integrated into it, downloaded and loaded up as “cores” within seconds. Such a vast platform with so much going on inevitably runs into problems, however. ROMs may fail to scan, emulators run too slowly, and controllers don’t get detected.
Here we run through the most common Retroarch issues and fixes to get it working again.
1. PS1 Cores Not Working
Of all the cores on Retroarch, the PS1 cores are probably the trickiest to get working. It’s not too complicated, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. First up, you’ll need to track down and download three very specific BIOS files for the PS1. (Just do a Google search.) The ones you need are SCPH5500, SCPH5501 and SCPH5502, and you need to chuck them in the “system” folder in your Retroarch directory.
Note: the SCPH files need to be named just as they are above. If the file is called “SCPH_5501” or whatever, that won’t do. You just need to rename it to “SCPH5501.”
Also, the PSX games need to be extracted and have both the “bin” and “cue” files in the same folder to work properly.
Depending on which core you’re using, you may be encountering problems with the renderer you’re using for your games. Beetle PSX HW, for example, is the most popular and powerful PS1 core but needs you to have the Vulkan video driver enabled under “Settings -> Video -> Output.”
If you’re still experiencing graphical glitches, with a game open, go to “Quick Menu -> Options -> Renderer (Restart)” and select “Software” or “Hardware (Auto),” restarting Retroarch after trying each one.
2. N64 Cores Not Working
The two main N64 cores in Retroarch are Parallel64 and Mupen64. If you run your other Retroarch cores using the Vulkan video driver, then you may encounter problems with both of these N64 cores. Namely, neither core works with the Vulkan driver by default.
Firstly, if you want to use Mupen64, then you need to manually switch your video drivers (Settings -> Drivers -> Video) to “gl” rather than “vulkan.” Annoyingly, you can’t save this setting just for the N64 core and need to manually switch it whenever you use cores that use the GL and Vulkan drivers.
With ParaLLel 64, you can use Vulkan drivers. You need to start a game in the core using the “gl” driver. Once the game is running, go to the “Retroarch menu -> Quick Menu -> Options” and change the GFX Plugin to angrylion and the RSP plugin to cxd4.
Next, quit Retroarch and reopen it, go to “Settings -> Drivers -> Video” and change the driver to “vulkan.” Now, open a ROM using the ParaLLel 64 core. It will work with the Vulkan driver (using very accurate if low-resolution N64 graphics).
3. Game Slowdown and Audio Crackling
These two issues often go hand in hand, and you may have experienced them in particular on some of the more demanding cores like the Vulkan-based PS1 core Beetle PSX HW. No matter which graphical settings you change, the game suffers a “dragging” effect on both video and sound that makes it extremely unpleasant to play.
After much poking around and futile settings tweaks, we found the solution in the simplest of places – Windows Power Options. Go to “Windows Control Panel -> Power Options,” then change the “Preferred plan” to “High performance.” This option may be hiding under “Show additional plans,” which you may have to click to see it. With High performance selected, your CPU will stop unnecessarily throttling your games.
4. Retroarch Not Scanning ROMs
When you want to add ROMs or games to Retroarch, you should first make sure the databases are up to date by going to “Online Updater” from the Main Menu, then selecting “Update Databases.” This will ensure that Retroarch has the latest information when it comes to detecting your ROMs.
If you try adding ROMs using “Scan Directory” or “Scan File,” bear in mind that Retroarch will only scan for the file types associated with your already-installed cores, so to scan for games in the “cue” format, you’ll need to have a PS1 core installed.
Another complication with scanning for PS1 games is that you need to have a “cue” file along with the main image file (BIN or ISO) for Retroarch to scan it. It’s not too hard to create these (you can use this online tool): just create the cue file in Notepad, give it the same name as the main file (but with “.cue” at the end), then chuck it in the same folder as the main image file.
5. Retroarch Crashing Before Game Loads
It’s tough to address such a broad issue without writing an essay about it. There are so many reasons why Retroarch may crash, that we’ve decided to pick out some of the most common ones so that they hopefully apply to a wide spectrum of people.
Update your graphics card drivers. This one applies particularly to people on mid-lower-end systems, who may struggle with the fact that Retroarch runs on the OpenGL graphics API by default. You should go to the “retroarch” config (CFG) file in your Retroarch directory, open it with Notepad (or, to make the information clearer, Notepad++), and change the “video_driver” option from “gl” to “d3d,” then save your change. You won’t be able to use the slick XMB-style Retroarch UI anymore, but more importantly, you should be able to run games.
Another option for people on older operating systems or with older hardware is to download the “MSVC” versions of Retroarch instead of the default MinGW version. MSVC2005 is designed for pre-Windows XP systems, while MSVC2010 is from Windows XP onward, but some people have reported that it helps them even when using Windows 10 on older machines, so it’s worth a pop.
6. Cores Not Downloading
If you’re trying to download the cores/emulators for all your favorite home consoles and it’s not working, there’s a chance that the core updater in Retroarch isn’t linked to the place where it sources its cores.
Open the “retroarch.cfg” file in your Retroarch directory (again, Notepad or Notepad++). One of the first options should be “core_updater_buildbot_url=”http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/x/x/x”, where the “x”es represent whatever system you’re on.
If this is blank, you need to manually enter the URL that you want to source your cores from. Go to buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/ in your web browser, then navigate to the directory on the site that corresponds to your system (/windows/x86_64/, for example).
Eventually, you’ll reach a folder labeled “latest.” Click this to see all the cores available for your system, then copy the URL into the Retroarch config file. (If you want, you can actually download cores directly from here and stick them in the “cores” folder in your Retroarch directory.)
Save the change in the config file, and Retroarch should now be able to download cores for you.
7. Quick and Easy Playlist Creation
Retroarch’s game detection and playlist update features are great if you are using it to play around a dozen ROMs. That, though, defeats its very purpose, to be a frontend for hundreds of games on different systems.
Unfortunately, when dealing with extensive ROM collections, scanning a directory filled with ROMs to detect the games automatically can take a lot of time. Does your collection span multiple systems with large ROMs (like the Playstation, Gamecube, or anything newer)? In such scenarios, this “scanning” can eat up your whole evening.
An additional problem is that Retroarch can’t recognize many popular formats, even if its own cores support them. For example, good luck trying to automatically scan a folder filled with games for Sony’s first PlayStation in compressed PBP format. After what could be hours of waiting, you will still have an empty list in front of you.
Thankfully, thanks to Retroarch’s new desktop frontend, you can create and populate playlists manually in seconds.
To do so, right-click on the playlist section on the left of Retroarch’s desktop frontend and choose New Playlist from the menu that pops up.
Give your new playlist a name, then click on it to select it. Right-click on the space in the center of the window. Choose “Add File(s)” to selectively add specific games to the list or “Add Folder” to add everything inside a folder.
Proceed by defining the contents of your new playlist. Choose a core that matches the type of content you just added – like Beetle PSX HW for Playstation games, a MAME variant for arcades, Frodo or Vice for Commodore 64 titles, etc. Also, choose one of the available databases from which Retroarch will pull information for the added ROMs. You don’t have to change anything else – click OK and that’s it.
Almost instantly, Retroarch will populate your list with every file in the selected folder. It’s much better than having to wait all afternoon for its automatic scanner.
These fixes are just the tip of the iceberg for getting Retroarch working again, and we accept that there are probably problems that we haven’t covered here. Meanwhile, you should also check out our ultimate guide to SNES emulation on Retroarch and set up Retroarch on Android.
OK’s real life started at around 10, when he got his first computer - a Commodore 128. Since then, he’s been melting keycaps by typing 24/7, trying to spread The Word Of Tech to anyone interested enough to listen. Or, rather, read.
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