Hot take, but I don't like Retroarch that much

[CG4R12I4N]

Mednafen is still way easier to use than RetroArch, especially with Mednaffe GUI.

 

[haikujess]

On PC, I kind of agree, but these days I do most of my emulation on an Xbox Series X and RetroArch is the name of the game unless it's PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/3DS

 

[Trainer Red]

I'm starting to realize that most of the loathing is for the PC version of RetroArch ... which is understandable since even I rather use standalone emulators since they run more smoothly ( I mean I *still* use VisualBoyAdvance 1.72 when I need to )

On Android/iOS as long as it's being run on a flagship phone like an iPhone or Galaxy S series then it really shouldn't be fine !

Users really should take their time to learn how to optimize the settings on RetroArch
I mean it's fun and versatile once it's understood
We can't really subject ourselves to becoming automation complacency or whatever term Technology Connection said on his YouTube channel

On PC, I kind of agree, but these days I do most of my emulation on an Xbox Series X and RetroArch is the name of the game unless it's PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/3DS

Wait ! Did you like do the whole dev mode and all ? :O
I'm planning to buy a refurbished Xbox One sometime this year so I'm curious ! ( Not getting the X or S series since one's too expensive and the other doesn't have a disc slot ... )

 

[Graw]

I don't particularly like retroarch but I don't dislike it enough to not use it. I only use it for 8 and 16 bit systems though. I've never had much luck with it trying to emulate 32-bit and up. N64 emulation is surprisingly terrible in retroarch and reminds me of what it was like 15 years ago. For older systems though I like the convenience. I've tried other frontends and find them all limited in some way. Retroarch is bloated and confusing but you can do a lot with it and the cores for older systems work well enough.

 

[DanCalibur]

How does Batocera compare to Retrobat?

They use the same UI and once running are pretty much the same, they are both portable too. Batocera is a bootable drive and can run in pretty much anything even on old directX10 machines but you need a disc just for it. Retrobat can be installed like a normal windows program but it needs directX11 minimum to run

 

[RageBurner]

They use the same UI and once running are pretty much the same, they are both portable too. Batocera is a bootable drive and can run in pretty much anything even on old directX10 machines but you need a disc just for it. Retrobat can be installed like a normal windows program but it needs directX11 minimum to run

Thanks!

 

[YoshifreakZX]

RetroArch is definitely not for everyone. I just use it because it's convenient for playing games on multiple systems and I can just switch to a game from one console to another without closing out of the emulator and scrolling through my PC to look for a different one. Plus, it's not too much of a hassle to play Saturn games on it, at least to me.
Also, RetroAchievements.

 

[Nacho-01]

standalone emulators 4 life

 

[Trainer Red]

heh !

I think RetroArch has it's place and is very useful for just being the centre of your emulation, but I've always disliked how it's annoying it is to change settings per emulator, and I've always preferred using standalone emulators to be able to tweak everything to my liking. But that's just me, I wanna hear your opinions about how I'm wrong and stupid

View attachment 34238

 

[haikujess]

I'm starting to realize that most of the loathing is for the PC version of RetroArch ... which is understandable since even I rather use standalone emulators since they run more smoothly ( I mean I *still* use VisualBoyAdvance 1.72 when I need to )

On Android/iOS as long as it's being run on a flagship phone like an iPhone or Galaxy S series then it really shouldn't be fine !

Users really should take their time to learn how to optimize the settings on RetroArch
I mean it's fun and versatile once it's understood
We can't really subject ourselves to becoming automation complacency or whatever term Technology Connection said on his YouTube channel




Wait ! Did you like do the whole dev mode and all ? :O
I'm planning to buy a refurbished Xbox One sometime this year so I'm curious ! ( Not getting the X or S series since one's too expensive and the other doesn't have a disc slot ... )

I did! Dev mode is the only way to use emulators right now, AFAIK. Works amazingly on my Series X, I've heard it works well on the One series as well, maybe not as much for PS2/Gamecube but earlier gens, definitely.

 

[Trainer Red]

I did! Dev mode is the only way to use emulators right now, AFAIK. Works amazingly on my Series X, I've heard it works well on the One series as well, maybe not as much for PS2/Gamecube but earlier gens, definitely.

Thanks ! I bought a brand new XBox One Series S ( Shocking ! It was practically the only remaining one in this whole region that's in new condition o_o ) So I'll eventually get to trying emulation ... eventually ~

 

[Faust03]

I use retroarch for most things because I am legitimately insane, but I use dolphin separately because the core for that sucks ass

 

[Leon]

As i said before, retroarch would be far more well liked if it had a desktop ui similar to say, ares or mesen's.

The main reason why people hate retroarch is that it's desktop control scheme is so bonkers for mouse and keyboard control.

 

[dejiko]

literally same, nyo. i cant vibe with it, nyo! rather standalone emulators for everything, nyo!!!

 

[hitsugi]

Honestly me neither. Wonder if it's gotten much better since I used it though?

 

[lil_thang]

for fiddly or more recent emulators i will use them individually, but i have absolutely no issue using RetroArch for say PS1 and prior.

RetroArch is extremely configurable. i kind of can't empathize with how much people seem to hate on it. i see the "hot take i dont like retroarch" takes far more often that I see people singing its praises

 

[Faust03]

I somehow figured out what I was doing on retroarch so I just stick with that because I don't want to configure a bunch of separate standalone emulators

 

[AkiraSO4]

For something that's supposed to put all things together and make it more convenient of the user, it's needlessly complicated to configure. I tried to mess with it twice and quickly went back to standalone emulators.

If anyone I ever see manages to deal with Retroarch properly, then more power to them, I guess. It just isn't for me.

 

[brighter]

Bizhawk & RALibretro have way better UX, if anyone absolutely needs a multisystem emulator. they feel like using actual Computer Software rather than running an emulator inside another emulator.

 

[lil_thang]

I, for one, like using Actual Computer Software.

 

[Krazy Kat]

Therein lies the problem, you can count emulators that work on handhelds with your fingers because not everyone can play comfortably on PC. Thus RetroArch is pretty often your only option to play them unless you have something like Steam Deck.

steamdeck is too heavy to carry thus it doesn't fit in our pocket and also it is waste to emulate aged console

 

[Den MDM Den MDM]

For something that's supposed to put all things together and make it more convenient of the user, it's needlessly complicated to configure. I tried to mess with it twice and quickly went back to standalone emulators.

If anyone I ever see manages to deal with Retroarch properly, then more power to them, I guess. It just isn't for me.

While I agree that it's complicated to configure with so many things in one, I think the strong points (netplay, library of emulators, performance) make up for it. Except performance past ps1, it's shitty lmao

 

[roachfire]

I think most people on here are going to agree with that take, myself included.

RetroArch is great for anyone new to emulation or anyone that's unwilling to invest the time to set up anything better, but in my experience most enthusiasts tend to find it really limiting and annoying.

It was the first emulator I tried and I found it so convoluted and overwhelming that I gave up. This was years ago though, so maybe the experience is better now.

 

[Natsuyasumi]

I think RetroArch has it's place and is very useful for just being the centre of your emulation, but I've always disliked how it's annoying it is to change settings per emulator, and I've always preferred using standalone emulators to be able to tweak everything to my liking. But that's just me, I wanna hear your opinions about how I'm wrong and stupid

Totally agree. RA's UX is hot garbage.

 

[OpenVMS]

Totally agree. RA's UX is hot garbage.

It feels particularly frustrating on PC. They had to really compromise the friendliness to make sure you can use the whole thing with a controller.

To me, the killer thing about RetroArch is the whole cores system. It's really sweet that it's like a generic target for all these different emulators. I guess in theory someone else could make a totally different emulator that's able to load libretro cores, but it's such a massive undertaking I don't think there's a lot of these floating around.

I find Retroarch pretty annoying to configure, but it is something you can get a bit better at, and after hours of tweaking on whatever handheld you have, if you backup that config, you can just use Retroarch for playing games instead of fiddling.