Playnite

[HextarVigar]

Get this. Everything tidy and in one place, create your own cover images, meta data settings for descriptions and covers., has emulator compatability...

It's basically a perfect library system

 

[Gorse]

Oh my god – I have to use this ON TOP of RetroArch!? Did no one in the dev team think of how much of a friggin' nightmare that would be!? RetroArch sucks enough as it is, and the Steam client isn't far behind! NO THANK YOU, SIR – I PREFER WINDOWS FOLDERS

 

[RageBurner]

Oh my god – I have to use this ON TOP of RetroArch!? Did no one in the dev team think of how much of a friggin' nightmare that would be!? RetroArch sucks enough as it is, and the Steam client isn't far behind! NO THANK YOU, SIR – I PREFER WINDOWS FOLDERS

Same, I have my own system and don't want frontends telling me how I should do things.

 

[Tonyz95]

It is made for easy access to all your games, console and PC. It can be linked to your gog and/or steam account and even other ones, and supports almost the best emulators.

 

[BasileosAlexios]

Interesting but the need for using another system on top of retroarch is a No-No for me; if I'm gonna use a second front-end to launch an emulator through a front-end, I'm gonna use STEAM to do it as it comes packed with a social component that none of the other front-ends seems to have.

To me, Retroarch ends up as a pain in the tushus as it has a rigid file system scheme that interferes with how I organise my stuff. It's the same problem that MAME has, with how rigid it's filesystem is, which introduced a massive file redundancy problem as I wanted to keep things organised using my own system. I solved it by making Peace With God that every time I update MAME I'll have to download all the roms again etc but since I never had All The MAME stuff archived, that wasn't that big of a deal. The other gaming systems however are a different story.

Speaking of which: The image below is how I organise my filesystem, all in an external hard drive, for portability. Some assets are missing and there are no arrows indicating what-opens-what but I think it's easy to follow without any instructions.

A lot of those graphical assets are hand-made by myself so it's forever gonna be a Work In Progress; if anybody has a better idea on how I can organise this in a front-end agnostic manner, I'm all ears. The current plan is to eventually standardise all the file names and build a batch program that sets up all the icons and creates steam shortcuts using the files that are there; if you as much as change the name of any of those folders it's icon will revert to the standard folder icon so it's a pain in the ass to deal with when I have to format my computer, or if I plug my Throve disk into another computer.
I'd also like to point out that there are only two systems that use serial codes in the directory name; I deeply regret having done the PSX and Sega Saturn that way, as I can't find anything without using the search bar.

 

[ATenderLad]

I think Playnite has an attractive appearance, but I usually stick with Launchbox. They have an integration with MAME, where you can import a whole library based on the version of the emulator you have. It's a pretty nice improvement on the usual MAME UI, and a great way to organize multiple game versions/hacks/prototypes under a single entry.

 

[Yousef]

Oh my god – I have to use this ON TOP of RetroArch!? Did no one in the dev team think of how much of a friggin' nightmare that would be!? RetroArch sucks enough as it is, and the Steam client isn't far behind! NO THANK YOU, SIR – I PREFER WINDOWS FOLDERS

RA hate, love to see it.

 

[HextarVigar]

I think Playnite has an attractive appearance, but I usually stick with Launchbox. They have an integration with MAME, where you can import a whole library based on the version of the emulator you have. It's a pretty nice improvement on the usual MAME UI, and a great way to organize multiple game versions/hacks/prototypes under a single entry.

Playnite doesn't paywall the full version. It's completely free. Also, I don't appreciate Launchbox needing to know my email address, That's none of their business.

 

[Nidstang]

I used GOG Galaxy 2.0 for this for the longest time, but lately connection to other services like Steam has been broken, and CD Projekt doesn't seem to care to fix it. So maybe I'll try out Playnite.

Post automatically merged: Mar 12, 2025

Oh my god – I have to use this ON TOP of RetroArch!? Did no one in the dev team think of how much of a friggin' nightmare that would be!? RetroArch sucks enough as it is, and the Steam client isn't far behind! NO THANK YOU, SIR – I PREFER WINDOWS FOLDERS

If you're using a PC why would you use RetroArch instead of individual emulators though?

 

[RageBurner]

If you're using a PC why would you use RetroArch instead of individual emulators though?

Because sometimes standalone emulators don't keep up with RA core development.

 

[HextarVigar]

Because sometimes standalone emulators don't keep up with RA core development.

That makes no sense. They literally have to. You're basically saying RA has a better version of the emulator it's using.

 

[RageBurner]

That makes no sense. They literally have to. You're basically saying RA has a better version of the emulator it's using.

You misunderstand me.

What I said is that standalone emulators are sometimes behind in development in regards to RA cores, but I never said I was referring to emulators which have matching cores; I was talking about general system coverage.

So for example, say, standalone MEKA being outdated when compared to a modern libretro SMS emulator.

 

[hypnagogic]

Playnite is awesome, but, I'm on Linux.

 

[RageBurner]

Playnite is awesome, but, I'm on Linux.

Lutris and Heroic fulfill similar roles, no?

 

[hypnagogic]

Lutris and Heroic fulfill similar roles, no?

They aren't nearly as configurable, customizable, nice-looking, or smooth as Playnite. There are tons of themes and extensions that make it fun to tinker with.

 

[RageBurner]

They aren't nearly as configurable, customizable, nice-looking, or smooth as Playnite. There are tons of themes and extensions that make it fun to tinker with.

Maybe not, but they work where it matters most (that is, actually working). Eye-candy doesn't mean much compared to good functionality.

 

[TheWanderer]

Get this. Everything tidy and in one place, create your own cover images, meta data settings for descriptions and covers., has emulator compatability...

It's basically a perfect library system

Oh yeah Playnite is The GOAT my games are neatly tidied Emulated games + Win games and I can automat so much shit with scripts , I've been using it for like 3 years now

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Thanks but nope I’ll stick with old filing system even though it’s a bit messy but I still know where my files at.

 

[hypnagogic]

Not understanding the rejection. It doesn't move your files and you don't even need retroarch to use it. It can use the emulators you already have.

 

[TheWanderer]

Not understanding the rejection. It doesn't move your files and you don't even need retroarch to use it. It can use the emulators you already have.

Yeah it's just an interface with cool visuals and it automat basically everything

 

[fake-kun]

Interesting but the need for using another system on top of retroarch is a No-No for me; if I'm gonna use a second front-end to launch an emulator through a front-end, I'm gonna use STEAM to do it as it comes packed with a social component that none of the other front-ends seems to have.

To me, Retroarch ends up as a pain in the tushus as it has a rigid file system scheme that interferes with how I organise my stuff. It's the same problem that MAME has, with how rigid it's filesystem is, which introduced a massive file redundancy problem as I wanted to keep things organised using my own system. I solved it by making Peace With God that every time I update MAME I'll have to download all the roms again etc but since I never had All The MAME stuff archived, that wasn't that big of a deal. The other gaming systems however are a different story.

Speaking of which: The image below is how I organise my filesystem, all in an external hard drive, for portability. Some assets are missing and there are no arrows indicating what-opens-what but I think it's easy to follow without any instructions.

View attachment 40668

A lot of those graphical assets are hand-made by myself so it's forever gonna be a Work In Progress; if anybody has a better idea on how I can organise this in a front-end agnostic manner, I'm all ears. The current plan is to eventually standardise all the file names and build a batch program that sets up all the icons and creates steam shortcuts using the files that are there; if you as much as change the name of any of those folders it's icon will revert to the standard folder icon so it's a pain in the ass to deal with when I have to format my computer, or if I plug my Throve disk into another computer.
I'd also like to point out that there are only two systems that use serial codes in the directory name; I deeply regret having done the PSX and Sega Saturn that way, as I can't find anything without using the search bar.

Mega Man cameos.

I used Playnite when I was on Windows. I wish there was a Linux version.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Mega Man cameos.

I used Playnite when I was on Windows. I wish there was a Linux version.

That would be Lutris for you.

 

[BasileosAlexios]

I fail to see what is it that this thing does that you can't do on Steam using the SteamRomManager. I'm gonna install it and give it a go for a month or so and report back my experience.