*READ THIS AREA BEFORE POSTING AND ALWAYS POST YOUR CONFIG : old or new3DS, firmware, 3dsx or cia/.3ds gateway roms*
This thread is about nightly builds or alpha version of RetroArch, it's aim is to report bugs to the devs because of the multiple way homebrew is available on the 3DS.
('UPDATE YOUR PAYLOAD' ERROR MEANS YOU NEED TODAY'S VERSION OF SMEA'S HACK, GET THE STARTER.ZIP BELOW AND REINSTALL IRONHAX OF THEME MENU FROM THE HOEBREW MENU)
We asume that you have prior knowledge about how to run homebrew on your system (check your 3DS firmware in settings, top screen):
- fw 9.2 and under : you probably want to use a Custom Firmware (other links 1, 2) and cia builds (or .3ds rom builds if you have a Gateway linker)
- fw 9.3 and up : you want to use .3dsx builds, and the latest smealum's hax by using his up to date starter kit and one of the many entry points listed there (Tutorial))
PLEASE CHECK THE LIBRETRO WIKI, IT ANSWERS MOST OF YOUR QUESTIONS.
Useful links and troubleshooting and tips at the end
We would like to keep discussion here as friendly as possible, and if you think you can contribute in any constructive way, be it for the the devs, about the info in that 1st post, or in any way you can, we encourage you to do so
You read and agreed to the forum Terms of Service : don't ask for roms or bios, you should be able to dump your own yourself with solutions like those :
http://www.retrode.org/ http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=158974.0
(or find them somewhere yourself, and make sure they're good dumps from the right romset)
CHECK YOUR ROMS ON RETROARCH PC WITH THE SAME CORE BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT HERE (ESPECIALLY WITH MAME 2000/2003, FBA)
EMUS ARE ALREADY RUNNING AT 807MHZ ON NEW 3DS SINCE BEFORE HANS, HANS WONT HELP MORE WITH THAT.
Having sufficient prior knowledge about the actual system you're trying to emulate would help, helping with this isn't the aim of this thread (I'm sure you can find those answers elsewhere, be it google or youtube, MAME/FBA forums, etc)
(if you want to run IPS patched/hacked/translated roms, please also try them on RetroArch on PC/Mac, since the 3DS doesn't provide/can't run the most accurate emulation cores)
Latest Nightly Builds: LINK (Changelog Below)
Go here for the answers to most of your issues: LINK (LibRetro Wiki)
To access the in-game menu, touch the lower part of the lower touch screen.
To turn off the lower screen, touch the upper part of the lower screen.
(you can also turn off verbosity, with is on by default with nightly builds)
NEW! CATSFC SNES Emulator on Ironhax/*hax 2.5 build, firmware 10.1U
Best core compatibility for your system: *Subject to change with updates
"If you're using .3dsx cores, support will only be provided on 2.5 hax or latest."
As you know the specs on the different systems (old 3ds, 2ds and new 3ds) are quite different, so this results in some cores running better than others. Below is a list of which cores are best suited for your system to help you obtain the best gaming experience possible.
3DSX is confirmed working on *Hax 2.5 (Includes Ironhax & Browserhax) on the latest firmwares.
CIA is confirmed working on firmware 9.2 and below. ON EMUNAND ONLY
Note: Users on 9.2 and under, especially with o3ds, with big speed issues (especially on GBA) should just switch to rom injection instead of RetroArch.
Link to thread is below.
3DS Rom builds are confirmed working on firmware 9.2 and below WITH GATEWAY
-I WOULD RECOMMEND EXTRACTING THE .3DS ROMS FROM YOUR EXTRACTION SOFTWARE TO YOUR SDCARD (NO DRAG&DROP) OR THIS COULD LEAD TO FRAGMENTION ERRORS (and for the love of god don't defrag an SDCard if you want it to have a good lifespan)-
(SKY3DS WILL NEVER SUPPORT THOSE ON ITS OWN). (PERFORMANCE IS THE SAME AS CIA)
Key:
*: 60FPS or around full playable compatibility
-: Playable or struggles with compatiblity
x: Not playable at all, not enough frames
Old 3DS: *If your running on firmware 9.2 or below you want to use the .cia versions of the following due to kernel hax, otherwise use .3dsx
- Fceumm (NES emulator)*
- Gambatte (GB/GBC emulator)*
- Quicknes (NES emulator)*
- Catsfc (SNES emulator)x (use latest BlargSnes instead (yes, it's compatible with 2.5Hax))
- *pcsx (PS1 emulator, .cia is needed for this one)x (unless you use the .cia)
- *fb alpha cps1 (Capcom Playsystem 1 emulator)-
- *fb alpha cps2 (Capcom Playsystem 2 emulator)-
- *fb_alpha_neo_libretro (NeoGeo AES/MVS (not CD) emulator)-
THIS MEANS FBA CORES DO NOT SUPPORT OTHER SYSTEMS THAN CPS1/CPS2/NEO GEO MVS AT THE MOMENT
- gpsp (GBA emulator)-
- mgba (GBA emulator)-
- mednafen pce (PC Engine TurboGrafx16 emulator)*
- Genesis plus px (Sega Genesis emulator)*
- nxengine (Cave Story)* (run a .exe)
- mednafen wswan (Wonderswan emulator)*
- mednafen vb (Virtual Boy, .cia is needed for this one)x
- fmsx (FMSX PC emulator)* (thanks Daxtsu for the port)
- 2048 (2048 numbers game)*
New 3DS: *If your running on firmware 9.2 or below you want to use the .cia versions of the following due to kernel hax, otherwise use .3dsx and you should be fine on N3DS besides pcsx (hopefully for now). Also most of the emulators above will work also.
- Nestopia (NES emulator)*
- Catsfc (SNES emulator) (most games are fullspeed, unless you try chipset specific games) *
- *Catsfc Plus (SNES emulator)-
- snes9x (SNES emulator)-
- *fb alpha cps1 (Capcom Playsystem 1 emulator)*
- *fb alpha cps2 (Capcom Playsystem 2 emulator)*
- *fb_alpha_neo_libretro (NeoGeo AES/MVS (not CD) emulator)* (try running clones/bootlegs for the biggest roms, like kf2K3bla for KOF2003) thanks @wangtang32000 and @duwen
THIS MEANS FBA CORES DO NOT SUPPORT OTHER SYSTEMS THAN CPS1/CPS2/NEO GEO MVS AT THE MOMENT
- gpsp (GBA emulator)*
- mgba (GBA emulator)-
- *pcsx (PS1 emulator, .cia is needed for this one)x (unless you use the .cia)
- (you can get near full speed with cia version on new 3DS, by disabling Audio/video synch (Settings>Audio>Audio Sync Enable OFF and setting sound resampler (Settings>Audio) to "Nearest") (DONT FORGET TO SET IT BACK TO NORMAL AFTERWARDS SINCE RETROARCH CONFIG IS SHARED ACROSS CORES FOR NOW)
- mednafen pce (TurboGrafx16 emulator)*
- Genesis plus px (Sega Genesis emulator)*
- nxengine (Cave Story)* (run a .exe)
- mednafen wswan (Wonderswan emulator)*
- mednafen vb (Virtual Boy, .cia is needed for this one)x
- fmsx (FMSX PC emulator)* (thanks @daxtsu for the port)
- 2048 (2048 numbers game)*
*Catsfc Plus has better sound quality but at the cost of performance
*PCSX rearmed DOES NOT SUPPORT .iso only bin, cue, img, mdf, pbp, toc, cbn, m3u
*FBA Roms can take several minutes to load, so be patient. If you get an error talking about ram burn that means the rom will not load on your system due to the size being too big. Expected ROMSET should be v0.2.97.36, if its not working you either have a bad rom or its from the wrong set.
Cores that require BIOS: (need to be the right file, with the right name, at the right place)
Gpsp - Location retroarch/cores/system
- gba_bios.bin (16384 bytes large, MD5 sum: a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6) (IT'S EASY TO FIND A FAULTY BIOS, SO PLEASE CHECK)
PCSX - Location retroarch/cores/system
- scph5500.bin (MD5 sum: 8dd7d5296a650fac7319bce665a6a53c)
- scph5501.bin (MD5 sum: 490f666e1afb15b7362b406ed1cea246)
- scph5502.bin (MD5 sum: 32736f17079d0b2b7024407c39bd3050)
(Disc switching is supported (Quick Menu>Core Disc Options> Disc Index))
Sega CD - Location retroarch/cores/system
- bios_CD_E.bin (MegaCD EU BIOS)
- bios_CD_U.bin (SegaCD US BIOS)
- bios_CD_J.bin (MegaCD JP BIOS)
(USE F-U-L-L CD images for this emu, no external wav/mp3/flac/ape music track)
PC Engine - Location retroarch/cores/system
- syscard3.pce (PCE-CD BIOS)
(USE F-U-L-L CD images for this emu, no external wav/mp3/flac/ape music track)
NeoGeo - Location : next to your roms (compatible with unibios 3.1 : Core Options>NeoGeo UniBIOS Enabled)
(Side note : make sure you understand the concept of romset version and clones or child/parent rom system, clone or child roms are usually very small roms, since they contain only differential code from the main/parent rom this applies for other region of the rom or revisions (Street Fighter 2 comes to mind) for example meaning : YOU NEED THE MAIN ROM NEXT TO THE "SMALL" ONE)
MSX - Download Here, Location retroarch/cores/system
- MSX.ROM (MSX BIOS)
- MSX2.ROM (MSX2 BIOS)
- MSX2EXT.ROM (MSX2 ExtROM)
- MSX2P.ROM (MSX2+ BIOS)
- MSX2PEXT.ROM (MSX2+ExtROM)
(You also probably want to set your system to MSX2/MSX2+ :Quick Menu>Core Settings> Machine> MSX2 or MSX2+.Thanks
@SeongGino )
Troubleshooting and tips :
- To run MAME or Full FBA, you will have to create a XML file so homebrew can run the cores under another application such as youtube or monster hunter demo, for ram purposes. Heres the link to the post for how it should be written.
LINK (thanks
@vague-rant)
- Delete your sd:/retroarch/retroarch.cfg if things aren't working or your controls break (thanks
@Rj.MoG)
- Those are nightly, bleeding edge builds, compiled every night at an arbitrary time so newer build might not always or might even be broken so don't be afraid to rollback to an older version if a newer one is broken (thanks
@Rj.MoG )
- To use the circle pad/analog pad as Dpad :
General menu > Settings > Input > Input User 1 Binds > User 1 Analog To Digital Type > select "Left analog" or tart a game and then open the emulator menu, go to Core Input Options and change "User 1 Analog to Digital Type" to Left Analog. (Thanks
@RegularMoron and
@daxtsu )
- To map extra buttons to RetroArch functions : (zL/zR to Save/Load save state or fast forward hold/fast forward/toggle/pause/frame advance on L/R/U/D on C-Stick :
General menu > Settings > Input > input hot key bins > load state (press a button) etc
- For now RetroArch config is shared between core. Save/Load config is broken. just make changes and quit RetroArch (and press start), relaunch RetroArch, your changes should be saved.
(An alternative would be using Configuration Overrides) (thanks
@Radius4 )
- If you're using smea's HAX/.3dsx builds, you can hold L+R+Down+B to go back to the Homebrew Launcher, sometimes even if RetroArch crashed.
Important Links:
Libretro Wiki: LINK
Aliaspider Activity: LINK
Retroarch Changelog: LINK
FBA Master Romlist: LINK
Homebrew Launcher: LINK
For 9.2 users : AGB_Firm Signature Patcher + GBA ROM Converter (GBA ROM Injection) : LINK (GBA run natively this way, so full speed, but no RetroArch bells and whistles)
Original Thread: LINK
3DS Nightly Discussion Thread over at the Libretro board : LINK
I would like to thank @aliaspider and the whole RetroArch team for their hard work !!
Please show some gratitude here or on their board, or even consider donating a bit, once they open the PayPal option to do so