RetroArch

Key points

Free open-source, cross-platform front end for emulating a huge variety of classic computers, retro consoles, arcade machines and game engines.

For a list of currently emulated systems see: Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions.

General information

Official website

Official forums

Official help pages

Steam Community Discussions

Source code (GitHub)

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Official website		Free to download.
Steam		Will be available for free. (Release date is TBA)^[1]^[2]

A browser-based version is also available.

RetroArch can be compiled to run in DOS but no official builds are available.

DLC and expansion packs

RetroArch uses plug-ins called "cores" for emulating specific systems. They can be downloaded and installed by using the Online Updater feature.

Name	Notes
Home computers	Amstrad CPC Atari ST, STE, TT, Falcon Commodore PET, VIC-20, 64, Plus/4, 128, Amiga Microsoft MSX NEC PC-8000, PC-8800 (PC-88), PC-9800 (PC-98) Sharp X68000 Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum Spectravideo Thomson TO7, MO5
Home consoles	Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar Coleco Industries ColecoVision Magnavox Odyssey 2, Phillips Videopac+ G7400 (Odyssey 3) Mattel Intellivision NEC TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, TurboGrafx-CD, CD-ROM², Super CD-ROM² NEC PC Engine SuperGrafx, PC-FX Nintendo NES/Famicom, SNES/Super Famicom, 64, GameCube, Wii, Virtual Boy Panasonic 3DO Sega SG-1000, Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2
Handheld consoles	Atari Lynx Bandai WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color Dedicated handheld electronic games Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, DS, 3DS Nintendo Pokemon Mini Sega Game Gear, VMU SNK Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color Sony PlayStation Portable Vectrex
Arcade machines	Capcom CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-3 Cave Data East DEC-0, DEC-8, DECO IC16 Galaxian based hardware Irem M62, M63, M72, M90, M92, M107 Kaneko 16 Konami LaserDisc games Neo-Geo NMK16 Pacman based hardware PGM Psikyo 68EC020 and SH-2 based hardware Sega NAOMI, ST-V, System 1, System 16, System 18, X-Board, Y-Board Super Kaneko Nova System Toaplan 1, 2 Taito F2, X, Z and others
Multi-system	MAME 2015, 2016 MESS 2015 UME 2015
Virtual machines	CHIP-8 DOS (DOSBox, DOSBox SVN/Glide) Java ME Palm OS TIC-80
Game engines	Cannonball (Out Run) Lutro (LUA Game Framework) OpenLara (Tomb Raider) REminiscence (Flashback: The Quest for Identity) RPG Maker 2000, 2003 TyrQuake (Quake) vitaQuake 2 (Quake II) vitaQuake 3 (Quake III Arena) ScummVM
Game ports and clones	2048 Craft (Minecraft clone) Dinothawr FloppyBird (Flappy Bird clone) Mr. Boom (Bomberman/Dynablaster clone) NXEngine (Cave Story) PrBoom (Doom) The Powder Toy XRick (Rick Dangerous clone)

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\retroarch.cfg^{[Note 1]}
Windows	<path-to-game>\retroarch-core-options.cfg^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1118310/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

General program settings are stored in retroarch.cfg, whereas specific core (emulator) options are saved in retroarch-core-options.cfg.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\saves\^{[Note 1]}
Windows	<path-to-game>\states\^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1118310/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Emulated in-game saves are stored in the saves directory, whereas manual "snapshots" in states.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Main menu (default XMB skin.)

Auxiliary desktop menu.

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese

The optional AI Service feature can grab a screenshot of the emulated content and translate the in-game text between 63 languages.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play		The number of players and multiplayer modes depend on the emulated game.
LAN play		The number of players and multiplayer modes depend on the emulated game.
Online play		The number of players and multiplayer modes depend on the emulated game.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	55355, 55400, 55435

This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9, 10, 11, 12
OpenGL
Metal support		Metal 2 version available for High Sierra (10.13) or higher.
Vulkan

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Platform dependent	DirectSound, WASAPI, XAudio2, CoreAudio, OpenAL, SDL, ALSA, JACK, PulseAudio
Interface	Platform dependent	DirectInput, SDL
Input	Platform dependent	DirectInput, XInput, HID, SDL

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 AMD Athlon 64	Intel Core series AMD Phenom II series
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL 2.0 compatible DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 2.0 support	DirectX 11 compatible Shader model 3.0 support

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.5
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G4 867 MHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1118310/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1118310) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

[gamedir-3] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-4] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1118310/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1118310) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] ttps://steamcommunity.com/app/1118310/discussions/0/1643168364652926643/

[2] ttps://steamcommunity.com/games/1118310/announcements/detail/2702641529270113655

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

Developers

	Libretro
Release dates
Windows	May 26, 2010
macOS (OS X)	2011^{[citation needed]}
Linux	2013^{[citation needed]}