RetroArch Easy Setup Guide 2023

Have you heard about how awesome RetroArch is for Retro Gaming, but are intimidated by it's robust interface? Fear not, my friends! In this RetroArch easy setup guide designed just for beginners we'll get you playing your games in no time!

In this updated RetroArch starter guide for 2023 we cover 3 easy steps to get RetroArch setup on your PC:

1) Downloading and installing Retroarch.

2) Installing RetroArch cores or emulators.

3) Adding playlists to RetroArch, which allows us to do the most important part - access and play our retro games!

Let's get started, my friends!
_________________________________________
Links in the Video:
_________________________________________
My RetroArch Cores of Choice:
Arcade: FinalBurn Neo & MAME - Current
TurboGrafx-16: Beetle PCE
Nintendo DS: melonDS
Nintendo GB: SameBoy
Nintendo GBA: mGBA
NES: Nestopia UE
N64: ParaLLEl N64
SNES: bsnes-mercury Accuracy
Sega Dreamcast: Flycast
Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, CD: Genesis Plus GX
Playstation 1: Duckstation
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Video Chapters:
Intro 00:00
RetroArch Installation 01:34
Basic Navigation of RetroArch 04:08
Understanding and Downloading Cores 06:22
Adding and Playing Games 09:02
Outro 12:00
_________________________________________

[travisb]

Very well organized and clear tutorial. Great teaching! I really appreciate your hard work. It really helps. These older games are such a nice diversion from our crazy modern world...

[ScreamoTrojan]

Seriously incredibly helpful, and super easy to follow along. This app really intimidated me when I first downloaded it, thank you for helping me understand! Definitely subscribing

[ivancho]

Thank you for this series. I'm impressed by the calm clear style of your video, especially as when learning RetroArch I can get a wee bit aggravated. 😠 Keep up the great work. Subscribed.
All the best.

[errolmc]

Many thx for this series. I've been using Retroarch via Launchbox for some time, but I know there are many features I'm not using or using incorrectly. Appreciated 👍🏽

[MRVC_]

Thank you, some one finally did it right and not to fast to follow easy .

[derekt]

Thank you so much for your patient and easy to understand directions. Appreciate it.

[asdasdaee]

You did amazing with this tutorial, thanks brotha!

[thepokergod]

Thank you sir! Very helpful. I was about to say forget this👍🏾

[speedy_x]

I don't comment but this was sooo good i have to say that it is Short straight to the point clear and ez to understand thank you! and 100% not waste of time keep it up! and i just subbed!

[michaeldonaghy]

Finally! I don't believe it, finally understand 😅 Now to configure a controller 😬

[tmig]

I stumbled across your videos and I’m really enjoying them, great work! Like both of you, I have experience with Retroarch via retro gaming OS’s like Batocera & Recalbox. Since I’m new to retro gaming, trying to wrap my head around the components. Is it accurate to say that Batocera, Recalbox, & Launchbox are the friendly front end GUI experience and Retroarch is the backbone of how this all works? Very much still in the learning phase, so please feel free to educate me 🙂

[soyisaaccc]

I love it, I can understand you, my English is turn better😎.

[anthonylopez]

also is there a different way to open that interface? f5 doesnt work for me

[stephenblidgeon]

I've got a super console x2 and I've messed up my controls inside retroarch. Using my pc what folder do i need to delete clear etc to reset my controls.

[marcelocunha]

The Intellivision emulator in Recalbox is FreeIntv version 1.1, and it does not enable the virtual keyboard (keypad) that is mandatory to select 1 or 2 players (most games). This problem no longer occurs in Retroarch (it uses version 1.2 of the FreeIntv emulator) and many Retropie users also do not have this problem of missing virtual keyboard (Retropie uses the JzIntv emulator). So I ask: how can I add the latest version of FreeIntv and/or JzIntv to Recalbox?

[AmaZZinqq]

you already have games downloaded so you can upload to Retroarch. Where do you download? thank you

[mart]

When i try to open retroarch it says im missing a bunch of things. It tells me to reinstall it so i do and it still doesnt work. Is there a fix?

[alexanderlinden]

If I have games in the ROMS folder of SD1 and more games in ROMS on SD2 which ones are displayed after booting GarlicOS ?

[sigglass]

Can you play retro arch gaming emulator offline, multiplay, install mods to some games, and back up data where you can continue your existing data with your gaming process on other devices?

[retromoonie]

I followed these steps and when I create a playlist the games don't pop up in the folder