Also-fun fact: Windows allows you to designate a program other than Windows Explorer as your default shell. So on my gaming rig, I have a Retrobat setup in place, and then swapped it in for my shell instead of Windows Explorer. It’s like Batocera, but Windows. I do this because I like access to Windows tools like Lossless Scaler (which I have created batch files for running in association with certain games), Special K, and ReShade. I can also still run Windows Explorer any time I need to (via Task Manager), but 99% of the time (after admittedly tedious setup), I stay in Retrobat as the primary launcher for all my games, and the system boots insanely quick, straight into my gaming OS. Not terribly practical, but for those who enjoy the tinker as much as the game, it’s a really fun project to setup and maintain.
Batocera has lower overhead than windows too so you can get a bit more performance. I've also used Kodi that is built into Batocera. It is all very nice, and can be controlled by a gamepad.
I've tried a couple of these and found Launchbox to be the best for my needs. It seems to be more customizable and is the best frontend I've found for old computer emulators.
This has come at the right time for me. Spent a week downloading coinops builds onto my mini pc only for them not to work properly. This is a much better option as I have my roms and bios collection. Thanks for the straightforward installation instructions. Many thanks.
Brilliant coverage, as always! I love that our community has such a vast variety of tools to cater to an endless array of user needs, Retrobat is an excellent accomplice for those who want an extensive but easy Windows experience.
As much as I like Retrobat, Batocera and ES-DE, I opted to use steam rom manager and added my emulated games to steam big picture, that's because I'm very minimalist about the games I want to emulate nowadays, so instead of having the whole library of one system I pick only the games I ACTUALLY play. Also Russ there's the new steam record feature, and it works on non-steam games.
@@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv you mean the steam rom manager or the steam record? For the steam rom manager you have to download the program and run some little configurations to set it up like putting your steam account and selecting your game parsers. It's actually similar to Emudeck, but instead of installing the emudeck interface, you're just downloading the rom manager to put the emulated games as steam ggames with cover art and all that stuff, basically the program creates batch files that open your desired emulators and launch the roms (just a script). One nitpick is that if you're on windows you have to open the program with adm privilieges and you have to turn off your steam or else it will fail. For steam record you just go to configurations look for game recording and activate it, you can select the quality, turn it on to record games on startup or make a shortcut to turn on game recording while ingame, the cool stuff is that non steam games can be recorded if you launch the from steam launcher. It's a great alternative to obs, and it works on steam deck so you don'nt need an external capture card or external program(obs) to use it
Last year I bought a cheap mini-PC and set it up with Retrobat, and I'm still having a blast with it. I have couch co-op games from all platforms, including Windows, all in a Retrobat collection called "Party". Great fun around the holidays! My mini has an i5-7500t cpu, which is comparable to N100 minis, while being a lot cheaper. It has DDR4 in dual channel, so basically the same as single channel DDR5 on the N100. (N100 only allows single channel) I enabled the CPU all-core turbo frequency all the time with Throttlestop, and with that I can run everything up to Switch at full speed. You're not going to be doing any recent AAA on the integrated graphics, but it's so much more affordable.
This is so awesome! I was struggling with setting up so many emulators one by one and its such a hassle that i just gave up. This looks very promising :D Thanks a lot!
I have a 4080 super but I still play some twisted metal 4/metal gear solid from Duckstation with limp bizkit/matrix soundtrack playing from Spotify. Traveled me back to 1999
Back when I am still using MacOS, OpenEmu is my holy grail for retro emulation gaming. I really wish for something simple yet cohesive like that (OpenEmu) but for Windows.
Yes, I´ve been using Retrobat for a couple of years. It´s kind of like Retropie for windows and because a pc is a lot faster than a Rspi you can emulate everything. Well-made video btw!
Wow what timing. I just followed the vid from a year ago, exact setup and all as the vid and am loving it. Hopefully not getting buyers remorse with the Beelink pc from that video. Found it on a prime deal for 215$. Retro bat is sweet but I do like using Batocera as I wanted the purpose of a “console” experience
Really loved this Tutorial thank you! I really reccomend Just Jamie's Retrobat tutorials as well. One thing that I would love to see in more detail is configuring controllers on Retrobat and Retroarch, I have some serious issues configuring a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) 2 USB Controller on Retrobat/Retroarch.
I agree with the video Retrobat is extremely quick and easy. Recently I have set up a mini PC (SER8) to handle 17.000 "backups" and settled down eventually for Big Box, because the powerful native scripting, but Retrobat was a strong second option.
If you want to do retro gaming the 8bitdo Pro2 is also an excellent choice if you don't mind the $5-$10 jump in price. They also sell a variant for the same price that has hall effect sticks. That one does connect to all kinds of things including switch, android, IOS and Windows. Of course, I love all my 8bitdo controllers so I'm biased.
I love your videos. I have a general question. What the best device for plug and play in a new smart tv ? I trust in your jugment (sorry for my bad english. Its not my first langueage)
one thing to add here that you missed Russ , not that u often do. Is that you can buy the 8bitdo receiver separately and you can then use that to connect any of your controllers like ps4,ps5, xbox one etc to it. Automatically like it does with the 8bitdo controller :)
Do you have a playnite guide? It may be a bit more complex but as far as I've been able to see online, it seems like the best and most comprehensive option for game integration once you have it up and running.
Love this! I just recently set up a USB stick with Batocera on it. But this seems like it's more convenient than the whole dual booting fuss. Aside from performance, is there any other downside to this method over dedicated Batocera? If not I may switch to this!
i'm glad you mentioned emudeck, but as user of emudeck on PC I'm not that keen on you describing it as reliant on steam integration. I don't actually use the steam integration at all, and just use it as an automated way to set up es-de. However, I appreciate this video and recommendation retro bat looks cool.
When you start up a standalone emulator, Retrobat will prompt you if there is a new update and it’ll happen right then. For RetroArch, they update that with every Retrobat update, which is about once a month.
Ahh it's 2am (in OZ) and I just finished watching three of your emulation video's back to back deciding on my next emulation project....looks like it's 2:30am now for me. lol
As a heads up about adding retrobat to windows, I'm going to assume Russ didn't have any issues with his 8bitdo SN30 with his setup but 8bitdo controllers really don't like to play nicely with steam input so if you ha e steam open when you open retrobat you will get double inputs which is super annoying. Getting out of steam fixes the issue. If you add retrobat to steam just go to the controller icon on the mid right whe you are in the actual page with the green play button and find the toggle to turn off steam input, that way you don't get conflicts with retrobats controller configgen or double inputs from steam input. Not sure if this is an issue with just 8bitdo but I also had it on my flydigi controllers. I've found it's the best setup rather than launching steam via retrobat, it works well in the reverse.
Thanks Russ! Some questions: Is PS3/Xbox able to play through Retrobat? Does Syncthing or another similar service work with this setup? If we use Retrobat on a Steam Deck, will save states automatically be backed up on Steam, or would we still need to implement Syncthing? Thanks! 🍻
will you do something similar for Macs, as well as test the new Mac mini m4? I think it has become a great value for money option for emulation with the new processor and ram upgrades
Oh phew. I was not watching and only listened to the audio, and at 8:02 I was like "wait a minute, my best friend Tech Lead???". Thankfully I just heard it wrong lol
I've been using Retrobat on my Ally for months. Much better than Emudeck and other launchers. It simplifies everything and doesn't depend on Steam (like EmuDeck)
I hate to be the one to ask this but is there something like this for Mac? I want to get into emulation gaming, I'm about to have some spare cash for a new Mac (or I might go with a new camera) but I'm not sure if I should set this up on a mac, or get a Steam Deck, or something else.
Nice timing. I am mid-build. I am trying to embed ES-DE folder in it so that I can sync it to Android. Having to use symlink so Retrobat can skip into its structure since Retrobat has a rigid structure.
i've used retrobat before on my pc before but i got confused and then it saw the bin. this guide makes it a lot easier although... would Retro achievements work with it? i mean sure when using retroarch but what about the nightly pcsx2? is itpossible to make it work?
Is it possible to put this setup all in a flash drive? I still want to be able to use other windows app while playing so batocera is not an option for me. And also how much of a difference is there in using Flash drive/HDD to SSD.
I used retrobat before but had some problems because configurations in emulators aren't saved, you can only configure them in retrobat itself. Still it is the easiest for people dont need configure some things. Now I use big picture with enudeck because I only want some games to show on screen (gc - switch), and access the other trough Es-De
This app integrates RetroArch, plus all the standalone emulators, into a single unified experience that’s wrapped around an EmulationStation interface, all preconfigured for instant gameplay. If you know how to use and setup RetroArch then it might not be necessary, but for someone just getting started Retrobat can be an excellent tool!
Is there a portable version of Retrobat? My installation of ES-DE is portable and using only portable versions of the standalone emulators. It is installed on a USB external drive and can be moved from machine to machine. I can also copy the drive and gift it to family members.
Would retrobat be good on an asus rog ally? Would it be better than Emudeck Emulation Station? That’s what I use now. And I hate trying to configure my controls on various consoles.
I have it on rog ally as well as some of the devs, it works but there is an amd package installed by default that might break some emulators that needs to be uninstalled
I really dislike frontends that require to move Roms to their specific folders, I'd rather just point them to where the Roms are. You can create virtual links and all that, but it's still a pain
Can you do video on skrper As for some reason the software/website is acting weird I have a account but is apparently not authorised nor do i get prompts of why it won't log me on even without translation on
Is there a straight forward way to change the Roms folder? I got all my retrostuff on a nas. So I don't have to copy and paste it all the time and just love to scroll through all of them to pick one up.
The way you listed all the alternative methods at the beginning is why I love this channel so much.
It is good the way he does that
Also-fun fact: Windows allows you to designate a program other than Windows Explorer as your default shell. So on my gaming rig, I have a Retrobat setup in place, and then swapped it in for my shell instead of Windows Explorer. It’s like Batocera, but Windows. I do this because I like access to Windows tools like Lossless Scaler (which I have created batch files for running in association with certain games), Special K, and ReShade. I can also still run Windows Explorer any time I need to (via Task Manager), but 99% of the time (after admittedly tedious setup), I stay in Retrobat as the primary launcher for all my games, and the system boots insanely quick, straight into my gaming OS. Not terribly practical, but for those who enjoy the tinker as much as the game, it’s a really fun project to setup and maintain.
Wow, I never knew you could do that!
I did the same thing with Launchbox/Big Box on my emulation build. So much better
GOAT of retro games. Your explanation is so good and so clear, thanks for everything you've done for the retro community!
Running Batocera on a flash drive here. It's great for using emulators without keeping all those files on your computer.
I like RetroBat because you can still use windows. You can keep all retrobat files still in old folder or one drive. Everything is portable.
@@DanTheMan3 I'm using it more to clear up space than the portability aspect.
Batocera has lower overhead than windows too so you can get a bit more performance. I've also used Kodi that is built into Batocera. It is all very nice, and can be controlled by a gamepad.
You can run Retrobat on an external drive or USB stick as well and not have to boot separately like you with Batocera everything in windows
Yeah, I don’t have a pc bone in my body. I buy preloaded batocera cards for my steam deck. And it’s nice that it’s separate memory all together.
I've tried a couple of these and found Launchbox to be the best for my needs. It seems to be more customizable and is the best frontend I've found for old computer emulators.
It's nice having simpler more streamlined setups. I am trying to do this once I get things all situated so thank you in advance :D
This has come at the right time for me. Spent a week downloading coinops builds onto my mini pc only for them not to work properly. This is a much better option as I have my roms and bios collection. Thanks for the straightforward installation instructions. Many thanks.
Amazing video. You are a real hero for helping us with all these complicated steps in order to play retro games. Thank you very very much.
Brilliant coverage, as always! I love that our community has such a vast variety of tools to cater to an endless array of user needs, Retrobat is an excellent accomplice for those who want an extensive but easy Windows experience.
As much as I like Retrobat, Batocera and ES-DE, I opted to use steam rom manager and added my emulated games to steam big picture, that's because I'm very minimalist about the games I want to emulate nowadays, so instead of having the whole library of one system I pick only the games I ACTUALLY play. Also Russ there's the new steam record feature, and it works on non-steam games.
How do ya do that. I would like to know yo.
@@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv you mean the steam rom manager or the steam record?
For the steam rom manager you have to download the program and run some little configurations to set it up like putting your steam account and selecting your game parsers. It's actually similar to Emudeck, but instead of installing the emudeck interface, you're just downloading the rom manager to put the emulated games as steam ggames with cover art and all that stuff, basically the program creates batch files that open your desired emulators and launch the roms (just a script). One nitpick is that if you're on windows you have to open the program with adm privilieges and you have to turn off your steam or else it will fail.
For steam record you just go to configurations look for game recording and activate it, you can select the quality, turn it on to record games on startup or make a shortcut to turn on game recording while ingame, the cool stuff is that non steam games can be recorded if you launch the from steam launcher. It's a great alternative to obs, and it works on steam deck so you don'nt need an external capture card or external program(obs) to use it
Russ teasing us with another banger of a video even before the RP5 review arrives.
Amazing video as always, Russ! Retrobat looks great! It is amazing how far the options for emulating have come!
Last year I bought a cheap mini-PC and set it up with Retrobat, and I'm still having a blast with it. I have couch co-op games from all platforms, including Windows, all in a Retrobat collection called "Party". Great fun around the holidays!
My mini has an i5-7500t cpu, which is comparable to N100 minis, while being a lot cheaper. It has DDR4 in dual channel, so basically the same as single channel DDR5 on the N100. (N100 only allows single channel) I enabled the CPU all-core turbo frequency all the time with Throttlestop, and with that I can run everything up to Switch at full speed.
You're not going to be doing any recent AAA on the integrated graphics, but it's so much more affordable.
Been using RB for a few years as it's easy and feature rich. Top guide Rus.
Amazing content! Thanks for giving Retrobat the love it deserves! Absolute BEST retro gaming frontend!
We need the full review of the Retroid Pocket 5!, I want to be sure there are no defects. You are the best reviewer on this matters!. Thanks
This was exactly what I was looking for! Installing as you're talking 😅
This is so awesome! I was struggling with setting up so many emulators one by one and its such a hassle that i just gave up. This looks very promising :D Thanks a lot!
I have a 4080 super but I still play some twisted metal 4/metal gear solid from Duckstation with limp bizkit/matrix soundtrack playing from Spotify. Traveled me back to 1999
been waiting for this one a loooooooong time, Russ!
Having this for MacOS would be just unbelievable. Subscribed and liked, awesome video whith such a great explanation.
Would just love that Retrobat organizes save files the same as emudeck
Back when I am still using MacOS, OpenEmu is my holy grail for retro emulation gaming. I really wish for something simple yet cohesive like that (OpenEmu) but for Windows.
Yes, I´ve been using Retrobat for a couple of years. It´s kind of like Retropie for windows and because a pc is a lot faster than a Rspi you can emulate everything. Well-made video btw!
Wow what timing. I just followed the vid from a year ago, exact setup and all as the vid and am loving it. Hopefully not getting buyers remorse with the Beelink pc from that video. Found it on a prime deal for 215$. Retro bat is sweet but I do like using Batocera as I wanted the purpose of a “console” experience
Learning disabilities here. I've tried understanding this and until this, I hadn't. Thanks. Now to build my own rotatable controller for Qbert.
Really loved this Tutorial thank you! I really reccomend Just Jamie's Retrobat tutorials as well. One thing that I would love to see in more detail is configuring controllers on Retrobat and Retroarch, I have some serious issues configuring a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) 2 USB Controller on Retrobat/Retroarch.
Perfect video. Staright to the point and only the useful stuff. awesome, thanks.
I agree with the video Retrobat is extremely quick and easy.
Recently I have set up a mini PC (SER8) to handle 17.000 "backups" and settled down eventually for Big Box, because the powerful native scripting, but Retrobat was a strong second option.
I love your dedication and energy! Thank you!
thanks for covering retrobat, i use it for a long time and it just works :)
Emudeck for windows is also a great option, it uses steam big picture as its front end
It can also use emulation station.
Amazing video! Thank you! Implementing this exact setup on my windows steam machine!
If you want to do retro gaming the 8bitdo Pro2 is also an excellent choice if you don't mind the $5-$10 jump in price. They also sell a variant for the same price that has hall effect sticks. That one does connect to all kinds of things including switch, android, IOS and Windows. Of course, I love all my 8bitdo controllers so I'm biased.
Great video and easy to understand... THANKS!!
I love using RetroBat on my pc.
Great video, thank you.
Will be interesting to see how the new Mac mini fares as a new retro emulation box especially for gcn/Wii/PS2 and wiiu
Dolphin has native support for M series macs, idk about the rest
I love your videos. I have a general question. What the best device for plug and play in a new smart tv ? I trust in your jugment (sorry for my bad english. Its not my first langueage)
one thing to add here that you missed Russ , not that u often do. Is that you can buy the 8bitdo receiver separately and you can then use that to connect any of your controllers like ps4,ps5, xbox one etc to it. Automatically like it does with the 8bitdo controller :)
You are the best retro content on Ytube. Thank You!
There are two better
Thank you Russ I was just asking myself this recently.
Gracias, excelente video para esas personas que no tenemos idea que computadoras usar para retro gaming espero y sigas asiendo videos como este
Need a fun video to distract myself from the world rn
russ you rule! thanks for this guide im going to try it on my older intel haswell pc that's just collecting dust
Do you have a playnite guide? It may be a bit more complex but as far as I've been able to see online, it seems like the best and most comprehensive option for game integration once you have it up and running.
TechDweeb is your BEST FRIEND??? That must make him so happy.
ive been adding rclone to my devices to access my nas and wanted to see how others do it, thanks rgc!
I know the best friend thing is becoming kind of a meme but this time with techdweeb I really felt it. As did he I suppose.
I setup ESDE on both my Android Tablet and PC just last week. Still watching this video
I'd love a video of you comparing retrobat to launch box or big box
Love this! I just recently set up a USB stick with Batocera on it. But this seems like it's more convenient than the whole dual booting fuss. Aside from performance, is there any other downside to this method over dedicated Batocera? If not I may switch to this!
Toujours très intéressant! Un grand merci pour le partage!
I've been using launchbox for a while now but retrobat seems a lot more no-frills and user friendly
i'm glad you mentioned emudeck, but as user of emudeck on PC I'm not that keen on you describing it as reliant on steam integration.
I don't actually use the steam integration at all, and just use it as an automated way to set up es-de.
However, I appreciate this video and recommendation retro bat looks cool.
When you start up a standalone emulator, Retrobat will prompt you if there is a new update and it’ll happen right then. For RetroArch, they update that with every Retrobat update, which is about once a month.
Ahh it's 2am (in OZ) and I just finished watching three of your emulation video's back to back deciding on my next emulation project....looks like it's 2:30am now for me. lol
I just spent a couple days setting up individual emulators with ES-DE on my second hand Ayaneo air pro 😅
As a heads up about adding retrobat to windows, I'm going to assume Russ didn't have any issues with his 8bitdo SN30 with his setup but 8bitdo controllers really don't like to play nicely with steam input so if you ha e steam open when you open retrobat you will get double inputs which is super annoying. Getting out of steam fixes the issue. If you add retrobat to steam just go to the controller icon on the mid right whe you are in the actual page with the green play button and find the toggle to turn off steam input, that way you don't get conflicts with retrobats controller configgen or double inputs from steam input. Not sure if this is an issue with just 8bitdo but I also had it on my flydigi controllers. I've found it's the best setup rather than launching steam via retrobat, it works well in the reverse.
Thanks Russ! Some questions: Is PS3/Xbox able to play through Retrobat? Does Syncthing or another similar service work with this setup? If we use Retrobat on a Steam Deck, will save states automatically be backed up on Steam, or would we still need to implement Syncthing? Thanks! 🍻
will you do something similar for Macs, as well as test the new Mac mini m4? I think it has become a great value for money option for emulation with the new processor and ram upgrades
I believe OpenEmu still is the best option, though arguably not as pretty as emulsion station based options.
Oh phew. I was not watching and only listened to the audio, and at 8:02 I was like "wait a minute, my best friend Tech Lead???". Thankfully I just heard it wrong lol
Thank you!
Great video!
careful! i spied a plumber.
YEESSSSLORD thank you Russ! finally
I've been using Retrobat on my Ally for months. Much better than Emudeck and other launchers. It simplifies everything and doesn't depend on Steam (like EmuDeck)
You better make a video for the new Mac mini! OpenEmu is great!
Just a heads up to those considering this as a way of putting an old pc back into service, retrobat only works for 64 bit windows 8.1, 10 and 11.
Would this be your new go to for ROG Ally / Ally X installs, or would EmuDeck still be the one to turn to?
thanks
You're ther man
Nice!
screenscraper is often not working in some way- another great tool for scraping media is a program called AARM
Thank youuuu
I always prefered using stand alone emulators over retroarch and others
I've wanted something like this for ages. Installing now. How does it handle ultra wide monitors?
I hate to be the one to ask this but is there something like this for Mac? I want to get into emulation gaming, I'm about to have some spare cash for a new Mac (or I might go with a new camera) but I'm not sure if I should set this up on a mac, or get a Steam Deck, or something else.
Do you have collection of all retro games?
Nice timing. I am mid-build. I am trying to embed ES-DE folder in it so that I can sync it to Android. Having to use symlink so Retrobat can skip into its structure since Retrobat has a rigid structure.
Waiting for your M4 or M4 pro Mac mini video.
I'm gonna do this on my Ally X.
aww friendship!
Hi rus. Can u list out all type of processor(Intel & ryzen) that can run which emulator is capable running into
Do you have a tutorial video on setting up ES-DE on a Windows 11 PC?
i've used retrobat before on my pc before but i got confused and then it saw the bin. this guide makes it a lot easier although... would Retro achievements work with it? i mean sure when using retroarch but what about the nightly pcsx2? is itpossible to make it work?
Hello, it works with ppsspp. Pcsx2, dolphin and flycast also
What would be the best way to setup emulators for gaming handleds windows based like asus and Lenovo legion go?
about to install batocera this weekend... now i would be doing this instead
Is it possible to put this setup all in a flash drive? I still want to be able to use other windows app while playing so batocera is not an option for me. And also how much of a difference is there in using Flash drive/HDD to SSD.
I’m partial to the Pro 2 over the Pro controller from 8bitdo as I like the handgrips on the 2.
Pro 2 is indeed a very good choice, especially the newer ones with hall effect
Retrobat!
I used retrobat before but had some problems because configurations in emulators aren't saved, you can only configure them in retrobat itself. Still it is the easiest for people dont need configure some things.
Now I use big picture with enudeck because I only want some games to show on screen (gc - switch), and access the other trough Es-De
I think Russ is Techdweeb. a real dr jekyll and mr hyde situation
@Retro Game Corps So Russ, this emulator must be a way better option than RetroArch for windows in your opinion?
This app integrates RetroArch, plus all the standalone emulators, into a single unified experience that’s wrapped around an EmulationStation interface, all preconfigured for instant gameplay. If you know how to use and setup RetroArch then it might not be necessary, but for someone just getting started Retrobat can be an excellent tool!
@@RetroGameCorpsoh okay. Thanks for the reply. Appreciate it. 👍🏽
It not emulator itself but brings emulators and frontend together easily
@@Raderade1-pt3om that’s awesome, all the way around.
I just want to be able to play Madden 05 on Xbox without it being a mess. Couldn’t figure it out on emu station on xemu. Is it better using this?
Is there a portable version of Retrobat? My installation of ES-DE is portable and using only portable versions of the standalone emulators. It is installed on a USB external drive and can be moved from machine to machine. I can also copy the drive and gift it to family members.
It is portable by nature
Shout out from Ireland, the home of kerrygold butter woohoo lol😂
Would retrobat be good on an asus rog ally? Would it be better than Emudeck Emulation Station? That’s what I use now. And I hate trying to configure my controls on various consoles.
I have it on rog ally as well as some of the devs, it works but there is an amd package installed by default that might break some emulators that needs to be uninstalled
I really dislike frontends that require to move Roms to their specific folders, I'd rather just point them to where the Roms are. You can create virtual links and all that, but it's still a pain
Can you do video on skrper
As for some reason the software/website is acting weird
I have a account but is apparently not authorised nor do i get prompts of why it won't log me on even without translation on
Is there a straight forward way to change the Roms folder? I got all my retrostuff on a nas. So I don't have to copy and paste it all the time and just love to scroll through all of them to pick one up.
The best solution is to used symlinks