A Brief Guide to Retroarch

Retroarch on the Retroid Pocket 2

The RP2 comes from the factory with two versions of Retroarch installed. One has a Space Invaders icon, while the other has a GBA icon.

The version with the Space Invaders icon should be a recent version of Retroarch (if not the latest version), preloaded with cores that work well on the RP2. The major exception here is GBA, which is what the second copy of Retroarch is for.

The version with the GBA icon is an older version of Retroarch (v1.5.0) with a single core preloaded: a slightly older version of the gpSP core for GBA emulation. This should run most GBA games with few glitches at full speed on the RP2. Take care not to delete this version of Retroarch, as due to recent events it will be difficult if not impossible to replace.

Saving Configurations in Retroarch

By default, Retroarch does not automatically save any changes to settings. If you make changes and then quit (or crash) Retroarch without saving your configuration, your changes will not carry over to the next time that you run Retroarch.

There are three levels of configuration files in Retroarch: global, core, and game.

Global Configuration

The global configuration includes all non-core-specific settings (e.g. standard video, audio, and input settings). You can save your global configuration by going to "Main Menu" (the leftmost menu in the Sony-style "XMB" user interface), selecting "Configuration File", and then "Save Current Configuration". Please note that "Save New Configuration" will create a new configuration file that Retroarch will NOT load automatically; this option is mostly for users who will then work with the file manually, outside of Retroarch.

It is possible to have Retroarch automatically save the global configuration file whenever you quit, by going to "Settings", and activating "Save Configuration on Exit". This is generally not recommended, as it is possible to change settings within Retroarch that will cause it to crash or cease responding to inputs immediately. If the app automatically saves this new configuration, you will have to manually edit the configuration files to get Retroarch working again. It's usually easier just to remember to save manually whenever you want to keep a change to your configuration.

Core Overrides and Game Overrides

Retroarch can save additional configuration files which will override the global configuration file for particular emulation cores or games. This can be useful when some cores or games work better with different settings than you generally use.

First, make sure that you have a game loaded and running, even if you only want to save a core override. While Retroarch does allow you to load a core without loading a game, this is more of a historical leftover, as most options will not be available unless the core is actually emulating a game.

Once you have changed the settings that you want to modify, you can save an override configuration by going to "Main Menu", selecting "Quick Menu" (this is where you will usually start if you jump back into the menu from a running emulation), then selecting "Overrides". Then select "Save Core Overrides" or "Save Game Overrides" as you wish. There is also a "Save Content Directory Overrides" option, which will save a configuration file to be loaded for every game in the same directory as the currently loaded game. This may be useful if you use the same settings for a large number of games, and organize the directory structure to reflect this.

Deleting a Core From Retroarch

At the time of writing (September 2020), the Android version of Retroarch does not offer the ability to delete individual emulation cores. If you have root access to your RP2, it is possible to find where Retroarch keeps its files and delete the core files manually, but from within Retroarch it is only possible to delete all cores at once and then reinstall the cores that you want. This is NOT recommended on the RP2, as some of the cores which come preinstalled are older versions which offer faster emulation on the RP2 but which are now difficult to find and install. For the time being, without root access, you will just need to live with having those extra cores installed. Libretro cores are typically fairly small, so you needn't be concerned about running out of space with a handful of extra cores.