RetroArch

I’ve been using RetroArch for years on my Mac, on dedicated retro consoles, and on a MAME cabinet, so it’s a delight to finally have it on iOS. But the mobile interface is glitchy and clunky. The buttons at the bottom interfere with the home swipe bar, so I constantly bring up the app switcher when I’m trying to tap the playlists icon. The app stubbornly and randomly refuses to remember some of my settings (like the theme and NOT using HDR). Worst of all, I made the mistake of turning up the touch sensitivity and suddenly none of the tap points was where it should be. I had to go into the Files app and manually delete the .cfg file to force the app back to default settings so I could use it. I realize the glui menu is probably a cross-platform thing and I’m sure everyone involved with this project is volunteering their time. But I just wish this had a bit more of the polish I expect from an iOS app. Delta has a much better interface but I want to use RetroArch because it supports a lot more systems including the early ‘80s consoles.

I have been around the emulator world for a while now and I enjoy and understand a lot about emulators. I tried getting some of my friends to start emulating games, and I taught them how to dump roms and gave them some devices to start dumping. However, what I didn’t expect, is that they didn’t know how to use the emulator. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the emulator, no, it is wonderful. I am just saying that if you are just starting out emulator, learn about it before you start. You need to know what roms, isos, bios, and all the different file types and names for different things are. Also, please don’t start pirating games. If yall start pirating, nintendo may get apple to take down the emulators. Get your roms from an actual cartridge, don’t just download off the internet. Anyway, tldr: learn what emulators are before you try to emulate. Don’t pirate games.

Personally I think this is quite a rough implementation compared to the Delta emulator that released a few weeks ago, but it otherwise plays games just as well as Delta if not better in some cases. RetroArch isn’t as pretty and isn’t integrated as well with iOS devices, with my biggest gripe being that I can’t add games from my iCloud drive into playlists, and have to sift through my files to open games. While Delta’s a bit easier to use, Retroarch offers more settings and a much wider variety of systems to emulate, so if you want to play N64, Sega, or arcade games on your phone you’ve come to the right place. Personally, the big draw for me is support for RetroAchievements, which allows you to unlock community-made achievements as you play. This will definitely be my emulator of choice for the foreseeable future, though I’d be really happy to see some quality-of-life improvements down the line.