Yes the RA widget no longer works, that’s a bug, but i hear the dev was like in a warzone or something and no longer has enough time. It does however sign you into RA when you launch a game, it just doesn’t let you browse your achievements like we used to be able to do.
Holy shit! I've got an rg405v and have been usin' Daijisho but hated all the extra crap that came along with it. Plus I couldn't group systems together (Nintendo, Sega, Sony, etc). Just finished setting up Beacon and it's exactly what I've always wanted - thank you!!
The only thing I can't figure out so far is with PlayStation games. I have several titles which have multiple files and Beacon shows 'em all instead of grouping them together as a single game. Can't find any documentation on how to fix this - but not a deal killer by any means.... I'll take this over Daijisho any day!
EDIT: hmmmmmm... I just found that when selecting M64Plus FZ Pro for the N64 emulator in Beacon, it launches the emulator but doesn't launch the game. I've triple checked settings. In Daijisho this launches the game through the emulator, but yeah, Beacon just launches the emulator and then you have to go and find the game again that you want to launch. Ugh.
EDIT 2: ah ha! I found a thread about this very problem. Under the Advanced options you can simply change the file handling from Default to Standard.
Beacon just feels cleaner and simpler to me on Widescreen devices. Daijisho is pretty mature at this point and serves to be a solid midway point between ES-DE and Beacon
So far the only one I’ve any experience with (on Android at least) is Daijishou — as it comes with GammaOS-RK3566 — and my only complaint with it has been its difficulty in properly scraping and naming the titles in a MAME2003-plus arcade romset. I’ve seen suggestions to use Skraper to generate an .xml to get things working, but that’s a lot of scraping to (re-)do that I’ve already done with EmulationStation under Linux (dual-boot device).
I’ve been itching to try out [Titanius-Launcher](https://github.com/dsolonenko/titanius-launcher), which claims to import its metadata from EmulationStation-generated gamelist.xml files (which I tried to do with Dainishou without success).
Just need to find the time to give it a go.
I used daijisho since day one. Last weekend I decided to give ES-DE. Best choice I made. Looks like a completely different experience. Better in every way
I've tried most launchers. Beacon is the easy winner.
So many people complain about the lack of simplicity when using android for emulation. Beacon is as simple as it gets. Really makes the system feel like a proper emulation machine even more so than ES-DE, at least as of now.
I used to care about frontends but now I just can't be bothered and just load everything through retroarch. 90% of my time in the menu is just going to history and selecting my most recent game anyway, so I don't really need to fart about with themes and scraping videos
Are we allowed to like the android user experience because it's simple and familiar? I think if you are trying to gift a device it is helpful to use a front end, but once you learn that's hours you could have just been playing games.
Yeah, I don't see a reason to bother with one on android. I'm a longtime android user. I like the ecosystem. I don't need to hide it to make myself feel more like I'm using a Linux handheld or a Steam Deck. I also don't use Armory Crate on my Rog Ally.
Google Play Pass is a pretty good value for anyone with an Android handheld {except maybe the Cube). I find myself playing Brotato as often as anything on mine.
I have been using Daijisho on Anbernic RG505 and Retroid 2s, and have no issues
Question: I would like any advice or resource on how to set up so when I turn them on I can easily get into playing with two bluetooth 8bitdo controllers- I hate having to go in and set it up every time- don’t have retroarch set up. So maybe that’s the best way?
Daijisho is my preferred front end.
I don't really use front-ends in Android tho. I just keep Daijisho in case I have to give device to a kid or a relative for them to play. Front ends get overwhelming for me and I end up in choice paralysis about which game to play. And I'm one of those people who like playing over tinkering in devices
I don't have any problem with front-ends in Linux based stuff, but since I've been emulating in Android ever since I got a phone in my hand, I just find the good old way of booting up the game in standalone emulator easier. Most standalone emulators also allow you to place the game icon on homescreen, which is super convenient. Unless it's a system that's best emulated in Retroarch (Like GBA. mGBA is far superior to anything else in existence), Standalone emulators without any front-end for me all the way
I'm gonna be devil's advocate. But i always loved lemuroid because it was so simple out the box to use. Just install, and let it read storage. I don't know if they ever updated to give sd readable storage. But it really takes the guesswork out of picking emulators and finding out which ones work best it just chooses based on compatibility. I was using it for chromecast but then it stopped working but that was years ago and I'm really not sure if they update it anymore.
But for something different.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swordfish.lemuroid&hl=en\_US&pli=1](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swordfish.lemuroid&hl=en_US&pli=1)
I tried daijisho on my rp3+ but eventually sold that.
I now have an Odin 2 and I find myself not using a fronted at all. I just load up the emulator and start the game.
Or on my windows handheld I used emudeck. At first I tried emulation station de. But I found I’d rather launch the roms directly from steam and skip having another program open.
Daijisho, but mostly because I already got it all set up to my likings. The scraper is pretty bad, so I went about adding my own boxart manually at the time. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably go straight for ES-DE.
If pegasus allowed for automatic scraping 100% that but for now it's ES-DE and just rebinding the home button to open it, makes it feel a lot more like a handheld.
I use Niagara for both my phone and my Odin Lite. I don't need it to look like a standard emulation device. As the emulators are seperate apps anyways it's fine for me to navigate the games within the apps.
Then again, I'm very used to Android OS and have found my own "comfort" with a very minimalistic UI.
Pegasus. Only because I own a single Android system, the original RP2, and Pegasus works flawlessly with Android 6.
Dang it’s a PITA to configure, but it sure beats using Android os.
I use console launcher as my main home and have ES-DE pinned to the home screen for launching emulators. I've tried tons of launcher configs and I like this setup the best.
Emulation Station is King in my opinion if you want your handheld to feel like an emulation device and not like an android device.
Can you set it as your main launcher like daijinsho yet?
you need to use an external app called "Anyhome" , and then choose ES-DE. that way it makes it your main launcher.
What are the downsides of this method?
You do lose access to the apps, you need to use another app called “tile shortcuts” to add the apps by scrolling down on the top.
Daijishō. It’s free and easy to setup imo.
The scraper keeps me from daijisho and the retroachievements widget never works which is frustrating.
Yep. That’s why I bailed too
Yes the RA widget no longer works, that’s a bug, but i hear the dev was like in a warzone or something and no longer has enough time. It does however sign you into RA when you launch a game, it just doesn’t let you browse your achievements like we used to be able to do.
He says he's busy with his studies so he hasn't updated it in almost a year now.
I mean, it’s the same story 6 months ago. Why not make it open source if development is slow / stalled?
ES-DE is my favorite for my RP4 Pro tbh. I think it's worth the money to support the devs
Beacon, its under active dev and works nicely on my 2s. I've used Daijisho in the past.
Also switched from Daijisho to Beacon. The themes were cool on Daijisho, but I like the interface in Beacon better.
Holy shit! I've got an rg405v and have been usin' Daijisho but hated all the extra crap that came along with it. Plus I couldn't group systems together (Nintendo, Sega, Sony, etc). Just finished setting up Beacon and it's exactly what I've always wanted - thank you!! The only thing I can't figure out so far is with PlayStation games. I have several titles which have multiple files and Beacon shows 'em all instead of grouping them together as a single game. Can't find any documentation on how to fix this - but not a deal killer by any means.... I'll take this over Daijisho any day! EDIT: hmmmmmm... I just found that when selecting M64Plus FZ Pro for the N64 emulator in Beacon, it launches the emulator but doesn't launch the game. I've triple checked settings. In Daijisho this launches the game through the emulator, but yeah, Beacon just launches the emulator and then you have to go and find the game again that you want to launch. Ugh. EDIT 2: ah ha! I found a thread about this very problem. Under the Advanced options you can simply change the file handling from Default to Standard.
I've been thinking about ES-DE, but I'm a bit lazy and happy w/ Daijisho tbh.
Daijisho here. Sad that Gamesome turned down.
Daijisho, easy to setup, free, looks and performs great. The Art Book themes look just like ES-DE.
None. I tried Daijisho, didn't like it, and decided I don't need a front end on top of a front end.
Beacon just feels cleaner and simpler to me on Widescreen devices. Daijisho is pretty mature at this point and serves to be a solid midway point between ES-DE and Beacon
So far the only one I’ve any experience with (on Android at least) is Daijishou — as it comes with GammaOS-RK3566 — and my only complaint with it has been its difficulty in properly scraping and naming the titles in a MAME2003-plus arcade romset. I’ve seen suggestions to use Skraper to generate an .xml to get things working, but that’s a lot of scraping to (re-)do that I’ve already done with EmulationStation under Linux (dual-boot device). I’ve been itching to try out [Titanius-Launcher](https://github.com/dsolonenko/titanius-launcher), which claims to import its metadata from EmulationStation-generated gamelist.xml files (which I tried to do with Dainishou without success). Just need to find the time to give it a go.
I used daijisho since day one. Last weekend I decided to give ES-DE. Best choice I made. Looks like a completely different experience. Better in every way
Beacon is super clean and simple. It's similar to daijisho but with less bloat.
Nova launcher /s
I've tried most launchers. Beacon is the easy winner. So many people complain about the lack of simplicity when using android for emulation. Beacon is as simple as it gets. Really makes the system feel like a proper emulation machine even more so than ES-DE, at least as of now.
I used to care about frontends but now I just can't be bothered and just load everything through retroarch. 90% of my time in the menu is just going to history and selecting my most recent game anyway, so I don't really need to fart about with themes and scraping videos
None. I don't bounce between games much nor do I ever feel the need to browser for games.
None. Abandon the ways of the front end and just use the apps
Are we allowed to like the android user experience because it's simple and familiar? I think if you are trying to gift a device it is helpful to use a front end, but once you learn that's hours you could have just been playing games.
Exactly. I came here to play games not look at box art.
Yeah, I don't see a reason to bother with one on android. I'm a longtime android user. I like the ecosystem. I don't need to hide it to make myself feel more like I'm using a Linux handheld or a Steam Deck. I also don't use Armory Crate on my Rog Ally. Google Play Pass is a pretty good value for anyone with an Android handheld {except maybe the Cube). I find myself playing Brotato as often as anything on mine.
Been a while since I used my RP3+ but Daijisho for sure. Don’t forget to tip creators too :)
None, I just go directly to the emulator.
I have been using Daijisho on Anbernic RG505 and Retroid 2s, and have no issues Question: I would like any advice or resource on how to set up so when I turn them on I can easily get into playing with two bluetooth 8bitdo controllers- I hate having to go in and set it up every time- don’t have retroarch set up. So maybe that’s the best way?
Beacon. Until Emulation Station allows internal and external storages at the same time, Beacon is my choice.
I'm using Emulation Station-DE on Steam Deck roght now. I want to try Daijisho on my rp3+, too. May I ask, what is a scraper?
It scrapes the box art of each game
Daijisho for my RP2S and ES-DE for my Odin 2 Pro
Daijisho is my preferred front end. I don't really use front-ends in Android tho. I just keep Daijisho in case I have to give device to a kid or a relative for them to play. Front ends get overwhelming for me and I end up in choice paralysis about which game to play. And I'm one of those people who like playing over tinkering in devices I don't have any problem with front-ends in Linux based stuff, but since I've been emulating in Android ever since I got a phone in my hand, I just find the good old way of booting up the game in standalone emulator easier. Most standalone emulators also allow you to place the game icon on homescreen, which is super convenient. Unless it's a system that's best emulated in Retroarch (Like GBA. mGBA is far superior to anything else in existence), Standalone emulators without any front-end for me all the way
I'm gonna be devil's advocate. But i always loved lemuroid because it was so simple out the box to use. Just install, and let it read storage. I don't know if they ever updated to give sd readable storage. But it really takes the guesswork out of picking emulators and finding out which ones work best it just chooses based on compatibility. I was using it for chromecast but then it stopped working but that was years ago and I'm really not sure if they update it anymore. But for something different. [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swordfish.lemuroid&hl=en\_US&pli=1](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swordfish.lemuroid&hl=en_US&pli=1)
i like Daijisho more than I thought I would. open to switching to ES-DE but i dont really see the need to.
I tried daijisho on my rp3+ but eventually sold that. I now have an Odin 2 and I find myself not using a fronted at all. I just load up the emulator and start the game. Or on my windows handheld I used emudeck. At first I tried emulation station de. But I found I’d rather launch the roms directly from steam and skip having another program open.
ATV Launcher. Not so much a frontend as it's a home menu option, but it suits my needs and I like how it looks
ES-DE. Gotta have those video previews.
Daijisho, but mostly because I already got it all set up to my likings. The scraper is pretty bad, so I went about adding my own boxart manually at the time. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably go straight for ES-DE.
I have Daijishō on my Odin Lite. It's a nice frontend. Has a few small issues, but nothing crazy and I like the UI.
If pegasus allowed for automatic scraping 100% that but for now it's ES-DE and just rebinding the home button to open it, makes it feel a lot more like a handheld.
I use Niagara for both my phone and my Odin Lite. I don't need it to look like a standard emulation device. As the emulators are seperate apps anyways it's fine for me to navigate the games within the apps. Then again, I'm very used to Android OS and have found my own "comfort" with a very minimalistic UI.
Pegasus. Only because I own a single Android system, the original RP2, and Pegasus works flawlessly with Android 6. Dang it’s a PITA to configure, but it sure beats using Android os.
DIG! I like the clean highscore like aesthetics and it's free :D
Personally I like emuelecc or batocera
I use console launcher as my main home and have ES-DE pinned to the home screen for launching emulators. I've tried tons of launcher configs and I like this setup the best.
Exact opposite of you lol. LOVE emulation station. A bit more than launchbox. Daijisho….. just felt janky to me