| Emulation Station on Windows | |
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Emulation Station is a beautiful customizable interface for RetroArch and other external emulators. It's used by RetroPie and Recalbox on the Raspberry PI, however, you may want a little more processing power and the ability to run other emulators.
Getting this to work on Windows can be really complicated. The internet contains several guides but they are very vague. Fortunately, we've taken all the hardware work away and now you can get started with a few downloads. Alternatively, you can opt to create your own build.
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This article is in progress
To install Emulation Station and configure yourself, you can either download the lastest version from the vendors website, or you can download files from here. You will also need to install the Emuators (e.g. RetroArch) which Emulation Station uses to play games.
If you do not wish to manually set up Emulation Station I have created our own build which runs directly out of the folder. Details are found further down this page.
| Files | Original Website | Download Locally | Link to our Guide |
| Original Emulation Station Windows (basic version) | Link | Download | |
| RetroPie fork of Emulation Station (Windows) | Link | Download | |
| msvcp140.dll | Link | Download | |
| vcruntime140.dll | Link | Download | |
| vcredist_x86.exe | Link | Download | |
| RetroArch - Multi-Platform Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| Yabuase - Sega Saturn Emulator | Link | Download | |
| PPSSPP - Sony Playstation Portable Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| ePSXe - Sony Playstation One Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| PCSX2 - Sony Playstation 2 Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| Dolphin - Nintendo Game Cube and Wii Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| Optional | |||
| SCPToolKit - Connect Sony DualShock 3/4 Controllers to Windows | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| XMS Universal Scraper - Dedicated ROM scraper | Link | x86 X64 | Guide Here |
| Emulation Station Themes (TBC) |
Our Custom Build
Our build is based on the RetroPie distributation so works with newer themes including those with video playback. I have combined the above resources and created numerous custom configurations in order to create an all-in-one solution. Once downloaded, all you'll need to do is install the emulators in the .emulationtstation/systems/* folders. For RetroArch, you'll also need to download the cores.
| Files | Description |
| EmulationStation_Config_Folder | This download is for the .emulationstation folder only. It contains all ROM directories, the systems folder, basic theme, keyboard input, and settings. |
| EmulationStation_System | Contains RetroPie fork of Emulation Station including custom configuration files and file structures. You can download and run this from the extracted folder using the custom launchers. I have included two Public Domain SNES games. |
| EmulationStation_System_Scraper | Same as above but includes Universal XML Scraper and custom a configuration file. The scraper has been set so that is scrapes the roms folder within .emulationstation. |
| Unviversal_XML_Scraper_Config | Custom configuration file to work with Windows. Universal XML Scraper must be in the Emulation Station Folder. (uses default paths) |
In order for our build to work you will need to download the following. Emulators need to be installed to .emulationstation/systems/* folder.
| Files | Original Website | Download Locally | Link to our Guide |
| vcredist_x86.exe | Link | Download | |
| RetroArch - Multi-Platform Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| RetroArch cores folder (.emulationstation/systems/retroarch/libretro) | Download | ||
| PPSSPP - Sony Playstation Portable Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| ePSXe - Sony Playstation One Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| PCSX2 - Sony Playstation 2 Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
| Dolphin - Nintendo Game Cube and Wii Emulator | Link | Download | Guide Here |
Please be aware for some emulators you will need to source your own BIOS files.
Emulation Station manual installation and configuration.
If you wish to install the original Emulation Station the following steps should help you get started. To complete the process and be able to launch games you will require:
- Knowledge of where the .emulationstation folder is.
- Know where your ROMs folder is located.
- Download and install RetroArch. (see guide here)
First, navigate to https://emulationstation.org and select the Download tab.
Download the Windows Installer.
Once downloaded, launch the installer and agree to the License Agreement.
You can choose whether to install the defautl theme (recommended), Visual C++, and add a shortcut to your desktop. We will cover making custom shortcuts later.
Click Next to continue.
Click Next to continue.
Choose where you want to install Emulation Station. The default is the Program Files folder.
Click Next
Finally, select Install to start the installation.
Once complete click Finish.
If you were to attempt to run Emulation Station you'll be greeted with the above message. This is because you need to manually create/edit the configuration file es_systems.cfg.
The configuration file can be found in the .emulationstation folder. This is located in your %homepath% (i.e C:\Users\yourusername\)
Open es_systems.cfg with your preferred editing software. I prefer to use use Notepad++. You can download our es_systems.cfg file here. (unzip to .emulationstation folder.)
Your file will look different because you'll be looking at the default template. To make things easier, the image above is what you are aiming to achieve. I'll explain line-by-line.
Your file will look different because you'll be looking at the default template. To make things easier, the image above is what you are aiming to achieve. I'll explain line-by-line.
<system>
<name>fds</name>
<fullname>Famicom Disk System</fullname>
<path>D:\EmulationStation\roms\fds</path>
<extension>.fds</extension>
<command>%HOMEPATH%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\retroarch.exe -L %HOMEPATH%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\libretro\fceumm_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>fds</platform>
<theme>fds</theme>
</system>
<name>fds</name>
<fullname>Famicom Disk System</fullname>
<path>D:\EmulationStation\roms\fds</path>
<extension>.fds</extension>
<command>%HOMEPATH%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\retroarch.exe -L %HOMEPATH%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\libretro\fceumm_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>fds</platform>
<theme>fds</theme>
</system>
Note: Anything within <!-- and --!> is just a note. It helps the reader identify sections of the file.
- Each system is wrapped within the <system> and </system> tags.
- The first line between the <name> tags defines which systen we are referring to. This should ideally match the default ROM folder name. (e.g. fds)
- <fullname> refers to the system description. This can be anything you like and will be displayed within Emulation Station if there is no theme.
- <path> refers to where the ROMs are found on your computer. As you can see in the above, it refers to where the fds folder is located.
- <extension> refers to the ROM file extension your emulator is able to use. In this example, ROMs for the Famicom Disk System have a .fds extension. Other systems may use a .bin, .iso, or .rom extension.
- <command>. This is the important bit as it tells Emulation Station what to launch. The first half of the command is where the executable file for the emulator is. This is then followed by -L. The secaond half refers to the core to use and its location. In the example above we are asking Emulation Station to launch RetroArch using the core fceumm_libretro.dll core. Note: Using emuators other than RetroArch do not require to reference a core. Replace the -L with -e and then remove the second part of the code leaving "%ROM_RAW%" at the end. e.g. %HOMEPATH%\.emulationstation\systems\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe -e "%ROM_RAW%"
- <platform> refers to the system type. This must match the default system names.
- <theme> refers to the theme to implement.
Once you've created your first system. Save the changes.
If you now launch Emulation Station, assuming there is a ROM in the system you've created. You should be greeted with the above. You can set up your controller or just use your Keyboard.
If everything is ok, you should see something like the above (default theme). Use your keyboard to move left and right and select your system.
We've selected the Super Nintendo and scrolled down to the Ghouls 'n' Ghosts game.
Note: You may see a page which just has a list of file. You'll need to scrape your ROM library to obtain information about them and download images. (see below).
Note: You may see a page which just has a list of file. You'll need to scrape your ROM library to obtain information about them and download images. (see below).
We've now been able to launch the same successfully using RetroArch.
Creating shortcuts
When running Emulation Station the default action is to run at full screen. However, you may want to launch Emulation Station in a Window or you may want to launch fullscreen at a desired resolution. To do this you can either create a batch file, or you can create a shortcut and add the parameters.
Adding --resolution 1280 720 --windowed will launch Emulation Station in a window of 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels in height. Removing --windowed will run Emulation in fullscreen at the same resolution. Personally I recommend using the resolution of you monitor or 1920 1080 (Full HD).
Scraping your ROMS
Scraping is the act of gathering information from an external source. In this case we are scraping a website to gather information about ROMs and their images. This can be done in two ways:
- By using the built-in scraper
- Using an external scraper such as XML Scraper. (Find guide here)
EmulationStation has a built in scraper that pulls from thegamesdb. It can be accessed from the start menu in EmulationStation
This will bring up a system menu.
Select Scraper.
You can leave th default settings as they are.
Select Scrape Now.
You can scrape ROMs which have missing images only or you can scrape all ROMS. You can also get the scraper to automatically select the best result or manually confirm (recommend the latter).
If you want to only scrape certain systems, you can select them this in the systems section.
Once you are happy, select Start.
If you ticked user decides on conflicts, the scraper will stop when there is more than one result. Other than this it's just a case of waiting...which could take a long time.
If possible, try not to scrape more than 100 ROMs at a time. If this process is too slow, not accurate enough, or you want to use custom settings, we recommend using XML Universal Scraper.
Upgrade to the RetroPie build
If you want to have the additional features the RetroPie build offers (e.g. support for themes with Video playback), simply download the RetroPie build and copy the contents to the Emulation Folder.