This guide will walk you through the setup and configuration of my favorite Android frontend: EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE). In addition to configuring it for your Android handheld, phone, or tablet, we’ll also scrape media, launch Android apps and games, create custom configurations, and more.
ES-DE website:
ES-DE Android guide:
ES-DE Android FAQ:
ES-DE user guide:
Retroid Pocket starter guide:
ES-DE custom systems:
ES Applauncher:
Applauncher alternative:
ScreenScraper:…
One note: if you try to pull up a PSP game and get a black screen, this is a known issue (and a bug in Android). Open up PPSSPP, go to the Games tab, then tap on the "Browse" button (it has a folder icon), which will bring up your Files browser. Browse to the root of your SD card, then go to ROMs > psp and select "Use this Folder" and confirm. That should reset the file location and allow games to launch from ES-DE.
Morgan Rue
Russ man i have to say thank you for all your awesome tutorials… really appreciate your work for the community ❤
Iva Island
Its just something about your intros that give me a good feeling
Hi Russ, when I try to copy those XML files into my ESDE folder, its empty. Not sure what to do here.
as always, your guide is easy to understand and replicate. Thank you.
Why i cant select a switch emu?
My ES-DE on my Odin 2 doesn't have a "Quit ES-DE" option in the menu. Quite annoying if I need to go back and do stuff in stock Android. Anyone know how to solve this? EDIT: Found it. This option disappears if you set ES-DE as your default home app. If you change this back in Android Settings, the "Quit" option is available again. 🙂
Great guide Russ!!
to add …. had issue where black screen opened for every game (which were stored on the SD card) no matter which emulator i chose, had Android store retroarch installed. When i uninstalled this and downloaded the latest version .APK direct from the Retroarch website it worked no problems, there must be some folder access permissions that needed to be left out of the store version
I have this issue (RP4+ ES-DE) where once it launches a system+game, even if I quit out and go back and launch another one it will just go to the current one. e.g. I launch Dig Dug on Atari – go back to ES and launch Tetris on Gameboy – I end up at Dig Dug on Atari. This isn't a problem Daijisho has, wonder what I've done wrong?
Perfect timing, this will be very handy when my RP5 arrives.
I added the xml files to the custom systems folder, but Switch doesn’t show up even after selecting the right folder. Any ideas?
Hey bro, absolutely religiously love by your videos.
Have been dying to get an RP4P for a very long time.. do you happen to know the best communities/sites to find one cheap second hand?
Thanks again mate.
Hi Rus, i hope you answer this question of mine. Does es-de also works on android tv? Thanks and more power
Okay, so that's really about it.
The part where he shows you how to disable apps from showing up and one of them being daijisho. Dropped her cold like an ex girlfriend
Hey man, great video as always, can you test/confirm if subfolders work on this? For example If i have the NES folder for my roms but I also have a subfolders in there for hacks and other for translations etc. This is really important for me, maybe the only reason I'm changing from daijisho. Thanks ins advance
Kuphal Flat
Those who know, know. We can hear you about to say "Yea man, I want to do it"
Looks nice but I can't think of a reason to switch from daijisho. Any thoughts?
Russ the boss!! 🎉
Is there somewhere I can go to have someone make me a custom made sd card with only the games that I want on it I don’t have any pc and I’m tired of the cards I get from China and learning how to emulate is to confusing for me I would be happier paying someone to do it for me for my rg556 do you know anyone you could recommend for me
Problems that I couldn't solve.
1 – dolphin, only gamecube games are opening, when I try wii games, warning: the specified file … does not exist.
(I tried reinstalling but it didn't work, the roms are on the SD with the same path, Roms/wii already set in es_system).
2 – Citra MMj needs to open the emulator before opening the game in ES-DE.
Had way too many problems with ES DE. Bought it on amazon Webster and now that's no longer updated properly it seems either. Doesn't work with the gamesir controller on my phone either. Just wasn't worth the purchase.
The main advantage Daijisho over ES-DE is automatic recommendations based on the selected game. It would be amazing if ES-DE has something like that.
Is it possible to add winlator/exagear games/links to emulation station as a separate custom emulator with games?
Ppsspp standalone black screen