The Easiest Emulation Setup on Windows

[@brvndxnl]

The way you listed all the alternative methods at the beginning is why I love this channel so much.

[@HomeGamingProductions]

It is good the way he does that

[@DhinCardoso]

agreed ♥

[@victorugri]

GOAT of retro games. Your explanation is so good and so clear, thanks for everything you've done for the retro community!

[@TechDweeb]

Finally got around to watching this, and I'm so glad I did. You did an amazing job explaining the process and all the extras like the accessories and you even squeezed in a mini PC review!

[@RetroGameCorps]

Thanks, best friend!

[@QUADRAXIS666]

LOL Mr Techdweeb your guide earlier this year gave me my hobby back. Still watching Uncle Russ's though :D

[@Bushidounohana]

Also-fun fact: Windows allows you to designate a program other than Windows Explorer as your default shell. So on my gaming rig, I have a Retrobat setup in place, and then swapped it in for my shell instead of Windows Explorer. It’s like Batocera, but Windows. I do this because I like access to Windows tools like Lossless Scaler (which I have created batch files for running in association with certain games), Special K, and ReShade. I can also still run Windows Explorer any time I need to (via Task Manager), but 99% of the time (after admittedly tedious setup), I stay in Retrobat as the primary launcher for all my games, and the system boots insanely quick, straight into my gaming OS. Not terribly practical, but for those who enjoy the tinker as much as the game, it’s a really fun project to setup and maintain.

[@Melonposting]

Wow, I never knew you could do that!

[@ChrisCovers78]

I did the same thing with Launchbox/Big Box on my emulation build. So much better

[@RoseQuartz692]

You mean when you bot up your PC it goes into Retrobat?

[@ChrisCovers78]

@@RoseQuartz692yep

[@RoseQuartz692]

@@ChrisCovers78 what's that compare to the normal

[@Cyrus_Nagisa]

I appreciate that you mentioned so many other options at the beginning, I am more of a Launchbox guy myself, but this one looks pretty good too. Anything to make emulation easier for people who are not as tech literate.

[@ChirdXtreme]

Same 🙂 I've had great luck with Playnite (and RetroArch), so it was nice to see it mentioned

[@Atrus999]

Running Batocera on a flash drive here. It's great for using emulators without keeping all those files on your computer.

[@DanTheMan3]

I like RetroBat because you can still use windows. You can keep all retrobat files still in old folder or one drive. Everything is portable.

[@saysbadman]

Batocera has lower overhead than windows too so you can get a bit more performance. I've also used Kodi that is built into Batocera. It is all very nice, and can be controlled by a gamepad.

[@Sirlarrythecat]

You can run Retrobat on an external drive or USB stick as well and not have to boot separately like you with Batocera everything in windows

[@Nobody-w8n4s]

Yeah, I don’t have a pc bone in my body. I buy preloaded batocera cards for my steam deck. And it’s nice that it’s separate memory all together.

[@JahWillBlessKwaz]

I was curious does that work on a portable monitors USB slot?

[@BaroqueSphinx]

KZbin recommended this video, and I'm glad I discovered this emulation setup. I started setting up all the rooms and bios files on Retrobat and it is now my favorite way to use emulators.

[@Butziwackel]

AMAZING! Thank you so much! 🌹 I've been waiting for such a perfect solution for maybe 20 years. By now Launchbox did it for the most part and I appreciate the good work of the Launchbox team. But never before I had a system which is literally preconfiguring and which has such a great frontend. Retrobat is the new standard from now on. 👍

[@doolittle_]

TechDweeb is your BEST FRIEND??? That must make him so happy.

[@Artstye4you]

Ok

[@davebassi7340]

TechDweeb is secretly Freddy Krueger!

[@suavebob]

I think his wife will have something to say, they are under the impression that they are a mans best friend haha.

[@DanDoesGame]

I dont comment much.... but you literally went over everything here and over delivered for the guide. Going over things at 16:35 is something noone else would have shown without a doubt. Thank you for such a great video!

[@timseyer6769]

I know the best friend thing is becoming kind of a meme but this time with techdweeb I really felt it. As did he I suppose.

[@TechDweeb]

All I wanted was one single friend. Turns out I a best one.

[@BlueCrashFigurineHoldingWumpa]

@@TechDweeb

[@Bushidounohana]

Brilliant coverage, as always! I love that our community has such a vast variety of tools to cater to an endless array of user needs, Retrobat is an excellent accomplice for those who want an extensive but easy Windows experience.

[@chrisharrison3374]

Russ teasing us with another banger of a video even before the RP5 review arrives.

[@russellbelew2604]

The fact you used Kerrygold butter to show size scale.... Immaculate. 🤣🤣🤣 Awesome video, friend. ✌️

[@indelaxiom]

This is such a great tutorial! I like how you're straight to the point with your tutorials without extra fluff. I recently (like 2 days ago) got into Batocera thanks to your tutorial videos and now I'm gonna switch over to Retrobat 😄

[@GustavoGabrielLima]

I have installed retrobat for gaming in my living room pc with my son and It was a very good experience.

[@RETROBAT]

👍

[@DJJuxtapose]

This was such a good video Russ, I would totally buy those labels for you that were in your Amazon Cart at 7:49. You deserve them.

[@RHRetro]

Amazing content! Thanks for giving Retrobat the love it deserves! Absolute BEST retro gaming frontend!

[@danielcobia7818]

If you want to do retro gaming the 8bitdo Pro2 is also an excellent choice if you don't mind the $5-$10 jump in price. They also sell a variant for the same price that has hall effect sticks. That one does connect to all kinds of things including switch, android, IOS and Windows. Of course, I love all my 8bitdo controllers so I'm biased.

[@digitizer3627]

Pro2 rocks!!!❤

[@piplup10203854]

It's nice having simpler more streamlined setups. I am trying to do this once I get things all situated so thank you in advance :D

[@alaingoulet4468]

Your presentation made setting up my retrogames with Retrobat a joy to do. This was so easy. Thank you.

[@tosvus]

Your voice is so relaxed that I put on your videos when I work, and only once in a while pick up what you actually are doing LOL

[@thekingofinsane]

Just installed retrobat on my legion thanks to this video, it's honestly insane. Your video was super helpful too

[@roscoes-wetsuit1]

intro music gets me warm and tingly

[@cloudkitt]

Thanks a lot for this. My main computer's emulation setup has been a rolling set of folders for over a decade and is a total mess and probably a super inefficient with the amount of space it takes up. This is a great excuse to finally dive in and clean it all up, while making everything easier to play.

[@jaybigs1325]

This video is much appreciated! I was having some issues with emudeck and some other setups I tried, but this has been a much easier program to setup and use. Thank you!

[@granvillehenderson7618]

This has come at the right time for me. Spent a week downloading coinops builds onto my mini pc only for them not to work properly. This is a much better option as I have my roms and bios collection. Thanks for the straightforward installation instructions. Many thanks.

[@CA-tk8yn]

Learning disabilities here. I've tried understanding this and until this, I hadn't. Thanks. Now to build my own rotatable controller for Qbert.

[@amigos7851]

thank you for showing me retrobat,i have been using retroarch but now i will use retrobat from now on,it's way better :)

[@RETROBAT]

👍

[@Fallub]

Amazing video. You are a real hero for helping us with all these complicated steps in order to play retro games. Thank you very very much.

[@BillCipher1337]

thanks for covering retrobat, i use it for a long time and it just works :)

[@RETROBAT]

Good choice ;-)

[@traskfredrickson6045]

You never fail to impress. I will be installing this and you inputs will make life so much easier!!!! Thank you.

[@mattb6522]

Amazing video as always, Russ! Retrobat looks great! It is amazing how far the options for emulating have come!

[@mukular]

Thank you for the tutorial. You have a very calm voice always is a pleasure watching your tutorials.

[@yoonvsaechao]

been waiting for this one a loooooooong time, Russ!

[@M_AbdullahArif]

This is so awesome! I was struggling with setting up so many emulators one by one and its such a hassle that i just gave up. This looks very promising :D Thanks a lot!

[@Stanjara]

You are the best retro content on Ytube. Thank You!

[@afistfulofpimples1745]

There are two better

I love your dedication and energy! Thank you!

[@laochen4665]

great vid Russ, thank you. This may get me back into proper retro gaming. have been put off by needing to meddle with individual emulators but this is awesomely convenient.

[@KaWouter_]

I got my first dedicated gaming laptop a month ago. This video is just perfectly timed!

[@raniel0511]

As much as I like Retrobat, Batocera and ES-DE, I opted to use steam rom manager and added my emulated games to steam big picture, that's because I'm very minimalist about the games I want to emulate nowadays, so instead of having the whole library of one system I pick only the games I ACTUALLY play. Also Russ there's the new steam record feature, and it works on non-steam games.

[@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv]

How do ya do that. I would like to know yo.

[@raniel0511]

@@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv you mean the steam rom manager or the steam record? For the steam rom manager you have to download the program and run some little configurations to set it up like putting your steam account and selecting your game parsers. It's actually similar to Emudeck, but instead of installing the emudeck interface, you're just downloading the rom manager to put the emulated games as steam ggames with cover art and all that stuff, basically the program creates batch files that open your desired emulators and launch the roms (just a script). One nitpick is that if you're on windows you have to open the program with adm privilieges and you have to turn off your steam or else it will fail. For steam record you just go to configurations look for game recording and activate it, you can select the quality, turn it on to record games on startup or make a shortcut to turn on game recording while ingame, the cool stuff is that non steam games can be recorded if you launch the from steam launcher. It's a great alternative to obs, and it works on steam deck so you don'nt need an external capture card or external program(obs) to use it

[@thiagoescalante6245]

I didn't know the trick to change the grid art! Thank you so much for that

[@Xpun-oi2zz]

Wow. This app is really cool. & Great video. You covered all we need to know. Thanks for such a Great video.

[@sixunone]

One of the best tutorials for this topic

[@mcbabs7495]

Toujours très intéressant! Un grand merci pour le partage!

[@crabbyjimmy1]

Always wondered what it took to do this. Excellent geek work.

[@beerhigh04]

A very nice in depth guide, you’re awesome… 👏👍🏻👍🏻

[@Pliskins024]

Was planning to do a couch retro mini pc type of lay back gaming setup for my living room in the near future. Thanks russ for a complete guided tutorial!🙌😄

[@BlutoSlice]

Been using RB for a few years as it's easy and feature rich. Top guide Rus.

[@jimshannononsounds]

Cool stuff. I need to watch this a few more times before I dive in. Awesome guide, thanks.

[@ngcheewei21]

As always, you produce quality episodes … I’m gonna try this on my PC, although I had some emulators running on it already, ps2 nds so on; also I setup emudeck on my steam deck but I actually seldom use it.

[@KyleLambiotte]

Wow what timing. I just followed the vid from a year ago, exact setup and all as the vid and am loving it. Hopefully not getting buyers remorse with the Beelink pc from that video. Found it on a prime deal for 215$. Retro bat is sweet but I do like using Batocera as I wanted the purpose of a “console” experience

[@texasrattlesnake31637]

Freakin' awesome bro'! Definitely checking this emulation setup out -

[@DJNovaBlast3000]

Yo, this setup is mad simple-straight fire for anyone tryna vibe with retro gaming. Retro Game Corp comin' through clutch as always! 🔥🎮

[@Jpetersson]

Yes, I´ve been using Retrobat for a couple of years. It´s kind of like Retropie for windows and because a pc is a lot faster than a Rspi you can emulate everything. Well-made video btw!

[@kumarp3074]

I've tried a couple of these and found Launchbox to be the best for my needs. It seems to be more customizable and is the best frontend I've found for old computer emulators.

[@moo422]

My favourite part of Launchbox (compared to ES-based frontends) is that it can use your existing rom folders. ES needs you to copy your rom files over to its own directory.

[@bundangkorea]

Agreed. Retrobat is quite easy to set up and probably the best choice for people who are starting from scratch or with little knowledge. However, Launchbox is the all around best choice with a lot more options and features, and highly recommended for people who are a little more experienced using emulators.

[@WickedGamerCollector]

Yeah Launchbox .. build 2 images... love it !

[@greekmanx]

Love retrobat being using it for awhile works great

[@TheWaveFiles]

Perfect video. Staright to the point and only the useful stuff. awesome, thanks.

[@antoniodias2883]

Really loved this Tutorial thank you! I really reccomend Just Jamie's Retrobat tutorials as well. One thing that I would love to see in more detail is configuring controllers on Retrobat and Retroarch, I have some serious issues configuring a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) 2 USB Controller on Retrobat/Retroarch.

[@john6982]

We need the full review of the Retroid Pocket 5!, I want to be sure there are no defects. You are the best reviewer on this matters!. Thanks

[@AAjax]

Last year I bought a cheap mini-PC and set it up with Retrobat, and I'm still having a blast with it. I have couch co-op games from all platforms, including Windows, all in a Retrobat collection called "Party". Great fun around the holidays! My mini has an i5-7500t cpu, which is comparable to N100 minis, while being a lot cheaper. It has DDR4 in dual channel, so basically the same as single channel DDR5 on the N100. (N100 only allows single channel) I enabled the CPU all-core turbo frequency all the time with Throttlestop, and with that I can run everything up to Switch at full speed. You're not going to be doing any recent AAA on the integrated graphics, but it's so much more affordable.

[@yo-yo9939]

What's the name of the mini pc

[@AAjax]

@@yo-yo9939 Mine is an HP EliteDesk Mini 800 G3 with i5-7500t. It's also helpful to pick a cpu and search it instead (e.g. "i5 7500t mini") so you can compare. These things are cheap because they're ex-business machines, so sometimes one brand has more of a surplus than others.

[@yo-yo9939]

@@AAjax thanks for the info

[@AAjax]

@@yo-yo9939 you're welcome

[@AmadorUmpierreDXHG]

I love using RetroBat on my pc.

[@RETROBAT]

good !! ^^

[@alistairstewart9975]

I just got an Asus ROG Ally and i have always used Launchbox before on PCs but I'm definitely going to try Retrobat as i think this would be great for handheld gaming PCs. Thanks for the great video as always Russ 👏

[@JS2123-m9x]

I agree with the video Retrobat is extremely quick and easy. Recently I have set up a mini PC (SER8) to handle 17.000 "backups" and settled down eventually for Big Box, because the powerful native scripting, but Retrobat was a strong second option.

[@zeroruno]

Back when I am still using MacOS, OpenEmu is my holy grail for retro emulation gaming. I really wish for something simple yet cohesive like that (OpenEmu) but for Windows.

[@baseendje5763]

This was exactly what I was looking for! Installing as you're talking 😅

[@elblanco5]

One great thing about adding it to steam is that it makes retrobat available to your other computers over steamlink.

[@dsbrown]

Great video ... installing it now!

[@sahamal_savu]

Just bought a GMKTec NucBox G5, along with an Anbernic RG35xx H. I had planned on buying the G5 but saw your video for the RG35xx H and had to add one to the order. Love it, thanks for the informative review 👍 I was going to make the G5 into a dedicated Batocera emulation machine but now I think I'm going to give Retrobat a shot first and see how I like that. These GMKTec mini PC's already come with Windows 11 installed so why not? Thanks again for a great video 👍

[@Renzo_Benzo]

tip: faster way to implement vertical boxes is to simply click on the playlist that the game is under in your library, right click the game and click "set custom artwork"

[@Alphonze_]

Having this for MacOS would be just unbelievable. Subscribed and liked, awesome video whith such a great explanation.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

OpenEmu?

[@AlexFalkenberg]

I've wanted to love Launchbox so many times, but it's such a dog, no matter what hardware I try to run it on. I was aware of Retrobat, but hadn't looked into it very much; thanks for putting this together.

[@CrimsonJimi]

Thanks for making this video. The only issue I had was the handheld option for gameboy didn't do anything for me but other than that, everything worked flawlessly.

[@bullymaguire243]

I have a 4080 super but I still play some twisted metal 4/metal gear solid from Duckstation with limp bizkit/matrix soundtrack playing from Spotify. Traveled me back to 1999

[@mappfire17]

🇬🇦 Mbolo/Salama/Hi👋🏿,man your videos are always helpful so am definitely going to download Retrobat! Thanks for the amazing video

[@andrealexander6077]

Damn it Russ you never seize to amaze me, you absolute Legend thank you 👍🏽

[@jonathonearl482]

I have RetroBat on a PC, it's the best for sure!

[@FabianZettl]

Would just love that Retrobat organizes save files the same as emudeck

[@RETROBAT]

we were there before Emudeck... 😉 But you can use symlinks.

[@HearMeLearn]

using this with a mini pc to make an arcade cabinet type of thing sounds really cool. You could even add moonlight to it if you have a gaming pc somewhere else in the house and use it for modern gaming as well.

[@ScottReviews]

Russ, I really enjoyed this video on retrobat! Thank you! I was planning to do this. If you do more about Retrobat I’d love to see how this works as installing on a external device for plug and play experience on multiple pcs and also how to use sync thing with it like say emudeck from steam deck to pc on retrobat. Great video! Thanks!

[@renatosonni2475]

Tack!

[@nonemoremannion]

This is great for my Legion GO. Windwaker HD runs like a dream!

[@AlastairGames]

All the settings you did should be the default for RetroBat, would save so much time!

[@choboutube]

Cheers. The 'hoarder' in me always wants to build up a collection of 'everything', and I've tried the Kinhank hard drives. My 'nostalgia' is for the PS1/Saturn/PS2/Dreamcast era, when I was most 'active'. I remember buying an important PS1 and taking that with me along with a copy of Tekken to get a new big Sony TV. I like browsing through a catalogue with games of that era. The reality is that when it comes to actually playing, I'd stick to only a few - Mr Driller on Dreamcast, OG gameboy Tetris, Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast ,with a smattering of ridge racer (sega rally on saturn has not aged well), metal slug and parodius. Anyway to the point, your set up is like the pinnacle but would be 'wasted' on me.

[@markalexander5578]

I like the Tech Dweeb love.

[@lensboi1229]

Emudeck for windows is also a great option, it uses steam big picture as its front end

[@zwenkwiel816]

It can also use emulation station.

[@_BlockDeNotas]

I'm using Emulation Station DE but thanks to this video I'm considering changing it to retrobat

[@RETROBAT]

😉

[@jordandiaz5526]

Im in exactly the same boat! Trying to figure out the easiest way to change over. I currently have a 1.5tb microsd in my handheld pc that has emulation station de and all my roms, I wonder if its as easy as uninstalling ES-DE and just moving the roms and scraped media over to the new folders. Or if I would need to rescrape everything. Maybe its easiest to just reformat the sd card and do a fresh retrobat install and move the roms over from my external drive.

[@julenkoo]

Recalbox is also a very nice and easy way to emulate lot of systems, it's my favorite so far.

[@RETROBAT]

Try Retrobat ;-)

[@jefflolson]

I found retrobat after trying to set up ES-DE on my own and it is so much easier and less time consuming.

[@johnmccune1233]

Great video and easy to understand... THANKS!!

[@danieldahl600]

The Kerrygold butter size comparison really helps, thanks Russ. 😂

[@polayo1]

Gracias, excelente video para esas personas que no tenemos idea que computadoras usar para retro gaming espero y sigas asiendo videos como este

[@troyX]

Thank you Russ I was just asking myself this recently.

[@IcoKirov]

back in the days i was searching for something like this under windows and i didn't find any. don't know if i just didn't find them, or they were still no options like this. so i had to manually set emulation station. with retroarch, emulations, files, folders and so on. now there are options and i no longer need them :D i no longer use windows. it morphed into a terrible os, so i ditched it. so yeah. this video is nothing i need. but still quite entertaining. i'm happy that emulations have come this far and there are so many easy options for all kind of systems.

[@vveso]

Amazing video! Thank you! Implementing this exact setup on my windows steam machine!

[@DaRazorback]

Definitely a great option, thanks

[@jakesmith5278]

Very cool Russ. I am now plenty of dangerous.

[@JohanlastZa]

For those that dont want product to product size comparisons, the dimensions are W: 5.19 inches, H: 4.92 inches, D: 2.28 inches or for everyone else in the world W: 132mm, H: 125mm, D: 58mm

[@digitizer3627]

I love Retrobat because its launched from windows and pretty stable❤. Thanks for the video Russ.