this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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Why is RetroArch such absolute garbage? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/emulation@lemmy.ml
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RetroArch never works right. Even once you get past the cores and all the other stupid bs, once you get to setting up the controls it never works right, most buttons just do not work in game, if they even work in the menus.

So many years, so much effort, all wasted.

It's still so much easier to keep BlastEm, Snes9x, Duckstation and whatever else installed, so much faster to set up controls and most of the time you don't even need to as everything works out of the box.

And yet plebbit will say nuhhh use muh libretro cores!!!!1 so heckin' wholesome Keanu chungus 100!!! I love my wife's boyfriend!!!!111 Thanks Reddit!!!!!

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[โ€“] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I only wish frustrated people wouldn't shit on RetroArch, like you did in your initial post. That frustrates me too, because it paints a wrong light of the software. See? Your latest reply here is exactly the tone it should have been and the exact problems you talked about, then you would be taken seriously day one. Nothing against critique and talk, nothing is perfect.

I think its not the softwares fault that people got the wrong recommendation or if people are not willing to learn how it works. And surely its unfair to the developers to be disrespectful. Some things are more complex than others, because they do complex stuff. And RetroArch does it in a way, no other software does. Not every software is for everyone. This does not mean its bad, just not for you or for those who struggled.

Fun fact: BTW my first experience with RetroArch was also through RetroPie 3b. And I do emulation stuff since mid 2000s I think and know what GoodSNES means (which is no longer needed, we switched over to NoIntro and TOSEC).

[โ€“] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah fundamentally it's an issue with the emulation community more broadly recommending RetroArch as a one-size-fits-all solution for all emulation, when actually it's kind of a niche software for emulation enthusiasts and developers to use as a base for some sort of more user friendly frontend. Hence why I am talking shit on the community hivemind more than the software itself.

For me personally I only emulate a few systems, but I tend to get pretty in-depth with various hacks, tweaks, mods etc. which can involve some basic debugging so I tend to prefer standalone emulators, it just keeps the overall stack much simpler, for these situations I also prefer to compile from source, so keeping things simple helps too.