Adding games to RetroX is as easy as putting the games into a folder and making RetroX scan it. We always recommend starting with just one game, preferably any 8 or 16 bit console game, because other systems like MAME or computer games may need extra steps if you are just starting (see the MAME section below for details).
Your games can be stored at:
- Local storage: Your Downloads folder or any folder if you use a File Manager or an app like Send files for TV, which lets you push files to your TV device over the network from your phone or computer.
- USB drives: Recommended for big collections.
- Cloud services (DropBox, OneDrive, NextCloud): Recommended for testing or for devices that don’t support USB drives.
There are three methods to add games to RetroX:
- Single games: Just point RetroX where your game is and it will be added.
- Folder for one system: This method will add a whole folder containing games for a single system (NES, Sega Genesis, etc.).
- RetroX Collection: This method will add a single folder containing games for multiple systems. This method is more advanced and it is recommended if you want to prepare a USB drive or SD card to just plug and play on your devices.
Keep in mind the following:
- The game must be in a supported file format for each emulator (.atr, .z64, .cue, etc.). See the list below.
- The game can be compressed as .zip, .rar or .7z, but we don’t recommend it. It will take more time to start a game and it will require more storage to hold the compressed and uncompressed versions. Emulators need the game to be uncompressed (except for MAME and FBNeo).
- Some systems are not supported when using cloud services: ScummVM and MS-DOS games.
Zipped or unzipped
MAME and FBNeo are the only emulators that use compressed files as input; all other emulators require the files to be uncompressed. RetroX will scan and recognize your game files compressed with zip, 7zip and rar, but before starting the game, RetroX must uncompress the game to run the emulator. The uncompression will take some time if the file is too large, and the uncompressed copy will be put in your internal storage.
So your options are:
- zipped: it uses less space in your original storage, but the decompression will require more time to start the game for the first time and the unzipped copy will use your internal storage. Keep an eye on your free internal storage if you have a large zipped collection, since decompressing many games can add up. You can always remove the local copy using the “uninstall” option in Settings -> Device and in the Game Details screen.
- unzipped: it uses more space in your original storage, but the emulator will just use that copy to start the game, no additional space needed. Because the game doesn’t need to be uncompressed, it will start immediately.
Supported file formats
The following is the list of supported file formats for each system. Your file can be stored inside a compressed file (.zip, .rar, .7z) according to the restrictions stated above.
Amstrad CPC dsk sna tap cdt voc cpr
Atari 2600 bin a26
Atari 5200 a52
Atari 7800 bin a78
Atari Jaguar j64 jag
Atari Lynx lnx
Atari XL/XE atr xex exe car
Atari ST stx st
Final Burn Neo zip 7z
Commodore Amiga adf hdf
Commodore 64 d64 d6z d71 d7z d80 d81
d82 d8z g64 g6z g41 g4z
x64 x6z nib nbz t64 tap
prg p00 crt bin
Game Boy gb
Game Boy Advance gba
Game Boy Color gbc gb
MAME zip 7z
MSX cas dsk mx1 mx2 col rom
Neo Geo Pocket Color ngp ngc
Nintendo 64 n64 v64 z64
Nintendo Entertainment System nes
Panasonic 3DO iso bin img
PC MS-DOS one folder
PC Engine / TurboGrafx pce cue ccd iso img bin
chd
Playstation iso cue bin img mdf pbp
toc cbn m3u
PSP iso elf cso prx pbp
ScummVM one folder
Sega 32X 32x
Sega CD iso cue bin
Sega Dreamcast gdi cdi chd
Sega Game Gear gg
Sega Genesis/MegaDrive mdx md smd gen iso cue
bin sms gg sg
Sega Master System sms
Sega Saturn cue ccd iso mds chd
Super Nintendo smc sfc
ZX Spectrum tzx tap z80 rzx scl trd
Scanning and re-scanning
RetroX will not scan your games unless you request a scan, or when a change requires rescanning. So if you already added a folder or collection and made changes to it, you need to rescan it.
You can rescan by system at Manage Games -> Rescan, or by folder or RetroX Collection at Manage Games -> Manage Folders.
RetroX Collections
Instead of adding games file by file or folder by folder, you can create a set of folders that will be scanned in one pass. A RetroX Collection is a unified folder
structure to organize your collection under a unique retrox folder in /sdcard or at the root of any of your USB drives. This folder structure can be created through RetroX itself, just go to Manage Games -> Manage folders, select the drive and the app will offer to create or update your folder structure for you. In cases where Android prevents the app from writing to your device, you can use a computer or an Android file manager to create the folders yourself.
The official names for the current supported platforms are (case sensitive):
retrox/3do Panasonic 3DO retrox/amiga Commodore Amiga retrox/amstradcpc Amstrad CPC retrox/atari Atari XL/XE/5200 retrox/atari2600 Atari 2600 (VCS) retrox/atari7800 Atari 7800 retrox/atarist Atari ST retrox/c64 Commodore 64 retrox/dc Sega Dreamcast retrox/dos MS-DOS retrox/fbneo Final Burn Neo retrox/gamegear Sega Game Gear retrox/gb GameBoy retrox/gba GameBoy Advance retrox/gbc GameBoy Color retrox/genesis Sega Genesis retrox/jaguar Atari Jaguar retrox/lynx Atari Lynx retrox/mame MAME (Read additional details below) retrox/msx MSX retrox/n64 Nintendo 64 retrox/nes Nintendo Entertainment System retrox/ngpc Neo Geo Pocket Color retrox/pcengine PC Engine retrox/psp PlayStation Portable retrox/psx PlayStation retrox/saturn Sega Saturn retrox/scummvm ScummVM retrox/sega32x Sega 32X retrox/segacd Sega CD retrox/snes Super Nintendo retrox/sms Sega Master System retrox/zx ZX Spectrum
As an example, this is a valid folder structure for 5 Sega Genesis games. Two of them are uncompressed and three of them are compressed into one zip called moregames.zip.
retrox/genesis/mygame.smd retrox/genesis/othergame.smd retrox/genesis/moregames.zip:bestgame.smd retrox/genesis/moregames.zip:amazinggame.smd retrox/genesis/moregames.zip:goodgame.smd
Auto detection
RetroX will try to auto-detect your games. If your game is detected, RetroX will display the cover and screenshots of that game, and it will also download any specific configuration that could be required to run that game. That configuration can include things like a special keyboard mapping or CPU emulation type, among others.
At first, RetroX will try to detect your game using its name. The name will be converted to a standard code and that will be used to search its games database. These are examples of that conversion:
Mega Turrican.smd -> megaturrican Pole Position.atr -> poleposition
Your game may not be recognized today, but the code is being improved as we advance the development and add more games to the database.
Read the full details on the Name Matching document
Multi disc / disk games
Some games require more than one disk or disc, which means you will have more than one file for each game.
Full details are available on the Multi Disk Support page.
MAME
MAME games depend directly on the version of the MAME emulator. To make things easy, RetroX uses four folders to look for games.
retrox/mame/2001 for MAME 0.37b retrox/mame/2003 for MAME 0.78 retrox/mame/2010 for MAME 0.139 retrox/mame/2014 for MAME 0.159
Just put the .zip or .7z files in those folders. DON’T UNCOMPRESS THEM!
This is an example
retrox/mame/2001/1942.zip retrox/mame/2001/commando.zip retrox/mame/2001/dkong.zip retrox/mame/2003/area88.zip retrox/mame/2003/flipshot.zip retrox/mame/2014/matmania.7z
Adding MAME games is not as simple as adding a console game; please continue reading this specific MAME doc to know more about it.
Final Burn Neo
Just put the individual .zip or .7z files in your fba folder. DON’T UNCOMPRESS THEM!
ScummVM
Each ScummVM game is a collection of files inside a directory; these were originally MS-DOS or Amiga games. The name of the directory must be the code that ScummVM defines for each game. There is a special page with all supported ScummVM games and their codes.
Adding artwork
This section has been moved to the Artwork Page.