--system nintendo-gba wrote system events for gb, gbc and ds, each made
of the few SkyEmu files the choice kept. With systems chosen, only those
are described.
The step for another folder now gives the command with --dest for each
system, the PowerShell one in its script block form. The check line that
means all good is shown whole, since an empty folder also reads 0 hash
mismatches. The port archive is said to come with releases cut after the
port, which v2026.10.10, the latest, predates.
An empty NO_COLOR turned colour off, which no-color.org reads as unset.
FORCE_COLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE now paint a pipe. --check with several
platforms asks which to check rather than "Install for:", and
--list-platforms says when nothing is detected here.
Offline, the run printed "[Errno -2] Name or service not known". The
common failures now read as words, the raw text kept under --verbose.
A refused certificate under a clock set before the installer was written
is reported as reason clock, with the date it reads, and no trusted
certificate list on the machine as reason no_ca, naming SSL_CERT_FILE.
Neither is retried, and verification is never turned off.
--list-platforms said the MinUI layout was not written yet while
--from-pack and --dest wrote it. On the device the card root is now
found and its version.txt names the file list, and a card without one
gets the --platform and --dest to use. A core with no file of its own
says its files are the platform's, always kept, instead of 0 files.
--system gba, psx or ps1 was refused with no suggestion on RetroArch.
Short names now suggest the ids they stand for, never taken in their
place, and two aliases of one system name it once. --platform muos and
the other systems --list-platforms names stand for the file list they
get, and the run says which.
A folder typed in quotes at the BIOS folder question was used with its
quotes, and its missing parents were created without the question
--dest asks. The quotes go, ~ and variables expand on every system, and
a default folder that does not exist is named as such, not as found.
q at a menu now leaves with 130 like Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+C before anything
started no longer offers to carry on.
--check names why each flagged file is refused and where each core
opens it, and names a pack part missing from the folder from the
markers split_pack writes. --from-pack installs from a downloaded
pack or its parts with no network request, --manifest reads a saved
file list, both checking every hash. The end of a run names the
system or core that pulls most of the download when narrowing saves
over half.
Reading this project's own reports gets its own page. Checker code is linked at the revision each platform list was read from. Installer moves to Your setup, legal to Start here, build internals to Contribute, and Reference pages carry a group.
Platform guides, device groups, terminal tabs, pack README manuals and
logo credits move from Python tables to platforms/_guides.yml, checked
against the registry on load. A folder row without a path is the
registry's extract_to, written once.
Wiki pages place themselves in the navigation with order and nav_title
in their front matter. Generated docs/ and mkdocs.yml are unchanged.
The Start here pages ran 460 to 2,100 words and the first command of
Get your files sat 254 words down. Each page now opens on its action,
with short sentences and one fact per block. The facts a newcomer does
not act on moved one level down: the legal analysis to wiki/legal.md,
the project terms to wiki/reference-terms.md, the annotated run and the
installer failures to the installer page, collection figures to a new
Explore index.
tests/test_site_copy.py holds the budgets on the generated pages, and
the testing guide states them with their reasons.
Four statements the repository contradicts are rewritten: prboom.wad
is compiled into PrBoom (emulators/prboom.yml), Batocera reports a
mismatch as UNTESTED (batocera-systems checkBios), 13 hle_fallback
entries are required, and the gaps headline splits missing firmware
from game data and unread entries.
A BIOS folder can sit on a share other people write to. A retrobios-backup that is a link is no longer written through (the backup goes inside the BIOS folder instead), run folders are created for the user only and carry a marker, and --restore only takes a folder holding that marker, walking it without following links. Beginner pages label their links to the installer page as details.
A file in place whose contents differ (another revision, a personal
dump) was overwritten and lost. It is now moved to
retrobios-backup/<date-time>/ beside the folder written to, under the
same path, before the verified copy replaces it. Beside, not inside:
DuckStation, SwanStation and Rustation read every file of the BIOS
folder and BizHawk walks its firmware folder recursively.
Identical files are never kept. --dry-run counts what would be kept,
the summary and the summary event name the folder, files and bytes,
and --restore FOLDER puts the files back. Data trees and standalone
copies keep their replaced files the same way.
Five tabs from Start here to Contribute, a level on every page, a device picker on Get your files that lists every registered platform, and platform pages that open on where the files go, the command, the pack and how to check. FAQ and troubleshooting keep the questions asked before installing, the technical ones move to their own page, and getting started points to the pages that took its content.
install.py --no-game-data leaves out the files and omissions the manifest
marks game data, in an install, --check and --dry-run, and names them with
their category. The --events summary gains left_out, one group per
category with every destination. A list without categories is refused.
The installer page says how to get the port (PortMaster's catalog once
accepted, or RetroBIOS.zip in the autoinstall folder), what it shows and
needs, and why it carries install.py. The download page links to it
from the handheld table.
AmberELEC, PAN4ELEC and EmuELEC detection now installs their own lists
at /storage/roms, the root those lists are written against; KNULLI its
own list at /userdata/bios. JELOS, KOLOS, UnofficialOS and Arch R keep
RetroArch's list with the folder their retroarch.cfg names.
One JSON object per line on stdout (detection, per-file and per-system
check, download progress, summary, exit code) and the usual text on
stderr, so a program driving install.py never parses prose. EVENT_KEYS
is the one schema. The installer page documents it, and a test holds the
two equal. The handheld port reads it.
The Google Play and retroarch.com builds share com.retroarch and com.retroarch.aarch64 but build their defaults under different roots (RetroArch v1.22.2 MainMenuActivity.java:182-183). The build is told by the version code it records in retroarch.cfg, else by the folder it wrote. A Google Play folder Termux cannot write is named, as for DraStic and Flycast.
DraStic keeps its BIOS in its private data and Flycast in Android/data,
which Termux cannot write on Android 11 and later. An installed one is now
named with the files not copied, and a writable Flycast folder is a
standalone copy target.
RetroDECK moves each of its folders on its own and records the new place
in retrodeck.json paths (api_data_processing.sh:913-935). Only
rd_home_path was read, so files went to <home>/bios after a move.
AmberELEC, EmuELEC, JELOS, KOLOS, UnofficialOS, ArchR, PAN4ELEC, dArkOS,
RetroOZ, spruceOS, CrossMix-OS, Onion, Allium, Koriki, MiyooCFW and plumOS
are found by what their builds write, named as they name themselves, and
installed to the system_directory of their RetroArch config, which follows
ArkOS and dArkOS to a second card. TrimUI stock, MinUI and a plumOS build
without a known folder are named and not installed to. Two unrelated
systems matching stop a run without a terminal.
Without Python, install.ps1 at a console now offers to run winget install Python.Python.3.12, rereads PATH from the registry and carries on. The Store's python.exe placeholder fails the version check like a missing Python.
With no platform detected, a machine running standalone emulators (ES-DE with DuckStation and PCSX2) was offered RetroArch's folder. The installer now fills the emulator folders of the standalone copies list that exist here, from the EmuDeck then RetroArch file lists, asking first at a terminal.
Every install ended on 'Standalone copies skipped', on machines with no standalone emulator as on one whose DuckStation lacked its BIOS. The line now lists the emulator folders that exist here, and nothing is said when there are none.
A mistyped --dest was created with every missing parent and reported done. The run now names the missing folder and the nearest one that exists, asks at a terminal before creating more than one level, and prints the folder it created. The free-space check now runs before the folder is made and ends with 2, nothing installed.
EmuDeck's macOS build reads ~/.config/EmuDeck/settings.sh like the Linux one (functions/all.sh:3-4,24 and vars.sh:2 at dddb3022). The settings and ~/Emulation/bios rules now run on darwin too.
RomM 5.4 reads each platform's firmware where filesystem.structure.firmware
in config.yml says, bios/{platform} by default, and suggests {platform}/bios
for a {platform}/roms library (rommapp/romm 5.4.0,
backend/config/config_manager.py:58,101-109,205-225,564-568,1105-1124).
The installer only wrote bios/<platform>/. It now reads the template from
config.yml beside the library, takes --romm-firmware when that file is
elsewhere, refuses a platform-first library with no template, and detects
RomM by /romm/config/config.yml too.
No Batocera build writes /etc/batocera-version: batocera-system.mk:21-22
(batocera.linux 38845725, unchanged since batocera-30) writes
/usr/share/batocera/batocera.version. Knulli (knulli-linux 57afa662) adds
OS_NAME=knulli to os-release, writes /usr/share/knulli/knulli.version and
removes /usr/share/batocera, and no Knulli source writes /etc/knulli-release.
Neither was detected. A Knulli board is named and not narrowed by
Batocera's per-board lists, and an unlisted board is named.
muOS runs RetroArch on a config copied from its default, which reads
/run/muos/storage/bios, bound to MUOS/bios on the second card when that
card holds one, and loads cores from /opt/muos/share/core (MustardOS/internal
f41f4a89, script/control/retroarch.sh:8-20, script/device/bind.sh:116-150,
retroarch.default.cfg:2806,3151). The installer wrote to /mnt/mmc/MUOS/bios
and --installed-cores found no core. The config now decides both.
The 3.12 guard rested on generate_readme f-strings that have since been
rewritten. Every script compiles under CPython 3.9.25, 3.10 and 3.11, and
only generate_pack's parenthesized context managers fail under 3.8. Under
3.9 the offline pipeline (--skip-packs) completed with no change to the
committed artifacts, the 15 manifests matched 3.12 byte for byte, and the
RomM pack was identical. CI now compiles every script under a real 3.9.
functions/all.ps1:4-14 (emudeck-we 037460ef) reads the APPDATA
settings.ps1, else the one under the profile, and takes C:\Emulation when
neither names a folder. Only the first was read and a forced platform fell
back to %USERPROFILE%\Emulation\bios. A network install names its share
through $VolName (JSONtoPS1.ps1:166-172), and a UTF-16 settings file is
decoded.
RetroBat.exe writes its folder to HKCU\SOFTWARE\RetroBat
LatestKnownInstallPath on every start (retrobat-executable 702da66a,
Program.cs:57 and 99, RegistryTools.cs:15-50). Only C:\RetroBat and the
profile folder were looked at, so an install on D: was missed and a forced
--platform retrobat wrote into C:\RetroBat\bios. The value is read
through winreg, or reg.exe under WSL, before the fixed folders.
The installer output example showed 5865 files and no Not installable
line, while the RetroArch manifest gives 8069 and omits 11. Exit code 2
also comes from every option argparse refuses. RETROBIOS_REF holds a
file list only until the next release deletes its tag, and large files
always come from large-files. The release commit now carries the
manifests the pipeline regenerates. A RetroPie 4.8 image ships Python
3.7.3, below the bootstrap's floor, and the pages say what to use.
An unknown --emulator name pointed at --list-cores and counted 441 names
while --list-cores prints 189: the buildbot names --emulator accepts
(mednafen_psx for beetle_psx) were listed nowhere. --list-emulators prints
each accepted name beside the emulator it stands for, and the hint names
it.
A [Parameter()] attribute made install.ps1 an advanced script: its common
parameters took -v (-Verbose), -vb, -d and -ea before install.py saw them,
and the scriptblock form printed PowerShell's own VERBOSE lines. The
wrapper now forwards $args as typed.
Abdessamad Derraz