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Retroarch

Is an annoying pain in the ass with a horrible UI. But, once you get over the hurdles of setting it up, it's one of the best free emulators out there.

To Start

Download RetroArch_1.2.2_nocameralocation.apk from http://buildbot.libretro.com/stable/1.2.2/android/ At , 1.2.2 is the latest version of RetroArch.

Now sideload that APK to your Fire TV. /u/AFTVNews has a great guide of how to do that with a free program called adbFire http://www.aftvnews.com/sideload-adbfire-windows/

Set-up

Note: You'll need a mouse for this next part.

Go Settings -> Applications -> Manage Installed Applications -> Retroarch -> Launch application

Click 'Load RetroArch'

Now, take your mouse and select 'Settings' -> 'Configuration' -> (here's the tricky part) 'Video' -> Click the back button on the Fire TV remote -> 'Input User 1 Binds' -> Bind your buttons

At this point, you should be able to navigate the menus with your controller

Press back until you are back at the 'MENU'

Now it's time to download our cores.

Cores?

RetroArch uses separate libraries, called emulator cores.

Click 'Online Updater' -> 'Core Updater' -> (for the purpose of this guide, we'll do the NES) scroll down until you find NES / Famicom (Nestopia UE) and click it.

You should now have your first core. Press the back button until you're back at the 'MENU'. Now select 'Load Core' -> 'NES / Famicom (Nestopia UE)'

Think you're back at the menu? You're wrong. We are inside the menu of NES core we just downloaded. Confusing? Absolutely. But look down at the bottom right corner, it should say 1.2.2 - Nestopia v1.47-WIP. That's how you'll always know you're in a core and not the main menu.

(And there's a weird glitch where when you exit out of the core, it doesn't load your settings for your controller. Use your mouse to get back to the 'Input

Core Menu

Now we need to reset up our controller for NES use. Settings -> Input User 1 Binds -> Switch the A & B button (yes, you'll need a mouse to do this)

Press back once, we should be back on the 'SETTINGS' menu. Scroll down to 'Frame Throttle' -> Toggle 'Limit Maximum Run Speed'

Press back once, we should be back on the 'SETTINGS' menu. Scroll up to Video -> You'll probably want to turn off HW Bilinear Filtering.

Press back until you're back at the 'MENU'. Select 'Quit Retroarch'

While I think there's some way to set up art and a nice selection menu inside of Retroarch, I'm not sure how. So, for this next part, we'll use Gamesome.

Gamesome

Gamesome is a front end for emulators. It will scrape all your art and make everything pretty.

It's currently only up in the Google Play store (pester the developer to make an APK available for Amazon users!) so we'll have to snatch it. Go to http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ -> put in https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vektor.gamesome&hl=en -> Click 'generate download link'

Sometimes that evozi site is a piece of shit and you'll have to wait a day or two for it to work properly. Don't sweat it. Eventually, you'll be able to get the APK.

Now that you have the APK, sideload it to your Fire TV.

Now that it's sideloaded, open it up.

We should be looking at a screen that says 'Error Unable to check your in-app purchases, ads will be shown: blah blah'. Click down on your controller and click ok. Do the same for crash reports and the warning about anonymous crashes.

Now that we're on the main menu, your cursor should be on 'Favorites' up at the top, press right and select settings.

In the settings, you'll be able to hide unwanted platforms, choose the style and a bunch of other fun stuff. For now, we're going to focus on setting up our NES goodness.

Press down, go to Email Address -> Click it -> Click OK and OK again (this will stop it from popping up every time you exit a game)

Press up, go over to 'EMULATORS' -> 'Default Emulator for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)' -> Select 'RetroArch (Nestopia)'

Go over to 'PATHS' -> 'Path for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)' -> Now find the folder where your totally legal ROMs are at. I suggest storing them on a USB stick.

Go over to 'GAME BROWSER' -> 'Game Launch Mode' -> Select Quick

On the same screen -> 'Game Detail Settings' -> 'Show Only Title' (or whatever you want)

On the same screen -> 'Game Image Options' -> 'Keep image's aspect ratio' (or whatever you want)

Now press back. We should be back at the main menu. Press up (to get off the ad) and scroll until you find the NES. Select it. Now if should be scanning in your games!

Here's the bad news though. It will probably mis-scrape your Megaman and Mario games. And, as of this posting, there's no way to fix them. Gamesome will crash every time you try to enter new data. There is some way to trick the program into not crashing when inserting a new name but I literally can't remember how I did it. Sorry :) If you highlight the game, hold down your A button, you can select 'Show Game Details' which will show you that ROMs name.

After it finishes scanning, take your mouse and make a sliding gesture from the left side of the screen. This should pop out a settings menu. I suggest clicking 'Show as Grid/List' so you have more information besides the covers.

Playing A Game!

Select a game and it should open RetroArch! Wow, magic! But we're not done yet.

Press the back button on your controller. It should open up the Retroarch menu.

Settings -> Onscreen Onscreen Overlay -> 'Display OSD Message' OFF (this will disable the onscreen controls)

Press back -> Audio -> 'Audio Volume Level (dB)' set to 1.0 (this will enable the audio)

Press back until you're back at the MENU and press the back button on your controller.

Now you should be playing a NES game with no onscreen controls and audio!

When you get bored of all that old-school goodness. Press the back button on your controller, select 'Quit Retroarch' and you should back in Gamesome!

We've now successfully set up NES emulation for your Fire TV!!! Use the same steps to set up other systems with RetroArch.

Now this set up is quirky. Don't panic if things don't work perfect for you. Remember to have your mouse and experiment.

With Gamesome, you can also set up other emulators like Reicast (Dreamcast) and Mame4droid 0.139u1 (Arcade Games)

Oh, and if your Super Mario Bros 1 is running at 600 frames per second even with Frame Throttle on, your ROM is fucked up. Delete it and download a new one. It took me forever to figure that out.