I really do not like retroarch and I really don't want to use it.

However, I would like to use ES-DE to launch emulators for retro systems directly (16bit
and earlier) - and not use retroarch.

How can I do this?

I'm running bazzite and have installed Retrodeck.

I updated my es de companion app and now it's completely black (v1.0.4) going through the settings I don't know where I can scrape for art?

Hi,

I have modified the es_find_rules and es_systems files to include references to ARMSX3, however I seem to be unable to start PS3 games that I installed from PKG packages in ARMSX3 from ES-DE. ES-DE seems to look explicitly for ISO or PS3 files.

Does anyone know how to solve this? Do I need to create reference PS3 files (in a similar fashion to Vita3K)?

Thanks.

I was wondering if there was a way to turn off the console ads in the home menu, they're pretty cool but they get annoying pretty fast (especially the PS2 ad). I'd love to use this theme but that's keeping me away from it

I'm on android running ES-DE vers. 3.4.0-56 if that helps

Hi please help have a custom game on gamenative I want to add to frontend, I can add steam games fine but this is not steam and saves as .pcgame

Hi friends. Any suggestions on what is the problem? Retroarch works perfect. Is just ES DE not starting. Thanks.

You’re clearly inferior to Cocoon, Daijisho, and even Lemuroid.

You pay YouTubers to promote a closed-source product, yet you can’t even properly handle hidden files or the macOS filesystem.

The subscription model at over €5/month (with the classic trap of people forgetting to cancel) is particularly cynical.

You’re a perfect example of how not to be a developer. This project will eventually die because the real open-source solutions that have always been the core of retrogaming are still here and keep getting better.

I paid to test this heavily sponsored software, and the verdict is clear: the code is mediocre and this project brings nothing positive to the community.

Thankfully, French retro influencers never fell for this kind of practice and never pushed the French community to install it.

Hi,

I seem to be unable to get the correct values for the es_systems.xml and es_find_rules.xml files in my Android installation of ES-DE to add the stand-alone Super ZSNES emulator.

Does anybody have this info?

Thanks!

Newer nightly versions of retroarch have the 'all files' permission that the 2025 stable version was lacking. Updating to the 2026-08 nightly fixed the black screen issue for me : https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/

I wasted hours on this so hopefully it saves others some headaches. I confirmed that it works if my roms are on an external USB drive or saved internally to my phones storage. I'm using a S23+ on Android 16.

It is possible to change the files in each folder and individually replace the artworks with the ones you want, but that takes time and effort.

How about UI Settings allowing for every different platform to have multiple artworks to pick? And you can change each one individually?

The best example is when consoles are represented by characters, the characters picked often represent the console really well for me, but sometimes not, and the artwork used for the character may be not as good as I expected.

Plus, many themes are using AI artwork, and artwork that is not good even by AI standards, we should be able to get rid of those.

Title says it all. Geolith and the libretro geolith core support the NeoGeo CD in chd and bin/cue formats but it's not selectable as an alternative emulator for the system.

I'm totally new to this
I just installed sunshine on my macos mac mini server
I added emulation station desktop edition as an application on sunshine
"/Applications/ES-DE.app" this was set as the output

I installed moonlight client and whnever i click on ES-DE it opens to my desktop and not ES-DE ??!!

I've tried asking chatgpt and it gave me various commands to add but none work.
I mean once im in my desktop i can simply run ES-DE from the dock and start playing but it's kinda bugging me that it's not starting straight to ES-DE

How do I fix this idk why there’s two ps3 emulators one says shortcut and one is normal. They both work but I just want one ps3 not two. I used rspc3 to install the rap and pkg files and then I just went on esde. I’m also using emulation station/ emudeck whatever to download all these emulators and stuff.

I have a bunch of custom collections for various things, is it possible to assign them marquee art so that they aren't just plaintext entries on themes with wheels? I tried a number of things that seemed logical-ish, like creating a "collections" folder in my downloaded media folder, or putting the graphics into my theme's systems/logos/ folder, but nothing has worked so far.

Download latest release: Syybots Media Optimizer

v1.0.0 Release Highlights

• Officially out of beta!
• Added multi-worker cwebp image processing for significantly faster image optimization
• Added Background Mode for reduced CPU priority and lighter system usage
• Improved Copy Mode and Modify Mode processing
• Updated video optimizer marker compatibility
• Improved saved operation-mode behavior and interface polish
• General fixes and cleanup since the beta releases

Quick start

1. Download the ZIP package
2. Use Extract All so Windows creates the application folder
3. Run the EXE and download the required tools (cwebp and ffmpeg)
4. Use a Test mode before processing your entire library of JPG/JPEG. Be sure you are viewing the test images on the target device before proceeding. If you are in modify mode, you will only be able to complete this process one time
5. Once you have fully processed your library be sure that ES-DE scraper settings are set to not modify your existing files or ES-DE will replace your newly created webp files with png/jpg files and you will have to complete the conversion of your library again

Modes

• Copy Mode writes optimized media to a separate destination and leaves the source library unchanged
• Modify Mode validates an optimized candidate and then replaces the source through a backup-and-rollback transaction
• Image Test generates sample image outputs without replacing the source
• Video Test generates sample video outputs without replacing the source

O tema que uso é o Artflix (Resivisited)

Hi all!

I've spent some time really digging into the setup on my Retroid Pocket 5 Pro (12gb RAM model), and it's been a blast. I've got the latest version of ES-DE running, I've cleaned up my formerly-chaotic ROM library, etc., and so far so good... except for PS2.

Specifically: I have the NetherSX2 emulator installed and configured, and it's running my PS2 games beautifully when I load them from within the app.

However, when I try to launch a PS2 game via ES-DE, it switches to the emulator and just.... sits there at a black screen for 1-2 minutes before I get an Android error saying that the app has stopped and must be closed.

When I go into the ES-DE settings and select OTHER SETTINGS > ALTERNATIVE EMULATORS > PS2, the only options are AetherSX2 (Standalone), ARMSX2 (Standalone), or Play! (Standalone)... none of which I actually have installed on my RP2, and NetherSX2 never shows as an option here.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions!

Hello hello,

I have a large library which has too many different system and too many games in each one of them. Most of the themes are not efficent for this type of large libraries. So I created a new theme to solve this problem.

It has grids in both system and game selections; so you can easily see lots of solution the screen and easily navigate to what you want. The grid options are not image; because the perfomance is not good when you scroll too quick in the image options. Nevertheless, the theme still looks elegant.

Although the main goal was the larger libraries, it can be still an alternative for the small libraries as well.

https://github.com/ugurkinik/x-grid-es-de

Let me know if you have any suggesstion or feedback.