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enjoy for RetroArch

Play any game ROM with associated emulator in RetroArch on Linux

enjoy

Introduction

enjoy is a blazingly fast wrapper around "RetroArch" on Linux, to help running emulator cores on the commandline. A user configuration file can be setup, including rules and core aliases pointing to file extensions and emulator paths.

Each time it runs, settings from user configuration or commandline arguments will be looked up to determine the correct libretro core path for each given extension (such as .smc would be associated with snes9x or any other core). Or launch games directly within your favorite graphical filemanager, by double clicking the Rom file. For this enjoy needs to be configured as the default "open with"-application for the specified file extension in your file manager.

Use commandline option -h for short help and --help for detailed help.

Few Usage Examples

The lines starting with a hash symbol # are comments explaining the purpose of the following commands.

# Core for this file extension will be looked up from config file.
enjoy '~/Emulation/Roms/snes/Super Mario World (U) [!].smc'

# Arguments after standalone `--` will be given over to RetroArch as they are.
enjoy '~/Emulation/Roms/snes/Super Mario World (U) [!].smc' -- --set-shader ''

# Do not run, but output matching core alias and RetroArch command instead.
enjoy '~/Emulation/Roms/snes/Super Mario World (U) [!].smc' -xnW

# Specified core alias will be looked up from config file.
enjoy --core psx 'Gran Turismo 2 - Epic Turismo 2 (v1.3.1).chd'

# Or choose a core directly by it's RetroArch file name of the core.
enjoy -L mednafen_psx_hw 'Gran Turismo 2 - Epic Turismo 2 (v1.3.1).chd'

# Combine list of Roms from other programs output. First entry from a list is
# selected to play.
find ~/Emulation/Roms/gb | enjoy

# Use the filter to narrow down the input list even further.
find ~/Emulation/Roms/gb | enjoy --filter 'mario'

# Create custom menus with a fuzzy finder and choose the game interactively.
find . -maxdepth 2 | fzf | enjoy -w

Depending on your shell, you might need to escape the "!" in example. When a list of multiple ROMs are given as input, then the first one will be loaded.

Features

  • run RetroArch games directly from terminal or filemanager
  • combine from output like grep, find, fzf or dmenu to select a file
  • fast startup
  • easy to configure
  • lot of enjoyable moments

Quick Start

Install and setup RetroArch first, if not done already: RetroArch

If you have cargo

  • Build and install from crates.io with:

    cargo install enjoy

or get binary manually from GitHub

  • Download from Releases and unpack it.
  • Optionally, copy the file "enjoy" to a directory within $PATH and set the executable bit. Read a more detailed description about the installation process in the Wiki: Installation

Configure the user settings

  • Execute enjoy --open-config to open the default configuration file or create one if it does not exist at: "~/.config/enjoy/default.ini" . Have a look in "example-config.ini" to see how the file is structured. Read more about the configuration at User Configuration File.
  • Optionally, register enjoy as the default application to open with. Right click on the Rom file, open its properties and set the default program for this file extension (in example on ".smc" files) to enjoy . Next time you double click the file would automatically open RetroArch with this game and the correct core. No need for the terminal.

Enjoy.

User Configuration File

Read a more detailed description about the file in the Wiki: User Configuration File

The default configuration file at "~/.config/enjoy/default.ini" will be automatically loaded up each time enjoy is executed. Example:

[options]
retroarch = /usr/bin/retroarch
fullscreen = 1

[cores]
snes = snes9x
gb gbc = sameboy_libretro.so

[.smc .sfc]
core = snes

[.gb]
core = gb

[/home/user/Roms/psx*]
libretro = mednafen_psx_hw

There are 4 different categories of sections.

  • [options] - Main Options: These are the same options found in the commandline interface of the program. Use enjoy -h for short overview or enjoy --help for a longer description of all possible options.

  • [cores] - Core Rules: Custom alias to any "libretro" core from "RetroArch". On the left side is the name of the core. It can be a list of names (such as snes or gb gbc) separated by space. On the right side is the filename or entire path (such as snes9x or snes9x_libretro.so or /home/tuncay/.config/retroarch/cores/snes9x_libretro.so) of an emulator core. If filename has no directory part, then the core will be searched in "libretro-directory" (which is the path where your cores are configured and installed in RetroArch). The part "_libretro.so" in the filename is optional.

  • [.ext1 .ext2] - Extension Rules: When a game ROM is loaded up, it's file extension is compared to these rules. Each extension rule consists of a single or group (such as [.gb] or [.smc .sfc]) of space separated extensions. Each section name has to start with a dot to be recognized as an "Extension Rule". The body of the rule can contain a core alias setting (such as core = snes), which will be looked up in section [cores] to determine libretro name and path. Or specify the name of the core with libretro setting (such as libretro = mednafen_psx_hw), which has highest priority and points directly to an libretro path.

  • [/path/to/directory] - Directory Rules: Any section with a slash in the name (such as /home/user/Roms/psx*) is a "Directory Rule". When a game ROM is loaded up (such as /home/tuncay/Emulation/Roms/psx/Metal Gear Solid (USA) (Disc 1) (v1.1).chd), it's directory part excluding the filename (in this example /home/tuncay/Emulation/Roms/psx) is compared against theses rules. If the directory portion of the game path matches to any Directory Rule, then it takes priority over any other Extension Rules setting.

    This is especially useful for generic extensions like .chd, so they can be identified by folder instead. Basic wildcards are supported too. The star *, to match none or any number of characters and question mark, to match a single character. If a match is found, then it's associated core or libretro option will be looked up.

Known Bugs, Limitations and Quirks

  • Not all commandline options from retroarch main program are supported. As a workaround arguments can be directly passed over to retroarch with the option -- on the commandline or retroarch_arguments = option in the configuration file of enjoy.

  • The RetroArch GUI will be loaded up each time a game runs. At default the ESC-key can be pressed two times in row to quickly end the current play session, closing RetroArch and the GUI.

  • The Flatpak or Snap version of "RetroArch" might not work with this program, as it was not tested (reports are welcome).