I specifically made this for my need of having an emulator game hub for my Ayaneo Slide (handheld PC with a touchscreen).
There are multiple folders and files to keep in mind, but the main application runs under app.py.
Here is where all emulators icons are stored, they need to be named like the emulator the image is for and be a .png (transparent background format). Instructions to add more emulators are ahead in the "How to add more emulators" section.
Example for the image file name format:
./images/emulator.png
This is where custom scripts are recommended to be stored in order to execute them from the "[Templates]" section inside settings.ini.
More details about "[Templates]" are ahead in the "Configuration files" > settings.ini section.
Main application, this is the Python file that should be used when launching the hub.
python app.py
You can create a shortcut for a batch script that runs the Python app.
This Python file contains the main UI displayed with Qt. It also contains most of the logic that the application uses to function including touch controls.
This Python file handles the logic for xinput interpretation (Controller compatibility).
This file is the core configuration file used for the whole application to work.
| Sections | What is for |
|---|---|
| [MainWindow] | Controls main visual aspects (can be set inside the UI) |
| [Settings] | Defines the emulators to be shown inside the UI Settings tab |
| [Templates] | Template used to launch a game with CLI commands for each emulator |
| [Emulators] | emupath/emugamespath store the location of an emulator (can be set inside the UI) |
[MainWindow]:
Everything inside the MainWindow section can be set inside the UI.
fullscreen = yes/no
navbar = yes/no
sort_by = alphabetical/emulator
| Configuration | Use |
|---|---|
| fullscreen | Sets the application fullscreen on start (yes/no) |
| navbar | Sets the application navigation bar on start to be opened (yes/no) |
| sort_by | Sets the games sorting order (alphabetical/emulator) |
[Settings]:
emulatorname = Really small description
This is manually added to this file when adding a new emulator.
[Templates]:
This sets the logic for a game to be launched for each emulator.
emulatorname = exepath --flag1 -flagx game ?python:./scripts/customscript.py=param1 paramx emupath,python:./scripts/customscript2.py=param1
| Parameter | Use |
|---|---|
| exepath | Should be used as it is, this string is recognized inside the app and is replaced with the emulator executable path |
| game | Should be used as it is, this string is recognized inside the app and is replaced with the game to run path |
| emupath | Should be used as it is, this string is recognized inside the app and is replaced with the emulator path |
| optional[?] | Prefix to run any commands recognized by the users CLI, followed by ":" for the script (file) to run followed by "=" to add parmeters. This prefix should be added at the end and all scripts and all commands should be separated by "," |
| commands[,] | Between each command a single comma should exist |
| script[:] | Prefix to pass the custom script to run |
| params[=] | Prefix to pass parameters to a custom script |
| parameters | Between each parameter a single space should exist |
[Emulators]:
Everything inside the Emulators section can be set inside the UI.
| Configuration | Use |
|---|---|
| emupath | Path to the emulator.exe |
| emugamespath | Path to the games folder for the emulator |
This section goes into detail on how to set everything up in order to get everything working.
- Python 3.12+ (could work on older versions it but has not been tested)
- Python package PyQt5
- ViGEmBus_1.22.0 by nefarius - Only tested the version included in this repo
- vgamepad by yannbouteiller - Included in this repo
You can get Python from their official website:
To install PyQt5, package installer for Python (pip) is needed, it should install along with Python:
pip install PyQt5
You can either clone or download a zip from GitHub. Place the repo/unzipped folder under your preferred location. You can create a shortcut for a batch script that runs python app.py.
Theres an important hierarchy that should be acknowledged and followed (atm) for all emulators:
emulatorname-folder (must have emulator name in folder name and preferably no spaces)
|- emulatorname.exe
|- games-folder (can have any name)
|- retro-game.anyextension
Keep in mind: Windows can be tricky, be careful not to have spaces on your path to your emulator .exe. PPSSPP installs under "Program Files" so it has been handled inside the settings.ini file. Folder containing emulatorname.exe must contain emulator name at the moment.
Configure your games and emulators
To start adding your emulators and games, simply open EmuCenter and navigate to the settings tab, from there everything should be straight forward.
- Select Emulator button: Select your emulator .exe
- Games button: Select your emulator games folder
After adding your emulators and games, navigate to
System > Reloadfor your games to load in.
Adding more emulators is as simple as modifying the settings.ini file.
Right now the following emulators have been pre-added and tested. Please be aware that the custom scripts provided by me may not work for every system/emulator version. I encourage users to code their own scripts (if needed) to fit their own needs. The included custom scripts help to start games in fullscreen for emulators that do not support a fullscreen flag nor a flag to not confirm on close.
- xemu - 0.7.127
- xenia - master@3d30b2eec
- project64 - 3.0.1.5664-2df3434
- visualboyadvance-m - 2.1.9
- dolphin - 5.0-21460
- desmume - 0.9.13
- citra - Nightly 2104
- yuzu - 1732
- eden - 0.0.3-rc3
- ppsspp - 1.17.1
- duckstation - 0.1-6922-gf41c238c
- pcsx2 - 1.7.5913
- rpcs3 - 0.0.32-16637-50ce4cbe Alpha
- Open EmuCenter installation folder
- Add emulator image icon (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Open settings.ini
- Add emulator under "[Settings]" (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Add emulator under "[Templates]" (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Launch EmuCenter and proceed to configure the emulator paths from the settings tab (as previously described in the "Setting up EmuCenter" section)
Example:
- Open EmuCenter installation folder
- Add emulator image icon (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Open settings.ini
- Add emulator under "[Settings]" (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Add emulator under "[Templates]" (as previously described in the "EmuCenter Files" section)
- Launch EmuCenter and proceed to configure the emulator paths from the settings tab (as previously described in the "Setting up EmuCenter" section)
With this steps adding a new emulator should be fairly simple.
In case anyone wants to know how my library is configured, I have attached my custom scripts to the repo and my settings.ini (without my paths, so go ahead and set yours).
My settings tab looks like this:
Example for emulators that are a bit different to configure:
rpcs3
[Templates]: rpcs3 = exepath --no-gui --fullscreen game\PS3_GAME\USRDIR\EBOOT.BIN
yuzu
[Templates]: yuzu = exepath -f -g game
This section is purely to showcase my simplistic looking app.
Sorted in alphabetical order:
Sorted by emulator:
Touch and Controller Support
Touch controls are set to simply scroll with your finger and tap. For controllers, the bindings are:
| Button | Binding |
|---|---|
| A | Launches the selected game |
| X | Unlocks touch controls that get blocked whenever a controller interacts with the UI |
| B | Closes EmuCenter |
| Y | Toggles between sorting orders (2 atm, alphabetical and emulator) |
| START | Toggles the navigation menu |
| D-PAD | Navigates the game grid to select the desired game to launch |
Launching/closing games
After setting everything up, just tap on the game that you want to launch.
Most of the emulators can configure an exit hotkey/shortcut. I have configured on my emulators every game to exit on ESC since most of them already exit like that. Also, it was easy to configure my handheld to do ESC with a custom Ayaneo button or to set a button to "close program" which closes the emulator running.
Closing EmuCenter
When in focus, EmuCenter can be closed with ESC, Ctrl+c and Ctrl+q and with a controller pressing "B".
This was a fun project to develop and I intend to work on the interface/navigation or any bugs that are reported.
Support cool projects like this one! :)