Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto.
Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more.
Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University.
When I wrote about setting up EmuDeck on my ROG Ally X a few months ago, the general reaction from readers was something along the lines of, "You're an idiot, just use RetroBat."
The problem is, at the time, I hadn't tried or even heard of RetroBat yet. Fast-forward a few months, and I can say I get it now. I was a bit of a dummy for forcing the Steam Deck-focused EmuDeck on a Windows 11 handheld (though I still argue it works pretty well).
Sure, you can use EmuDeck on a Windows 11 PC or handheld, but it doesn't totally feel purpose-built for the operating system. On the other hand, RetroBat was clearly created with my ROG Xbox Ally X20 and other Windows 11 handhelds in mind, thanks to its great-looking UI, controller-friendly interface, and simple settings I can set on a per-game basis if I need to.
Setting up RetroBat only took me about 20 minutes
The setup process is mostly automated
The first step is navigating to RetroBat's official website. After that, I followed the links and installed RetroBat v8.3.0 from its GitHub repository. Next, I was slapped with a Windows 11 unknown app installation warning, and of course, clicked through and installed RetroBat anyway. Since some of the files required for RetroBat to run need to be downloaded during installation, this can take a bit of time.
For this setup, I transferred my ROM collection from my ROG Ally X. Over the past few weeks, I've really come to like the app LocalSend for transferring files to the ROG Ally X20 I'm in the process of reviewing. It's a really simple way to send files between two Windows 11 devices on the same local network. I transferred roughly 15GB of retro game ROMs, disc images, and BIOS files to the ROG Xbox Ally X20 in about 10 minutes or so.
This is where I ran into my first issue. Since I'm transferring my ROMs over from an EmuDeck setup, the folder structure doesn't match. That meant I had to manually cut-and-paste ROMs and BIOS files into their correct RetroBat folders. If you've used a Windows 11 handheld before, you'll know touchscreen controls are a nightmare, so I hooked up my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and moved through the finicky process in about 10 minutes.
I found opening up the RetroBat directory and the transferred EmuDeck ROMs folder side-by-side made things move a bit more quickly. I also did the same thing for the various retro game console BIOS files I've collected over the years, and made sure each one was in the correct folder, which got a bit complicated sometimes.
Next, I found the RetroBat .exe file and added it to my Start menu. Since I'm using the app on the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and don't always want to jump into Windows 11, I also added RetroBat to the Xbox app's main menu, too. Next, I started digging through a few more ganular settings to make sure RetroBat was set up exactly how I wanted.
Fine-tuning the experience is pretty straightforward
If you're familiar with EmulationStation, you'll know what to expect here
Since I know my way around EmulationStation, the front-end of RetroBat, I knew exactly what I wanted to change first. Right away, I pressed the three-line button on the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and turned off the obnoxious menu music. I still don't understand why anyone would want music to play in an emulation platform's menu, but it's becoming increasingly common in the emulation space. Next, I went to Sound Settings and turned off Frontend Music.
Since I had already transferred my ROMS to RetroBat's folder structure, including a few Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, Wii U, and Nintendo 64 titles, they all already showed up in the menu, only without fancy box art. This meant it was time to start pulling box art, one of the key features of old-school game launchers like RetroBat.
To do this, I pressed the three-line button on my handheld again to bring up the Main Menu. Then I navigated to Scraper and left all the settings on default, including Scrape From. ScreenScraper is by far the best game art source, though you'll need an account (you can just make one for free). RetroBat also offers other art sources, but in my experience, they aren't great. Next, I selected Scrape Now. The scraping then happens in the background, and depending on your library, it can take a bit of time to download all the box art.
The best part of RetroBat is that it just works
Once you have it set up, just select a game and play it
As much as I enjoy setting up a new device with an emulation platform and tweaking settings like shaders, filters, and themes, I don't have much time on my hands these days, and in most situations, I want to play the actual game. That's what RetroBat does best — everything is already set up for you. It even includes a useful menu with several emulators that don't come pre-installed with the RetroBat package, like the 3DS emulator Citra and the 90s adventure game emulator ScummVM (this reminds me of Quiver's list of recompilations and decompilations).
Most games look great with each standalone or RetroArch emulator's pre-determined settings. Still, if I want to dive into specific features, I can do that, too, right down to specific shaders, aspect ratios, and video modes. If you have a Windows 11 handheld, and you're looking to turn it into a retro gaming powerhouse, RetroBat is the best option out there.
