UPDATE: ES-DE is no longer on the Amazon Appstore, but available directly from the developer via their Patreon as a one-time purchase. Here is an updated video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DJSmGgTofZU.html This setup guide still applies in all respects other than where to get the app itself!
One little thing I would love to see is a bit of extra android functionality (like opening settings, apps as game list, etc). Curious how it will evolve!
You forgot to add it's monthly payment if you want to continue to support him, or you can support for one month and cancel and you still have access to the file and future updates. Bit of key information from the page @es-de_frontend
Great video Russ! There was just one killer feature you forgot to mention and that's the built-in PDF manual viewer, you can scrape game manuals and view them directly from the gamelist view, exactly as in the other ES-DE ports on Linux, macOS and Windows :)
How can I get this to load on my Chinese device. It loads the Amazon app store but it's not showing this particular item I purchased because I guess it's restricted in that country? I have it loaded on my other handhelds but this one I purchased that is made in China the LG Wing snow cake it just won't let me see it in the Amazon Android App Store for some reason
This all looks amazing @ES-DE_Frontend!!! If I already have my Emulation Station-DE portable setup with all my roms and scraped art on my laptop, will it be as simple as dragging and dropping the files and the media files into the same directories on the android version and they will immediately all work?
@@deadfred69 Sorry I have no idea how Amazon conducts business in China. I have at least not deliberately limited distribution to any countries. But you are using the Amazon Appstore app on your Android device, not the Amazon App? Because these are two completely different things. And it is running Android 11 or later? Because otherwise it will for sure not show up in the app.
@@jordandiaz5526 Yes it's very easy to migrate to Android from another ES-DE installation on another operating system. You may get some warnings about incorrect alternative emulators on startup, but you just need to reset that in the Alternative emulators interface in the Other settings menu.
Oh my gosh YES!!! Took forever but we FINALLY have ES for Android! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to spend the next 10 hours reconfiguring all my android devices and wiping all traces of Daijisho from my memory.
@@Baumie11Fully agree, while ES for Android is cool and all, the developer behind Daijisho has done (is doing) a tremendous job, and I for one will continue using it :)
I just started using dig a couple days ago because of your video on it 😂 it has been nice, but I didn't even have to think two seconds about switching to ES. It's just everything I want in an emulation frontend, and the main reason I was still using my Linux handhelds more than my Odin 2.
Still think I prefer Daijisho... no need to install 3 other apps to get full android functionalitiy... Although I am a huge fan of ES-DE on steam deck and windows
@@rinebeckUnless people are buying Odin 1 that is trash get Odin 2. Like I did PS2, runs at 6x that's 4k, GCN, Wii, Dream Cast, and Sega Saturn runs well above 3x resolution. At full speed. Everyone uses aethersx2 but I use nethersx2 latest version that got unofficial fan made patch. No more ads, games runs incredibly fast, and smooth no problems no issues after 3 months of using it. Another solid handheld is Retroid Pocket 4 and Anbernic RG556!
Nah the Daisho launcher is def the way to go for a front end. This, while cool, is using too many workarounds to be considered as a daily driver. Use it on my Odin lite
Gotta say Russ, this is an absolute game changer on the RP2S. As much as I love Daijisho, this setup works so much better for that smaller 4:3 screen. You've clearly thought of everything too and I really appreciate the clever workarounds for some of the shortcomings.
Emulation station across ALL THE THINGS! Have it on a dedicated PC at home for Retro gaming, have it on my steam deck, and now for my retroid flip, oh yes.
If anyone gets stuck booting a rom with a standalone emulator, the folders are case sensitive. so it needs to be ROMs not ROMS and psx not PSX, when setting up automatically DE won't see this and you will have to change it yourself. Then you will need to specify the case correct version in the emulators
Found this out when I already had a roms folder. ES said it was generating the folders and didn't error out. Didn't realize it didn't make a new one as it didn't know ES needed ROMs not roms....took me a minute to realize I had to delete that folder and let it generate the proper name.
Man oh man. My introduction to handheld devices was an RG351M, and following your guide for that device, where I remember you first pointing out the screensaver function. And since then, I've been using the RP3 and my android phone, and the only thing I missed was that Emulation Station interface from the 351. This will likely be what I put on my phone. Great news, and thanks for the update.
thank you so much. It's because of your channel, videos and help that I've purchased an Odin 2, it brings me so much joy and memories. Setting up the device and seeing how cool the device becomes with every additional step, partly also thanks to your videos, is a fun journey. Keep doing what you're doing, it's great.
Looks great and I love how Russ made sure to include the work-arounds in the video to keep the android experience seamless! I think I’ll be sticking ti Daijisho just a bit longer though. I didn’t like it at first but it just works so well as an android front end 👌
Dude for real. I stopped watching this when you said “now there’s 3 more apps you have to install” and then I came back and saw what you wrote about the pluses and minuses and that short video and screensaver feature make this really cool. Great job Russ you convinced me to get it
Well it wasn't a 50 plus minute video lol. Russ if you see this I'd like to get some help getting Oden tools working on my Retroid Pocket flip.... I can't get it on there Obtainium would work properly
Awesome video, Russ! It's great to finally EmulationStation see on Android devices! I actually just received my Retroid Pocket 4 Pro in the mail, so this was perfect timing! It's also great to see that EmuDeck will be coming to Android eventually as well!
You're so good at guides my dood... I don't have an android specific retro handheld... but your videos scratch this thoroughness itch that's so satisfying. Thanks.
Oh HELL yes, I've been waiting for this for ages! Really hoping they'd be able to get an Android section or something added to ES so we don't have to use those workarounds, although I will admit having something to open an apps drawer from the notification bar seems like it'd be super handy to have anyway.
Emulation station is the best front-end imho, I love Daijisho (as far as Android goes) as well but Emulation Station is a seamless experience and has some really nice themes, and its super easy to configure compared to the other stuff out there especially when it comes to the metadata or importing your own for that matter. So glad its finally on Android and its worth much more than $5, one step closer to using this frontend on all devices. Love it, love it, love it, thanks Russ!!
It‘s just great to see that EmulationStation, one of the best retro gaming frontends (if not THE best) found it‘s way to a popular system like Android. I always emphasized this frontend for it‘s clean UI, customization utilities and system support. Thanks for the quick video, right on release-date 👍🏻
Great to hear from you, old friend! Yeah, ES is amazing, I still remember your old video about getting the very rudimentary version up and running on the RG350 :)
@@RetroGameCorps Always glad to see and hear you in your videos my friend :) Yea, your video reminded me to the time back when ES was able to run on a RG350 for the first time. Now we have it on Android devices for the first time ;) And i‘m glad you covered the steps to make ES the default launcher on your Android device. Good job!
I'm currently setting this up to try it out, but my gut feeling is that using ES as a PC version ported to Android and not an Android App version of ES makes it challenging to use it as a default Launcher. I think it would tip the scale highly if it had the native home app integration and Android apps integration in it's interface. Otherwise, Daijisho still has the high ground when it comes to Android IMO. It's a great step towards a dream coming true for those who use their android device for emulation though ! :)
This really seems amazing. I think I'll dig my Retroid Pocket 2+ out of whatever drawer I threw it in and give this a try (if it's compatible). Sounds like a fun Saturday afternoon project to get running.
This is so tempting, but I’ve spent hours getting my Odin 2 set up JUST right with Reset Collection, which seems to offer a very similar experience and presentation. A good front end is absolutely game-changing, though, whichever way you end up going. Glad this is here for people who have been waiting patiently for a port!
As much as I LOVE Reset Collection (and I did spend a while getting that to look how I want it), you just can't beat Emulation Station and all of its themes, this is so amazing 😭😭
EmulationStation beats circles around any other Android Front end. I own Launchbox for Android (about 25 bucks for lifetime) I will never use that from now on ES is THAT good.
@@Servaas I'll agree with that as well. LaunchBox is in a league of its own on Windows PC and it's the top of them all. However, this fork of EmulationStation for Android is the best I've tried among the several frontends for the Android OS
Thanks, Russ! Looks so much easier than I imagined and your guide prompted me to purchase it for my Odin 2 even though I'm happy with Daijisho (will still keep it on my RP3+).
Hi Russ, great video as always, and very helpful. I wanted to give some feedback. I recently purchased the RG556 and went through your written guide and videos in the order you have it on your website. That means I set up all the emulators one by one, and then the frontend (Emulation Station) at the end. This caused me to redo a bunch of work, because I had my ROM folders set up with custom names, but Emulation Station creates its own folders and expects you to use their naming convention. I would recommend folks start with the front end, so that the ROM folders are created. Then have folks copy their games to the proper Emulation Station folders, set up their emulators for each game system, and then finalize their front end at the end. This way, they won't have to go and fix the emulators they previously set up by having to re-point each emulator to the new ROM folders. It also means folks won't have to move their games from one folder to another, system by system. Not sure if Daijisho also works like this, as I decided I wanted to use Emulation Station instead. Thank you for your amazing channel and videos!
Awesome video!!!! I always wanted retroie on my Odin 2, but no support for that at least not yet. Had no idea ES was coming to Android! Oooouuuuuuuu can't wait to get this up and running! Currently using Arc Browser, but I much prefer ES!!! THANK YOU for the video
Thanks for this great video again!This setup is so much easier to maintain compared to Pegasus. It has the same scraper engine, but now I can scrape and tweak everything on the android (Odin) device.
Fantastic video, I will be using this on all my Android devices from here on. I have been using EmulationStation on my PC and Steam Deck, and love the look and options it provides. Along with the videos, I like the option to download the games manuals. I love sitting back and flipping through the manuals on my Steam Deck, it brings me back to the old days.
😂 I've never got far in a game enough to save it I've had these Chinese hand helds since 2017 and the problem with them is you have so many games and so many systems that you just don't really play anything you'll probably play a game for nostalgic purposes but that gets really old really fast and you're just trying new games and you only play like half a level and never touch them again
My Retroid 4 just arrived do I'm in heaven. Thanks for the wonderful guide as always. And congrats to everyone in the community, it's a huge win for everyone
Wonder if there is a way to add a section for android games/apps? Would be great to easily go through android games, game pass, ps streaming, steam link etc.
i'm not really seeing anything to different from daijisho tbh. your start-up guide for daijisho along with others in the community made it seamless for me to dive into daijisho and i don't really feel there's anything wrong with it but nonetheless, ES still has me thinking "yeah man, i wanna do it" on some other device someday :3
I spent waaay too much time configuring Daijisho and it works perfectly and looks exactly like this..I think I'm good but I would give it a shot if I was starting from scratch..
I've always been more of a Launchbox user, but this looks fun to mess with too, so I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the video! Very informative and useful! I'll try this on my Retroid Pocket 3+ It'd be cool to see you make a similar video for Launchbox, setting everything up and stuff.
As I mentioned in a previous post, LaunchBox/BigBox is in a league of its own and is absolutely the best choice for Windows PC. However, its Android version is decent but far from the best. This fork of EmulationStation for Android is a much better choice
This support actual themes that change drastically how it looks/use, so many choices that you can find one you like. Unlike daijisho which is simply changing the colors/background.
Great video as always. I did this with my Alldocube iPlay Mini Pro tablet with a modded Game Sir Galileo controller and it's awesome as a dedicated gaming setup.
The community needs to build an entire android operating system for emulation!! It’d be so nice to be able to completely make it a full dedicated emulation device
I was going to get another Retro device, but had to replace my phone first. So I decided to use Retroarch and ES-DE on my new S24 Ultra and a new 8bitDo SN30 Pro. I bought a dock to use sometimes it with my TV via Samsung Dex. Honestly, i'm impressed with emulation with this setup With the Phone + Controller + clip setup, it's pretty great; although i haven't tested above PSX. Using the Tv, I definitely need the dock because casting wirelessly has noticeable to severe lag even on NES. I'm happy with this setup with ES-DE; if it wasn't on Andoid I probably would have picked up an Odin. Thanks to your videos I was pretty familiar with using Retroarch and translating that usability to Android was much smoother than it would have been otherwise.
Thanks so much for this video. I don't think this is for me but such a thorough video gave me a great view on it as an option and why I don't think it's quite the right pick for me.
Same for me. I like ES on my smaller RG351 handhelds, but I'm REALLY liking Daijishou as my home on the Odin 2 now that I've gotten used to how it works.
I just bought an Odin 2, and was contemplating frontends so this being ported to Android came just in time. Hopefully I will get it next month. This looks awesome and I will definitely be using it from the jump. Great work as always Russ!
Not sure how many people this will help but just in case, I wanted to confirm you can get this on the RP2+ as well. It involves going out of your way to update to Android 11 (which can't be done OTA as far as I know, but isn't overly complicated) as well as making sure your Retroarch/AArch64 is updated to a recent version!
@@nickentros I can't stand the rounded box arts and the scrapper get a lot of wrong box arts, and it's almost dead, still works of course, but I miss the RA widget.
This is great news, because it means that the handheld industry can move to more powerful ARM-hardware offering great performance, battery life and sleep functionality while still offering a great user experience! Not to mention that you aren't limited to emulation. Being able to play modern indie/native games like Stardew Valley, Dead Cells, Streets of Rage 4 definitely adds value and makes it more into a gaming machine, rather than just an emulation machine.
This looks like a good start for ES, but Daijisho doesn't require all this fussing--- even down to making it the default launcher. For my money Daijisho just needs a portrait mode to make it just about perfect.
The front end looks great but doesn't open a game with RetroArch (or RetroArch Plus for that matter). RA is installed, cores downloaded, and ES is selecting the proper core, but it crashes on the Retroid Pocket 3+. As a workaround, I got it to work with standalone apps without issue. Tried to reinstall RA but that didn't make a difference.
I'm having the same issue on my RP4 Pro. It won't open a game in RetroArch, I just get a black screen now. I checked the directories but I'm not sure if I need to change the rom path since I moved my roms around.
I figured it out. I had to download the most recent version of RetroArch 1.17.0. I downloaded it off the amazon app store. Now all my games are running. Hope that helps
@@jonathandavidson5674I'm having the same issue but unfortunately your solution didn't work. Tried the version on the Amazon app store and retroarch plus from the Play store. Same black screen of misery.
Great video. After all the setup and configuration, it seems finally possible to have on Android an experience similar to having a PC running Batocera Linux. For me personally, the only thing left would be to completely stop/block Android system updates (and checking) after I have everything working how I want. To avoid anything breaking, or new notifications popping up. (Sorry if that is covered in the video, I did not watch all parts 100% yet)
I like daijisho because I can press R1 and see all of my apps, the widget area is great too. I just really wish they updated it so that I can login to retroachievements:/
You can put in your credentials but it won't login unfortunately, i was looking forward to having a widget for it. it still shows up while playing a game in retroarch tho.
I’m realizing patience and planning is everything when it comes to set up on these devices. Having to re-set up everything is much harder than setting up from scratch. Waiting for these front ends to drop before really fine tuning everything seems like the best bet for now.
I'm personally gonna stay away from this unless it becomes an official port. Even tho I love how ES looks, Daijishō looks good enough for me and is designed for android, it also is a lot simpler to setup if you're interested in trying a frontend for the first time, it doesn't require downloading a second app in order to work as a launcher and isn't limited to only allow games stored into a SD card.
As a launcher setup I would suggest the one that already exists (I don't really remember the name of it but it's pretty much designed for these handhelds) and launching ES-DE from there You can access your other stuff while being able to also use ES-DE as a frontend
Thanks Russ! Can you share your Android config files for Retroarch? The guides videos are great, but I think a lot of people just want the config files so it's easier/faster, thanks!
Just what we need, another front end on Android, lol. But seriously, this is a great one on Linux, nice to see it cross over to the dark side 😊Looks like a fun app to play with, nice job as always Russ!
Unironically yes we need more Android frontends, there still isn't a perfect one. Daijisho still has many annoyances and it's not being updated anymore, other frontends are either paywalled or lack key features.
@@steel5897Couldn't agree more. After watching this video it looks like this isn't gonna be the end all either sadly. Android needs less set up and more fun, it's a real downer with every single one of these unfortunately.
Hey I appreciate your full walkthrough on how to do this, I just set this up with the Odin 2, next I'm doing the RP4 Pro. I understood everthing very well, now just scraping my box art for all the games I have on the device. That's about to take a long time.....
Ayaneo Pocket Air has an issue. When you start ES-DE it always asks to have permission to access the controller. When you select a game (say Genesis with RetroArch) ES-DE seems to keep hold of the controller so RA assumes there isn't one connected. Only way to make RA start using the controller is to swipe down, disable HandBrake and re enable. Then controls work. The other system I tested Flycast behaves the same way. Pocket Air presents it's controls as an Xbox controller. Handbrake is the built in feature to disable the controller so that USB file transfer can happen.This doesn't happen with other launchers like Beacon or Daijisho. UPDATE - confirmed with the Dev, when it asks for permission to use the controller, click CANCEL. Controller still works correctly and launched games also work fine. It's a fixed issue and in testing for an upcoming update. So go get it. It's brilliant.
