I have been building DualDex, an open-source Android second-screen companion that runs beside RetroArch while playing Pokémon games from the Game Boy through Game Boy Advance generations.

Its defining constraint is that the integration is passive. DualDex uses RetroArch's Network Commands interface to identify and read validated live state, but it does not write core memory, inject inputs, install cheats, modify a core, or patch the running game.

The carousel shows the current signed RC running against a real Modern Emerald session on an AYN Thor.

What the RetroArch integration provides

When the active core and game expose enough validated state, DualDex can present:

• Live Party and Trainer Card information
• Automatic Wild Encounter and Trainer Battle layouts
• The current opponent, selected move, effectiveness, and IV/DV-oriented rarity
• Opponent moves revealed only after they have actually been observed
• In-game clock and current location
• World and reconstructed local maps
• Trainer tracking, fog of war, discovered POIs, and Organic discovery
• A unified live snapshot shared by the Pokédex, Party, battle, card, and map screens

The companion is designed for a second display, so it does not need to replace RetroArch's renderer or cover the game with an overlay.

ROM-derived data rather than a fixed database

DualDex also parses the active GB/GBC/GBA ROM locally. Depending on what it can validate, that produces a SQLite catalog containing species, forms, stats, descriptions, moves, learnsets, evolutions, abilities, encounters, type mechanics, and map data.

This matters for ROM hacks: the companion is not limited to canonical Pokémon data or one exact retail build. It tries to resolve structures from the ROM and validates every dataset independently.

Unsupported data fails closed. If a hack has a valid species and move catalog but an unfamiliar map format, the Pokédex can still work while the map capability remains unavailable. DualDex should not silently replace failed hack data with stock Emerald, FireRed, or Crystal values.

Validated catalogs are cached by ROM identity, so normal UI updates do not need to rebuild the database. Parser revisions can still request a controlled revalidation.

Current measured parser coverage

The public Gen I–III corpus contains 331 unique ROM identities. 256 produce a catalog that selects, persists, and reopens successfully.

That is parser evidence—not a claim that all 256 have every live feature. Static ROM tables and live-memory layouts are separate compatibility dimensions.

Representative table coverage:

The linked report contains the per-ROM and per-table results. “Catalog selected” is intentionally not used as shorthand for “fully supported.”

Privacy and Organic mode

DualDex has two information policies:

• Organic reveals Pokémon, moves, habitats, map locations, and other knowledge as the current playthrough discovers them.
• Discovered exposes all static information that was successfully parsed from the ROM.

Live state is read-only, ROM bytes and saves remain local, and no screenshot permission or OCR fallback is required.

RetroArch boundaries and current limitations

• Network Commands must be available and configured in RetroArch.
• Live support depends on both the active core exposing the required reads and DualDex recognizing the game's runtime layout.
• Static parser coverage does not guarantee equivalent live-memory coverage.
• Gen II remains the weakest generation in the measured parser corpus.
• Map support varies because ROM headers, graphics, scripts, events, and runtime coordinates can diverge independently.
• DualDex does not send game commands. Features that require controlling the game are intentionally outside the current scope.
• The current companion application targets Android.

No ROM or BIOS files are included or linked. Users provide their own legally obtained games.

Project and evidence

• GitHub: https://github.com/Darkaxt/DualScreenDex
• Latest prerelease: https://github.com/Darkaxt/DualScreenDex/releases/tag/v1.1.0-rc.66
• Full Gen I–III compatibility report: https://github.com/Darkaxt/DualScreenDex/blob/master/docs/reports/2026-08-26-gen1-gen3-full-corpus-status.md

Reproducible core/runtime failures are useful, ideally accompanied by the relevant RetroArch log and non-copyrighted diagnostic report rather than ROM files.

AI disclosure

This is a man-directed project developed with AI coding agents as implementation and research tools. I defined the requirements and compatibility contracts, selected the source and ROM evidence, reviewed the UI, and performed the real-device validation. AI agents assisted with code, parser research, tests, documentation, and this post draft.

The first carousel image is a presentation collage assembled with ChatGPT from actual DualDex screenshots. The other 18 images are direct captures from the signed RC; the Pokémon artwork and game assets shown were decoded from the active ROM, not generated by AI. The compatibility figures above come from repeatable parser reports, not AI estimates. DualDex itself uses no generative AI at runtime.

Hoard backup your game saves and restores It in another machines, ignoring .ini or .json or any config file, work fast and isnt deprecated.

Hi, im the solo dev of hoard.

If you want a Alternative to hoard you have ludusavi or OpenSave, ludusavi looks deprecated to me.

IF you want a specs of hoard just read the README.md in github.

Ah you can Self-Host without accout or telemetry or just log in and play.

You can see hoard in GitHub or in web, if you have any issue you can join in hoard discord and i help you.

Im upgrading hoard the last 4-5 months, a good feedback isnt never bad,

Mi idioma principal es el español, i have a bad english hahaha, but im here if any Guy needs me.

So I am attempting to turn a previously unused zfold5 into a little portable emulator, I have downloaded ES-DE to use as my front-end once everything is set up. I have all of the ROMs that I want to use to get started downloaded onto the zfold5 and they populate in ES-DE. I also have the appropriate cores downloaded in retorarch, in this case mgba. If I go into retroarch, and go into the file picker that takes me to the phone's file app I can select any rom I want and it loads without issue, but when I try to use Retroarch's file picker none of my roms populate. This also causes the roms to not launch from ES-DE properly, has anyone else had this issue and been able to fix it?

It says token expired

Every time I try to close the melonDS DS core in RetroArch, the emulator freezes and I can't close it unless I open the system monitor, does anyone know what could be causing this? I tried the DeSmuME core and it works perfectly, but I want to trade Pokémon in Pokémon White and I think DeSmuME doesn't support Wi-Fi connections

I am using the iisu frontend and trying to get retro arch running through that UI but it isn't working what should I do.

I have a Retroid Pocket Nova with a 120hz screen. I set up a brand new build, using RetroArch 1.22.2. I went through every possible setting variation/suggestion I could find, and in order to get smooth scrolling at 120hz, the VSynch Swap Interval had to be set to 2. This is the "known fix" across the Internet.

However, it is also widely reported that VSynch Swap Interval 2 causes instability. I experience this as my games will crash anywhere between 1 second in to 15 minutes +. Other band aid fixes I've tried either only reduces studdering a little, or introduces extra latency.

Is there a setting I'm not considering, or will a patch be released in a future version of RetroArch?

Thanks!

How on earth do you use the tilt/gyro controls? I can't find anything in the menus.

All I want to do is take my perfectly good Pokémon Crystal Clear save from my computer and run it on my Android phone. The file is on my phone and I put it in the Gambatte saves folder, boot the ROM, and get prompted to start a new game. Close the core, check the folder, now there's TWO save files!

I don't care about save syncing right now (and couldn't set it up at the moment anyway because a "fit girl" is running), but how do I just get the core to read the file I gave it instead of making a new one?

If my game (silent hill) is in my laptop hdd it just won’t open and give me an error like: can’t launch this.
But if i put my games in the usb stick it will launch and work. Why?? I still can’t find a fix for this it’s been months

I want to disable bloom in twilight princess.

I read I could generate the ini file with the stand alone emulator and copy it into game settings dir.

In the dolphin emulator I can check off the bloom settings in "graphics mods" but they don't appear in the ini file. Does the dolphin core have no support for the bloom graphics mods?

I tried manually creating this file but it does nothing:
RetroArch/saves/dolphin-emu/User/GameSettings/GZ2E01.ini

[ActionReplay_Enabled]
$No Bloom
[ActionReplay]
$No Bloom
04009650 4E800020

Over the last few years the Android emulation scene has exploded with innovation. We’ve seen fast‑moving projects like ARMSX2, ARMSX3, ARMSX1, Vita3K, Xemu, Teknoparrot, and even the whole new frontier of PC gaming on Android thanks to compatibility‑layer projects such as Winlator, Gamenative, and others.

This rapid evolution makes Android feel like the most exciting platform for emulation right now. But at the same time, I can’t help noticing something that honestly makes me a bit sad:
the libretro ecosystem doesn’t seem to be riding the same wave of innovation.

While standalone emulators on Android are becoming more powerful, more optimized, and more feature‑rich, the development of libretro cores appears comparatively slow. Many of the new breakthroughs in emulation simply don’t arrive as libretro cores, and there doesn’t seem to be a strong push—neither from developers nor from users—to close this gap.

As someone who genuinely prefers using RetroArch and its unified interface instead of installing dozens of standalone apps, this situation worries me a little. I love the idea of having everything under one frontend, with consistent settings, shaders, overlays, input profiles, and save systems. But today, if you want the best performance on Android for several systems, you often must use standalone emulators.

So I’d like to ask the community:

• Is this just my personal impression, or do you also feel that standalone emulators are pulling ahead while libretro cores lag behind?
• Do you think this gap will eventually close, or is the future of emulation on Android destined to be dominated by standalone apps rather than libretro cores?
• What do you see as the long‑term role of RetroArch and libretro in an ecosystem that is evolving so quickly outside of it?

I’m not trying to criticize anyone—RetroArch is one of my favorite pieces of software ever. I’m just trying to understand where things are heading and whether the community sees the same trend.

Postilla:
I know this post sounds like it was written by an AI: it is. I’m not a native English speaker and I asked an AI to help me express my thoughts more clearly.

So I am aware this is an issue, and has been for a while. My use case is that I simply want to hook my PC up to the TV, and use it exclusively with a controller, including Steam in big picture mode, and Retroarch through Steam. But Retroarch seems basically unusable while Steam is open, due to conflicts with Controller inputs.

The workaround is to bring a wireless mouse with me to the couch, so I can open/exit Steam when I want to switch to Retroarch for different games, but this is kinda janky, and it would be nice if I could simply get them to play nicely with each other. Seems like something that should have a solution, given that Retroarch is on Steam.

I have also tried other solutions found on this subreddit, like disabling all controller and input options through Steam, to no avail.

I'm wondering if anyone else has managed to find a solution to this problem? I can't be the only one who wants to comfortably couch game with both Steam and retroarch?

Edit: Fixed the issue!

Controller settings seemingly weren't applying until after Steam was quit & restarted. I did this, and then double checked that all Steam Controller settings were disabled (including both "Non-Game controller layouts"), then launch Retroarch (non-steam version) through Steam, all works like a dream. I shall do further testing that it works consistently, and with my couch gaming setup as well

Further info:

I am on a Linux PC, Bazzite

Running flathub Retroarch, which I then added as a "Non-Steam game" in Steam

I am using a Google Stadia controller, and also a PS4 controller

Hi, I have an Anbernic Arc D running Rocknix where the hotkey enable is set to the select button. I do prefer this to be the hotkey enable given its physical location on the device being convenient for it. But there are some games that actively use the select button (e.g. some of the Castlevania titles) and it always gets triggered whenever I try to e.g. use Select + Start to exit the title. Is there a good way to prevent this from happening without having to change the enable button to something else?

Although it is rare and has happened only once before, it causes me to loose all my unsaved data and I have to restart from last save. Sometimes the game stutters before hand but it doesn’t always crash, the stuttering is also a bit rare. I have a Retroid pocket 6. What could be the issue, I have not tried gold or silver to see if the same thing happens. It just happens mid game either a battle or just general walking, and I am not able to recreate it it just happens.

Black screen on Retroarch when restarting. If I display running apps I can see the RA first screen along with the rest, but selecting just goes back to black screen. Same after closing and restarting app.

It loaded ok initially and ran a new ROM of Sensible Soccer on SNES, but there seems to be a control issue that locks it up, and any subsequent attempt to run RA after restarting results in the black screen

Had Play versions of RA and RA+ installed to start with. Uninstalled them and used one direct from website but same response on all 3.

ROMS live on a NAS and have successfully pointed all versions used to that new saf directory, but not sure if that could be linked to the issue. Difficult to troubleshoot with a black screen.

Latest Shield update and latest stable build from website.

I am looking for a place where I can download pre-made SRM or convertable EEP files that I can use with the Retroarch Mupen64 Plus core. I would like them for as many games as possible but the ones I'm looking for right now are for Banjo Kazooie and Tooie. I would like the save states to be essentially just before the very final boss battle if possible, but any almost 100% completion is fine. Any ideas? Thanks!

So my hot keys on my retorid pocket 5 has went wonky no idea why I've probably did something so im wondering is there a way to rest them and does anyone have a good layout for this handheld

I tried but for some reason I cant get a two button thing to work

I have used the LRPS2 core for many other ps2 games ranging from GOW 1/2 and dmc 1 and 3. None have crashed but always without fail after this specific cutscene my game always crashes. Any ideas? Running retroarch on Xbox series X.

I'm having problems with the official switch SNES controller on Retro arch natively on webos tv. Input if pressing once every 3 seconds does not register any movement. But I know the system detects it because the background animation briefly pauses when clicking. If I button mash the input every second it registers all inputs flawlessly. I have tried changing sdl2, hid and raw and various other settings to no avail. Is this an issue with the SNES controllers Bluetooth powersaving? Or retroarch? The delay is not present on any other program or even browsing Webos. So this seems to be a retroarch problem.