emulationstation
TLDR
Start EmulationStation
SYNOPSIS
emulationstation [options]
DESCRIPTION
EmulationStation is a graphical front-end for organizing and launching emulated games. It provides a polished interface for browsing game collections, displaying metadata, and launching various emulators.
The application is commonly used on RetroPie, Batocera, and other retro gaming distributions. It supports themes, scraping game metadata and artwork, and controller navigation for a console-like experience.
PARAMETERS
--windowed
Run in windowed mode.--resolution width height
Set screen resolution.--gamelist-only
Skip systems without gamelists.--ignore-gamelist
Ignore gamelist.xml files.--force-full
Force full reload of UI.--force-kiosk
Force kiosk mode.--debug
Enable debug output.--help
Display help.
CONFIGURATION
├── es_systems.cfg # System definitions
├── es_settings.cfg # Application settings
├── gamelists/ # Per-system game metadata
└── themes/ # Visual themes
CAVEATS
Requires emulators to be configured separately. First-time setup needs es_systems.cfg. Theme compatibility varies. Scraping requires network access. Controller mapping may need configuration.
HISTORY
EmulationStation was created by Alec Lofquist (Aloshi) in 2012. It became the default front-end for RetroPie, the popular Raspberry Pi retro gaming distribution. The project has spawned forks like EmulationStation-DE for continued development.
SEE ALSO
retroarch(1), mame(1), pegasus-fe(1)
