RetroArch - Emulators on Wii U

RetroArch is cross-platform collection of emulators that is available on your Wii U. Known for its trademark great performance and various features such as save states, cheats, netplay, rewinding and much more. RetroArch is sure to expand your gaming library and transform your Wii U into a gaming powerhouse.

This guide will show you how to setup RetroArch on your Wii U and configure cheats. Press [Home] during gameplay to open the Quick Menu; here you can access useful features such as save states and screenshots.

Required Downloads:

Requirements

Hacked Wii U on Firmware 5.5.4

RetroArch requires a Wii U with custom firmware such as Mocha or Haxchi

SD Card (64B or larger recommended)

An SD card is required to install homebrew on your Wii U console
The SD card must be formatted to FAT32

Homebrew App Store for Wii U

RetroArch can easily be downloaded and installed directly to your Wii U from the Homebrew App Store
You should already have the Homebrew App Store if you followed the Mocha, Haxchi or wiiu.hacks.guide
Follow this guide if you do not have the Wii U Homebrew App Store installed

Internet Connection

An internet connection is required to update RetroArch assets and databases

Installing RetroArch

Create a folder named retroarch in the root of your SD card
Inside the /retroarch/ folder, create a folder named assets
Extract the contents of retroarch-assets-master.zip to the /retroarch/assets/ folder
Create a folder named roms in the root of your SD card
Inside the /roms/ folder, create folders for the platforms you wish to emulate and store your ROM game files accordingly
Insert your SD card into your Wii U and power it on
Load your custom firmware patches via Mocha / Haxchi if necessary
Launch the Homebrew Launcher via your preferred method
Select Homebrew App Store -> [Load]
Browse or search for the RetroArch application
Press [A] and wait for the installation to complete
Press [-] to return to the Homebrew Launcher
Select RetroArch -> [Load]

Setting Up RetroArch

From the RetroArch main menu, Select [Online Updater]
Select [Core Updater] and choose cores for the systems you wish to emulate
- Game Boy Advance – VBA Next / mGBA
- SNES – Snes9x (any)
- Sega – Genesis Plus GX
Select [Update Installed Cores]
Select [Update Core Info Files]
Select [Update Joypad Profiles]
Select [Update Databases]
Once complete, return to the RetroArch main menu and select [Import Content] -> [Scan Directory]
Navigate to the sd:/roms folder and select [Scan this Directory]
Once complete, your ROMs will be organised by platform and added to the RetroArch main menu
Select your ROM -> [Run] and choose the core (emulator) you wish to use if prompted

Congratulations on installing and setting up RetroArch. You can now enjoy an even larger library of games with great performance and extra features. Consider setting up cheats to make use of RetroArch’s huge database of cheat codes.

Setting Up Cheats

RetroArch features a built-in cheat engine to create cheats by editing numerical values in the game’s memory or loading preset cheat codes from the large database.