Steam Emulation on Voltaicforge

Steam emulator premise

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Premise

I have set up my main television at home to be an all-in-one entertainment solution. It has Youtube, Plex, and live TV, which cover 99% of my viewing needs. To round this out, I’ve set up a Steam Link to run my games from my gaming PC. This is an amazing setup that removes almost all reasons for owning a current gen console (except exclusives, but it’s a small price to pay).

But what about old consoles like Super Nintendo, Atari 2600, etc.?

Outcome

By the time we’re done, we will have the ability to add any old console games to Steam as individual games through non-Steam shortcuts. This means that we will have a game listing for each individual game in Steam, which we can then launch. It will drop into the game fullscreen and ready to play, neat, tidy, using Steam’s existing interface.

This, of course, means that it also works in Big Picture and Steam Link, allowing you to sit on your couch with an Xbox/Steam Controller and drop into any game of your choosing. You can also use categories to filter the Steam games list by console type and have grid art for each game.

We can do this by using a variety of emulators, with a GitHub project called Ice as the program that automatically adds all the games to Steam. You need only maintain a folder with the ROMs you want to have added to Steam, and when running Ice, it will scan for games in the folders and update shortcuts in Steam with entries for each game. It will build the correct command to launch the emulator and pass the necessary arguments to launch the game for each Steam shortcut.

This guide is aimed at Windows; however, I believe the Ice utility will also run on Linux.

For setup, we need to:

Install Ice
Install emulators
Customize the Ice config for each game system and emulator
Copy ROMs to the folder structure
Run Ice with Steam closed
Play old games using the Steam frontend.

Setting up emulators in Steam

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Installing Emulators

Installing emulators is the fun part, but it is beyond the scope of this guide to explain how to set up every single emulator. I need to preface here by saying that you will need to refer to the emulator’s documentation, guides, and forum posts if you need further assistance with each emulator.

Typically, you will have one emulator per system as the author will focus on one system. However, some emulators work for two or more systems.

The backbone of many emulator setups will start with MAME and RetroArch, which cover arcade games and many popular consoles. Then, you may need to use specific emulators to fill the gaps not covered by the MAME/RetroArch combination.

Info: There may be many choices for an emulator for any given system. Different emulator projects by different groups often have strengths and weaknesses compared to each other. You may find that your favorite game works better in a certain emulator, so you may need to try out different emulators yourself.

Info: Note that some emulators require a BIOS file dumped from the console in question. This often means putting the BIOS files, after being dumped from the console, into a BIOS folder or a similar location.

There is a table of emulators on the next page to assist you in choosing emulators. To demonstrate an example of installing an emulator, let’s use [RetroArch] as an example since it is good for running a wide range of different emulator “cores” in one program, making it a go-to choice for many emulation setups.

Let’s start by downloading RetroArch (libRetro) from its website, [https://www.libretro.com/][RetroArch]. On the download site, you can select the platform, architecture, etc. Go ahead and download ‘RetroArch.7z’.

Then, unzip the file to Emulation/RetroArch.

That’s it for the installation, and many emulators will be this simple to install.

From here, you will need to set up the emulator. This is where you need to refer to the emulator’s documentation, tutorials, forum posts, etc.

For many emulators, you can simply run the program and load up a ROM/ISO to ensure it works. Some may require downloading a BIOS or “core” first. Some may be even more complicated to set up.

For RetroArch, it almost works immediately out of the box. However, since RetroArch is a program that serves as a framework for multiple emulators (cores), it does not come with any cores pre-installed. Run RetroArch, select ‘Online Updater’, and then ‘Core Updater’.

You will see a list of cores (emulators) to download. Each core emulates a console system and needs to be installed before it can run any games.

Select a core for the console you want to emulate. In this example, let’s choose a core to emulate the Super Nintendo console. I’ve chosen ‘bsnes_balanced_libretro’ as the emulator, which is the bSNES emulator with settings balanced for a tradeoff between perfect emulation and performance.

Info: Note that emulators aren’t perfect, and there will inevitably be occasional glitches, missing textures, etc. It’s difficult to perfectly emulate some systems even on modern CPUs, so choosing a balanced emulator is often

Emulator suggestions

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Emulator list

Please note that this is just a guide with some suggestions. There is a selection of emulators available, and your favorite game may work better with a less popular emulator. Feel free to explore beyond this list.

Console	Emulator	Command Arguments
NES	[RetroArch] (nestopia UE core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\nestopia_libretro.dll %r
SNES	[RetroArch] (bsnes balanced Core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll %r
Gamecube	[Dolphin]	–batch –exec=%r
Wii	[Dolphin]	–batch –exec=%r
PS1	[RetroArch] (mednafen psx core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\mednafen_psx_libretro.dll %r
PS2	[PCSX2]	–nogui –fullscreen –fullboot %r
SEGA Genesis	[RetroArch] (genesis plus core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\genesis_plus_gx_libretro.dll %r
N64	[RetroArch] (mupen64plus core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\mupen64plus_libretro.dll %r
Atari 2600	[RetroArch] (stella core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\stella_libretro.dll %r
Atari 7800	[RetroArch] (prosystem core)	-f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\prosystem_libretro.dll %r

Another list can be found at the BigBox forums.

Installing ICE

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Installing Ice

To install Ice, we need to download it and extract it into a folder. I started an ‘Emulation’ folder to store this set up neatly.

Download the zip from the Ice Site, or perhaps check out the Ice Github site for an update. As of writing the app hadn’t been updated in a number of years, unfortunately, however the old app did fine for the below job.

Extract the zip into Emulators/Ice

We will come back shortly to configure Ice, it will not do anything yet.

Customise Ice Config

There are 3 files to modify in RetroArch. Note the general way Ice works is to browse your ROM directory, match each game to a console entry, link the required emulator for the console, and build a shortcut into steam based on the parameters for the emulator selected. It will then create, edit or delete ‘Non-steam shortcuts’ in steam for each game, and also attempt to download cover art.

config.txt

The only thing that really requires editing here is the ROMs Directory to match the location of your ROM folder.

emulators.txt

The best way to start a game neatly is by command line, most emulators will take command line arguments to pick the core, ROM, set fullscreen, etc.

For example, to run a RetroArch game now we could use the command line (Win+R, enter ‘cmd’) to run a snes rom by entering:

RetroArch.exe -f -L .\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll c:\roms\SNES\rom.zip

Which would load RetroArch instantly in full screen, load the bsnes emulator for Super Nintendo, and then load the ROM ‘rom.zip’. RetroArch is happy to run with ROM’s that are in zip files.

Enter a list of your emulators as you set them up. For this example, let’s add in the bsnes emulator. Ensure you change the folder paths to match your Retroarch location.

The command will take the following variables:

%l = The path of the emulator, given in the location config line.
%r = The path to the ROM

Looking the RetroArch documents, we want to pass the -f argument to launch into fullscreen, the -L argument with a core path to tell RetroArch which core to emulate the ROM with, and then the ROM itself. The below will be the entry for this Super Nintendo emulator.

[retroarch_snes]                                                                # name of this emulator setup
location=D:\Emulation\RetroArch\retroarch.exe                                    # Emulator executable location
command=%l -f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll %r    # Command line to build for steam shortcut

For example, the above setup would instruct Ice to build the following command if it was parsing for a game ROM located in D:\Emulation\Roms\SNES\SNES_game.zip

D:\Emulation\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -f -L d:\Emulation\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll D:\Emulation\Roms\SNES\SNES_game.zip

Repeat the process for all the emulators you’ve installed. Note the Ice site does have some command lines listed for some emulators to help get started. Each emulator will have a different command line set.

consoles.txt

In this file, we need to list the consoles we want to setup. Ice will use the details here to create folders within the ROM folder setup in config.txt. It will also use the names here to link each game to a category in Steam to allow for easy sorting by the console of the game.

This might feel like doubling up as you might think that we could just do it all in one file, but separating the consoles and emulators allows you to link one emulator setup to multiple consoles if the emulator supported it.

Add a block as below for each console you want to setup. Ensure you get the spelling right and ensure the entry for the emulator is a match for the heading for the emulator you setup in emulators.txt

[Super Nintendo]            # Title of emulator in Steam
nickname=SNES                 # Folder name in ROM's folder to scan for this consoles ROM's
emulator=retroarch_snes        # emulator to link to in emulators.txt that
extensions=zip                # file extensions to consider a game, separated by a comma 'i.e. zip, sfc'

Info: Ensure you have the correct extension listed here, as it is easy to forget to change it. If you have a .iso game file and you have forgotten to change it from .zip for example, Ice won’t find the game.

We should now have a working Ice setup.

Copy ROM’s

Now just to select some ROMS and copy them into the correct folders. I would suggest letting Ice run once as it will create folders in the Emulation/ROMS/ folder for each console you have listed, using the nickname listed for the folder name.

Then copy ROM’s or whichever file type the game dump comes into the correct folder.

Run Ice

Ensure Steam is closed and run Ice and check the text that comes up at the command line for errors. You should receive a listing that it has detected all the consoles and emulators listed. It will then comment on linking each individual game that has been found, finally finishing up by downloading cover art.

If anything is missing from the output check the relevant config file.

If it was successful when you open steam you will be greeted with a list of games.

Browse for missing cover art

If Ice couldn’t find cover art for your game, you may need to grab some manually. Find and download a custom one (or even make some and share them back to the community?) at the below links:

The image should be 460x215. Once downloaded, switch to grid view in Steam, Right click and select Set custom image. Browse to the location of the custom image and select it.

Info: You may need to change from .jpeg to .png depending on your file type in the file selection dialogue.

Finishing up the install

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Setup for steam controller

If you have a Steam controller, you may need to set up a custom profile for the emulator. When you enter each game for the first time, make sure to set the profile to avoid incorrect button commands from Steam and undesired results.

Alternatively, you can use an Xbox controller for emulator games. It’s more plug and play for emulation on the Steam Link/Big Picture.

Finished

Sit back on the couch, grab a controller and your favorite beverage, and enjoy!

Many emulators support multiple controllers if the game supports it, so invite your friends over for a game!

Troubleshooting

Q. My game is missing from the Steam list!

A. Check the Ice command line window for information. Is the game listed as being added? Are the console and emulator detected? If not, check your setup for any missing components. Also, ensure that the file extension in the console.txt file is correct.

Q. My game is missing cover art.

A. Download and set your own custom cover art manually. It’s worth the effort!

Q. The link does nothing in Steam.

A. Verify if the link is working in Steam. Right-click on the build shortcut in Steam, go to “Properties,” and check the target link. You should be able to copy this into a command line and execute it with a working ROM. If it doesn’t work, double-check that all paths are correct and make necessary corrections in your config files.

Reference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My config files

Below are gists of my config files for your reference.

config.txt

emulators.txt

consoles.txt