Console Mapper

RetroArch

Allium uses two criteria to know which RetroArch core to launch:

• File extension
• Parents' folder name

File extension

When a file extension matches a known console, Allium will launch the specified RetroArch core regardless of the parent directory. This is useful when you have uncompressed ROM files from multiple consoles in the same folder (e.g. a favourites folder).

For example, if you have a file called Chrono Trigger (USA).smc, regardless of which folder it is in, Allium will launch it with mednafen_supafaust.

Parent's folder name

If no file extensions match (e.g. .zip), Allium will look at the parent folder's name instead.

If the folder name matches a known system's short name (e.g. GBA, SFC), or the folder contains a bracket with a known short name (e.g. Game Boy Advance (GBA), Super Famicom (SFC)), Allium will launch using the specified RetroArch core.

Custom cores

You can change the default for for a specific game by pressing Select from the game browser and launching with the preferred core.

If you wish to change the default cores for the console, you can change .allium/config/consoles.toml.

For example, to change GBA games to launch using mgba instead of gpsp:

  ["Nintendo - Game Boy Advance"]
- cores = ["gpsp", "mgba"]
+ cores = ["mgba", "gpsp"]
  folders = ["GBA"]
  extensions = ["gba"]

Native Applications

By default, Allium supports running native applications if a folder has a .pak extension.

Allium will run launch.sh with the folder as the current working directory.

For example, here is a launcher for eggs' Super Mario 64 port:

Super Mario 64.pak
|- launch.sh
|- sm64.us.f3dex2e
|- .sm64-port/

and launch.sh:

#!/bin/sh
HOME=${PWD}
exec ./sm64.us.f3dex2e

Default Systems

The list of file extensions and their respective default cores can be found at .allium/consoles.toml on your SD card.