3 FAQ

click each question to expand the answer

Q: What are the pros and cons of each type of frontend?

• android launcher: (when first starting, learning how the emulators work)
  • + literally no setup, totally free
  • - each emulator has a different experience to start a game; no consistency
• dig frontend: (good middle ground between themes and easy setup)
  • + mostly easy setup
  • + scrape images in the app
  • + a lot of themes available
  • + able to add new systems yourself pretty easily
  • - available themes don't have much variety and tend to be simple
  • - the developer is spotty and unresponsive
• reset collection: (good for one-and-done setup)
  • + very easy setup
  • + scraping images in the app
  • + scraped images are curated and beautiful
  • + built in theme is well designed and easy to use
  • + developer is very generous and active in the community
  • - must wait for developer to add new systems
  • - not theme-able (but as I said, the built in one is good)
  • - pay only
  • + get this app for free when you join $5 tier RH patreon
    • (same price as the theme on the play store)
• pegasus frontend: (good for a tinkerer)
  • + only one that is free and open source
  • + theme language is very powerful and flexible
  • + available themes are fantastic and varied
  • + developer responds quickly in his discord but I don't think he's a member of the handheld community.
  • + able to add new systems yourself pretty easily
  • - most complicated out of the four to set up
  • - scraping images and metadata requires some extra steps (about as hard as emulationstation/skraper)
    • (this can be done on your device with a separate app, or on a PC)
  • - fewer themes available than Dig (though they are subjectively better)
• retroid frontend: (not really better than any of these in any way)
  • + free
  • + scrape images in the app
  • - not theme-able
  • - missing some very popular systems out of the box
  • - doesn't detect all filetypes properly
  • - no sorting options for games

---