Moving from RetroArch

Pickles is the MustardOS Libretro player. It runs the same cores as RetroArch, so most games play the same way, but it keeps its own saves, settings and menus. This page explains what carries over from RetroArch, what needs to be set up again, and how to bring your save games across.

Choosing Pickles for your content

Pickles is chosen first for any system that supports it. Content that was assigned to RetroArch before stays with RetroArch until you change it. Highlight the content or folder in Explore Content, press X to open Content Options, choose Core, and press Left or Right to pick the Pickles version of the core. Use the Recursive scope on a top folder to change every folder below it at once, as described in Core Assignment.

Bringing your saves across

The Import RetroArch Saves to Pickles task copies your RetroArch save games, and your save states if you choose, into Pickles. Your RetroArch files are left untouched, and a save that Pickles already has is never replaced, so the task is safe to run again whenever you like.

Assign Pickles firstSet the content to the Pickles version of the core you used in RetroArch. The task only imports a save when the content it belongs to is assigned to a matching core.
Open the taskHead to Applications, then Task Toolkit, then Migration Tasks, and choose Import RetroArch Saves to Pickles.
Choose what to importPick Save Games and States, or Save Games Only.
Read the reportWhen it finishes, the task lists what was copied and what was skipped. The full report is saved to MUOS/log/retroarch-pickles-import.txt on SD1.

The task looks for RetroArch saves in MUOS/save/file and save states in MUOS/save/state, each sorted into a folder for the core that made them. It matches each file to your content by name across SD1, SD2 and USB storage.

Save gamesThe .srm, .sav, .eep, .fla, .sra, .mpk, .ram, .nv and .rtc types are copied to MUOS/pickles/sram, where Pickles finds them the next time the game starts.
Save statesEach state is added to the next free numbered slot, up to 64 for each game, named Imported RetroArch State with its slot number, along with its screenshot when RetroArch saved one.

A file is skipped and listed in the report when:

  • no content with a matching name is assigned to a matching Pickles core;
  • more than one piece of content matches, so the right one cannot be worked out;
  • the file was saved with RetroArch save file compression switched on, which Pickles cannot read;
  • the game already has its 64 save state slots in use.

Save states depend on the exact core version that made them, so a state from an older RetroArch core may not load in Pickles. Save games do not have this problem, so load from your in-game save if a state fails.

To bring across a single save game from your computer, use Import in the Pickles Saves section of the Web Dashboard.

What needs setting up again

Pickles does not read RetroArch configuration files, so these settings start fresh. Each one is changed from the Pickles Menu, opened with MENU while you play.

RetroArch In Pickles
Overrides and core options Settings and Core Options
Remaps Button Mapping under Settings > Input for each port
Hotkeys Hotkeys under Settings > Input
Shaders Shaders, which use their own format
Overlays Overlay images from Downloads or your own folders
RetroAchievements sign in RetroAchievements in Settings

When you leave a Pickles settings screen after a change, it asks whether the change should apply to This Content, This Core, This Directory or This Session Only, which covers what game, core and directory overrides did in RetroArch. Pickles and Wasabi explains how these levels work together.

RetroArch cheat files do carry over. Place the .cht file for a game in MUOS/pickles/cheats, inside a folder named after the core file and the same folders the game sits in under ROMS, and Pickles converts it the next time the game starts, as described in Cheats.

Controls in each player

Action RetroArch Pickles
Open the in-game menu MENU + X MENU
Quit back to the frontend MENU + START MENU + START
Save and load a state MENU + R2 / L2 MENU + R2 / L2
Show the frame rate MENU + Y MENU + Y

MENU + X opens the RetroArch menu, but in Pickles it shows or hides the header. The Hotkeys page lists every shortcut for both players.

Going back to RetroArch

RetroArch stays installed, so you can switch any content back from Content Options > Core at any time. The community article Pickles vs RetroArch compares the two in more detail.