The Ultimate ES-DE Guide: Enhance Your ROM Management Experience

ES-DE (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) is a powerful front-end application designed to streamline the management of your ROMs, providing a unified interface for launching and organizing your retro game collection. This guide provides an in-depth look at ES-DE, covering everything from initial setup and configuration to advanced tips and tricks for optimizing your experience. Whether you’re a seasoned emulation enthusiast or just starting your retro gaming journey, this comprehensive Es-de Guide will help you master this versatile tool.

Getting Started with ES-DE

ES-DE: An Overview

ES-DE, integrated with EmuDeck, simplifies ROM management. You can use it alongside Steam Rom Manager (SRM), which adds ROMs to your Steam library as game shortcuts, or as an alternative.

Official Website: https://es-de.org/

Important ES-DE Resources:

ES-DE fetches game artwork from https://thegamesdb.net/ and https://www.screenscraper.fr/.

For details on using Steam ROM Manager with ES-DE, see the Steam ROM Manager guide.

ES-DE Configuration: Essential Settings

• Tool Type: AppImage
• Executable Location: /home/deck/Applications/ES-DE.AppImage
• Scraped Media Location: Emulation/tools/downloaded_media
• Config Location: /home/deck/ES-DE

Understanding ES-DE Folder Locations

These locations are consistent regardless of whether you installed EmuDeck on your internal SSD, SD card, or elsewhere. Note that some emulator configuration files are on the internal SSD.

$HOME indicates your home folder (e.g., /home/deck on a Steam Deck).

Paths starting with Emulation/.. reflect your EmuDeck installation location (e.g., /run/media/mmcblk0p1/Emulation/roms/.. on an SD card or /home/deck/Emulation/roms/.. on the internal SSD).

Important: The paths below are adjusted from ES-DE’s defaults. If referencing the ES-DE User Guide, use these file locations for accuracy.

$HOME/ES-DE

<span id="__span-0-1">ES-DE </span><span id="__span-0-2">├── collections </span><span id="__span-0-3">├── custom_systems </span><span id="__span-0-4">│   └── es_systems.xml </span><span id="__span-0-5">├── es_log.txt </span><span id="__span-0-6">├── es_settings.xml </span><span id="__span-0-7">├── gamelists </span><span id="__span-0-8">│   ├── atarilynx </span><span id="__span-0-9">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-10">│   ├── gc </span><span id="__span-0-11">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-12">│   ├── n3ds </span><span id="__span-0-13">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-14">│   ├── nds </span><span id="__span-0-15">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-16">│   ├── ps2 </span><span id="__span-0-17">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-18">│   ├── psp </span><span id="__span-0-19">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-20">│   ├── psx </span><span id="__span-0-21">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-22">│   ├── saturn </span><span id="__span-0-23">│   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-24">│   ├── scummvm </span><span id="__span-0-25">│   │   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-26">│   └── wii </span><span id="__span-0-27">│   └── gamelist.xml </span><span id="__span-0-28">└── themes </span><span id="__span-0-29"> └── epic-noir-revisited-es-de </span>

This directory contains configuration files, custom system definitions, logs, settings, and theme data, allowing for extensive customization of your ES-DE experience.

Emulation/tools/downloaded_media

<span id="__span-1-1">downloaded_media/ </span><span id="__span-1-2">└── CLEANUP </span>

This folder houses scraped media, organized by system name, providing a visually appealing library of your games.

Keeping ES-DE Updated

There are several ways to update your ES-DE installation. Keeping your es-de guide knowledge up-to-date with the latest features is important.

• Via the Update your Emulators & Tools section in the Manage Emulators page of the EmuDeck application.
• Manually replace the ES-DE.AppImage file.
• Through the application’s automatic updater (available in ES-DE versions 2.1.0 and later). When prompted upon opening ES-DE, accept the update.

Launching ES-DE

You can launch ES-DE in several ways:

• By executing the AppImage in /home/deck/Applications/ES-DE.AppImage in Desktop Mode.
• From Steam after adding it via the ES-DE parser in Steam Rom Manager.
• From the Applications Launcher (Steam Deck icon in the bottom left of the taskbar).

Integrating ES-DE with Your Steam Library

Adding ES-DE to your Steam library allows you to launch it directly from Game Mode.

Steps:

1. Open Steam Rom Manager in Desktop Mode.
2. Disable all parsers except for ES-DE (and optionally the Emulators parser for configuring emulators in Game Mode).
3. Click Preview in the top left corner.
4. Click Generate app list.
5. Click Save app list.
6. Once you see Done adding/removing entries, ES-DE will be in your Steam Library.

Adding EmulationStation-DE to Steam using Steam ROM Manager

ES-DE Hotkeys for Streamlined Control

Customize your gaming experience with hotkeys. Consult the Emulator Frontends Button Combinations Profile and Emulator Frontends Radial Menu Profile for detailed information.

ES-DE Tips and Tricks

Navigating ES-DE with Ease

Quick-Jumping Through Menus

Use the shoulder and trigger buttons to navigate rapidly through menus, including gamelist views.

Selecting Different Emulators

Per-System Emulator Selection

1. Press the Start button in ES-DE.
2. Navigate to Other Settings.
3. Select Alternative Emulators.
4. Choose the system, press B, and select your preferred emulator.

Configuring alternative emulators per-system in ES-DE

Per-Game Emulator Selection

ES-DE enables you to specify emulators for individual games, useful for compatibility issues. For example, choose between Yuzu and Ryujinx for specific Nintendo Switch titles.

Select a game, press the select button, choose EDIT THIS GAME'S METADATA, select ALTERNATIVE EMULATOR, and pick the emulator.

Note: This is essential for running PrimeHack through ES-DE. Place your Metroid Prime Trilogy ROM in the wii folder, follow the steps, and select PrimeHack [Standalone] for that game.

Managing Multi-Disc Games

Before using these methods, compress your ROMs with the EmuDeck compressor into a single file (format varies by system). For multi-disc games, it creates a compressed file per disc. This es-de guide outlines the best ways to handle these files.

Method 1: Directories Interpreted as Files (Recommended)

1. Create an M3U File.
2. Place all disc files and the M3U file in a folder.
3. Rename the folder to match the M3U file exactly, including the .m3u extension.

Method 2: Create an M3U File and Hide Disc Entries

1. Create an M3U File.
2. In ES-DE, press Start, Other Settings, and disable Show Hidden Games.
3. For each disc entry, press select, choose Edit This Game's Metadata, enable Hidden, press Save, and then Apply.
4. Repeat for all disc entries.

Managing Multiple BIN and CUE Files

This section applies only to single-disc games. For multi-disc games, refer to How to Manage Multiple Discs.

If you compress your games with EmuDeck, this section is not needed.

Method 1: Directories Interpreted as Files (Recommended)

See https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/blob/master/USERGUIDE.md#directories-interpreted-as-files for detailed instructions.

This method is incompatible with Steam ROM Manager. Consider using Method 2: Hide each of the BIN entries in ES-DE instead.

Method 2: Hide Each BIN Entry

If you have BIN and CUE files, hide the BIN files and keep only the CUE entry, which contains the necessary information to run the BIN files.

1. In ES-DE, press Start, Other Settings, and disable Show Hidden Games.
2. For each BIN entry, press select, choose Edit This Game's Metadata, enable Hidden, press Save, and then Apply.
3. Repeat for all BIN entries.

Downloading and Applying Themes

Themes List: https://gitlab.com/es-de/themes/themes-list

Prerequisites

• ES-DE 2.0.1 or later.
• Update via the Update your Emulators & Tools section in the Manage Emulators page of the EmuDeck application.

Theme Download Methods

Method 1: Theme Downloader

1. Open ES-DE.
2. Press Start.
3. Go to UI Settings.
4. Select Theme Downloader [Experimental].
5. Choose the themes you want to download.
6. Exit the menu.
7. In UI Settings, select Theme Set and choose your theme.

Method 2: Manual Installation

These es-de guide steps demonstrate manual theme installation using the MiSTer Menu theme.

Emulator Configurations

This es-de guide has covered the basics, so next explore specific emulator configurations and delve deeper into customizing ES-DE to create the ultimate retro gaming setup.