Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

EmulationStation Desktop Edition is a frontend for browsing and launching games from your multi-platform game collection, it's pretty great and the latest version 2.2 is out now with loads of improvements and new system additions.

With the 2.2 release they added in features like cleanup tools for orphaned data, file hash searching for the scraper, clipboard paste support, ability to change systems sorting from the GUI and more complete Unicode support. There's upgrades to the theme system to allow rounded corners for images, videos and animations, horizontally scrolling text containers and stationary elements and for Linux / Steam Deck there's also now support for running Windows emulators using Wine or Proton too!

Some of the new systems supported in this release include the Coleco Adam (adam), Acorn Archimedes (archimedes), Console Arcade Systems (consolearcade), Acorn Electron (electron), Fujitsu FM-7 (fm7), Bit Corporation Gamate (gamate), LaserDisc Games (laserdisc), Sega NAOMI 2 (naomi2), Nokia N-Gage (ngage), PC Arcade Systems (pcarcade), Commodore Plus/4 (plus4), Sega Titan Video Game System (stv), Funtech Super A'Can (supracan), Symbian (symbian), Namco-Sega-Nintendo Triforce (triforce), Taito Type X (type-x), Microsoft Windows 3.x (windows3x), Microsoft Windows 9x (windows9x) and AdvanceMAME (mame-advmame).

Plenty of Linux-specific changes too including:

  • Changed the Flycast AppImage find rules so that they don't collide with the Flycast Dojo AppImage.
  • Added support for the Microsoft Xbox 360 (xbox360) game system by running xenia via Wine or Proton.
  • Added support for the Atari Jaguar CD (atarijaguarcd) game system by running BigPEmu via Wine or Proton.
  • Added BigPEmu Wine and BigPEmu Proton as alternative emulators for the atarijaguar system.
  • Added Model 2 Emulator Wine and Model 2 Emulator Proton as alternative emulators for the model2 system.
  • Added 3dSen Wine and 3dSen Proton as alternative emulators for the famicom and nes systems.
  • Added support for the Visual Pinball (vpinball) game system.
  • Added support for using the RetroArch AppImage release in portable mode (added corepath find rules).
  • Added support for the AppImage release of Snes9x.
  • Added support for the Flatpak release of Cemu and Supermodel.
  • Added support for the Snap release of Dolphin.
  • Added the PCSX2 Flatpak release to the non-legacy PCSX2 find rule configuration.
  • Updated the DuckStation find rules as the AppImage release filename has changed.
  • Updated the Citra find rules as the AppImage release filename has changed.
  • Unified the desktop OpenGL and OpenGL ES renderers and upgraded to OpenGL 3.3 (4.6 on the Steam Deck) and OpenGL ES 3.0 respectively.

Plus masses of other changes listed in the changelog.

If you're on Steam Deck, you may want to check out EmuDeck that uses EmulationStation Desktop Edition and makes it all easy for you.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
12 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
See more from me
5 comments

legluondunet Nov 6, 2023
very nice frontend for emulation <3
Cloversheen Nov 6, 2023
Emulationstation is really nice actually, especially on the deck.

An alternative to EmuDeck is RetroDeck, similar idea but with more emphasis on convention over customization. So what's the difference between RetroDECK and EmuDeck?

I've found it worked better for me on the deck, on my desktop though I would probably want to have more control due to varying hardware.
scaine Nov 6, 2023
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
I want to try this just to recreate that screenshot in the article! Chaos Engine and Another World. Happy memories right there!
Pengling Nov 7, 2023
Quoting: shorbergAn alternative to EmuDeck is RetroDeck, similar idea but with more emphasis on convention over customization. So what's the difference between RetroDECK and EmuDeck?

I've found it worked better for me on the deck, on my desktop though I would probably want to have more control due to varying hardware.
RetroDECK is my preference, too. If I remember right, it's forked from 351ELEC, which was a custom firmware for the Anbernic RG351MP emulation handheld, so it does the one thing it's supposed to, and does it very well indeed - EmulationStation is the cherry on top.


Last edited by Pengling on 7 November 2023 at 2:38 am UTC
nwildner Nov 7, 2023
Quoting: PenglingRetroDECK is my preference, too. If I remember right, it's forked from 351ELEC, which was a custom firmware for the Anbernic RG351MP emulation handheld, so it does the one thing it's supposed to, and does it very well indeed - EmulationStation is the cherry on top.

Which is also a Fork from EmuELEC, a really interesting technology for retrogaming in TV Boxes. Im using on a S922 based tv box here an I'm able to emulate Dreamcast and N64 with great performance.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register


Or login with...
Sign in with Steam Sign in with Google
Social logins require cookies to stay logged in.

Buy Games
Buy games with our affiliate / partner links: