Your first session

This walks you from a freshly installed RetroXR to a game running on a TV you plugged in yourself. It takes about ten minutes, most of which is waiting for a core to download.

Opening the menu

Everything starts from the spawn menu.

• In VR — press the Menu button on your left controller (the small ☰ button under the thumbstick). The panel appears in front of you, facing wherever you were looking.
• On desktop — press Tab.

Along the top are the sections you will use: SPAWN, CORES, CONTROLS, OPTIONS, GRAPHICS, SCENE, NET and ABOUT.

You point at the panel with your controller and pull the trigger to click, the same way you would use a laser pointer.

Step 1 — Get a core

A core is the emulator for one system. RetroXR ships with none, so the first job is downloading one.

Open CORES. You are looking at every system RetroXR knows about, each showing how many cores are available for it. Pick a system — the NES is a good first one — and download a core for it. Some systems mark one core as recommended; take that one unless you have a reason not to.

Downloads happen inside the headset. You do not need a PC for this step.

Note

Some systems cannot run without a BIOS file that RetroXR is not allowed to distribute — the PlayStation is the usual example. The CORES section tells you which files a system wants and whether each is required or optional. See BIOS files.

Step 2 — Get a game in

RetroXR ships no games. Put a ROM into the roms/ folder for that system — on a Quest, the easiest way by far is the built-in web file manager.

This is its own page, because it is the step people get stuck on: adding your games.

Step 3 — Spawn a console and a TV

Back in the menu, open SPAWN.

1. On the Objects tab, spawn a TV. It appears in front of you — grab it with grip and put it somewhere you can see.
2. Still on Objects, spawn the system you downloaded a core for. Set it on the floor or a surface.

Both objects are physical. You can pick them up, put them down, and knock them over.

Step 4 — Wire it up

This is the part that makes RetroXR what it is: nothing works until it is actually connected.

1. Find the A/V lead coming out of the back of the console.
2. Grab the plug on the end of it.
3. Push it into the matching socket on the back of the TV. It snaps in when it is close enough and lined up.

The cable hangs and swings under its own weight, so give yourself some slack. If you drop a plug it falls, and if it lands near a socket it may seat itself in the wrong one — worth knowing when the picture does not appear.

Full detail, including RF switches and VGA monitors, is on plugging things in.

Step 5 — Insert a cartridge and hit power

1. Open SPAWN → Cartridges and click your game. It spawns straight into your hand.
2. Push it into the console’s slot. It has to go in the right way up.
3. Press the console’s power button.

The picture comes up on the TV. If the TV is off, press its power button too — the set has its own power and volume controls, exactly like the real thing.

Step 6 — Play

Spawn a controller from SPAWN → Controllers and plug it into one of the console’s controller ports. Pick it up and it works.

You can also use a real gamepad — see controllers and peripherals.

When there is no picture

Almost always one of these, in order of likelihood:

• The A/V plug is not seated, or is in the wrong socket.
• The TV is switched off, or is showing a different input.
• No cartridge is seated, or the console is not powered on.
• The core for that system was never downloaded.

The TV shows a blank input rather than an error, because that is what a television does. Troubleshooting goes through the rest.