RetroArch Tips (Fast Forward, Sound Issues, Exit and Saving)


RetroArch is a great emulator that lets you play classic video games on computers and video game consoles. However, RetroArch is quite different from other emulators and has advanced features like fast forward, shaders, netplay, rewinding, machine translations, and more. If you want to use the fast forward features, you might be wondering how you can turn it on and off in RetroArch.

So, how do you turn fast forward on and turn off with RetroArch? To turn on fast forward in RetroArch, launch RetroArch on your computer or console and open “Main Menu”. On “Main Menu”, scroll down and open “Settings” and select “Input”. Go to “Hot Keys”, click on the “Set a hotkey enable button” and select “Set a fast forward button”. Go back to “Configuration” and save the current configuration to confirm the new settings.

The key you press on your keyboard or controller will be mapped to fast forward, and each time you press that key when gaming, the fast forward feature will be activated. To turn off fast forward in RetroArch while gaming, press the hotkey, and the game you are playing will run at normal speed.

RetroArch has numerous unique features that let you enjoy playing a classic video game in different ways. Some of these features let you rewind a game or even fast forward.

Fast forward is a feature in RetroArch that lets you play a game at higher FPS than normal. When you are playing a game and reach a boring or easy part, this feature lets you pass through that section within seconds. If you are interested in using the fast forward feature in RetroArch, you might be wondering how you can turn it on and off.

To turn on the fast forward feature on RetroArch, launch RetroArch on your gaming system and open the main menu. Scroll down and open “Settings” and click on “Input”. Open “Hot Keys” and select “Set a hotkey enable button”.

Select the “set a fast forward button” and press any key on your controller or keyboard that you wish to make the fast forward key. Ensure that the key you select has not been mapped for another function.

After selecting the key, go back to the main menu and select “Configuration” to save the changes you have made. Open any game and press the hotkey you selected to turn on fast forward in the game.

You have the option of choosing a long press or single press hotkey, depending on your gaming style. To turn off the fast forward feature, press the hotkey again, and the feature will be disabled in the game.

When mapping keys on your controller in RetroArch, you do not have the option of editing one or several keys. If you want to change a certain key or delete some keys, you must delete the entire configuration.

Therefore, if you want to disable the fast forward feature, you have to delete the configuration that includes the fast forward hotkey. When mapping a new configuration, ensure that you have not mapped the fast forward key by accident before saving the configurations. If you do so, you have to repeat the whole mapping process.

How To Fix No Sound Issues With RetroArch?

RetroArch can emulate retro games perfectly, both in audio and visual. Sometimes, you can encounter issues when playing a retro video game, such as no sound. If you have been experiencing no sound issues while gaming on RetroArch, here is how you can fix it.

To fix no sound issues on RetroArch, first, check if the audio is muted. Go to “Settings” and select “Audio”, check if “Audio Mute” is turned “On”; if it is, turn it “Off” and save the changes. If you still have sound issues, check if the audio drivers are set properly. Go to “Settings”, click on “Audio”, and select “Output”.

Select the “Wasapi” audio driver and ensure that the “WASAPI Exclusive mode” and “WASAPI Float Format” are turned off. Save the changes and restart RetroArch to see if the sound is back.

If you are using a Windows computer, and your RetroArch does not have any sound, check the volume mixer to see if it is muted. Right-click on the “Speaker” icon on the right side of your desktop’s Taskbar and select “Open Volume Mixer”. All programs that use sounds will appear and check if RetroArch’s volume is too low or muted. Adjust RetroArch volume to your liking and close the volume mixer.

Audio is important in gaming, as it helps convey instruction to the gamer or keeps them entertained while playing for hours. To ensure that you always have audio when gaming on RetroArch, first update all your game system’s audio drivers. Also, ensure that your audio devices are working. Do not use poor-quality speakers or headsets that lose audio after some time.

You should also ensure that you select an audio device that supports audio from RetroArch. If you are using your gaming system with another person, inform them not to alter any audio settings without informing you of the changes. If they have to change your audio settings, tell them to restore your audio settings once they are done playing their classic video games on RetroArch.

How To Quit and Exit a Game in RetroArch

You can play numerous classic video games using the RetroArch emulator. After playing a good retro video game on RetroArch and you want to stop, you might be wondering how to quit and exit a game. Here is how you do it.

To quit and exit a game in RetroArch, open the “Quick Menu”, scroll down and select “Close Content”. RetroArch will close the game, and you will be taken to the home page. You can open another game or close the RetroArch app.

You can also exit a game by pressing the “Escape” key if you are using a keyboard as a controller. If you press the “Escape” key by accident, you will close your game, and you might lose your game progress. You can change this by enabling the press quit twice to quit option.

To do so, launch RetroArch, open the main menu and scroll down and open “Input”. Scroll down to “Press quit twice” and enable it. After enabling this option, when you press the “Escape” key, you will see a pop-up message prompting you to press the “Escape” key again to exit the game.

When playing a video game on your console or gaming PC, exiting a game is usually easier because the games have an in-game exit option. All you have to do is go to the game’s menu, save your progress and select the quit or exit option.

On the RetroArch emulator, you do not have the option of saving your progress and quitting using the game’s menu. You have to either exit using the RetroArch menu or press the exit hotkey.

After you quit and exit the game on RetroArch, you can launch another game or close the RetroArch app. Quitting a game correctly in RetroArch ensures that the program saves all your game files.

How To Reset With RetroArch

RetroArch is a unique emulator and can be challenging to use for first-time users. You might be tinkering with your RetroArch’s settings, and you are unsure how to undo everything, and the only option is to reset it. If you want to reset RetroArch, here is how you do it.

To reset your RetroArch emulator to default, launch the RetroArch app and open the main menu. Go to “Configuration File” and select “Reset to Default”, which will reset your emulator. Resetting your RetroArch will delete all the configuration files, and you have to start again to configure your emulator by mapping the keys, installing cores and shaders, among other features.

Another way to reset RetroArch is to delete the configuration folder from the RetroArch folder on your gaming system. Once you delete the configuration folder and launch RetroArch, another empty configuration folder will appear, and you can start changing settings and installing new cores, shaders, and other features. Before you delete the configuration folder, ensure that you have a backup of the file if you need to copy specific data from the file.

Resetting RetroArch enables you to change the settings to create a perfect emulator. It also allows you to remove mistakes you made when setting up the configurations. You can download updated cores, shaders, and map keys.

However, some features can be deleted without the need to reset the entire RetroArch configurations. For example, if you downloaded and installed a certain core and it does not support the game you wanted to play on RetroArch, you can delete the core without resetting RetroArch.

To delete a core, launch RetroArch, go to “Main Menu”, go to “Load Core”, and select the core you want to delete. Load that core, scroll down on the main menu list, and open “Core Information”. At the bottom, you will see “Delete Core” to remove the core from RetroArch. Once you delete a core, all the configurations you made regarding that core will also be deleted.

How To Save in RetroArch

All video games have an in-game save option that you can use to save your game progress when you stop playing. When you save your game progress, you can find the save files in the game’s folder, which you can use to continue playing the game in that console or another gaming system that supports that game. If you are using RetroArch to play retro video games, you might be wondering how you can save your game progress.

To save your game progress in RetroArch, you can use “Save State”. When you are playing a game and want to save your progress before you exit the game, launch the RetroArch app and open the quick menu. Go to “Save State” and select which slot you want to save your game to. The Save States slots are usually numbers starting with zero.

If you want to save your game on Save State 6, change the slot number on the “State Slot” setting. When you save a game to Save State slot number two, a text will appear on the bottom right of your screen showing you have saved the game’s progress in slot #2.

The Save States files will be located in your “saves” directory, and they will be named after the games you are playing. If you have saved a game in the wrong slot, go to the quick menu, scroll down and select “Undo Save State” to stop RetroArch from saving your game’s progress in a particular slot.

If you want to access your saved game on RetroArch, you have to load the Save State. Open the quick menu and go to “State Slot” and select the number of the slot you had saved your game. For example, if you had saved the game on State Slot 5, choose number 5. Select “Load State” and start playing the game from where you saved it.

Once you load the Save State, a test will appear on the bottom right side of your screen, indicating which slot the game was loaded from. You can also unload a Save State if you selected the wrong slot. To unload a Save State, go to the quick menu, scroll down and select “Undo Load State”.

Wrap Up

Many gamers love using RetroArch to play retro video games because it has many unique features that make the experience even better. One of the features you can use when gaming on RetroArch is “Fast Forward”.

You can fast forward through a game by pressing the selected hotkey if you want to skip over the boring parts and get to the interesting parts much faster. If you have no sound from RetroArch while playing a game, you can use the solutions in this article to fix the problem. If the problem persists, you can contact customer support for help.

Quitting a game is easy on RetroArch, and you can do it through the app’s menu. If you opt to reset RetroArch, ensure that you have a backup of all the files you might need in the future. Once you reset or delete the configuration folder, your RetroArch app setting will change back to default.

Finally, RetroArch uses Save State to save game progress, and you can save as many games as you want. Note down the slot number of each game you saved to avoid confusion or accidental deletion in the future.

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is a technology expert based in the UK, with experience across a number of technology areas from phones, tablets, computers to gaming.

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