How to Install and Configure QuickNES as the NES Emulator Core on Raspberry Pi with RetroPie

When it comes to retro gaming, having the right emulator core can make all the difference in terms of performance and overall gaming experience. If you're using RetroPie on your Raspberry Pi and want to try a different emulator for the NES system, then you're in luck because installing and configuring QuickNES as the NES emulator core is relatively easy.

Libretro offers many different cores for various consoles, including Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Megadrive, and more. In this guide, we'll show you how to replace fceu-next with QuickNES as the NES emulator core in RetroPie.

The first step is to download QuickNES into your emulator cores folder. You can do this by cloning the libretro QuickNES project like so:

cd ~

git clone https://github.com/libretro/QuickNES_Core.git

Once you've downloaded and cloned the project, navigate to the QuickNES_Core/libretro directory and compile the project.

cd QuickNES_Core/libretro/

make

After you've compiled the project, you'll need to configure Emulation Station to use the new core. To do this, open the es_system.cfg file in nano:

nano ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

Scroll down to the Nintendo Entertainment System section and update the COMMAND line to use QuickNES instead of fceu-next. The updated line should look like this:

NAME=Nintendo Entertainment System

COMMAND=retroarch -L /home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores/QuickNES_Core/libretro/quicknes_libretro.so -config /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg -appendconfig /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%

Save the changes and restart Emulation Station.

That's it! With QuickNES now installed and configured as the NES emulator core, you should see a performance improvement when playing your favorite NES games. If not, you may want to try one of the other cores available for RetroPie.

Retroarch emulatorraspberry pi