Browse and Launch Games

Frontend starts at your library hub. From there you can browse categories, systems, games, favorites, recents, and folders. Games launch through Zaparoo Core, so launcher configuration and media paths follow your normal Zaparoo setup.

If covers, screenshots, or descriptions are missing, follow Add Artwork and Metadata before changing the browsing options.

Browse the library

Open a category to browse its systems, then select a system to browse its games. Opening a system starts at its root folder. While browsing games, press Menu and choose Go to... to jump by letter or bucket, Search here... to search the current system or folder, or Tags to narrow the list. Pressing L1 and R1 together also opens Go to.... In list layout, Left and Right move a whole page.

Above 240p, a screen's Menu actions also sit in a row under its title, so you can see them before you open anything. Press Menu to move onto the row, Left and Right to pick an action, and Back or Down to return to the list. Settings > Appearance > Show Menu row turns the row off, and Menu then opens a list instead.

Hold a direction to move faster through a long list. Frontend advances from rows to pages, then letters, with a rail showing your position. Hold Back to return straight to the Hub from anywhere.

A folder that holds the discs of one game appears as a single row. Selecting it launches the disc you played last. To pick another, open its options menu and select Choose disc.

The Other category holds launchable items that have no normal game file behind them, such as ROM-less MiSTer cores. You can launch them like any other game or write them to a token.

Search

Select the Search tile on the Hub. Type part of a name on the on-screen keyboard, or on a connected keyboard, and matching games appear in the card beside it as you type. Set System to search one system instead of all of them, and Tags to narrow the results the same way as filtering a system. Before you type, the card lists your recent searches.

On the Search screen the controller buttons edit the text from wherever the cursor is:

Button	Action
Confirm	Press the highlighted key. Hold to repeat.
Menu	Delete a character. Hold to clear the name.
Options	Type a space.
L and R	Move the text cursor.

Select Search on the keyboard to open the results as a game list sorted by name. Back returns to your search.

Results show each game once per system. Regional releases, revisions, and copies in other folders share one entry, and the number of versions follows its name, such as USA (3). Selecting the entry launches the version it shows. To launch another, open its options menu and choose Choose version.

To search inside one system, folder, or category, or only your favorites, press Menu while browsing it and choose Search here.... The Search screen's title then says what it is limited to, such as Search in SNES.

To keep a search, press Menu on the results and choose Save to Hub. The new tile opens those results directly. See saved searches to write one by hand.

Filter games

While browsing a system, press Menu and select Tags. Pick a category, such as Genre, Year, Players, or Region, then tick one or more of its values. Each tick applies as you make it. Collections filters by favorites, liked games, games saved for later, disliked games, or one of your decks. Available choices come from the system's tags and metadata.

A game matches if it has any of the values ticked in a category, and every category with a tick must match. For example, Platformer and Shooter under Genre with USA under Region shows platformers or shooters from the USA. Up to 50 tags can be ticked in total. Choose Any to clear one category, or Clear tags to remove them all. Filters are remembered separately for each system and apply to games directly inside the current folder; subfolders remain visible.

Hide games

To keep a game or folder out of normal browsing, open its options menu and choose Manage game > Hide game for a game, or Hide folder for a folder. Hiding a folder also takes its games out of search, system counts, and random picks. Visibility is saved in Core, and hiding does not delete any files.

To undo it, turn on Settings > Browsing > Show hidden items, then choose Unhide game or Unhide folder from the same place. Favorites, Recently played, and Collections filters still include hidden games that belong to those views.

Arrange the Hub

The Hub is a grid you arrange yourself. Tiles can be categories, the built-in Resume, Favorites, Liked, Play later, Disliked, Decks, Recently played, Top played, Search, Update, and Settings actions, Settings pages such as Background music, systems, folders, games, decks, or saved searches. To add a tile, choose Add to Hub from the options menu of a folder or from Manage in the options menu of a system or game, or press Menu on the Hub and choose Add item...; a folder that holds a single game is added as that game.

Hub tiles have Rename tile..., Change tile icon..., Move tile, and Remove from Hub. A tile for a game, a deck, Resume, or a system you can browse opens that item's own options menu, and these rows are on its Edit tile page. Other tiles, such as categories, actions, folders, and saved searches, show them on the options menu itself. Saving an empty name restores the original. Reset layout, under More in the Hub's Menu, restores the default arrangement. The layout is stored under [[hub.items]] in frontend.toml; see configuration file.

Pin a MiSTer menu folder

Folders from the MiSTer main menu, such as _RA_Cores, _Chronological, or a folder of your own .mgl files, can be Hub tiles too. Press Menu on the Hub, choose Add item... > Custom folder..., browse to the folder, and select Add this folder. The tile lists the folder's subfolders and launchable files straight from the SD card, so it works without a media database update. Go to..., Tags, and Search here... are not available inside it.

Use the options menu

The options menu holds the actions for the item you have selected. The same game shows the same menu in a system, Favorites, Recently played, Search results, a deck, and on the Hub.

On a game, a row of four toggles sits above the menu: Favorite, Like, Dislike, and Play later. Press Up from the first row to reach them. Like and Dislike clear each other. Below them:

• Details.
• Add to deck, which lists your decks with a check on those that already hold the game, and New deck... to start one with it.
• Choose disc for a multi-disc game, and Choose version for a search result with more than one version.
• Write to token. With an NFC reader connected, choose Write to NFC token or Write with App. Without one, it shows a code to scan with the Zaparoo App.
• Discover alt. versions for Arcade games.
• Manage game, which opens Change launcher, Add to Hub, Hide game, and Update metadata.

On a system:

• Launch system to boot its core with no game loaded.
• Random game.
• Manage system, which opens Change launcher, Preferred artwork, Add to Hub, Hide system, Update media database, and Update metadata.

A folder has Preferred artwork, Add to Hub, and Hide folder. A category tile on the Hub has its tile rows and Manage category for updating the media database or metadata of its systems.

See Add Artwork and Metadata for the difference between updating the media database and updating metadata.

Game details and manuals

Details shows a game's artwork, description, and other information from Core. When the game has a manual, the help bar shows a Manual button. Press it to read the manual in the same panel: Left and Right or L and R turn pages, Up and Down scroll, Confirm switches between fit width and whole page, and Back returns to the details. Manuals come from imported metadata.

Favorites and lists

Favorites, Liked, Play later, and Disliked each have their own screen, reached from their Hub tiles. To browse one of them within a single system, use Menu > Tags > Collections. On these screens the Menu can Sort by default order, A-Z, or Recently added, Group by system, pick a Random game, or Search here.... Play later starts sorted by Recently added. Favorite systems have their own screen as well.

Top played lists the games you have played longest, with each game's total time.

Decks

The Decks tile lists your decks, including decks you saved from other people in Zaparoo Online. Saved decks show a lock and their owner's name, and cannot be edited. Open a deck to see its items in order. Selecting an item plays the deck from that item, and Menu > Play deck plays it from the start.

To build a deck from Frontend, choose Add to deck in a game's options menu, or New deck... in the Decks screen's Menu. In your own decks, an item's options menu has Use as deck cover, Move in deck, and Remove from deck, under Manage game for a game. More in the deck's Menu has Add to Hub, Rename deck..., Choose cover image..., Remove cover, and Delete deck. Decks and their covers are kept on the device, and Library sync keeps them in step with your account.

Background music

Settings > Background music opens a music player for Core's background audio. It plays music you have indexed under the Audio system, while you browse and while you play games.

The player shows the current track with its cover art, its progress, and Shuffle, Previous, Play/Pause, Next, and Repeat. Its Menu has:

• Show playlist, to see and pick tracks in the playlist that is playing.
• Browse music, to browse your music folders. Selecting a track plays its folder from that track. A folder's options menu has Play folder and Shuffle folder, and the Menu has Play all and Shuffle all.
• Stop and Volume.
• More, with Play on startup and Pause during games. These are Core's music_autoplay and pause_on_launch settings.

A music icon shows in the header while music plays. To reach the player from the Hub, add Background music with Add item....

Choose alternate MiSTer launchers

Open a system's options menu and choose Manage system > Change launcher to pick a launcher that Core supports for that system. Launchers Core reports as unavailable appear dimmed, with a reason when one is available. They remain selectable. Alternate launchers include RetroAchievements, DB9, LLAPI, PWM, 80 MHz overclock, DualRAM, and Sinden variants. Depending on the system, you might see options such as DualRAMPSX, DB9SNES, LLAPINintendo64, SindenPSX, or RASNES. Manage game > Change launcher overrides the launcher for one game.

To prefer a group of launchers everywhere it is installed, open Settings > Library > Launcher preference. Add... lists launcher groups, such as RetroAchievements, and single launchers. Move and Remove reorder or drop an entry. Core then uses the first available launcher from the list and falls back to the normal launcher when none is installed for a system. Explicit token launchers and saved system or game overrides still take priority. The list is Core's preference setting, and the MiSTer alternate launcher reference has the full launcher list.

RetroAchievements on MiSTer

Settings > RetroAchievements sets up RetroAchievements without editing files. RetroAchievements must first be installed with Update All, and the page says so until it is.

• Log in... saves your RetroAchievements account on the MiSTer after checking it with RetroAchievements. Log out... removes it.
• RetroAchievements launchers puts the RetroAchievements group first in the launcher preference. If a system's own launcher setting overrides it, the page names that system.
• The other rows set hardcore mode, the achievement popups and their position, and the achievement list shortcut.

Change browsing options

Open Settings > Browsing to change how the library appears:

• Systems layout and Games layout: Grid, Detailed list, or Text only. The games layout also covers Favorites and Recents.
• Left and Right in lists: in the detailed list, Left and Right either change page or step through the selected game's images.
• Preferred artwork: which imported image type Frontend asks Core for first.
• Show hidden items: shows hidden systems and games so you can unhide them.
• Show original filenames: each file's real name, without the extension, instead of Core's cleaned-up title.
• Show tags: shows region, revision, and disc tags after game names. When multiple games have the same display name, these tags tell them apart.

Related settings live elsewhere: system logo style, the background, and Reduce motion under Settings > Appearance, regional system names (Region) and Clock format under Settings > Language, and Mouse support under Settings > Controls.

For custom system artwork, Hub icons, and display names, see Customize Frontend.

Controls

The default keyboard controls are:

Action	Default keys
Move	Arrow keys
Select	Enter
Back	Escape or Backspace
Options menu	Tab
Menu	Space
Previous page	PageUp
Next page	PageDown

MiSTer automatically maps your controller buttons to these keys: A selects, B goes back, X opens the options menu, Y opens the Menu, L and R change page, Select goes back, and Start opens help. You can swap the confirm and cancel buttons, or the Options and Menu buttons, under Settings > Controls, and change the on-screen button icons with Button style. Settings > Appearance > Show button hints hides the help bar along the bottom of the screen.

Keyboard bindings can be changed in /media/fat/zaparoo/frontend.toml under [input.keyboard]; a list you provide replaces the default for that action.