Version: Next

Windows

Item	Path
Data directory	`%localappdata%\zaparoo`
Mappings directory	`%localappdata%\zaparoo\mappings`
Launcher directory	`%localappdata%\zaparoo\launchers`
Config file	`%localappdata%\zaparoo\config.toml`
Log file	`%localappdata%\zaparoo\logs\core.log`

You can access these paths by pasting them in the Explorer address bar or in a Win+R dialog.

Install

Download Zaparoo Core for Windows from the Downloads page.

Installer

Run the setup executable and follow the installation wizard. The installer offers options to run Zaparoo on startup and create a desktop icon.

Manual Install

Extract Zaparoo.exe from the zip file and place it wherever you want. Run Zaparoo.exe and it will start in the system tray.

After Installation

When launched, Zaparoo runs silently in the background with an icon in the system tray. Right-click the system tray icon to access options like opening the web UI, viewing logs, and exiting the application.

Supported Readers

Reader	Status
PN532 USB	✅
PN532 Module	✅
ACR122U (PCSC)	✅
File Reader	✅
Simple Serial	✅
RS232 Barcode	✅
TTY2OLED	✅
MQTT	✅
External Drive	✅

Launchers

Steam

If Steam is installed, Zaparoo will pick up all Steam games during media database updates and show them in the App. You can also manually create a Steam card by writing steam://<game_id> to a card, where <game_id> is the Steam ID of the game you want to launch.

warning

Zaparoo will find game libraries in other locations and drives, but it will only detect Steam itself in the default folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam. This will be configurable in a future update.

LaunchBox

Required Plugin

LaunchBox integration requires the Zaparoo plugin. Download Zaparoo LaunchBox Integration.zip and follow the installation steps below.

Plugin Installation

Download the Zaparoo LaunchBox Integration.zip file
Extract the zip file
Copy the Zaparoo LaunchBox Integration folder to your LaunchBox Plugins directory (usually <LaunchBox>/Plugins/)
Restart LaunchBox

Once installed, Zaparoo will automatically detect LaunchBox and add all games to the App. Zaparoo supports most game systems included in LaunchBox.

To manually create a LaunchBox game card, write launchbox://<game_id> to a card, where <game_id> is the LaunchBox game ID.

LaunchBox Install Location

Since LaunchBox doesn't have a standard install location, Zaparoo will do its best to find it. If auto-detection fails, you can set the location manually in your config.toml file:

config.toml
[[launchers.default]]
launcher = 'LaunchBox'
install_dir = 'C:\\Users\\YourUsername\\LaunchBox'

Replace the install_dir value with your own path to LaunchBox.

Custom Launchers

Custom launchers allow you to start roms with a specified emulator and scan and write them with the Zaparoo app. Custom launchers are toml files with launching criteria such as: System, Rom path, Emulator path and a powershell handeling to launch this. Just copy the toml files to the launcher directory stated above.

Example for PCSX2:

PCSX2PS2_zaparoo_launcher.toml
[[launchers.custom]]
id = "PCSX2PS2"
system = "PS2"
media_dirs = ["D:\\Emulation\\Roms\\PS2"]
file_exts = [".iso", ".bin", ".img", ".nrg", ".mdf", ".chd"]
execute = "powershell -WindowStyle Hidden -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command Start-Process -FilePath 'D:\\Emulation\\Emulators\\PCSX2-Nightly\\pcsx2-qt.exe' -ArgumentList '\"[[media_path]]\"'"

Custom launcher creator

Click to view PowerShell script for automatic launcher creation

You can also use this PowerShell script to automatically create a launcher using a command GUI:

launcher-generator.ps1
Write-Host "=== Zaparoo Launcher TOML Generator ==="

$system = Read-Host "Enter system name (e.g., CPS2, PS1, NES)"
$rompath = Read-Host "Enter full path to ROM folder"
$emupath = Read-Host "Enter full path to emulator executable"

$coreMap = @{
    "PS1"     = "mednafen_psx_hw_libretro.dll"
    "PS2"     = ""
    "NES"     = "mesen_libretro.dll"
    "SNES"    = "snes9x_libretro.dll"
    "N64"     = "mupen64plus_next_libretro.dll"
    "GBA"     = "mgba_libretro.dll"
    "CPS1"    = "fbalpha2012_cps1_libretro.dll"
    "CPS2"    = "fbalpha2012_cps2_libretro.dll"
    "CPS3"    = "fbalpha2012_cps3_libretro.dll"
    "NeoGeo"  = "fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro.dll"
    "Arcade"  = "fbneo_libretro.dll"
    "Genesis" = "genesis_plus_gx_libretro.dll"
    "TG16"    = "mednafen_pce_fast_libretro.dll"
    "GB"      = "gambatte_libretro.dll"
    "GBC"     = "gambatte_libretro.dll"
    "DS"      = "melonds_libretro.dll"
    "PSP"     = "ppsspp_libretro.dll"
    "Saturn"  = "mednafen_saturn_libretro.dll"
    "Dreamcast" = "flycast_libretro.dll"
    "3DO"     = "opera_libretro.dll"
    "MSX"     = "bluemsx_libretro.dll"
    "DOS"     = "dosbox_pure_libretro.dll"
    "ScummVM" = "scummvm_libretro.dll"
    "Amiga"   = "puae_libretro.dll"
}

$extMap = @{
    "PS1"     = '".cue", ".bin", ".iso", ".chd"'
    "NES"     = '".nes"'
    "SNES"    = '".sfc", ".smc"'
    "N64"     = '".z64", ".n64", ".v64"'
    "GBA"     = '".gba"'
    "CPS1"    = '".zip"'
    "CPS2"    = '".zip"'
    "CPS3"    = '".zip"'
    "NeoGeo"  = '".zip"'
    "Arcade"  = '".zip"'
    "Genesis" = '".md", ".bin"'
    "TG16"    = '".pce"'
    "GB"      = '".gb"'
    "GBC"     = '".gbc"'
    "DS"      = '".nds"'
    "PSP"     = '".iso", ".cso"'
    "Saturn"  = '".cue", ".bin"'
    "Dreamcast" = '".cdi", ".gdi"'
    "3DO"     = '".iso"'
    "MSX"     = '".rom", ".dsk"'
    "DOS"     = '".zip"'
    "ScummVM" = '".svm"'
    "Amiga"   = '".adf"'
}

$corepath = $null
if ($coreMap.ContainsKey($system)) {
    $core = $coreMap[$system]
    if ($core -ne "") {
        $corepath = Join-Path (Split-Path $emupath) "cores\$core"
    }
}

# Only double slashes (\\) for TOML
$rompath = $rompath -replace '\\', '\\'
$emupath = $emupath -replace '\\', '\\'
if ($corepath) { $corepath = $corepath -replace '\\', '\\' }

if ($corepath) {
    $exec = "powershell -WindowStyle Hidden -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command Start-Process -FilePath '$emupath' -ArgumentList '-L', '$corepath', '[[media_path]]'"
} else {
    $exec = "powershell -WindowStyle Hidden -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command Start-Process -FilePath '$emupath' -ArgumentList '[[media_path]]'"
}

$exts = if ($extMap.ContainsKey($system)) { $extMap[$system] } else { '".zip"' }

$outfile = "${system}_zaparoo_launcher.toml"
@"
[[launchers.custom]]
id = "$system"
system = "$system"
media_dirs = ["$rompath"]
file_exts = [$exts]
execute = "$exec"
"@ | Set-Content -Encoding UTF8 $outfile

Write-Host "`nTOML launcher created: $outfile"
Read-Host -Prompt "`nPress Enter to exit"

Flashpoint

If it's installed, Zaparoo supports launching Flashpoint games, although it won't include them in the media database and display in the App. You can manually create a Flashpoint card by writing flashpoint://<game_id> to a card, where <game_id> is the ID of the game you want to launch, or you can copy the URL straight from the Flashpoint launcher.

Executables

Security Risk

Be extremely careful with this feature! Executables can do anything, including deleting files and installing malware. Only use this feature if you trust the executable, and are ok with it potentially being run remotely within your local network.

Launching several types of executable files is supported: .exe, .bat, .cmd, .lnk, .a3x and .ahk. You can just copy the full path of the executable to a card.

Executables must be explicitly allowed in the config.toml file. You can do this by adding something like the following to your config.toml file:

[launchers]
allow_file = [
    '^C:\\some\\file.exe$',
    '^C:\\some\\other\\file.bat$',
    '^C:\\some\\other\\file.cmd$'
]

Make sure to restart Zaparoo after you add this to the config file. If there's already a [launchers] section, just add the allow_file line to it. You can also use wildcards in the path, but be careful with them as they can match a lot of files. For example, C:\\some\\.*.exe will match all .exe files in the C:\some\ directory.

Creating Batch Files

While the Windows platform is still in development, batch files can be used as a stand in for missing launcher support. Here are some examples of creating batch files for some common launchers.

When you create a batch file, it must be added to the allow_file setting in the config.toml file, and then Zaparoo needs to be restarted. See the Executables section for more information.

PCSX2 Example

This example will create a batch file to launch a single PS2 games using the PCSX2 emulator.

Open Notepad.
Locate the emulator executable and make note of the path. For example: C:\Program Files\PCSX2 1.7.0\pcsx2.exe.
Copy the following code into Notepad, replacing the path with your own, and making sure to include quotes:
```
@echo off
"C:\Program Files\PCSX2 1.7.0\pcsx2.exe"
```
Locate the path of the game you want to launch. For example: C:\Games\PS2\Final Fantasy X.iso.

Copy this path to the end of the batch file, making sure to include quotes:

@echo off
"C:\Program Files\PCSX2 1.7.0\pcsx2.exe" "C:\Games\PS2\Final Fantasy X.iso"

Save the file with a .bat extension. For example: C:\Zaparoo\PCSX2_FFX.bat.

Open Zaparoo's config.toml file and add C:\\Zaparoo\\PCSX2_FFX.bat to the allow_file setting:

[launchers]
allow_file = [
     '^C:\\some\\other\\existing\\entry.exe$',
     '^C:\\Zaparoo\\PCSX2_FFX.bat$'
]

Restart Zaparoo.
Write C:\Zaparoo\PCSX2_FFX.bat to a card.
Scan the card with your reader and it should launch the game.

Depending on the emulator, you can also include additional command line arguments. For example:

@echo off
"C:\Program Files\PCSX2 1.7.0\pcsx2.exe" "C:\Games\PS2\Final Fantasy X.iso" -fullscreen -nogui

This will launch the game in fullscreen mode.

RetroArch Example

RetroArch is very similar to the above PCSX2 example, but it requires launching the retroarch.exe executable along with a core argument. For example:

@echo off
"C:\Program Files\RetroArch\retroarch.exe" -L "C:\Program Files\RetroArch\cores\pcsx2_libretro.dll" "C:\Games\PS2\Final Fantasy X.iso"

VLC Example

Just like the above examples, you can create a batch file to launch VLC with a specific video file. For example:

@echo off
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" "C:\Videos\movie.mp4"

Install​

Installer​

Manual Install​

After Installation​

Supported Readers​

Launchers​

Steam​

LaunchBox​

Plugin Installation​

LaunchBox Install Location​

Custom Launchers​

Custom launcher creator​

Flashpoint​

Executables​

Creating Batch Files​

PCSX2 Example​

RetroArch Example​

VLC Example​