Deep Sky Creations

Ultimate Emulator / Setup & help

Bring Your Collection Home

Point it at your folders. It does the rest.

Ultimate Emulator builds your Games collection from folders you choose. It reads your games where they are, sorts them by system and keeps watching for new ones. Your files are never moved, renamed or deleted.

  • Your own game files
  • Subfolders included
  • Nothing moved or deleted

01 / Your collection

What Ultimate Emulator looks for.

Add game files from your own collection. Ultimate Emulator does not supply games, and it never downloads them.

Included systems
Games for Atari 2600, Odyssey², Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, SG-1000, NES, Master System, Atari 7800, TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, Genesis, Atari Lynx, Game Gear, SNES, PlayStation, N64, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance.
Where your games stay
Exactly where you keep them. Ultimate Emulator reads them in place and records where they are.
Subfolders
Each folder is searched along with its subfolders.
Other files
Files that are not games for an included system are not added to your collection.

02 / Settings → Library

Add a game folder.

  1. Open Settings → Library

    Game Folders lists every folder Ultimate Emulator uses. On a fresh install it says No game folders yet. Add Games on Home or in Games takes you to the same choice.

  2. Choose Add Game Folder

    Pick the folder where you keep your games. You can add another folder at any time.

  3. Let it scan

    The new folder is scanned straight away. Your games appear in Games as they are found.

03 / Finding games

Found once. Watched from then on.

Scan for Games
Checks your folders again now. Cancel Scan stops a scan in progress.
New games appear automatically
Folders that are turned on are watched. When games are added, changed or removed, that folder is checked again on its own.
Multi-disc games
The discs of one game are grouped into a single game.
The same game in two folders
Appears once in your collection.
Workshop versions
Patched versions you build in Workshop stay separate from the original game.

04 / What you will see

What each game's status means.

Every game in Games carries a status. Most say Ready. The others tell you what to do next.

Ready
Can be played now. The Ready filter in Games shows only these.
Needs BIOS
Its system needs firmware you have not provided yet. See Firmware & BIOS.
Missing
The game's file is no longer where it was — it was moved or renamed, or its drive is disconnected.
Unidentified
Ultimate Emulator could not tell which system it is for. Set the folder's System, then scan again.
Unsupported
Ultimate Emulator found the file but cannot play it in this release.
Browse, search and organize your games in the Library guide

05 / One folder at a time

Change, pause or remove a folder.

Choose Options beside a folder in Settings → Library → Game Folders. None of these options touch your game files.

System
Tells Ultimate Emulator which system the folder holds when detection needs a hint. Scan the folder to apply a change.
Use this folder
Turn Off pauses a folder: it is not scanned or watched until you turn it back on. Nothing is removed.
Remove from Library
Choose Remove…, then Remove from Library, to stop using the folder. Your game files are not deleted. Keep Folder cancels.

06 / Folders change

Moved your games? Point Ultimate Emulator at the new place.

  1. Add the new folder

    Add the folder where your games now live.

  2. Remove the old one

    Remove the old folder from the library. Nothing on disk is deleted.

  3. Scan for Games

    Your games are found in their new place.

07 / Still missing something?

When a game does not appear.

I added a folder but no games appeared.

Check that the folder is listed and turned on in Settings → Library → Game Folders, and that it holds games for an included system. Then choose Scan for Games. Games in subfolders are found too.

Some games are missing, but others from the same folder appeared.

The missing ones may be for a system that is not included in this release, or in a format that system cannot read. If they are compressed archives, extract them into the folder and scan again.

A game is listed under the wrong system, or as Unidentified.

Open the folder's Options, set its System, then scan the folder again. Keeping each system's games in its own folder avoids this.

My games show Missing.

Their files are not where Ultimate Emulator last saw them. Reconnect the drive, or add the folder they now live in and remove the old one, then choose Scan for Games.

A game appears but will not start.

Check its status. Needs BIOS means its system needs firmware first. For anything else, see the Game won't start section of Troubleshooting.