RetroPie Runcommand: Launch Menu Options, Emulator Selection and Config Files

Runcommand is the RetroPie script responsible for launching emulators and games. The official documentation describes its configuration options and features, including a launch menu that appears each time a ROM is loaded.

Opening the Runcommand Launch Menu

Each time you load a ROM, there is an option to open the Runcommand Launch Menu. The documented way to access it is to press any button on a controller (the bottom face button is recommended so you do not accidentally change anything) or any key on a keyboard while the prompt is displayed, or right after a launching image disappears if you have one set up.

What the menu controls

The first two options control which emulator is used for the current system or ROM, if more than one emulator is available. The second two options select video modes for the current system or ROM.

Where preferences are saved

Emulator selections are saved in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg, and video mode selections are saved in /opt/retropie/configs/all/videomodes.cfg. Other Runcommand options are saved in /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand.cfg.

Enabling and disabling menu functions

Different functions of the Runcommand Launch Menu can be enabled or disabled. This is configured through RetroPie-Setup or through the runcommand configuration option in the RetroPie area of Emulation Station.

Verbose logging for Libretro cores

When launching Libretro cores (those prefixed by lr-), the Runcommand launch menu presents the option Launch with verbose logging. This writes more information to the log file at /dev/shm/runcommand.log. Once the game is exited, that log can be downloaded via SFTP or viewed directly from the command line.

Custom launching images

Runcommand can show a custom launching image instead of the traditional dialog infobox. Per-system images go in /opt/retropie/configs/SYSTEM_NAME/ and must be named launching.png (or .jpg). A more general image not tied to a specific system can be named /opt/retropie/configs/all/launching.jpg. If Launch Menu Art is enabled, the scraped box art image takes precedence over these custom images.

User scripts around launch and exit

Runcommand can run a user script before the game launches (runcommand-onstart.sh and runcommand-onlaunch.sh) and after the emulator exits (runcommand-onend.sh). These scripts must be placed in /opt/retropie/configs/all/.

User Menu custom scripts

Since version 4.2.8 the runcommand menu creates an option named User Menu, where a custom script can be chosen. Custom menu scripts must be placed in /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-menu and their file names must end with .sh.