if you've been looking for a way to play
thousands of your favorite retro games on your Vita or PlayStation TV this is it. With your
jailbroken system, and this easy to follow guide, you'll be playing four Decades of your retro
favorites in no time at all. Come on. Let's set up your PlayStation Vita or PlayStation TV to be
the retro gaming system that lets you play your favorite games, your way. All of the magic here
happens thanks to the developers of RetroArch for the PlayStation Vita. I have the website for
RetroArch linked for you in the video description. From the Download page. scroll down until you
see the listing for PS Vita. There are two things you'll need to download here. The first one says
"Download"; that is the retroarch.vpk file or the installer file. The second one is the RetroArch
Data folder in .zip format directly underneath the .vpk file. From your Desktop, go ahead and open
up File Explorer and navigate to your Downloads folder . Of the two files here, one is called
a .vpk file and that's simply an installer file for your PlayStation Vita. The other one is a .7z
extension file and you'll need to uncompress this file. If you need a tool to do this, I have a
free open source program called Zipware linked for you in the video description and it's the
exact software that I'm using here. The .zip file is already a folder-in- folder, so you can
just uncompress this .zip file directly into your Downloads folder. Once you have it uncompressed,
you can delete the .7z file out of Downloads. I find it easiest to copy and paste files directly
from one File Explorer window to the other. I'll move the File Explorer window for Downloads to the
left side of the screen and snap it into place. On your jailbroken Vita or PlayStation TV, you'll
need to launch VitaShell in order to connect your device over to your computer and transfer
these files. Navigate to VitaShell, select it from the Live Area, then select Start. From inside
VitaShell, press the Select button on your device. Now you can connect to your computer over USB
or FTP, or in the case of the PlayStation TV, you can just take the memory card out and insert
it into your computer via an adapter. Back on your computer, once you have your device connected
you'll see a new File Explorer window appear. I'm going to take this window and then just drag
and drop it over to the right side of the screen and snap it into place. This is the root of your
storage or what's called the ux0 area of your device. You'll need to copy the retroarch.vpk
file in the folder that you uncompressed over to the root of your storage. Here's the deal: if
you're going to drag and drop them like I'm doing, be very careful not to drag and drop them into
one of the subfolders. Make sure to go completely outside of the subfolder area to drop them to make
sure that they land on the root of your storage. Once everything's copied over, you can delete the
RetroArch folder and the retroarch.vpk file out of your downloads folder. And remember, anything
that you delete is still archived in your recycle bin if you need it later. Next up, let's get the
game files and the system BIOS files copied over. In this case, I have a folder pre-staged that's
called Demo and it has both some game files and system BIOS files pre-staged in it. I have a game
ROM ready to go in each one of these subfolders, and I always include Atari Lynx because Atari Lynx
requires the use of a system BIOS file in order to run correctly. This is just a test measure to make
sure that both the games and the system BIOS files are working correctly. Inside RetroArch, you can
leave your games in .zip format because RetroArch will be able to uncompress them as you run them.
It really makes no difference where you copy these two folders onto your storage. In this case, I'm
going to take them and drag and drop them directly onto the root, but you can establish where these
folders are located inside RetroArch, and we'll take a look at that in just a moment. Again, if
you don't want them in a subfolder be sure to go outside of the subfolders when you drag and drop
them over. You're done with your computer at this point. You can transition back over to your Vita
or PlayStation TV for the remainder of the guide. From inside VitaShell back on your device,
press the circle button to disconnect from your computer, or if you removed your storage card
and put it in your computer, put it back in your device. Now, from inside VitaShell, use the d-pad
to move the green highlight down to ux0 and select it with the X button. From here, press and hold
the d-pad down to dive bomb down past the list of files and folders until you get to retroarch.vpk.
Select retroarch.vpk with the X button three times: once to select it, once to confirm
the installation, and the third time to allow permission to install it to your device. Give your
Vita or PlayStation TV around five minutes or so to complete the installation process. Once you've
got RetroArch installed, you can delete the .vpk file to save space on your storage. With the .vpk
file still highlighted, press the triangle button, then scroll down three times to Delete and select
with X. At the confirmation that appears on screen, select Yes with the X button to delete the
.vpk file. You're done inside VitaShell for now. Press the PlayStation button on your device, then
swipe from the right corner down or press and hold the circle button to go back to the Live Area.
Depending upon the Live Area setup on your device, you may need to scroll down a bit to access
RetroArch, but you should see it dancing on screen. Select the bubble for RetroArch, then
select Start to launch RetroArch for the first time on your Vita or PlayStation TV. You'll see
a handful of notifications pop up in the bottom left corner of the screen. That's completely
normal. When you launch RetroArch there are some key things that need to be downloaded and
updated before you start using the software. From RetroArch's main menu, use the d-pad to
scroll the highlight down to Online Updater and select it with the circle button. You see, inside
RetroArch, circle and X get reversed. These first few downloads and updates are super important as
part of the RetroArch setup process. First. use the d-pad to scroll the highlight down to Update
Assets and select it with the circle button. Be aware that this download and update process takes
quite a bit of time - somewhere around 15 minutes or so in real time. You'll see a change in the
quality of the text in the display once you've updated the assets and restart RetroArch. You
don't have to restart RetroArch yet though; just scroll down next to Update Controller Profiles
and select it with the circle button. This one goes by in the blink of an eye, no problem. Next
up, and optional, you can scroll down to Update Cheats and select it with the circle button. Hey,
no judgments here. Just be aware if you decide to update cheats this process takes about 20
to 25 minutes in total. Next on the list, use the d-pad to scroll the highlight down to
Update Overlays and select it with the circle button. This one goes by pretty quick and should
only take you about a minute and a half or so in real time. This last step is optional, but I think
it really adds to the appearance of the interface. From the same menu, navigate to the listing that
says On-Demand Thumbnail Downloads and select it with the circle button to change this from off to
on. Just make sure that your device is connected to the internet to be able to use this feature.
For now, go ahead and exit RetroArch by pressing the X button until you're back at the main menu,
then use the d-pad to move the highlight down to Quit RetroArch and select it with the circle
button, then swipe from the top right corner down on your touchscreen or press and hold the circle
button to go back to the Live Area. Next up. we need to shuffle some files around on your device.
Navigate back up to VitaShell in the Live Area and select it, then select Start by tapping on it or
selecting it with the X button to continue. When you copied over the RetroArch downloaded files to
your device, you copied over a .vpk file (which has since been deleted) and a RetroArch folder.
You'll need to navigate to the RetroArch folder inside ux0 and select it with the X button so that
you can access its contents. The easiest way to do this is just to mark everything at one time. To
do this, scroll down from the double dots down to the first listing, which is Assets, then press
the triangle button. This pulls out the side cart menu, and the very first listing there says Mark
All; select it with the X button for Mark All. You'll see everything gets highlighted all at one
time. Now press the triangle button, scroll down to Copy, and select Copy with the X button. You'll
see a confirmation message on screen, press X for OK to continue. Press the circle button to go
back one level in the navigation. From here. use the d-pad to scroll the green highlight up until
you get to the Data folder. Once you get to Data, select it with the X button to enter the Data
folder. It's kind of easy to get mixed up here so pay close attention. There's actually a subfolder
inside Data that's also named RetroArch. You want to go into that subfolder by selecting it with the
X button. This is different than the folder you just came out of. Once you're inside the RetroArch
folder in the Data subfolder, press the triangle button. The first listing in the pop-out menu
is Paste. Select it with the X button to paste the copied files. This process took about two
and a half minutes or so in real time. Now that you've got these files copied over you can delete
the other RetroArch folder to save space on your storage. Press the circle button two times to go
back to the root of your ux0 storage. Remember that there's a RetroArch folder here and it's
the one that had those data files that you just copied over, so it's actually a redundant folder
at this point. Scroll down to RetroArch using the d-pad and once you have the green highlight over
RetroArch press the triangle button. From here. scroll the green highlight down several times to
Delete and select Delete with the X button. Then, at the confirmation and prompt, select Yes with
the X button. This process takes around a minute or so in real time. Once the delete process is
complete, you are done in VitaShell. Press the PlayStation button on your device, then swipe
from the right corner down or press and hold circle to go back to the Live Area. Now you can
relaunch RetroArch. Navigate back to the RetroArch bubble in the Live Area, select the bubble, then
select Start to relaunch RetroArch. Because you downloaded and installed Assets earlier, you'll
see that RetroArch now has a more polished text appearance in the menus, but there's more that you
can do to improve the interface. Check this out: from the main menu of RetroArch, press to the left
with the d-pad. Then press down to Settings and back over to the right. From the Settings menu,
use the d-pad to scroll the highlight down until you get to User Interface and select it with
the circle button. From the list of choices, scroll down to the listing for Menu and
select it with the circle button. From here, I recommend scrolling down to xmb and selecting it
with circle. That's Xross Media Bar, and it looks an awful lot like the menu from the PlayStation
3. Press X to go back one level in the menu, then press X again to go back one more level until
you get to the Settings main menu. Press X again to go back to the main menu of RetroArch. From
here, scroll down through the list of choices until you get to the listing for Restart
RetroArch. Select it with the circle button, and the RetroArch interface will now look like the
familiar Xross Media Bar That gives things a much more polished look than just a text based menu.
Remember how I mentioned earlier you could copy your system BIOS and ROM files anywhere you wanted
on your storage? Let's tell RetroArch where you put them. From the Settings menu, scroll all the
way down to the bottom until you get to Directory and select Directory with the circle button. The
first listing you'll see is for System BIOS files. Select it with the circle button, then scroll down
through the list of storage choices until you get to ux0 and select it with circle. Remember earlier
how I copied system and ROM files over to the root of the storage? That's what's here on ux0, so
I'll scroll down to System and select it with circle. Once you're inside the folder with your
system BIOS files, select Use This Directory with the circle button. Next up, let's tell RetroArch
where to find your ROM files. In this case, I'll scroll down one listing to what's called Downloads
and select it with circle. From here, scroll down to ux0 and select it with circle. Then locate your
ROM files, in this case they're stored in a folder called Test ROMs, so I'll select that folder
with circle. Just like with your BIOS files, scroll down to Use This Directory and select it
with the circle button to lock in your change. Then press the X button to go back to the Settings
main menu. Next up, let's import your games and set them up in playlists by system. Scroll through
the tabs on the Xross Media Bar to Import Content; it's the one with the plus on it. Then select Scan
Directory with the circle button. Scroll down to ux0 and select it with circle. From here, scroll
down to your ROMs folder, in this case, remember, it's called Test ROMs, and select it with circle.
In this submenu, scroll down to the listing for Scan This Directory and select it with the circle
button. The amount of time this process will take varies only by the number of games that you
intend to copy over into the playlists. Once the importing process is complete, press the
X button several times and you'll be back at the Import Content main menu. If you want to
see box art for your newly imported content, here's the deal. You'll need to scroll back
over to Settings one more time. From inside the Settings menu, use the d-pad to scroll up through
the listings until you get to User Interface and select it with the circle button. In this submenu,
scroll down to Appearance and select it with the circle button. From the list of choices in the
submenu, scroll down until you see the listing for Left Thumbnail and select it with the circle
button to continue. There are three choices here: you can choose to show the game's screenshot,
title screen, or box art. I've selected Box Art here as a matter of personal preference but choose
the one that you like most with the circle button, then press the X button several times to go back
to the Xross Media Bar main menu. From here, you can scroll over to the right past Import Content
and what you'll see is not only are the systems for your ROM content represented here as playlists
but you'll also see that when you scroll down and hover over game content, you'll see the box art
for each of these pieces of ROM content displayed in the Xross Media Bar. Pretty cool, huh? To make
sure everything works as expected, I'm going to launch California Games from inside the Atari Lynx
playlist. This requires the use of a proper ROM and proper system BIOS files set in the correct
directories. Select Run with the circle button, select the game from the .zip archive, then
select Run to start the game. And sure enough, everything went to plan. By the way, nailing these
Quadruple 360s just never gets old. Since you made it this far, here's a bonus tip: to exit out of
your game and pull up the RetroArch main menu, press the L1, R1, Start, and Select buttons
on the controller all at the same time. Now you can scroll down through the list of
menu choices to Close Content and select it with the circle button, and you'll
be back at the RetroArch main menu. Hey, did you know you can output your Vita's video by
USB to your computer? Check out: this video. shown on-screen and linked in the pinned comment
and description, to find out how it's done.
