I’m curious about what frontend launchers everyone is using on their Android handhelds. Right now I’m really into using Beacon as my main interface. It strikes the perfect balance for me because it’s much easier to set up compared to more complex options like ES-DE, but it still gives you that authentic gaming console experience.
I tried Daijisho before on my retro gaming device and while it’s pretty solid, it doesn’t quite capture that console feel that I’m looking for. Beacon just has a cleaner look in my opinion.
EmulationStation definitely has the most polished appearance and console-like experience, but honestly it’s way too complex for my needs. Setting it up feels like work instead of fun. Beacon gives me most of what EmulationStation offers without all the headaches of complicated configuration.
I haven’t gotten around to testing Pegasus yet, but from what I’ve seen it looks like another overly complex option that would take forever to get working properly. What are your thoughts on these different frontends?
pegasus isn’t so bad after u get thru the setup hell. like, it takes ages to get right but the customization is way better than beacon or daijisho. i dropped es-de last year and haven’t looked back. plus, there’s a cool themes community, so you’re not stuck starting from scratch.
wait, what’s beacon? never heard of it before - is it new? i’ve been using launchbox forever and i’m getting sick of it. does beacon play nice with different emulators or is it pretty limited? and how’s the performance vs daijisho? that one lags like crazy sometimes.
I’ve been using ARC Browser for about eight months now and it’s my favorite launcher. The interface feels way more polished than other options people mentioned, and setup’s easy but you still get plenty of customization. It runs rock solid on every Android device I’ve tried. What won me over was how well it handles mixed libraries - ROM files and Android games all show up together in one clean interface. The metadata scraping actually works, and you can have everything looking good in under an hour. It hits that perfect balance between simple and powerful that most people actually want.