PortMaster

PortMaster is the community launcher for game ports — hundreds of games ported to run on handhelds. It is not part of the core NX Redux install: install it on-device from the Xtras store's TOOLS tab, and it appears in the Tools menu.

Launching

Opening Tools → PortMaster shows a small launcher first:

• Open PortMaster — launch the full PortMaster interface.
• Button Layout — Nintendo by default; switch it here if you prefer the other layout.

Installing ports

The PortMaster interface is where you browse and install ports — Featured, All Ports, and Ready to Run (games that need no extra files):

Installed ports land in the Roms/Ports (PORTS) folder and show up under Ports in the main menu, launching like any other game. Some ports need game data files from the original game — each port's details page says what it needs.

Missing runtimes

Many ports rely on a shared runtime (Mono, Godot, Java, …) that PortMaster downloads separately from the game. If you copied ports over from another device or SD card — rather than installing them through PortMaster — the games arrive but the runtimes they need don't, and the port won't start.

Two ways to fix it:

1. Reinstall the port from PortMaster — installing through the app pulls in the runtimes it needs.

2. Download the runtime directly: open Options → Runtime Manager:

   

   Select the runtime the game needs — the details panel shows its status, size, and which of your installed ports depend on it, so it's easy to spot what's missing:

   

   Press A to download/check the selected runtime (or use Download All at the bottom of the list to grab everything at once).

FAQ

A port I copied from another device won't start

Most likely a missing runtime — see Missing runtimes above.

A port fails because its launch script uses symlinks

The SD card is formatted exFAT/FAT32, which does not support symlinks — and some ports' launch scripts create them (typically to link save directories into the game folder). NX Redux's PortMaster integration already works around the common cases (its installer creates real copies where upstream uses library symlinks, and the launcher bind-mounts the game data), but a port whose own script calls ln -s still needs a minor adjustment — usually replacing the symlink with a bind mount.

NX Redux ships ready-fixed launch scripts for known cases (for example SteelAssault.sh, which replaces the port's save-directory symlinks with bind mounts) in:

Emus/shared/PortMaster/patchedScripts/

These are applied automatically: whenever you open the PortMaster app, every patched script that matches a port on your card replaces the stock one in Roms/Ports (PORTS)/. So a port installed through PortMaster is fixed from the start — and if you copied a game over from another device, just open PortMaster once (or reinstall the port) and the fix lands too. Copying a script from patchedScripts/ by hand is only ever a fallback.

A port doesn't work on this device at all

Some older ports are built only for 32-bit ARM (armhf). The TrimUI firmware ships no 32-bit libraries or loader, so those ports cannot run on NX Redux devices — PortMaster itself detects this (DEVICE_HAS_ARMHF=N) and generally hides them, but an armhf-only port copied over manually will never start. 64-bit (aarch64) builds of ports work normally.

Good to know

• Sleep works in PortMaster games — press the power button like anywhere else.
• PortMaster keeps itself up to date (it checks for updates when it starts).