In-game Menu

While a game is running, open the in-game menu in any of these ways:

• press MENU on the on-screen pad or a controller,
• hold SELECT and START together,
• use Android's Back gesture or button.

The game pauses while the menu is open.

• B goes back one page.
• B on the first page, or MENU on any page, returns to the game.

The menu uses your Accent and Secondary accent from Appearance: the highlighted row sits on the accent, and the value bar on the secondary accent.

On a wide landscape screen, such as an unfolded foldable held sideways or a phone in landscape, the menu shows two pages side by side. See Foldables & Large Screens.

The first page

Row	What it does
Continue	Return to the game.
Disc	Only for games with more than one disc. Shows the disc in the drive, such as 1/2. LEFT / RIGHT change the disc, as opening the lid and swapping it would.
Save	Save a state to the chosen slot.
Load	Load the state in the chosen slot.
Options	Open the options pages below.
Quit	Leave the game.

There are 8 save state slots. On Save and Load:

• LEFT / RIGHT choose the slot.
• The preview shows the slot's screenshot and date, or Empty Slot.
• A saves or loads.

Quitting also saves a hidden resume state, and so does leaving the app with the game open. That is what lets the Game Switcher resume a game where you left it.

Options

Row	When it shows	What it's for
Console Settings	Every console except Nintendo 64	The controller rows, and the Nintendo DS screen layouts.
Frontend	Always	Scaling, sharpness, overlay, screen offset, pad opacity and the debug HUD.
Shaders	Always	Shader presets and their parameters.
Core Options	Always	The emulator core's own settings.
Cheats	When the core takes cheats	Turn the game's cheats on and off.
Achievements	When the game's RetroAchievements session has started	The game's achievements. Your progress, such as 12 / 40 unlocked, shows in the description lines when the row is highlighted.
Save Changes	Always	Keep your changes for this console or this game, or restore defaults.

The line under the list says which settings the game uses right now: Using defaults., Using console config. or Using game config.

Changes aren't saved until you use Save Changes

Changes in Options apply straight away but last only for this session. To keep them, use Save Changes before you quit. To undo a change, quit without saving.

More detail

Two things are saved straight away instead: the Nintendo DS layout hotkeys (see Nintendo DS) and achievement mutes (X on the Achievements page).

To set these before a game starts, for a whole emulator or one game, use Emulator Settings.

Console Settings

The console's own rows. LEFT / RIGHT change a value.

Row	Consoles	Values	Default
Controller Type	Sega Genesis, Sega CD, 32X	Auto, 3 buttons, 6 buttons	Auto
Controller Layout	Every console except Nintendo 64	Auto-detect, Xbox (A at the bottom), Nintendo (B at the bottom)	Auto-detect
Layout (portrait) and the other screen rows	Nintendo DS	See Nintendo DS

Controller Type is the Sega pad the game sees. Auto uses 6 buttons only for games made for them. Controller Layout tells the app which way round your controller's face buttons are. See Controls for both.

Frontend

Settings handled by NX Redux Mobile rather than the core. The list is the same for every console. LEFT / RIGHT change a value.

Option	Values	Default	What it does
Screen Scaling	Native, Aspect, Fullscreen	Aspect	Native uses integer scaling. Aspect uses the aspect ratio the core reports. Fullscreen fills the screen, with non-square pixels.
Screen Sharpness	NEAREST, LINEAR	NEAREST	LINEAR smooths lines. It works best when the final image is high resolution: a core that outputs a high resolution, or upscaling with shaders.
Overlay	None, or an overlay bundled for this console	None	A frame image drawn around the game.
Offset screen X / Offset screen Y	−64 to 64	0	Move the game image by this many pixels.
Pad Opacity (landscape)	100%, 60%, 40%, 25%	40%	How opaque the on-screen buttons are in landscape, where they sit over the game. The portrait pad has its own band and is not affected.
Debug HUD	Off, On	Off	Show frames per second, the core, the resolution and scaler information.

Overlays are bundled for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance (GBA and MGBA), NES, Super Nintendo (SFC and SUPA), Mega Drive (MD), Game Gear, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket Color. None is shown until you pick one.

Shaders

Row	What it does
Shader	The shader preset to run, or None (the default). Screen Sharpness is used where the preset leaves the filter unset.
Shader Parameters	The settings the active shader exposes, each with its own values. Shows No settings for this shader. when it has none.
Reset Parameters	Restore the shader's default parameter values.

The bundled presets include crt/crt-geom, crt/zfast-crt, crt/crt-pi, crt/crt-easymode, handheld/dot, handheld/lcd3x, handheld/gameboy, interpolation/sharp-bilinear, xbrz/xbrz-freescale, nx/line and nx/grid, plus the single shaders in glsl/ (such as lcd-perfect, crt-perfect and pixel-perfect). Unlike the handheld, you can't add your own shaders.

Adjust mode

On a row that changes the picture, press A to see each change on the game as you make it.

More detail

In adjust mode the menu shrinks to a strip over the paused game.

• LEFT / RIGHT change the value.
• UP / DOWN move to the previous or next picture setting on the same page.
• B returns to the page, and MENU returns to the game.

These rows open adjust mode: Screen Scaling, Screen Sharpness, Overlay, Offset screen X and Y, Shader, each shader parameter, and the Nintendo DS screen rows in Console Settings.

Descriptions

The three lines under the list describe the highlighted row.

• When a description is cut off, X opens it in full.
• UP / DOWN scroll a long one.
• On a row that doesn't change the picture, A also opens its description.

Core Options

The running core's own settings, grouped into the categories the core defines. LEFT / RIGHT change a value.

Only options that can change while the game runs are listed (except the DS Render Mode; see Nintendo DS). If there are none, the menu says This core has no options that can be changed while running.

Cheats

Lists the cheats found for the game. LEFT or RIGHT turns the highlighted cheat On or Off, and it applies straight away. A shows a cheat's full description.

To keep the cheats you turned on, use Save Changes → Save for game. See Cheats for where the cheat files come from.

• With no cheats for the game, the page says No cheats for this game. and names the file it looked for.
• The row is hidden for Arcade (FBN), ColecoVision and Dreamcast (with NAOMI and Atomiswave), whose cores don't take cheats.

Achievements

The row shows once the game's RetroAchievements session has started: RetroAchievements is on, you are signed in, and the game is on a system RetroAchievements covers. It shows the game's achievements, in the order set by Achievement sort order. Each row shows Unlocked, Pending sync or Locked · N pts.

• A opens an achievement's details. LEFT / RIGHT step to the previous or next one.
• Y switches between all achievements and only the locked ones.
• X mutes or unmutes the achievement's notifications. A muted achievement shows [M] before its name.

If the game isn't recognised or has no achievements, a message says so.

Save Changes

Keeps what you changed in Console Settings, Frontend, Shaders and Core Options.

Choice	What it does
Save for console	Save as the settings for every game on this console. If this game had its own settings, they are removed, so it follows the console again. That also removes the cheats kept with Save for game and any DS layout hotkey changes.
Save for game	Save for this game only. This also keeps the cheats you turned on.
Restore defaults	Delete the saved settings the game is using now and go back one level: from game to console, or from console to the defaults.

When a game has its own settings, it uses only those. The console's settings apply only to games without their own.

Notifications

In-game notifications, such as achievement unlocks, show in the top-left and bottom-left corners of the game. While the landscape pad is over the game, they move to the top centre, between the pad's system buttons, so they don't cover the controls.