Also Citron Neo, second best option after Eden, still in active development on private servers, to avoid takedown.
But yes, the core settings for controls, cheats , mods and other parameters for Switch go way beyond Retroarch purpose
Suyu: https://github.com/suyu-emu/suyu-v0.0.4 and specifically the Linux core https://github.com/suyu-emu/suyu-v0.0.4/releases/download/v0.04-latest/suyu-libretro-core-linux-x64.tar.gz
I tried the core on my Linux system and made notes alongside. Unfortunately core core does not open (with or without game), with an error message:
[ERROR] [Core] Error(s): libboost_filesystem.so.1.83.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The package with the library is installed on my system. I searched for the file on the filesystem and found out it does not match the versions used in the core.
$ find /usr/lib -name "libboost_filesystem.so*"
/usr/lib/libboost_filesystem.so
/usr/lib/libboost_filesystem.so.1.92.0
I’m not sure how to install the firmware files correctly for the core. I just copied over my fully functional yuzu standalone emulator directory with all nand, keys and other files over to system/suyu in RetroArch. And pointed to it by the info file, not sure if its correct (with all the other core information):
# Firmware / BIOS
firmware_count = 1
firmware0_desc = "suyu firmware folder"
firmware0_path = "suyu"
firmware_opt = "true"
But it does not matter, because core does not run for me on my Linux desktop (Arch based EndeavourOS, in case it matters). Hope you guys have more luck. At least code is open source.
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No luck on my end either. While the core does load (On Windows 10) it closes immediately after trying to load something (nsp file)
[INFO] [Environ] SET_SUPPORT_NO_GAME: no.
[INFO] [Environ] SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: XRGB8888.
[INFO] [Environ] SET_VARIABLES.
[INFO] [Environ] SET_SERIALIZATION_QUIRKS.
[INFO] [Environ] GET_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY: “D:\ra_bck\versions\RetroArch 1.22.2. 2026-09-06\RetroArch-Win64\system”.
[INFO] [Content] Content loading skipped. Implementation will load it on its own.
But again, near zero familarity with Switch emulation in genreal so it’s likely I’m missing some files/setups etc.
Even worse, not much luck running standalone either. It did opened during the first initial setup then after asking to choose between gaming, dev or hacking or something to that effect it closed and now whenever I tried to start the exe it just closes after showing the logo for a second.
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I tried to build from source. Maybe this could work, with building by using the library from my system instead what they used to build the binary on their system. I don’t know if things work like this, but this failed too.
I installed missing development libraries and the configuration script started working. But now it expects a specific config file at “/usr/lib/cmake/Qt6Charts/Qt6ChartsConfig.cmake”, but mine is in “/usr/lib/cmake/Qt6ChartsConfig.cmake”.
I don’t know what to from here. Feel like I’m stuck now, can’t build or even configure the build from source. My hope was, building from source could build with the correct library version I was talking earlier. These aren’t issues with the emulator itself or the system / firmware files, its system libraries and building the program.
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As for me, I couldn’t even get a single standalone Switch emu to even open…one actually said I need a more recent build of Win10 (mind you, I am already on Win 10)…
until I tried ‘Eden’ that is and so far, it’s been smooth sailing with it (I only tried a few small games like ‘Limbo’).
Concerning the libretro core, I think I made some progress:
But other than a black screen -nothing playable so far. At least it’s better than closing immediately upon loading content. Basically I took the entire content of the Eden folder in appdata (cache config nand etc folders) and copied it in the system folder of RA…and I also copied that to a ‘suyu’ folder placed in ‘system’ for good measure because I have no idea what/where it actually expect this to be (also placed the .keys in the system folder).
Anyway, if I ever get farther than this I’ll post my results.
The keys files need to be in a subdirectory named “keys”, inside the suyu folder. The firmware needs to be installed through the GUI of the emulator / core I think, but I’m not entirely sure if an existing directory with a functional installation could be reused. I also copied my yuzu directory under system/suyu, but I can’t get that far anyway because of said library dependency issues.
Also the firmware and keys versions must match. And some games require a minimum firmware version. It’s been a few years now since I had done all of this, so I’m a bit rusty. Provided it is working the same.
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When I tried Limbo with Eden, I didn’t had to use/install the firmware (it did require to be pointed to the ‘keys’ though) so I never had it installed. Maybe that’s what the suyu core is expecting. I’ll try later on with the system installed to see if it make a difference.
edit: Nope. Installed the firmware (both keys and firmware 22.5); unfortunately, still only a black screen.
I copied the ‘keys’ folder and the ‘nand’ folders (where the firmware is installed if I’m not mistaken -in nand\system\Contents\registered). So I have both of these in a suyu folder within 'RA system…also both directly in system etc. basically, anywhere that the core might be looking for them -still only a black screen so I don’t believe it’s that causing the issue.
Shouldn’t be my PC/OS/system either as so far everything I tried with Eden worked without problems. So at this point, I don’t think there’s gonna be any more progress happening on my end. Of course if anyone has more luck/finds anything, please post.
Someone made a modified Snes9x core called Snes9x-Z.
Afaik, there’s no emulation accuracy improvement or additional features, it’s just optimized for speed (and yes, it was made with the help of AI but the author seems to be fairly experienced and didn’t just spat out a modified core without understand what they’re doing).
Grab it core here for various platforms:
So the suyu 0.0.4 version that was posted earlier doesn’t seem to work for anyone from what I seen so far.
Someone however, forked/posted a “0.0.5” version here. Source, Windows and Linux build available. No libretro core this time of course, unfortunately. I tested it and it works.
So at this point, I think it’s likely the 0.0.4 core does not work for anyone else either. But maybe if a core was made from 0.0.5. Unlikely, but who knows.
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How you get on them to get it?
Limited appeal because this was a console aimed at young girls with only few releases, but there are two fan-translations available which may pique people’s interest.
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Quoting my previous post because the author, dougchansan, who more or less took over the mantle/repo of suyu (original author quit) just posted version 0.0.11 yesterday…along with a new libretro core.
The 0.0.4 libretro build from the suyu author never worked for me but neither did the standalone 0.0.4 whereas the builds of dougchansan worked fine. So I’m more confident this time around but I have not tested the core yet.
If you’re on Windows, you’ll probably have to copy everything from the username\AppData\Roaming\suyu folder and copy that (most importantly the keys and nand folders but it’s probably best to copy everything) into a ‘suyu’ folder placed into RA’s system folder.
Version 0.0.11. Bottom of the page
edit: Only tested for a few seconds but…O_O holy moly:
Cores available for Windows, Android, Mac and Linux. As I wrote above, make sure to take everything from the …/appdata/…/suyu standalone folder and place that in a suyu folder placed in the RetroArch system folder.
Edit: Performance is great. Pretty much on part with standalone.
The “libretro-ization” appears to be minimal though; the core doesn’t pause when the menu is active regardless of your settings. The core seem to be using the same folder as the standalone (on Windows in appdata…\suyu) no matter what (so it seems you don’t have to put anything in RA’s system folder). I have not tested this but it got me wondering if it’s not also using certain settings from the appdata’s config folder as well. There are core options but they are minimal; much less than the standalone’s.
Certain games had rendering glitches such as Guacamelee! (but so did standalone from what I tested) making them pretty much unplayable, others like Super Mario Wonder crashed for me after a while -always at the same spot after selecting your character. Other games like Metroid Dread, FEZ or Limbo have zero issues so far.
I looked into the repo and source and there doesn’t seem to be an info file for now so you’ll have to be a bit creative in order to load the games. You can still make a custom playlist and put something like:
{
"path": "D:\\Switch\\FEZ (eShop).nsp",
"label": "FEZ (Switch - eShop)",
"core_path": "D:\\RetroArch_1-22-0\\cores\\suyu_libretro.dll",
"core_name": "Nintendo - Switch (Suyu)",
"crc32": "00000000|crc",
"db_name": "Nintendo - Switch.lpl"
},
so it’ll bypass any “use which core” problems when trying to select the content.
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Awesome! I’ll go back to it at some other time. Meanwhile here is my (incomplete, especially information about Libretro Features and bios probably) .info file I wrote for suyu 0.0.4 when testing. Maybe it can be used as a starting point for the “new” core:
Incomplete .info for Suyu 0.0.4
# Software Information
display_name = "Nintendo - Switch (Suyu)"
authors = "Suyu Team"
supported_extensions = "nsp|xci"
corename = "Suyu"
license = "GPL"
permissions = ""
display_version = "0.04 (Sep 5, 2026)"
categories = "Emulator"
# Hardware Information
manufacturer = "Nintendo"
systemname = "Nintendo Switch"
systemid = "switch"
# Libretro Features
database = "Nintendo - Switch"
supports_no_game = "false"
needs_fullpath = "true"
load_subsystem = "false"
hw_render = "true"
required_hw_api = "OpenGL >= 4.6 | Vulkan >= 1.1"
savestate = "true"
savestate_features = "basic"
memory_descriptors = "false"
# Firmware / BIOS
firmware_count = 1
firmware0_desc = "suyu firmware folder"
firmware0_path = "suyu"
firmware_opt = "true"
description = "suyu is a Nintendo Switch emulator and AArch64 native recompiler written in C++. It can run decrypted Switch titles using either: a) HLE/emulation mode — full hardware-level emulation via the suyu core (GPU, CPU, audio, services), b) Recompiler mode — ahead-of-time static recompilation of Switch AArch64 game code to native x86-64 executables, bundled with suyu's HLE backend. Based on Eden, with suyu's own improvements to UI, recompiler, and platform support."
I will test if I can compile this one. But currently little busy.
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Yeah, that works for the info file. Thank you.
Version 0.0.12 was released in the meantime (along with the libretro versions).
Some more screenshots of a few games I tested -Screenshots were made with the core of course but interestingly they don’t capture the shader being applied like it does normally for other cores that use hardware rendering (like Dolphin, Flycast etc.).
