ES-DE vs Daijishō vs Beacon: pick and set up an Android frontend

Compare the three most popular Android game frontends and set one up step by step: ROM paths, scraping, emulator linking and making it your home screen.

A frontend turns a pile of emulator apps into one console-style library with box art. It doesn't emulate anything itself. It just launches the right emulator for each game.

The quick comparison

• ES-DE: the most polished and preconfigured, with 150+ systems and great themes. The Android version is paid (Patreon, Samsung Galaxy Store or Huawei AppGallery; buy once, use on all your devices). Works best when all your games live in one root folder.
• Daijishō: free and open source on Google Play. Very flexible, and handles games split across internal storage and SD. You add each system's path yourself.
• Beacon: a simple paid launcher on Google Play. Fast setup, but reviewers say its scraping is weaker.

Tip: Retro Game Corps' ES-DE Directories on GitHub is a ready-made ROMs folder (download ROMs.zip from its Releases page) containing every ES-DE system subfolder from the Android app. Unzip it to your microSD card, drop your own game dumps into the matching subfolders, and point ES-DE at it later; folder-agnostic frontends like Daijishō or Beacon can use the same layout.

Set up ES-DE

1. Buy and download it from the official ES-DE page. Check the MD5 hash they provide.
2. First launch: choose a folder for ES-DE's data, then pick your ROM directory. ES-DE can create the system folders for you.
3. Put your own game dumps in the matching system folders.
4. Main menu → Scraper → choose ScreenScraper (free account) → Scrape now.
5. Main menu → Other settings → alternative emulators, if you want e.g. a standalone emulator instead of RetroArch for one system.
6. Optional: set ES-DE as the Android home app so the handheld boots into your library.

Set up Daijishō

1. Install from Google Play.
2. Settings → Library → Import platforms (pick the systems you play).
3. For each platform: Sync paths → add the folder with those games.
4. Pick the player (emulator) for each platform. Daijishō lists the installed ones it supports.
5. Sync, then let it scrape the art.
6. Tip: on AYN devices, set L2/R2 to "both" (analog + digital) so the triggers work in menus.

Which should you use?

If you want it to just look great and you keep everything in one place, get ES-DE. If you want free and flexible, or your games are split across storage, use Daijishō. Both are fine; many owners keep both installed.

Compat reports: RetroArch → Compat reports: Dolphin → Compat reports: PPSSPP →

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