In recent weeks we have published several articles about games. Although we didn't do it precisely for that, we talked about GarudaLinux, a good distro for him GamingOn how to get EmulationStation working without depending on other software like RetroPie or, better yet, pulling directly from EmulationStation Desktop Edition. In a universe like that of games there is much more to cover, but today we are going to try to close the circle of retro consoles by talking about RetroAchievements.
It is not worth spending a lot of time explaining in great detail what RetroAchievements is. To understand it, it is best to think about what happens when we are playing a relatively new console, we have an Internet connection and we do something that the game thinks is of some importance. At that time we will have an "Achievement" or "Trophy", and we will see a notification letting us know. RetroAchievements is a service that does just that, but it's designed to work with older games.
RetroAchievements is available on RetroArch and other emulators
The main difference between what RetroAchievements offers and what services such as Microsoft or Sony offer is that we are not dealing with something official. When a video game company releases a title, they also create the achievements/trophies, and nowadays it's hard to see one that doesn't have them. RA has to do the same, but it is the community that takes care of everything. This means that it is easy to have achievements / trophies in games like Super Mario Bros. or Sonic, but something more difficult in titles that were not so successful.
About how it works, the truth is that there is not much to tell either: we register on its website and in the emulator, in the Achievements settings, if it exists, we enter a username and password. As soon as you start a title, it will tell you how many achievements are available, if any. RetroArch displays a banner saying that the game could not be found if it is not in the database, if the hash does not match what they have, in which case it is worth trying another rom, or something is wrong, that anything is possible . It's kind of like a Trakt-like scrobbler. o Last.fm: although they have a web page and we can use it, of course, the work is done in compatible programs.
If no achievements appear
In the case of launching a game and not seeing achievements, we can go to the web, do a search and see if it is there. If it's not there, there's nothing to do. If he is, we have to see if he has achievements. In the event that you have them and we still don't see them, either we try another rom or we go to their FAQ to see what to do. In summary, you have to go to their Discord and pass them the hash of our rom so that they can add it as a valid game. If you don't have them, there is an option to vote to have them added, but they usually take their time
What's in the screenshot is The Terminator game, from Master System, and the "Untouchable Reese" achievement is unlocked when you clear the first stretch without getting hit by any bombs and go down to Skynet HQ.
About arcade games
Nothing about MAME is mentioned in the list above because it doesn't work. The point is that there are many MAMEs and they say that it would be very difficult to try. To be able to get arcade machine achievements you have to use FinalBurn Neo. It is possible that this happens in other "systems" and you have to look for one that is compatible with RetroAchievements.
Active Achievement Indicator
When an achievement is active, such as clearing the entire Master System Ninja Gaiden forest without using a sword or all of Sonic without dying, there will be an icon indicating it in the lower right, as long as we have the active option. If we want to know exactly what we have to do, we have no choice but to go to the emulator settings, enter the achievements section and look at the list of what is currently active.
Unlike what we see in a current console that is connected to the official service, at the time of writing this article we cannot see all the achievements from the same application. To see what we have achieved, we have to start a title and watch it from the compatible application, and sometimes we don't even see it. It is even possible that the achievements will jump every time we do what it requires, something that I personally would like to see improved.
Where we can check our progress is on the official website, going to this link and then clicking on “My Unlocked Achievements” (right now in English). We will see something like the following:
RetroAchievements also has a social part
The achievement appears in the list, with its icon on the left, the points earned, the author, the game, and the date it was earned. Clicking on the game image we can see our progress on it.
RetroAchievements has been around for a long time, but not yet compatible with some popular emulators. For example, although it is said that it is already in the Nightly version, PPSSPP does not support it in its "Standalone" version, that is, in the application itself. RetroArch's ppsspp_libretro core is supported, but not in the emulator with its own user interface and options. The one from RetroArch isn't bad, but the official one allows you to improve the quality of the graphics (PSP x2, PSP x3...) and make all kinds of adjustments. Come on, it's better and it doesn't support RA.
Like on PSN or Xbox Live, too we can follow users and send them messages. In your home page There is also a graph that indicates how many users are connected per hour, which can help us start playing looking for the rush hour.
RetroAchievements Hardcore Points and Softcore Points
There are two types of achievements or ways to get them: the softcore or easy mode allows us to have certain settings active, such as saving and fast rewinding, and the hardcore or not difficult The hardcore mode is nothing more than the way in which it was played when we could not make use of these tools. There is a list or ranking for each mode, one for softcore and one for hardcore. RetroArch allows you to activate or reactivate it from the settings, but there are cores like FBNeo that are not compatible.
If you're a fan of classic consoles, you can't help but sign up for RetroAchievements. But be careful, these games are engaging, and if we can get achievements, even more.