When you launch RetroArch for the first time, the interface looks like this. There are 8 tabs:

• Main Menu: perform important actions like launching a game or quitting the program.
• Settings: to configure RetroArch
• History: your games history list
• Images: your images history list
• Music: your music history list
• Videos: you videos history list
• Netplay Rooms: find game sessions hosted by other gamers and join them.
• Add: this tab lets you scan your game collection to generate per system playlists. Playlists will be added as new tabs on the right.

In Main Menu->Online Updater you can download and update all the required or optional components for RetroArch.

This includes:

• Libretro cores: emulators and game engines.
• A game database: used by our scanning system to build playlists and display the games metadatas.
• Game thumbnails: boxart, title screen, in game screen, for each system.
• Controller profiles: automatic mappings for common gamepads, joysticks, and other game controllers Read more
• Cheats: cheats for the most common games.
• Shaders: video filters to apply on the game screen. Read more
• Content downloader: Free games and other downloadable content.

In the RetroArch GUI, game controllers are the preferred way to navigate. You can perform every action using the controller, including launching games or triggering the RetroArch menu from the active game.

When you need to type text in the settings interface, a multilanguage On Screen Keyboard will be displayed to let you type words and passwords with your controller or touchscreen.

The menu has been designed as an immersive experience: you will not have to switch from your controller to your keyboard to perform actions using the menu while your game keeps playing in the background.