Generate RetroArch NSP Forwarders for Switch (with proper icon and title)

Generate RetroArch NSP Forwarders for Switch (with proper icon and title)


This tutorial will show you how to generate a RetroArch NSP Forwarder. The end result is a game on your HOME menu, and when you open it RetroArch is launched with the game directly running. Here's a video showing what it looks like.

I may or may not make an automated version of it, in a nice GUI, without any external dependency required. Time will tell. If someone wants to do it, go ahead.

1. What's needed

  • The latest release of hacBrewPack : https://github.com/The-4n/hacBrewPack/releases
  • keys.dat (I recommend using Lockpick to dump it)
  • The latest release of my modded hbloader : https://github.com/natinusala/nx-hbloader-retroarch-forwarder-mod/releases (build.zip)
  • The core (NRO) and the game you want to forward on your SD card (download the core through RA's online updater)
  • A 256x256 JPG icon of the game you want to forward (I suggest that you make your own)
  • (optional) a PNG to be displayed in the top-left corner of the screen while loading (normally Nintendo logo) and a GIF to be displayed in the bottom-right corner (normally an animated Switch logo)
2. Creating the NSP

Extract hacBrewPack somewhere and follow these steps:

1.copy your keys.dat where hacbrewpack.exe is
2.copy both "control" and "exefs" from my modded hbloader to the folder where hacbrewpack.exe is
3.inside the new "control", copy your 256x256 JPG and rename it "icon_AmericanEnglish.dat"
4.create a folder called "logo" where hacbrewpack.exe is
5.now the important part: create a folder called "romfs" where hacbrewpack.exe is
  • inside, create two files: "nextNroPath" and "nextArgv"
  • in "nextNroPath", write the path to the core on your SD card starting by "sdmc:" (for example sdmc:/retroarch/cores/quicknes_libretro_libnx.nro)
  • in "nextArgv", write the path to the core on your SD card starting by "sdmc":, followed by a whitespace and the path to the game on your SD card between quotes (for example sdmc:/retroarch/cores/quicknes_libretro_libnx.nro "sdmc:/roms/nes/Super Mario Bros. 3 (USA).nes")
  • Be sure not to put newlines in the end of any of those files
6.Open cmd in the folder where hacbrewpack.exe is and run "hacbrewpack.exe --titleid <title id> --titlename <game name> --titlepublisher <game publisher>"
7.If everything went fine, you should have your NSP in the "hacbrewpack_nsp" folder (called by its title id)

3. How does it work?

If a content path is set in argv when running RetroArch, the content is loaded instead of opening the menu.

This is a simple mod of hbloader which reads the NRO path ("nextNroPath") as well as argv ("nextArgv") from its romfs.

  1. you run the title
  2. hbloader starts
  3. hbloader reads the NRO path and its arguments from its romfs
  4. hbloader starts the NRO (the core), giving the arguments (the content path)
  5. The core is started, and loads the content given in arguments

"But why use romfs, you could have directly set the path in the code" I hear you ask. I used romfs because I wanted to be able to change the core and content path without rebuilding hbloader, for an eventual automated tool.

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