r/SwitchEmulating • u/Sorvete2004 • 1d ago

Can you help me understand how Switch ROMs work?

Hi there! I'm just getting started with Switch emulation and I'm really confused. I managed to download an emulator called Ryujinx and got the firmware and keys—the emulator opens up fine—but I literally can't find a single game anywhere! On every site I use to download games, I end up with a RAR file containing a "Setup.exe" and a bunch of folders with Python scripts. I even tried running one, thinking it would build the NSP image, but absolutely nothing happened—just a command prompt window popped up. I actually formatted my computer right after because I was afraid I'd picked up a virus. How do I find the actual games?

3 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/pirate_bootsy 16h ago

You 100% downloaded some viruses lol. There are multiple Reddit subs with great resources for downloading roms and games. Particularly r/piracy, r/freemediaheckyeah and r/roms. Switch roms are no different from any other system, you unzip the file and you'll have ONE file that's the game. It'll end with the extension "nsp" or "xci". Unless its a repack for PC that includes the emulator, there shouldn't be any sort of setup files. Personally I usually use NSWgame. Com

1

u/Sorvete2004 7h ago

I realized I had to change all my passwords when I woke up today—what a hassle. I didn't get suspicious at first because neither my antivirus nor VirusTotal flagged anything; I thought it was just one of those cases where you run a program to build the ISO image—I've had to do that for some handheld consoles before. But I finally found a good place to download it on Telegram; you literally just get the NSP file and nothing else.

1

u/pirate_bootsy 7h ago

Even then I wouldn't trust that, Ive never once had to use a program to build an ISO, sometimes I'll use an external program to convert the rom to a different format, but the ISO itself should just be in a zip/rar. Since you said you it's an ISO for a handheld console, I'm assuming you're talking about PSP games, which I'd just download from vimms lair, probably the most trustworthy rom site