How to add games

Games can come from two main sources: by listing it in a so-called metadata file, or by automatic detection from a third-party source (eg. Steam, GOG games).

A) Automatic detection

Pegasus has built-in support for several game sources, depending on the particular platform. You can turn these on or off from the Settings menu, under Enable/disable data sources.

The automatic detection requires no configuration. However, it also does not provide a way to ignore or edit games one-by-one – it uses whatever the third-party source provides, and only that. If this turns out to be an issue, you can always extend or replace them with custom metadata files, as described below.

For more information about the third-party sources, see this page.

B) Metadata files

Metadata files are human readable, simple text files, describing game informations and their groupings. It looks like this:

collection: Game Boy Advanced
launch: C:\GameBoy\myemulator.exe {file.path}


game: Advance Wars
file: Advance Wars (USA).gba
developer: Intelligent Games
genre: Strategy
players: 4
description:
   This turn-based strategy game hails back to a classic Japanese
   strategy game titled Famicom Wars. Advance Wars pits players against very
   computer AI in a number of battles involving submarines, warships, infantry,
   tanks, helicopters, and other weapons.
rating: 80%

A metadata file usually starts with a collection entry, for example a gaming platform, or any other grouping. There are no predefined names, you can use whatever you prefer. In this case, the collection also defines a default launch command for all the games in it.

A game entry describes the properties of a game. At the very least, it should have a file: this is what Pegasus will look for and launch. There can be more than one, eg. for games with multiple disks; in this case Pegasus will ask you which one to launch. If you look at the launch line of the collection, you can see {file.path}: this is a placeholder that will be replaced with the selected game file when you launch it.

Metadata files are called metadata.pegasus.txt, and are usually placed next to your games. You can the add them from the Settings menu, Game directories. Metadata files are documented in more detail here.