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Emulator TICO

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digdat0 edited this page Jul 23, 2026 · 4 revisions

Systems: multi-system frontend · Runs as: homebrew NRO · Get it: ticoverse.com

Best effort: this guide is community-maintained and may lag behind new releases. The emulator's own site (linked above) is the authoritative source — if anything here doesn't match what you see, trust their instructions.

TICO is a polished multi-system emulator frontend for the Switch, and the emulator HaulNX's folder layout grew up alongside — TICO's system folder names (nes, snes, n64, gba, psx, dc, ...) are the same slugs HaulNX uses under sd:/roms/. That makes the two line up almost for free; you just have to make them agree on one ROM root.

Install

  1. Download TICO from ticoverse.com.
  2. Copy tico.nro to sd:/switch/ (or sd:/switch/tico/).
  3. First launch creates its data folder at sd:/tico/ — config, BIOS folders, and its default ROM library at sd:/tico/roms/.

Line up the ROM folders

TICO defaults to sd:/tico/roms/<system>/; HaulNX defaults to sd:/roms/<system>/. Pick one of these — don't do both:

Option A — point TICO at HaulNX's library (recommended). Edit sd:/tico/config/general.jsonc and set the ROM path:

{
  // ...existing settings...
  "roms_path": "sdmc:/roms"
}

Because the system folder names match, everything HaulNX has downloaded shows up under the right console after a rescan.

Option B — point HaulNX at TICO's library. In HaulNX: Settings › Manage data › ROM Download Folder → set it to sd:/tico/roms. HaulNX creates any missing system folders there and downloads straight into TICO's world.

Option A keeps your library emulator-neutral (RetroArch and friends can share it); Option B is the move if you already have a big collection under sd:/tico/roms and don't want to relocate it.

Rescan after downloading

TICO doesn't watch the filesystem. After a HaulNX session:

  1. Open TICO and press R.
  2. Hover over the console whose games you added and press +.
  3. Choose Rescan Games.

BIOS files

Consoles that need BIOS files (PSX, Dreamcast, Saturn, Sega CD, GameCube): drop them directly in sd:/tico/system/<system>/ — no subfolders. Example: PSX wants scph5501.bin at sd:/tico/system/psx/scph5501.bin.

Format notes

  • DS ROMs must be unzipped before TICO will see them. Most other cartridge systems accept zips.
  • CD-era systems prefer .cue/.bin or .chd — if a game came down as a zip, extract it into the same folder.

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