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Kazeta Info (KZI) File Reference

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Alesh Slovak edited this page Feb 15, 2026 · 6 revisions

A file at the top level of the cart with the extension .kzi tells Kazeta how to launch the game. The filename can be anything, but using a consistent name such as cart.kzi is recommended.

The file has a single key and value per line with the = symbol separating them. The available keys are:

  • Name: The display name of the game
  • Id: A user specified id for the game, this should be unique among all your games and should not contain any spaces or other special characters
  • Exec: The executable/command to run the game
  • Icon: The path to the icon (must be PNG format)
  • GamescopeOptions: Additional options to pass to gamescope
  • Runtime: The name of the runtime to use to launch the game (Download runtime files)

Linux example

Name=Shovel Knight
Id=shovel-knight
Exec=./ShovelKnight
Icon=icon.png
Runtime=linux

Windows example

Name=Shovel Knight
Id=shovel-knight
Exec=ShovelKnight.exe
Icon=icon.png
Runtime=windows

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive example

For emulation runtimes such as Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, you simply specify the filename and path of the ROM you wish to launch.

Name=Sonic the Hedgehog
Id=sonic-1
Exec="Sonic The Hedgehog (USA, Europe).md"
Icon=icon.png
GamescopeOptions=--filter pixel
Runtime=megadrive

Field details

Name

The name is the official name of the game. It may contain spaces and other special characters. Not all special characters can be rendered by the font used by the Kazeta bios.

Id

This field is very important, it must be unique between all of your games, otherwise save data will be overwritten. It should only contain lower case letters and numbers and -. You can set any id, however, using the game's name as a basis is recommended.

Exec

This field specifies the executable to use to run the game.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any filenames or paths that contain spaces or other special characters must be encapsulated in double quotes.

Windows Exec

For Windows games it should include the path to the exe, for example content/ShovelKnight.exe. Launch options for the game can be appended after the executable name.

Linux Exec

When using no runtime or using the Linux runtime, usually directly specifying the directory does not work, instead use the following pattern: cd content && ./ShovelKnight

This changes the directory to the content directory where the game is stored in this example and then runs the game.

You can also specify environment variables for the game to use, for example: VAR=1 ./ShovelKnight

Icon

This field specifies the path to the icon. The icon must be in PNG format. Use a size of 32x32 for the best results.

This icon is displayed in the Kazeta bios screen to represent game save data on the screen.

GamescopeOptions

Anything in this field is applied directly as options to gamescope. You can use this to set a specific resolution, filter or scaling algorithm, and more. See the full list of available options for details.

Runtime

This field tells Kazeta what runtime to use to run the game. Runtimes provide a compatibility layer for games that do not run on the system natively. There are many different runtimes, including: Windows, Linux, and the built-in default "None" (empty) runtime.

Runtime files look like "windows-1.0.kzr" and "linux-1.0.kzr".

When specifying the runtime, you can include the name only, e.g. "windows" or "linux", include the version, e.g. "windows-1.0", or specify the full filename.

Download runtime files

Read more technical details about runtimes

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