marvin.im

The Ultimate FireTV Stick Guide

Hey guys,

in todays post I’ll guide you to get the maximum out of your Fire TV Stick.

Tested with

  • FireTV Stick Gen 2
  • FireTV 4k
  • FireTV Stick 4k

I think the the first generation of the firetv stick might be to slow, but it’s as fine with the second generation as it is with the latest 4k version

Updates from February 2019

I’ve just updated to the latest FireTV Stick (FireTV Stick 4k) and I tried to reduce the apps. Now I only use

  • Kodi version 18.0
  • RetroArch with the following cores
    • Nintendo - Game Boy / Color (TGB Dual)
    • Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (VBA-M)
    • Nintendo - NES / Famicom (QuickNES)
    • Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (ParaLLEl N64)
    • Nintendo - SNES / Famicom (Snes9x 2010)
    • Sony PlayStation (PCSX ReARMed)

So this time RetroArch also replaced Mupen64 AE as Nintendo 64 emulator and FPSE as PS1 emulator. Which is a really good thing - since now I also need to configure my Controllers on one place, and I don’t need to pay/donate for anything.

I also switched the FireTV Controler with a Cheap Bluetooth Controller (2 of them for 16 Euros on ebay). They go by the name: X3 Bluetooth Android Controller (FW: V11) and I paired them using Home+X for a few seconds and the device appeard as Gamepad in other bluetooth devices - it would’nt appear in the game controller pairing of the firetv stick - but it works fine

What we are going to do:

Install Apps

Install adb on your Computer and establish a connection with your firetv stick.

adb kill-server
adb connect <IP-Of-Your-FireTv>
adb install <path to kodi apk>
adb install <path to retroarch apk>
adb install <path to android apk>

Now all your Apps should be installed. You can use adb shell or adb push as well!

Instead of installing any kind of FTP/File Explorer etc. I use Kodi and it’s internal file manager to copy and sort ROMs.

Personally I store all my ROMs beneath: /sdcard/RetroArch/downloads/<platform>

RetroArch

I use this for the following platforms and installed the following cores:

  • Game Boy / Game Boy Color (TBG Dual)
  • Game Boy Advance (VBA-M)
  • NES / Famicom (QuickNES)
  • SNES / Super Famicom (Snes9x, 2010)

I also switched the following Settings to have the best experience:

  • Settings / User Interface / Show Advanced Settings -> ON
  • Settings / Input / All Users Control Menu -> ON
    • This makes it easier when you connect multiple controllers

now you can select the devices for each user by binding the controller to each user input

Mupen64 AE

This one is used to emulate Nintendo 64, and it does a great job with that!

Unfortunately it can be a bit of a pain to get it to work nicely with our Amazon FireTV GameControler.

First check how your controller was mapped (the file I provieded can help you)

Here are the steps to get it right:

  • Open Mupen64
  • Open settings / Input / Controller

here you can see how your controller is mapped and which keys are triggered.

Since the FireTV Stick doesn’t have a Touchscreen to modify the mapping we can go to:

Settings / Extended / Accessibility / Big-screen mode

Now go back to Settings / Input / Controller and modify you mapping. Make sure to save it as profile (for the other players controllers) You can switch back to normal display mode to test the mapping and vice versa

You can also just install the following Controller Mapping if you’re using the official FireTV Stick Game Controller from Amazon.

Configure it for all available Controller Slots, so it will be easier for multiplayer

FireTV-Game-Controller-Mapping.txt

4:-47,5:-45,3:-34,2:-33,1:-32,0:-31,11:-30,10:-29,9:-24,8:-23,19:-4,18:-3,17:-2,16:-1,7:96,6:99,13:102,12:103,
0
  • Start Button is mapped on Break
  • Z Button is mapped on Gas

Enabling other Controllers

Unfortunately it is impossible to trigger the slider to enable the input devices for player 2 to 4.

You need as a workaround send touch events to the location of the slider using adb.

Depending on the resolution the following values might differ. My FireTV uses 1920x1080

Open Settings / Input

Send from your PC to the FireTV Stick:

adb shell input tap 1800 570 # toggles slider for player 2
# use 1800 650 for player 3 and so on - just try what works

After other players are activated you need to make sure that the controllers are mapped before starting the game - you’ll find a Multiplayer Section beneath the Play menu where you can map each controller - it makes sense to untick the Tickbox to be able to play as single player.

Additional Tweaks

  • I changed the audio to a Default buffer, sounds better.
  • Try the different video plugins. gles2glide64 seems to work the best for video, at the cost of some framerate drops.
  • Turn off touch support.

That’s it

Have fun and enjoy your new setup!