Custom Skins for Android Emulators (Updated)

Enhance your emulation experience on Android with this set of custom skins for various emulator apps! This is a follow up to the popular set of DraStic and Pizza Boy skins I have made years ago, but now the buttons are fully reactive! In addition, the buttons are now movable rather than a static background image. Mix and match buttons and backgrounds to create dozens of different combination and layouts. 

New skins and layouts are planned to be added with no ETA.

Plus Skins

Making skins is hard work! To show support, please consider purchasing the "Plus" skin collection! This collection includes alternative backgrounds/virtual buttons and exclusive sets! Both free and plus collections will be updated, however some skins will be exclusive to plus. Any download with "(Plus)" in the name is part of this collection. You only need to pay the minimum amount once to unlock access to all Plus skins and backgrounds.

Plus currently includes:

• GBC Midnight Blue
• GBA Midnight Blue
• GBC Pikachu Edition buttons
• LD6 Lolite Indigo
• Kirby Canvas Curse
• High-res and cleaned up collage image
• Analogue Colors Edition

How to Setup DraStic

Due to newer version of Android requiring scope storage, installing skins is a bit tricky, but just follow these steps and you should be good to go. You must use Scoped Storage, otherwise DraStic will not be able to have access to the skin assets. If you already have DraStic setup, you can skip these steps and go onto "Installing Skins". 

Scoped Storage Setup

1. Open DraStic
2. Go to "Change Options"
3. Go to "General"
4. Scroll down and go to "System Directory"
5. Select "Scoped Storage Folder"
6. Create a new folder (e.g. DraStic)
7. Select "Use this folder"
8. Restart DraStic

Installing Skins for DraStic

Note that the following instructions are not for legacy skin files

1. Download skins and backgrounds from this page. Files for DraStic will have "DraStic" in the download title.
2. Inside each zip file are two folders, backgrounds and virtual_controller, for now, only pay attention to the virtual_controller folder.
3. Put the virtual_controller folder in your selected scoped storage folder
   1. 1. If done correctly, your folder structure should look like:
         - your selected scoped storage       
             - virtual_controller

Installing Backgrounds for DraStic

Backgrounds currently support the following aspect ratios*:

• 16:9
• 18:9
• 18.5:9
• 19:9
• 19.5:9
• 20:9
• Foldables (inner screen)

If your phone's aspect ratio is not listed above, please leave a comment requesting it.

Since there are many different backgrounds for different devices, it is recommended that you only add backgrounds that you want to use to the backgrounds folder

1. Download skins and backgrounds from this page. Files for DraStic will have "DraStic" in the download title.
2. Inside each zip file are two folders, backgrounds and virtual_controller
3. Navigate into the backgrounds folder inside the downloaded zip
4. In each of the folders, you will find various backgrounds, only extract backgrounds you are planning to use
5. Put your selected background(s) into your selected scoped storage  > backgrounds
   

* Some skins may not support all aspect ratio and orientation

Applying DraStic Skins

1. Open DraStic
2. Go to "Change Options"
3. Go to "Virtual Gamepad"
4. Select "Skin"
5. Select the skin you want to use

Some skins like the GBA and GBC share the same buttons. Look for the download with "buttons" in the title for these skins.

Applying DraStic Backgrounds

1. Open DraStic
2. Select "load new game" or "continue"
3. Select "Start game"
4. Click on the menu button (center bottom of screen, may have an up arrow icon)
5. Select "Menu"
6. Go to "Edit Screens and Virtual Pad"
7. Select the layout you want to apply the background to
8. Select "Menu"
9. Select "Set background image"
10. Pick the image you want to set as the background
11. Select "Menu"
12. Either select "Save as global layout" to apply this to all games, OR select "Save for current Game" to only have the layout and background applied to the current game

Looking for the legacy version? Download for the old version is provided here as well (DraStic custom skins legacy).

Applying Pizza Boy Skins

Download files containing "Pizza Boy" in the name are skins and backgrounds for Pizza Boy C and A. If the name of the file is "Pizza Boy A and C", that means it is compatible with both version. 

1. Download desired skin from download list
2. Open Pizza Boy A or C
3. If a game is running, open the menu in the bottom left, tap "Settings"
4. If a game is not running and you are in the rom menu, tap the settings icon near the top right corner.
5. Tap "User Interface"
6. Tap "Full skin"
7. Tap "Import from zip"
8. Find the downloaded zip file
9. Tap "Set full skin"
10. Select the skin you have added

Applying Citra (MMJ) Skins and Backrounds

Citra (MMJ) was not designed for skins originally, so there are limitations to the skins provided. D-pad animation will not be as full feature as other emulator skins and all buttons scale together.

1. Download desired skin from download list
2. Inside each Citra skin are a background folder and a zip file
3. Move the zip file into the "theme" folder inside of the "citra-emu" folder. By default, the "citra-emu" folder will be at the root of your android device's storage.
4. Look at the backgrounds folder inside the downloaded skin file. Here you will find multiple backgrounds for different aspect ratios and layouts. 
   1. Find the background image that has the proper aspect ratio and desire layout for your device
   2. Rename the files you have picked to remove suffix that comes after "bg_landscape" or "bg_portrait", but keep the file extension intact.
      1. If done correctly, this should be the folder structure:
             - citra-emu
                 - citra skin name.zip
                     - bg_portrait.jpg
                     - bg_landscape.jpg
5. Launch Citra MMJ
6. Go into settings, this will be located near the top right corner and looks like a CPU icon.
7. Find the option called "Theme" and tap on it
8. Select the downloaded theme from the list

Themes like GBC and GBA share the same button skins, make sure to download the "buttons" zip and merge the backgrounds you want to use into one zip file.

Applying screen borders and other decor for Pizza Boy

You may have notice that some of the Pizza Boy skins backgrounds are barebone and lack things like speaker holes, screen borders, and other decor. This is because they are part of the "Pizza Boy A and C - Decor Stickers" file download. Using Pizza Boy's sticker feature, this allows you to freely move the border, speaker, and other decor to wherever you like. 

1. Download "Pizza Boy A and C - Decor Stickers" zip file
2. Extract the images to a folder on your device
3. Open Pizza Boy A or C
4. If a game is running, open the menu in the bottom left and tap "Edit layout"
5. If a game is not running and you are in the rom menu, load a ROM, open the menu in the bottom left, and tap "Edit layout"
6. Tap the icon that looks like a photo frame on the bottom toolbar
7. Find the folder that contains the images you downloaded
8. Select the image you want to use
9. Drag and resize the image to the position you want using the bottom toolbar.