Custom BizHawk allows you to play any supported emulated game with BizHawk and have your viewers interact. Think of these as more a Disrupt Pack for your emulated games.

Viewers can invert your controls, screen and colors. Or they can force you to play at double speed, turn your game into a slide puzzle, rewind time, or shuffle you into a completely different game. Because these effects work at the emulator level, they work with any game BizHawk can run, no game-specific mod required.

NOTE: This mode does not support our normal retro game effects while using this or the shuffler. We're looking into ways to do that, but it is a very complex setup and we do not have an ETA on when we will support using existing Crowd Control packs.

1. Start with the App

• Open Crowd Control Desktop App

• Select Custom BizHawk from the game list

• Follow the Auto Setup checklist (left side of app)

• Click the Shuffler button in the checklist and choose how you want to play:

• Click Launch and BizHawk opens with Crowd Control already connected. Start your session and you're ready to test!

2. Test Before You Stream

• You can only test effects after pressing "Start Session" in the Crowd Control app

• Always test a few effects before going live to confirm effects trigger as expected

Skipping this step can lead to broken streams and confusion!

Using the Shuffler

The BizHawk Shuffler swaps between multiple games while you play, swapping between each of the games, and then picking up each game exactly where you left it. With shuffler mode enabled, your viewers also unlock the Shuffle Game effect to force a swap whenever they want.

1. In the checklist, click the Shuffler row and choose Use the BizHawk Shuffler.

2. The game path step is replaced with Add Games to Shuffler Folder or Shuffler Games.

3. Drop the ROMs you want in the rotation into the shuffler games folder, any mix of systems BizHawk supports is fine. When you switch back to the app, the checklist will show how many games it found (you need at least one).

4. Launch as normal. The shuffler picks the starting game itself, shuffles on its own schedule, and viewers can force extra shuffles with the Shuffle Game effect.

A note on support: The BizHawk Shuffler is a third-party tool (bizhawk-shuffler-2 by authorblues) that we bundle for convenience. We're happy to help with Crowd Control functionality and getting the shuffler running through our app, but for issues or questions about the shuffler itself (custom plugins, shuffler settings, game-specific shuffler quirks), please refer to the shuffler's own documentation and community rather than Crowd Control support.

Troubleshooting

A game won't load / crashes the emulator

The pack works with any game BizHawk support, if a ROM won't run in BizHawk on its own, Crowd Control can't fix that. Verify the ROM is valid and for a supported system. Some systems may need extra firmware/BIOS files in BizHawk.

BizHawk asks for firmware / BIOS files

Some systems (e.g. PlayStation, Sega CD, GBA) require firmware or BIOS files before BizHawk can run their games. Just like ROMs, we cannot provide these files. You are responsible for supplying your own legally obtained copies. Once you have them, load them into BizHawk via Config → Firmware (or drop them in BizHawk's firmware folder), then try launching again. If a game boots to a black screen or an error about missing firmware, this is almost always the cause.

For anything else, please reach out to our Support Discord with any questions or feedback.