Running the RetroArch Setup produces this dialogue box.

Running RetroArch.nsi in makensiw.exe I get this

MessageBox: 0: "RetroArch requires DirectX 9.0c and it was not detected. Please make sure to select this component during installation."
    FunctionEnd
    Section: "RetroArch" ->(SEC01)
    SectionIn: [RO] 
    SetOutPath: "$INSTDIR"
    SetOverwrite: try
    IfFileExists: "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg" ? 0 : +2
    CopyFiles: (silent) "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg" -> "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg.bak", size=0KB
    File: "${PREFIX}\RetroArch.7z" -> no files found.
    Usage: File [/nonfatal] [/a] ([/r] [/x filespec [...]] filespec [...] |
       /oname=outfile one_file_only)
    Error in script "C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\RetroArch.nsi" on line 127 -- aborting creation process
Line 118-143
  Section "${PRODUCT_NAME}" SEC01
  SectionIn RO
  SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
  SetOverwrite try
  IfFileExists "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg" 0 +2
    CopyFiles /SILENT "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg" "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg.bak"
  File "${PREFIX}\RetroArch.7z"
  Nsis7z::ExtractWithDetails "$INSTDIR\RetroArch.7z" "Installing package... %s"
  Delete "$INSTDIR\RetroArch.7z"
  IfFileExists "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg.bak" 0 +3
    CopyFiles /SILENT "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg.bak" "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg"
    Delete "$INSTDIR\retroarch.cfg.bak"
; Shortcuts
  !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_WRITE_BEGIN Application
  CreateDirectory "$SMPROGRAMS\$ICONS_GROUP"
  CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\$ICONS_GROUP\${PRODUCT_NAME}.lnk" "${PRODUCT_EXE_PATH}"
  CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\$ICONS_GROUP\${PRODUCT_NAME} (log to file).lnk" "${PRODUCT_EXE_PATH}" "-v --log-file retroarch-log.txt"
  CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\$ICONS_GROUP\${PRODUCT_NAME} Data Folder.lnk" "$INSTDIR"
  CreateShortCut "$DESKTOP\${PRODUCT_NAME}.lnk" "${PRODUCT_EXE_PATH}"
  !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_WRITE_END
SectionEnd
After some folder and file rearrangements to satisfy location grabs I get this.
Section: "-Post"
WriteUninstaller: "$INSTDIR\uninst.exe"
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\retroarch.exe\=$INSTDIR\retroarch.exe
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\DisplayName=$(^Name)
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\UninstallString=$INSTDIR\uninst.exe
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\DisplayIcon=$INSTDIR\retroarch.exe
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\DisplayVersion=${VERSION}
warning 6000: unknown variable/constant "{VERSION}" detected, ignoring (C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\RetroArch.nsi:159)
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\URLInfoAbout=http://www.retroarch.com/
WriteRegStr: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RetroArch\Publisher=libretro
SectionEnd
Section: "DirectX 9.0c Runtime" ->(SEC_DIRECTX)
SetOutPath: "$TEMP"
File: "${DXREDIST}" -> no files found.
Usage: File [/nonfatal] [/a] ([/r] [/x filespec [...]] filespec [...] |
   /oname=outfile one_file_only)
Error in script "C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\RetroArch.nsi" on line 166 -- aborting creation process
Line 164-174
Section /o "DirectX 9.0c Runtime" SEC_DIRECTX
    SetOutPath "$TEMP"
    File "${DXREDIST}"
    DetailPrint "Installing Microsoft DirectX..."
    ${If} ${AtMostWinME}  
      ExecWait '"$TEMP\${DXREDIST}"' $1
    ${Else}
      !insertmacro ShellExecWait "runas" '"$TEMP\${DXREDIST}"' "" "" ${SW_SHOW} $1
    ${EndIf}
    DetailPrint "Finished Microsoft DirectX Setup"
    Delete "$TEMP\${DXREDIST}"
    SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
SectionEnd
If I installed the directx 9.0c runtime libraries separately can this be safely ignored?
Links to my full logs below.
https://pastebin.com/1rRgYGXZ
https://pastebin.com/9JMT2CFC
          
@shtahp Where did you get the NSI file from? We have not made ours available publicly to my knowledge.
Anyways, it looks like you’re trying to use an msvc2005 (Windows 98) build on a much newer version of Windows, which isn’t supported (and will error in this exact way). Please try the mingw version of the installer (the one in the “windows” directory without the words msvc in it), that one should have no problems for you.
Thanks
          
I guess I never noticed it. Or it wasn’t there last I checked, idk. I see it now so I will go ahead and download the mingw version. I Downloaded and attempted to install from an older .msi installer, yes. My bad, I didn’t know those were meant for older versions of Windows. Thank you for notifying me. Also, the thing with the .nsi files. I guess I was able to obtain them since I am running a newer version of windows. IIRC for some reason or another the installer crashed and spat out two folders labeled, “$TEMP” and “$PLUGINSDIR”, the uninstall executable file, and the RetroArch.zip file.
          
I just realised what you meant. I didn’t download and install the windows 98 version. I used the Windows 10/8/7/Vista .msi installer, so I’m not entirely sure how this happened. I’m going to use the compilation version to see if that gives me any different results, though tbh, it’s running fine atm. Hopefully with mingw it will be running even better!
EDIT: I’ve got it working after compiling from source. One question though. How do I use the command line options for the retroarch runtime file? They don’t seem to be working.