Retro gaming distributions

• RetroPie vs Recalbox vs Lakka vs Batocera for retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi

Building blocks

• libretro/RetroArch
  • GitHub
    • Last release 2025-01
• EmulationStation (stale)
  • GitHub
    • Last release: 2014 (!)

Retropie

• Retropie docs
• Builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch

Logs:

• ./configs/all/emulationstation/es_log.txt

Config: /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

Batocera

see batocera.md

Lakka

• Website
• GitHub
• Based on LibreELEC and RetroArch
• Libretro's reference operating system distribution
• Up to date, 46k commits, 1.8k stars
• Last release 2024-04

Lakka config

• Change GUI language (Settings/User)
• Connect to Wifi
• SSH (Settings/Services)
  • User: root, PW: root
• Audio
  • Enable audio via HDMI
  • Add hdmi_drive=2 to /flash/config.txt
• Bluetoth
  • 8Bitdo Wireless Controller
  • won't pair automatically via GUI, manual config needed
  • Couldn't get persistent bluetooth config working

mount -o remount,rw /flash
vi /flash/config.txt

• Grow /storage filesystem

Recalbox

• Website
• Based on EmulationStation and RetroArch
• Gitlab
• Up to date, 44k commits
• Last release 2024-11
• Not based on any distribution, but build from scratch with buildroot

ROMs

• Where to Download Retropie ROMs?