RetroPie

RetroPie has a brand new website – https://retropie.org.uk.

Although the old site living under http://blog.petrockblock.com has served us well over the last years, the forum was becoming increasingly slow, and the project really needed its own presence.

Hopefully you will like what we have come up with – a simple site with general info, and a new forum running off nodebb – which is not only fast, but also works much better on mobile devices.

The old forum posts have not been moved, as we decided it would be better to start with a fresh layout, and it would have made the migration far more complicated. You can however access the old forum via http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/forum/retropie-project-forum/.

Thanks to our excellent hosting company Mythic-Beasts who have sponsored us by providing additional resources and bandwidth. You can find out a bit more on our Hosting Information page.

This version is released a little earlier than originally planned, due to the release of the fantastic Raspberry Pi 3 – which our previous 3.5 will not boot on due to having out of date firmware. Along with Raspberry Pi 3 compatibility this release brings a bunch of interesting experimental emulators such as Daphne for emulation of classic LaserDisc arcade games, a myriad of libretro cores, and a few game engines. We’ve also worked around the pesky insert coin bug that has plagued the arcade emulators.

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation.

Prebuilt images are available GitHub – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases/tag/3.6. You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian set up – Instructions can be found at the GitHub project site.

To get the Raspberry Pi 3 built-in Bluetooth working please update the RetroPie-Setup Script before using the Bluetooth configuration menu, or alternatively drop to a terminal and do

sudo apt-get install pi-bluetooth

Changes since 3.5:

• Support for the Raspberry Pi 3
• Added new experimental modules:
  • Daphne (Laserdisc Emulator)
  • Libretro-QuickNES
  • Libretro-Beetle PSX (x86 only)
  • Libretro-Beetle Lynx
  • GemRB engine (Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape)
  • ResidualVM (Engine for Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island)
  • Libretro-MESS (based on the most recent version of MAME)
  • Libretro-MAME (based on the most recent version of MAME)
• Added EmulationStation theme Simpler Turtle Pi to the theme installer from Omnija.
• Added version details and uninstall option to the RetroPie Setup Script.
• Fixed insert coin not working on arcade based emulators.
• Various other bugfixes and improvements.

We are pleased to announce the release of RetroPie 3.5. After taking into consideration the feedback from the vibrant RetroPie community, we have provided a few more functions to simplify the user experience such as automatic expansion of the filesystem on boot, less terminal text, and more configuration options for the runcommand launch menu. We have also fixed up some bugs with Raspbian Jessie such as the USB ROM service and have added two new experimental modules – the Löve game engine and a ColecoVision emulator (CoolCV).

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Prebuilt images are available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/, or can be grabbed from GitHub – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases/tag/3.5. You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian Jessie / Raspbian Wheezy set up – Instructions can be found at the GitHub project site.

Changes since 3.4:

• Added new experimental modules, Lӧve 2D Game Engine, Colecovision (CoolCV).
• Debian usbmount package fixed up for systemd udev compatibility, making the USB ROM service work properly again without being killed after 30 seconds. Also added ntfs support by default.
• Added an arcade rom folder option where all arcade games can be placed.
• Improvements to EmulationStation (Fix crash on rom delete, direct launch, symlink support, and other bug fixes).
• Improvements to the Runcommand Launch Menu: Cleaner dialog on launch, ability to show game artwork on launch, ability to disable joystick support as well as the ability to disable the entire runcommand launch menu.
• PS3 Controller improvements – Add multiple gasia and shanwan controller support.
• Updated lr-mgba emulator binaries (new upstream release of mgba 0.4.0)
• Improvements on pre-built image – disabled screen blanking, quieter boot, and filesystem automatically expanded on first boot.
• Various other bug fixes.

The Raspberry Pi show The Pi Podcast did an interview with me and two other members of the RetroPie team for Episode #13. Big thanks to them for inviting us on the show.

I was a little nervous before the interview, but it turned out fine – they did some good editing 🙂

If you own a Raspberry Pi or are thinking of getting one, then you should definitely check it out. They release a new show roughly every two weeks, with Raspberry Pi related news, chat and interesting interviews. It is professionally produced, and hosted by three knowledgeable and friendly Raspberry Pi enthusiasts.

Mostly fixes and improvements rather than new stuff this time folks. There were some problems with our RetroArch configuration defaults in RetroPie 3.3 which should be sorted now, and we have fixed up a few things that didn’t work correctly with Raspbian Jessie. We also have added early support for using the RetroPie-Setup script on a X86/X11 desktop setup, as well as some basic support for building EmulationStation & RetroArch + cores on the ODroid-C1. For more information regarding installation on x86 see https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/RetroPie-Ubuntu-15.10-x86-Flavor.

We are now using Raspbian Jessie as the base for the RetroPie image. Those using Wheezy can update by following the instructions at https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-setup/wiki/Updating-RetroPie – however moving to Jessie is recommended. As it takes time to pre-build binaries, in the future we will only be providing pre-built binaries for Raspbian Jessie.

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Prebuilt images are available GitHub – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases/tag/3.4. You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian Jessie / Raspbian Wheezy set up – Instructions can be found at the GitHub project site.

Changes since 3.3:

• Now using Raspbian Jessie for the RetroPie image.
• Fixes for controller input issues with RetroArch including improved config generation to work around problems with 8bitdo controllers.
• Fixed up Bluetooth pairing module on Jessie.
• Improvements to the Xbox userspace driver (xboxdrv) including partial support of Xbox One controller.
• Can now choose to exit or restart Emulation Station. Metadata will no longer be lost if choosing to shutdown or reboot.
• Preliminary support for using the RetroPie-Setup script on x86 + X11 on Debian/Ubuntu and Ubuntu on the Odroid-C1 (building from source only).
• $HOME/.emulationstation has relocated to /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation – but is symlinked from the original location. The USB Rom Service script will backup all of /opt/retropie/configs to USB. Previously it only backed up /$HOME/.emulationstation.
• Support for choosing RetroArch shaders and overlays from the RetroPie-Setup configuration editor.
• Added pixel theme from Rookervik to theme installer.
• Wonderswan and NeoGeo Pocket separated into Wonderswan/Wonderswan Colour, NeoGeo Pocket/NeoGeo Pocket Colour.
• Various other bugfixes and improvements.

After 2 months of work, RetroPie v3.3 has been released. Highlights include beta images built on Raspbian Jessie for beta testing, PlayStation Portable and Dreamcast emulators moved out of experimental, and improved controller configurations including automatic control set up for Mupen64plus and Reicast.

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Downloads available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/. For those who want to install on top of Raspbian Wheezy – the system can be installed directly from the GitHub project, where you can also find a detailed list of changes.

Changes since 3.2.1:

• Mupen64plus controller configs (including hotkeys) and Reicast (Dreamcast) controller configs added to the autoconfiguration script in emulationstation. Mupen64plus is now the default n64 emulator due to compatibility.
• AdvanceMAME 1.4 (replaces 1.2 – still based on MAME 0.106).
• PlayStation Portable emulator ppsspp is included by default (libretro version is default, the standalone version is optional).
• Removed cpc4rpi emulator, and added CapriceRPI which has many improvements over cpc4rpi.
• Updated libretro binaries including lr-fba-next updated to v0.2.97.37, and an improved lr-caprice32 which is now moved out of experimental and is the default Amstrad CPC emulator.
• Updates to Reicast emulator, which has been moved out of experimental.
• New experimental modules: OpenTTD (open source simulation game based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe), Wolf4SDL (Port of Wolfenstein 3d), Zdoom (Enhanced Port of the official DOOM source)
• PS3 controller improvements (added Gasia PS3 clone Support).
• Updated OpenMSX emulator (to the dev version 0.12.0+).
• Beta images based on Raspbian Jessie are included. They may have bugs that are not present in the Raspbian Wheezy release.
• New themes added to the theme installer (Eudora from AmadhiX, Tronkyfran from Tronkyfran, and Retroplay Canela from InsecureSpike).
• RetroArch joy-config tool removed (custom configs are now done through the RGUI or manually).
• Various other bugfixes/improvements.

There was a set of configuration options introduced just before the release of 3.2 which didn’t get enough testing. The result is, if you installed a fresh 3.2 image, and are using a controller that lacks an analogue stick, the digital d-pad may not function.

If you upgraded via updating RetroPie-Setup and re-installing from binary, then your configuration won’t have been overwritten and everything should be ok – this only affects new installs.

Downloads available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/

If you have a 3.2 image and you want to manually fix it, load /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg into an editor and remove the lines at the end that look like

input_player1_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player2_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player3_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player4_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player5_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player6_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player7_analog_dpad_mode = 1
input_player8_analog_dpad_mode = 1

You can do this manually from a terminal using nano or by editing the file via the network share (configs/all/retroarch.cfg) – you can also use the configuration editor from the RetroPie-Setup script.

Soon after the release of RetroPie 3.1, we are please to announce v3.2. Although only a few weeks have passed, there have been a fair number of improvements include some new experimental emulators, and configuration module improvements.

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Downloads available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/. For those who want to install on top of Raspbian Wheezy – the system can be installed directly from the GitHub project, where you can also find a detailed list of changes.

Full changelog

3.2 (26th Oct 2015)

• Fixed binaries of mupen64plus and lr-tyrquake and removed mupen64plus-testing as it is now included in the default mupen64plus.
• Updated to Hatari 1.9, and built in IPF image support.
• Binary installs are now supported for those running under Raspbian Jessie – although there still may be bugs.
• New experimental modules – ppsspp / lr-ppsspp (PlayStation Portable emulator), px68k (X68000 emulator – too slow to be usable on a rpi2 though), and opentyrian (a port of the DOS shoot-em-up Tyrian).
• uae4arm is now moved from experimental.
• Improvements to the generic bluetooth pairing module.
• Improvements to ps3controller pairing
• Fixed SNESDev driver building (failed on first attempt).
• New Turtle Pi Emulation Station theme installable via the themes installer
• Various other bugfixes.
• GLideN64 video plugin for mupen64plus

After a couple of months of work since 3.0, we are pleased to announce the next version of RetroPie – v3.1. Changes include a new default theme called “Carbon” which is much less memory hungry than the previous, new Arcade emulators (lr-mame2003 and lr-fba-next), and new GUI configuration tools. We now also provide images for use with Berryboot. See the changelog below for more information.

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Downloads available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/. For those who want to install on top of Raspbian Wheezy – the system can be installed directly from the GitHub project, where you can also find a detailed list of changes.

Thanks to BuZz, Death259, Gizmo98, Herbfargus, PetRockBlock and Rookervik (amongst others) for their contributions to this release.

Full changelog

3.1 (6th Oct 2015)

• Workaround for lr-snes9x-next crashes for certain games.
• New theme installation script and excellent new theme “Carbon” which is lighter on memory than the Simple theme (no more white screen of death! – works with all systems).
• Initial bluetooth module for pairing keyboards.
• We now provide images for use with Berryboot.
• Moved Super Mario War out of experimental.
• New default lr-fba-next emulator for rpi2 owners.
• Added lr-mame2003 (based on MAME 0.78) emulator.
• Minor Emulation Station tweaks, reduced time to skip buttons, and improved parsing with brackets in gamelists.
• New experimental modules – sselph’s scraper and lr-mame2010 (based on MAME 0.139)
• Improved ps3 controller pairing.
• Initial support for installing RetroPie manually on Raspbian Jessie and OSMC (via source only – consider this experimental for now).
• Splashscreen improvements- can be added from samba shares, splash videos play all the way through without emulationstation cutting them off.
• Lots of bugfixes, and improvements to the RetroPie Wiki.

After 6 months of hard work we are pleased to announce the release of RetroPie 3.0.

This retro-gaming project brings together a collection of popular emulators for those computers and consoles that you grew up with from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, all wrapped up and ready to run on the famous Raspberry Pi. From Atari 2600, to Sega Mega Drive to Sony PlayStation, all your favourite systems are covered. What are you waiting for – get playing!

Installation Instructions can be found here – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation

Downloads available from the main RetroPie website – http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/

RetroPie 3.0 Key Features

• Automatic controller configuration for RetroArch from EmulationStation.
• New system for single per system rom folders, default / per rom emulator switching, as well as per rom configurations.
• Lots of configuration tools accessible from Emulation station including setting up WiFi, a configuration editor, file manager, audio settings and more.
• Per system and per game menu to set video output and default emulator setting.
• Basic Joypad control in RetroPie-Setup menus.
• Option to add game roms via USB without network access
• Now offering over 20+ emulators + ports.
• Lots of other improvements / bug fixes from the 2.6 release.

Thanks to PetRockBlock, BuZz, gizmo98, Herb Fargus, Floob and all others who have contributed to the project.

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