Author: BuZz

After some delays due to recent issues we are pleased to announce RetroPie 4.5.

This version does NOT work on the recently released Raspberry Pi 4. We are currently working on support for this.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: It has come to our attention that composite out is broken on this release. See https://retropie.org.uk/2019/07/composite-out-broken-on-retropie-4-5/ for further details.

RetroPie 4.5 for the Raspberry Pi is based on Raspbian Stretch. This may be our last image based on Stretch as it looks as though the Raspberry Pi foundation are now concentrating their efforts on the recently released Raspbian Buster. Some parts of RetroPie already work on Buster on the Raspberry Pi 1/2 and 3 but it’s not officially supported yet.

We held off on making this release due to a Raspbian kernel update which broke pairing of Sony Bluetooth devices. We have worked around this on the Raspberry Pi images by installing more recent firmware/kernel packages from the Buster distribution.

Please see the changelog below for more information on the changes since RetroPie 4.4.

You can download a 4.5 image from https://retropie.org.uk/download/. For first installs please follow the Installation Instructions.

You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian Stretch set up, or on top of Ubuntu on a PC/Odroid-C1/C2/XU3/XU4. Links to the relevant instructions can be found on the Download area.

If you want to support the project, donations are always appreciated and can be made on our Donation Page. The main developer Jools Wills also has a Patreon page up at https://www.patreon.com/retropie.

Changes since 4.4

• Dropped Raspbian/Debian Jessie support
• Raspberry Pi 3 A+ support (via Stretch firmware update)
• Many new es themes added
• Added Skyscraper (Scraper for Emulation Station game lists) 
• RetroArch updated to v1.7.6
• Amiberry (Amiga emulator) updated to v2.25, including support for launching whdload and CD32 titles from ES.
• Jzintv (Intellivision emulator) updated to 20181225 release
• atari800 – updated to v4.0.0
• Mupen64plus – updated to latest version (GlideN64 stability and compatibility improved), as well as other changes.
• Fuse (ZX Spectrum emulator) updated to v1.5.7
• ZEsarUX (ZX Spectrum emulator) updated to v7
• advmame (Advance MAME arcade emulator) – updated to v3.9
• Fixed building of quake3 for RPI.
• Added love-0.10.2 (2d Game Engine) for compatibility with older games.
• Dosbox updated to SVN r4194 including joystick fix for 360 controllers.
• CGenius – updated to v2.3.1 
• lr-flycast (libretro Dreamcast emulator) – renamed from lr-reicast and enabled for arm platforms including the RPI. 
• reicast – Switched to updated upstream repository – the latest code includes bugfixes and improvements including better game compatibility as well as our RPI fixes.
• lr-ppsspp – switched to upstream repository for latest version
• lr-fbneo  (Arcade and console emulator) – renamed from lr-fblpha – lots of improvements including neo geo cd support, and optional cyclone 68k core for better performance on slower devices for some games.The emulator can now be selected as an alternate emulator for Sega Genesis/Mastersystem/SG-1000, PC-Engine, MSX, ColecoVision and ZXSpectrum.
• Fixes and updates to many libretro cores
• Kodi updated to the 18 “Leia” release (only available in Raspbian Stretch)
• Improvements/fixes to joystick control in runcommand launch menu
• Fixes / Improvements to bluetooth pairing
• Added sixaxis driver – better DualShock 3 controller support with full bluetooth coexistence
  • Third-party (Shanwan/Gasia) controller support via customhidsony & custombluez drivers
• lr-mame2014 renamed to lr-mame2015
• Emulationstation – updated to v2.8.4 which includes:
  • 2 new scrapers added for the TheGamesDB and ScreenScraper. Also many bugfixes and improvements including:
    • Gridview support now in main version
    • Hide MAME bios files by default
    • Graphical / rendering fixes
    • Loading progress
    • Allow using analog sticks for navigation
    • More flexible audio configuration
    • Lots of code refactoring, bugfixes and performance improvements, including removing boost libraries making compilation faster (and code smaller).
    • Search and load artwork based on ROM name (image and video)
    • Experimental scripting support, triggered by events.

• Added new experimental modules
  • moonlight – NVIDIA GameStream client
  • steamlink – Steam Link streaming client for Raspberry Pi 3
  • jumpnbump – multiplayer platform game
  • mysticmine – open source indie game
  • bombermaaan – Classic bomberman game
  • lr-superflappybirds – Multiplayer Flappy Bird Clone
  • lr-scummvm – libretro version of scummvm (Allows playing of many classic point and click adventures)
  • lr-x1 – Sharp X1 libretro core
  • lr-redream – Dreamcast emulator
  • lr-pokemini – Pokemon Mini emulator
  • lr-81 – Sinclair ZX81 emulator
  • lr-quasi88 – NEC PC-8801 emulator
  • splitwolf – 2-4 player split-screen Wolfenstein 3D / Spear of Destiny port
  • lr-mupen64plus-next – a new WIP Libretro core which aims to improve upon the existing lr-mupen64plus core.

RetroPie 4.4 is out, bringing with it Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ support via our new Raspbian Stretch based images. Raspbian Jessie is no longer receiving firmware and kernel updates, so the move to the new version was required.

For RPI users it is recommended to start from a fresh image with this update. It is possible to upgrade the system from Jessie to Stretch but there have been reports of issues by some people when doing so.

If wanting to use WiFi on the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, you will need to first configure the WiFi Country via raspi-config before it will work. It’s under menu 4 of raspi-config (Localisation options).

Initial support for the Tinker board has been added with this release. It’s a source only install on top of their default Debian image. It has only had limited testing so far, and may need further work.

Please see the changelog below for more information on the changes since RetroPie 4.3.

You can download a 4.4 image from https://retropie.org.uk/download/. For first installs please follow the Installation Instructions.

You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian Stretch set up, or on top of Ubuntu on a PC/Odroid-C1/C2/XU3/XU4. Links to the relevant instructions can be found on the Download area.

If you want to support the project, donations are always appreciated and can be made on our Donation Page. The main developer Jools Wills also has a Patreon page up at https://www.patreon.com/retropie

Changes since 4.3

• Added support for Raspbian Stretch, and switched to it for our main images, as Raspbian Jessie is no longer receiving kernel/firmware updates. Many changes were needed around the codebase to work correctly with Raspbian Stretch.
• Added basic support for the ASUS Tinker Board.
• RetroArch updated to v1.7.1 (built with video recording support via ffmpeg on Raspbian Stretch).
• AdvanceMAME updated to v3.7
• ScummVM – updated to v2.0. This fixes the controller issues and adds support for additional games.
• Stella (Atari 2600 emulator) updated to v5.0.2
• Fuse (ZX Spectrum emulator) updated to v1.4.1
• SDL2 – updated to 2.0.8
• Dosbox – Updated to latest code, implemented software MIDI synth support, and launching via .conf files directly.
• lr-freeintv libretro Intellivision emulator
• AGS – enable DIGMID support for MIDI playback on devices with no hardware MIDI Support.
• Fixes for xarcade2jstick.
• Added customhidsony, a custom hid-sony dkms driver module patched to fix the eternal vibrate bug with third-party Shanwan controllers.
• wolf4sdl – fix spear of destiny mission support.
• Zdoom – add support for launching Hexen 1 Series, Heretic, Strife and Chex 3.
• cgenius – updated to v2.2.0.
• Amiberry – update to the new SDL2 release (still using SDL1 on the Raspberry Pi due to performance reasons).
• Emulation Station improvements including Kiosk mode, and a new experimental module emulationstation-dev for those wanting to try our the very latest Emulation Station code.
• Various mupen64plus (N64 emulator) fixes.
• Removed lr-armsnes as it’s no longer developed and has only minor changes over lr-snes9x2002.
• Fix non working xm7 (Fujitsu FM-7) emulator.
• Joy2key – input mapping improvements and fixes.
• Identify and allow installing on Linux Mint Debian Edition and Deepin.
• Added various new Emulation Station themes, installable from RetroPie-Setup.
• Added new experimental modules:
  • lr-dosbox (Dosbox port for libretro)
  • dosbox-sdl2 (DOSBox port with SDL2 & FluidSynth support)
  • mame2003-plus-libretro (mame2003 with backported fixes)
  • Update lr-desmume and split 2015 version off to lr-desume2015.
  • digger – digger remastered.
  • yquake2 – Supports Quake II and both official mission packs.
  • Abuse – port of run and gun game.