Category: Releases

As detailed in the last post – https://retropie.org.uk/2019/07/composite-out-broken-on-retropie-4-5/ – there were some issues in the last image due to the updated Kernel.

A newer Kernel has been released for Raspbian Stretch that resolves the composite output issue, but we also had problems reported with overscan settings and decided to implement a workaround. As the previous 4.14 Kernel was well tested, we decided to switch back to it for now, and also created a new image (this was actually uploaded on the 17th July, but due to some testing and time constraints is only being announced now).

If you have a 4.5 version of RetroPie for the Raspberry Pi you can choose the update option in RetroPie-Setup and then choose to “Update System Packages” when prompted. This will downgrade the Kernel to the one in this 4.5.1 image. The Kernel will only be downgraded if choosing to update System Packages from the RetroPie-Setup interface.

You can download a 4.5.1 image from https://retropie.org.uk/download/. For first installs please follow the Installation Instructions.

We are still working on Raspberry Pi 4 support. You may have seen some unofficial images from other people with some emulators working – but please bear with us. We also have some emulators working, but don’t want to release anything until we are able to realistically support it.

Changes since 4.5

• Downgraded to 4.14 kernel to resolve some 4.19 kernel/firmware issues
• (other rpi4/fkms changes which will be announced in a future post)

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.

RetroPie 4.3 includes a lot of improvements to our default launcher Emulation Station, including Favourites/Recently Played and custom ROM collections, video and image screensavers, power saving modes, and the ability to configure your own RetroArch hotkey enable button when setting up your gamepad.

Basic support for the Odroid XU3/4 boards has been added. It’s a source only install on top of the Hardkernel Ubuntu Minimal image, but most emulators run well.

Please note that RetroPie images for the Raspberry Pi are still based on Raspbian Jessie. Raspbian Stretch is not yet supported, and will be worked on after this release.

Many emulators have received updates and fixes, including the RetroArch frontend. See below for a detailed list of changes to RetroPie.

You can download a 4.3 image from https://retropie.org.uk/download/. For first installs please follow the Installation Instructions. If updating from 4.0.x you should make a backup first then choose Update all installed packages from RetroPie-Setup main menu. Anyone upgrading from 3.x will need to update the RetroPie-Setup script first. See the upgrade instructions for more details.

You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian Jessie 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.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this release.

Changes since 4.2

• Many updates to Emulation Station including:
  • Collections support including Favourite, All, Recently Played and custom collections.
  • Video and Image Screensaver support.
  • Power saving modes.
  • Many theming fixes and improvements.
  • Configuration of RetroArch hotkey enable button.
  • Allow using OMXPlayer for video playback on the RPI.
  • Many other fixes and improvements. Full changelog can be found here – https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation-Changelog/
• Added basic Odroid-XU3/4 support.
• RetroArch updated to v1.6.7. Include minimal retroarch assets for the xmb interface by default.
• AdvanceMAME updated to v3.5
• fuse updated to v1.4.0
• zesarux updated to v5.0
• lr-fbalpha updated to 0.2.97.42
• lr-imame4all renamed to lr-imame2000 to match upstream name.
• lr-bluemsx updated to add Colecovision support.
• lr-mame2003 updated with fixed audio for the Mortal Kombat series.
• Added SDL1 version of scummvm – scummvm-sdl1 – for those with joypad and MT32 issues with the standard SDL2 version.
• gamecon_gpio_rpi and db9_gpio_rpi updated for Kernel 4.9 compatibility.
• Workaround for using PCSX2 on 64bit without our custom SDL library.
• Updates/improvements to mupen64plus and the GLideN64 plugin.
• Improved controller button mapping in the RetroPie-Setup menus.
• esthemes – Many new themes available to install from esthemes configuration. Ability to update all installed themes.
• Runcommand – user menu support.
• usbromservice – fix BIOS and configuration folders not copying.
• Enabled some additional packages on Odroid boards – hatari, zdoom, openblok, alephone and lr-ppsspp.
• Bluetooth configuration – improved interoperability with the ps3 controller driver.
• New configuration tool to change terminal font size
• New packages added to experimental section:
  • pegasus-fe – Pegasus Frontend – new launcher/frontend in development.
  • lr-vice (C64 Emulator).
  • srb2 – Sonic Robo Blast 2 port.
  • cdogs-sdl – C-Dogs SDL – Classic overhead run-and-gun game.
  • lr-px68k (x68000 emulator).
• Many other fixes and improvements.