Category: Releases

A lot has happened since 4.1, with updates to EmulationStation adding video support and fixing the dreaded white screen of death. Many packages have been updated and RetroPie 4.2 includes the latest RetroArch v1.5.0 as well as Kodi 17 (installed optionally).

There are new experimental packages including lr-beetle-saturn (a Saturn emulator for x86_64 only), and DraStic (Nintendo DS emulator for RPI only) amongst others.

The pre-made Raspberry Pi 1/Zero image will now work on the new Pi Zero W. RetroPie 4.2 also includes initial support for the ODroid-C2 board (installed on top of the Odroid C2 Ubuntu minimal image).

You’ll also notice that the documentation has received a much needed update at https://retropie.org.uk/docs/.

There are many other changes, including usability improvements, and bug fixes – for more details please see the changelog below.

You can download a 4.2 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 set up, or on top of Ubuntu on a PC/Odroid-C1/C2. Links to the relevant instructions can be found on the Download area.

Thanks to all those who contributed to this release with a special mention to fieldofcows for his excellent EmulationStation improvements.

Changes since 4.1:

• EmulationStation Improvements
  • Video Support
  • White Screen of Death Fix
• Support for the ODroid-C2  (on top of the Ubuntu 16.04 minimal image).
• Kodi 17 now installable from optional packages.
• AdvanceMame has been updated and split into three separate packages –  0.94, 1.4 and v3.3.
• Updated to RetroArch v1.5.0
• To match upstream changes, lr-mupen64plus has been renamed to lr-parallel-n64, and lr-glupen64 has been renamed to lr-mupen64plus.
• Fixed launching Pixel desktop and other X11 apps from Emulation Station.
• Fixed problems building Zdoom, ResidualVM and Mupen64Plus and PPSSPP.
• Doom ports will automatically add launch scripts if it finds doom1.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad, or plutonia.wad.
• lr-snes9x emulator added – a libretro port of the current snes9x codebase.
• Added Amiberry (an Amiga emulator), which is an updated fork of uae4arm, with more features.
• Multi disk zip support for Vice (C64 emulator), fs-uae, uae4arm and Amiberry (Amiga). You can now launch Amiga disk images directly from Emulation Station with uae4arm and Amiberry.
• Standalone version of Stella (Atari 2600 emulator) updated to v4.7.3.
• usbromservice – support mounting of usb stick over ~/RetroPie to keep roms on USB.
• Ability to set custom ES themes in configs/all/platforms.cfg (can override any setting in RetroPie-Setup/platforms.cfg).
• SDL2 updated to 2.0.5. Our patched SDL2 is now used on the PC version of RetroPie, which should resolve an issue with ps3 controller mapping.
• Sselph’s scraper updated to the latest version, and new options added. Scraper has been moved to optional packages and needs to be installed before it will show up in configuration / tools.
• Include PowerBlock and ControlBlock driver packages.
• Input configuration script for Daphne.
• RetroPie-Setup menus now works with all connected joysticks (mapping is still hardcoded).
• Updated RPI detection code to support BRANCH=next firmware/kernel.
• Overhaul of the runcommand launch script.
• Raspbian Wheezy support removed.
• Support Xbian on RPI,  and Devuan, Elementary OS, and Neon on X86.
• Added emulationstation themes: fundamental, futura, and flat.
• New packages added to experimental section:
  • lr-mrboom (an 8 player bomberman clone).
  • lr-mame2016 (Arcade emulator).
  • lr-mess2016 (Multiple omputers/console emulator).
  • DraStic (Nintendo DS Emulator – RPI only).
  • lr-beetle-saturn (Sega Saturn emulator – x86_64 only).
  • Minivmac (Macintosh Plus Emulator).
  • Quasi88 (NEC PC-8801 emulator).
  • np2pi (NEC PC-9801 emulator).
  • Xm7 (FM-7 / Fujitsu Micro 7 emulator).
  • Mehstation and Attract-Mode Frontends.
  • launchingimages (a script from Meleu to generate system launch images based on installed Emulation Station themes).
• Many other code changes and bugfixes.

RetroPie 4.1 images are now available for download.

Since 4.0.2 there have been various emulator updates including new versions of lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha (formerly lr-fba-next) as well as updates to other libretro cores. Some standalone emulators have also been updated such as PPSSPP (PSP), Vice (C64 et al), Fuse and Zesarux (ZX Spectrum).

A port of Darkplaces Quake has been added which has hardware 3D (opengles) support on the Raspberry Pi.

Some new packages have been added to the experimental section for x86/x64 users, including lr-bsnes (SNES emulator), fs-uae (Amiga emulator), and pcsx2 (PS2).

Additional drivers have been added with support for the Steam controller, and mk_arcade_joystick_rpi which can be found in the drivers section.

We have also included some new Emulation Station themes for installing via RetroPie-Setup.

Some of the libretro emulators have been renamed to match their upstream names.  For further information and to see what else has changed since the 4.0.2 image, please see the change log below.

You can download a 4.1 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 on the Wiki for more details.

You can also install RetroPie on top of an existing Raspbian set up, or on top of Ubuntu on a PC/Odroid-C1. 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. If 1 in 5 people who downloaded RetroPie donated £1 it would be enough to have someone working on the project full time! 🙂

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this release, and to all those who donated to the project.

Changes since 4.0.2:

• Updated RetroArch and many libretro cores to the latest versions.
• Some libretro packages have been renamed to match the upstream core names:
  • lr-fba to lr-fbalpha2012
  • lr-fba-next to lr-fbalpha
  • lr-pocketsnes to lr-snes9x2002
  • lr-catsfc to lr-snes9x2005
  • lr-snes9x-next to lr-snes9x2010
• Updated Vice (C64 emulator) to the latest version.
• Fixed PPSSPP building on the RPI and updated it to the latest version.
• lr-fba-next updated to fbalpha v0.2.97.39 including fixes for Irem hardware on arm (rtype / rtype 2 etc)
• WiFi configuration – added ability to import Wifi ssid/psk from /boot/wifikeyfile.txt for set-up without a keyboard.
• Updated Fuse (Spectrum emulator) to v1.3.0
• Updated Zesarux (Spectrum / CPC emulator) to the latest version.
• Include lr-glupen64 by default on image (moved from optional to main).
• Added darkplaces-quake to optional packages. When installing/update the Quake emulators, launch scripts for any installed mission packs will be created.
• Build ResidualVM with SDL2 + opengles support.
• Added steam controller driver from https://github.com/ynsta/steamcontroller
• Added mk_arcade_joystick_rpi driver from https://github.com/recalbox/mk_arcade_joystick_rpi
• Fixed build issues on uae4arm, and kickstart removal on upgrade of uae4arm/uae4all.
• Screensaver / Screen dimming in Emulation Station no longer stops the built in scraper.
• Compatibility with upstream plymouth changes. Image is based on the latest upstream Raspbian Lite from 2016-09-23 with all updates.
• New themes added to the theme installer – including pixel-meta, pixel-tft, luminous, minilumi from Rookervik and io and spare themes from Mattrixk
• New packages added to experimental section
  • Added emulators lr-beetle-pcfx (PCFX emulator)
  • Added retropie-manager web interface (based on recalbox-manager).
  • Added pcsx2 emulator (Playstation 2 emulator – x86 / x86_64 only).
  • Added openpht  (x86 / x86_64 only).
  • Added fs-uae (Amiga emulator – x86 / x86_64 only).
  • Added lr-bsnes (Super Nintendo emulator – x86/x86_64 only)
  • Added lr-hatari (Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon emulator)
• Added some RetroPie-Setup function documentation to aid those contributing code – https://retropie.org.uk/api/
• Various other improvements / bugfixes

RetroPie 4.0.2 images are now available. This is primarily a bug fix release, but also includes Dolphin – a GameCube / Wii emulator (only available for those running RetroPie on a x86/x86_64 machine).

You can download a 4.0.2 image from: https://retropie.org.uk/download/. For first installs please follow the Installation Instructions. If updating from 4.0 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 on the Wiki for more details.

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

Changes since 4.0:

RetroPie 4.0 has arrived and with it come some major improvements to the software. It is now more modular than ever, and allows emulators and ports to be easily added and removed. There are also updates to included emulators, as well as improvements to the set-up tools to make configuration even easier.

Highlights of this release include (full changelog below) :

• Improved management of RetroPie components.
• Better N64 emulation.
• Improvements to configuration of Xbox/8Bitdo gamepad
• Analogue support in lr-mame2003 and correct aspect ratios for games.
• Splashscreen/Carbon Emulation Station theme updates.

You can download a 4.0 image from: https://retropie.org.uk/download/. If updating from a previous version you should make a backup first, update the RetroPie-Setup script, then choose Update all installed packages.

Installation Instructions can be found at https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation. Users of RetroPie v3.x can upgrade to the latest version by following the upgrade instructions on the Wiki.

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

NOTE: Some people have been having trouble with the XBox/XBox 360 controller driver xboxdrv on the current Raspbian Kernel. To work around this we now include the latest xpad kernel driver with the image (it is available from the Packages -> Drivers menu for those upgrading). The included xpad has been patched to map the Xbox 360 triggers to buttons, so they work out of the box with Emulation Station, without the need for xboxdrv.

Big thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release. Thanks also to our excellent web hosts Mythic-Beasts who are sponsoring us with our hosting. The performance and connection speed is great. We highly recommend them if you need a decent hosting solution backed by expert support.

Changes since 3.8.1:

• Setup script improvements:
  • Added the ability to install/update and remove packages.
  • Added help docs to the setup script.
• Renamed mednafen emulators to beetle to match upstream libretro repositories.
• Renaming of ES input configuration which was causing confusion for shoulder/trigger inputs.
• Much faster Emulation Station start-up in gamelist only mode.
• Updated Xpad driver included with “trigger to button” enabled, so mapping of Xbox 360 / Logitech trigger buttons is easier.
• Input configuration script to set up player 1 automatically on pifba and pisnes.
• Configuration Editor can now help you configure player gamepad order for libretro emulators.
• Updated PSP emulators ppsspp and lr-ppsspp with a fix for the pausing during play.
• Autostart improvements: boot to kodi option added – (exiting kodi will take you back to emulationstation).
• Improvements to mupen64plus Glide64 video plugin, which is now the default.
• Added new libretro emulator based on mupen64 – lr-glupen64.
• lr-mame2003 updates – support for mice/analogue joystick support. Fixed aspect ratio issues.
• Updates to various other emulators including reicast, lr-fceumm, lr-nestopia, lr-snes9x-next and the RetroArch frontend.
• SDL2 dispmanx scaling, so SDL2 software can render to a lower resolution and be scaled in hardware. This enhances performance on mupen64plus for example, without having to change the video mode.
• Improvements to the Bluetooth module, including the ability to try and reconnect to devices in the background, and an option to switch off our mapping hack for 8bitdo, so devices with a newer firmware will map correctly for RetroArch. Fix pairing with Android phones.
• Splashscreen improvements: New default splashscreen and a new splashscreen repository with additional splashscreens.
• Support for configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh  configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh user scripts
• New experimental modules:
  • TRS-80 emulator sdltrs.
  • TI-99/4A emulator ti99sim.
  • Oric 1/Atmos emulator Oricutron.
  • Dinothawr (lr-dinothawr – standalone libretro puzzle game).
  • lr-mame2014  (Late 2014/Early 2015 version of MAME – uses 0.159 romset)
  • Alternate Virtual Gamepad by sbidolach.
• Various other bug fixes and improvements.