When to update?

Drdave79

I've read that Retroarch has an update to 1.9 and I come here asking for upgrade advice. I have a Rasberry pi 4 running Retroarch 1.8.5, Retropie 4.7.7 and Emulation Station 2.9.1RP. These are the versions installed when I first got my cabinet a year ago. When checking, it seems there's a binary update available for these. I'm sure a majority of my emulators all have updates as well. It seems that the Retroarch update, for example, improves the use of memory. That's a good improvement. Of course, the last thing I want to do is run a bunch of updates and create a domino effect of destruction (and yes, I do back up my image monthly).

What I am asking the community here is, judging by the version numbers I listed above, should I go ahead and update absolutely everything to the latest versions via binary update? As a tech, I always run the latest updates on my pc. But I have found with my arcade cabinet that sometimes the smallest change can affect lots of things and not in a good way.

Thank you everyone in advance for your input.

sirhenrythe5th

@drdave79 i guess you did not create the image used in your cabinet by your own?
If so: follow the golden rule "never change a running system.
Just my 5 cents, but if everything works for you just keep it as it is.

If you build it on your own: there are of course a lot of improvements, Retroarch 1.9.4 gives you i.e. a lot of great options concerning Retroachievements andO Onscreen Messages. But you have to tinker with it.

Drdave79

@sirhenrythe5th That's correct. I've been adding to the build when I purchased the cabinet. And yes, almost everything works great. Some Naomi/Atomiswave/N64 games can be difficult, but I'm sure that's more on the limits of the system and the emulators themselves. I know it comes down to the features of the updates (ie the speed boost I read about in Retroarch).

jamrom2

@drdave79 I've been using Retropie for over 5 years now. Every experience I've had with updating Retroarch has had it's downfalls, it's never a smooth transition because it effects so many systems attached to it. I agree with leaving a running system as it is, but after so many new versions are released you loose a lot of performance options.

So it's always up to you, but I go by a basic rule of thumb....I wait till enough new versions have been released to make it worth the trouble I know it's about to cause. Backup what you have and be ready to pull out some hair (or stubs in my case).

JamR