I used 2003+ and the issue went away, very happy with it:)

Do understand that it is my first foray into emulation so there are plenty of things I'm not aware of(yet).

I'm using zero because I had it for a different project that didn't need it in the end. I hate having unused stuff around me and always look for ways to repurpose them. I understand that it is not fast enough, but I think it will do for now as I've only added pac-man, arkanoid, donkey kong, galaga, Tetris, asteroids and bubble bobble, games that might not be too taxing(I hope). Before the cabin is ready I will switching all of them to 2003+ and try to play enough to see if they lag, crash etc.

Thank you all for the help, much appreciated:)

I don't see an ARM compatible download, so it won't work on a Pi. The Linux installers will work on a PC running an Intel/AMD CPU, but not on a Pi, which has a different kind of CPU (ARM).

@Match5t1ck you may want to have a look at this thread.

yeah, it's a very bad habit :(

@shwishblade Well your method works! I just had to install the pixel desktop for retropie from the retropie_setup.sh script (I didn't even know we could install the pixel desktop... neat!). It's a shame indeed that there is no way to run the game outside of play_swing. I also noticed that the game has trouble playing some sounds.

A step in the right direction, let's hope it will be possible in the future!

You'll have to use something like xboxdrv maybe. I haven't gotten around to doing it myself yet.