[Theme] Retrowave: Another Synthwave-Inspired Theme

lordnicholas

For my latest RetroPie build, I wanted to do something in an 80's synthwave style, but wanted something a little less busy than some of the themes out there in this aesthetic. So I put this together- simple, but still has plenty of laser grids, neon, and pixel text for an authentic synthwave look!

Big thanks to Matt Kennedy for his extremely helpful tutorial on theme creation. This theme is built on top of his sample files
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Creating-Your-Own-EmulationStation-Theme. For now I'm just using the console logos from the Carbon theme, but eventually would love to create some more synthwave-y logos. The theme supports video, favorites, etc.

Would love any feedback! First time making one of these, so I'm sure I've messed something up somewhere.

System View:
Retrowave System View

Basic View:
Retrowave Basic View

Detail/Video View:
Retrowave Detail/Video View

RetroPie Menu:
Retrowave RetroPie Menu

You can take it for a test drive here:

As a bonus, I also put together a matching video splashscreen:

Download it here

lordnicholas

@Global-Moderators Alright, not a lot of love here, but this theme did get quite a bit of interest on the Retropie Reddit community, where it's one of the top posts this month: https://old.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/bq5g6s/retrowave_80s_synthwave_inspired_theme_for/?st=jw6rkm0z&sh=0c3d3449

Shot in the dark, any chance we can get this added to be installable via the Retropie menus?

mitu

@lordnicholas said in [Theme] Retrowave: Another Synthwave-Inspired Theme:

Shot in the dark, any chance we can get this added to be installable via the Retropie menus?

Sure, you can just submit a PR to the RetroPie-Setup repository and it will be included.
You theme must be hosted on Github and the repository must be named starting with es-theme- (e.g. es-theme-retrowave). The PR should include a modification to the esthemes.sh file with one line containing the user and repo name.

Here is how a PR (pull request) must look like - https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/2578/files.

celly

@lordnicholas idk how I missed this, this looks great! Can’t wait to give it a spin.

lordnicholas

@mitu Fantastic, thank you!

hargon

Any theme with 4:3 version should get a lot of love, and this theme is awesome.

Great work, thank you for sharing.

Owentive

Now, that actually looks amazing!

By the way, just in case anyone's interested. My brother Dylan has a few doggie goggles for sale. If anyone's interested, feel free to PM me.

mattrixk

Hey @lordnicholas, that looks pretty darn cool. It makes me happy that my tutorial is still helpful to people (even though it's now woefully out of date, considering all the awesome stuff that's now part of RetroPie).

The only suggestion I might make is that the 2 non-active logos look a bit lost in the dark background, but that probably won't be a problem once you make your own synth logos.

lordnicholas

@mattrixk Thanks so much! Seriously, your tutorial was invaluable. Agreed, those other logos could be a bit more visible. On to the daunting task of reskinning logos for every system...

WeirdH

@lordnicholas Hey man, I just got an arcade cab with a Raspberry Pi in it and I got to tinkering with ES and RetroPie. I signed up to the forum, not for support, but to thank you for this great theme, and for even putting the effort into making a 4:3 version! Really very awesome. Cool, sleek and functional design, keep it up!

lordnicholas

@WeirdH Thanks so much! That's so awesome. Do you have pictures you can share? Would love to see it.

WeirdH

@lordnicholas The theme of the cab itself (a bartop on a detachable pedestal) does kind of clash with Retrowave, but I don't mind that much...

hhromic

@lordnicholas +100 for using a remix of Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice :D

lordnicholas

@WeirdH Damn, that is SO COOL!! Thanks for sharing!

mikeydoom

I used your theme as a layout for my own theme, if I give you credit for your work may I release it?

lordnicholas

@mikeydoom Sure, go for it! Sharing is caring.