RetroPie USA trademark resolved

Good news! We now own the trademark for RetroPie in the USA thanks to help and support from Eckland & Blando.

In February 2017 it came to our attention that a 3rd party had trademarked the RetroPie name in the USA. They were using the trademark to illegally sell our software and take down anyone else they saw doing the same, even those that just sold hardware and respected our software licences.

We posted asking for legal help on this site, and we were overwhelmed with all the offers of support. Thanks!

We decided to accept a very generous offer of help from Daniel Cragg at Eckland & Blando, who offered to resolve the situation for us for free, with us only covering the paperwork filing costs.

There were a few hurdles along the way, as although the person who dishonestly registered our name agreed to cancel it, they managed to make a mistake with the paperwork, so it took additional time and work from Eckland & Blando to get the situation resolved. Finally though, the trademark is now ours!

I want to say a huge thank you to Daniel, Jared and co at Eckland & Blando for all the time they put into resolving this for us. We couldn’t have done it without you. Cheers!

 

RetroPie 4.4 is released

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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 is released

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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.