Stumbled on an unfamiliar word in the wiki, the menus or on the Recalbox Discord? This page gathers the most common technical terms of the Recalbox world.
- Arcade: games from coin-operated cabinets. Unlike consoles, almost every arcade game has its own hardware: it is therefore important to use a romset matching the emulator (MAME, FinalBurn Neo…). In Recalbox, Neo-Geo games are emulated like arcade games. See Arcade in Recalbox.
- BIOS: files taken from the original machines, required by some emulators to work (PlayStation, Neo-Geo…). Recalbox includes a BIOS manager that automatically checks their presence and validity (through MD5 checksums).
- Buildroot: the tool used to build Recalbox: it assembles the Linux kernel, the emulators and all the software into a complete, bootable system image for every supported machine.
- CHD: compressed disc image format used by MAME for hard-drive based cabinets, and also recommended for CD games (PlayStation, Dreamcast, Saturn…) — a single, smaller file per game.
- Cheats: reproduce the behavior of period cheating devices (Action Replay, Game Genie…) by enabling codes that alter the game's behavior.
- Checksum: a fingerprint computed from a file's content. Two files with the same checksum are almost certainly identical. Recalbox uses checksums to verify BIOS files (MD5) and to match players in netplay (CRC).
- Controller configurator: the visual assistant introduced in Recalbox 10.1: a picture of your controller is shown on screen and each button to press is highlighted. See Configure a controller.
- Core: an emulation "engine" loaded by RetroArch through the libretro API. A given system may offer several cores, selectable per game or per system.
- CRT: a cathode-ray tube TV or monitor. Recalbox can output native RGB to a CRT with the Recalbox RGB Dual and Recalbox RGB JAMMA boards.
- Cue (or .cue): a small text file describing the content of a
.bin disc image (tracks, format). BIN/CUE games are launched through the .cue file.
- Dat (or .dat): a reference file listing the roms of a romset with their checksums, used to verify and sort a collection (mainly for arcade and netplay).
- Demo mode: one of Recalbox's screensavers — launches random games after some idle time, like a cabinet in attract mode.
- EmulationStation (or ES): Recalbox's front-end — the interface that lists your systems and games and launches the emulators.
- Emulator: a program that mimics the hardware of a machine (console, computer, cabinet) to run its games on another device.
- Front-end: the graphical interface that organizes and launches games — in Recalbox, that's EmulationStation. RetroArch also has its own front-end, reachable in game.
- GameLink: new in 10.1 — emulation of the Game Boy Game Link cable over netplay: two players, each on their own emulated console, linked as with the original cable. See Netplay.
- Gamelist (or gamelist.xml): a per-system file in which EmulationStation stores game information (name, artwork, description, rating…), notably filled in by scraping. What you add — favorites, hidden games, play counts — goes into a second file,
gamelist-userdata.ini, so a later scrape does not wipe it.
- GitLab: the forge hosting Recalbox's source code (gitlab.com/recalbox/recalbox). This is where bug reports ("issues") are filed.
- GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output): the Raspberry Pi expansion pins, used to wire buttons and joysticks (GPIO controllers) or boards such as the Recalbox RGB Dual.
- Hotkey: the "shortcut" button on your controller which, combined with others, triggers the special in-game commands (quit, save, rewind…). See special commands.
- ISO (or .iso): an image of a physical disc (CD/DVD). See also CHD, which is more compact.
- Jukebox: new in 10.1, for patrons only — plays the exclusive mixtapes as background music in the interface and lets you control playback. See Jukebox.
- Kodi: the media player built into Recalbox — movies, series and music on the same machine. See Kodi Media Center.
- Libretro: the API connecting RetroArch to its emulation cores. "A libretro core" = an emulator usable inside RetroArch.
- Lightgun: an optical gun for on-screen shooting games (Duck Hunt, Time Crisis…). Recalbox supports Wiimote, GunCon 2 and cabinet guns — see the Lightgun.
- LOGO view: new in 10.1 — a game list layout where each game is represented by its scraped logo. See LOGO view and manuals.
- MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator): the great open-source emulator dedicated to arcade cabinets.
- MD5: the checksum type used to verify BIOS files.
- Mixtape: an exclusive music playlist reserved for patrons, played by the Jukebox (new in 10.1).
- MITM (Man In The Middle): a netplay mode going through a relay server instead of a direct connection — useful when the direct connection fails, at the cost of some latency.
- Multitap: a period accessory allowing more controllers than the console has ports (4-player games on Super Nintendo or PlayStation). Some emulators can mimic it.
- Netplay: Recalbox's online play — host or join retro game sessions remotely, including Game Boy GameLink (10.1). See Netplay.
- No-Intro: a preservation group referencing the most faithful dumps of cartridge games. Reference romsets, notably for netplay.
- Overlay: graphical dressing displayed around the game image (screen bezels, cabinets, scanlines…). See Overlays.
- OS (operating system): the software stack that runs the machine. Recalbox is a complete OS: it installs on its own, with no Linux or Windows underneath.
- Pad To Keyboard: a feature translating controller buttons into keyboard keys, to play keyboard-based games (old computers, ports…) with a gamepad. See Pad To Keyboard.
- Patron: a Recalbox supporter on Patreon. A patron key unlocks exclusive features (Jukebox, early-access versions…).
- PBP (or .pbp): an image format bundling several discs into a single file, used for the PSP and multi-disc PlayStation games.
- Plug and play: said of a device that is recognized and usable as soon as it is plugged in, with no configuration.
- recalbox.conf: Recalbox's central configuration file. See the recalbox.conf file.
- Redump: a preservation group referencing faithful dumps of disc games (CD/DVD).
- RetroAchievements: an achievements/trophies service for retro games, integrated into Recalbox. See RetroAchievements.
- RetroArch: the libretro front-end running most of Recalbox's emulators and providing the shared features (savestates, rewind, netplay, shaders…). See RetroArch.
- Rewind: going back a few seconds in the game, like on a VCR — at the cost of some performance.
- Rom: an image file of a game (cartridge, floppy, arcade board…).
- Romset: a consistent set of roms, verified against a dat file (No-Intro, Redump, MAME…). Essential for arcade and netplay.
- Samba (or SMB): the file-sharing protocol that makes Recalbox's
share folder visible from Windows, macOS or Linux on the local network. See network share.
- Savestate: an exact snapshot of the emulated machine's state, at any moment, even if the game has no save feature. Not to be confused with the game's "regular" saves.
- Scrape / Scraper: automatically fetching your games' information and artwork from the Internet (covers, videos, logos, manuals, Tips & Tricks…). Recalbox's internal scraper relies on ScreenScraper.
- Shader: a graphical filter applied to the game image (scanlines, CRT look, smoothing…). See shaders configuration.
- Share: Recalbox's storage partition — your roms, BIOS, saves and settings. Reachable over the network (Samba) and preserved across updates. See file management.
- Softpatching: applying a translation or hack (
.ips, .bps… files) on the fly, without modifying the original rom. See Softpatching.
- SSH: terminal access to Recalbox from another computer, for advanced operations. See root access via terminal.
- Support archive: a diagnostic archive generated from the web manager, to attach to a help request on Discord.
- TATE: (pronounced "tah-teh", Japanese for "vertical") vertical-screen games, typical of arcade shoot'em ups. Recalbox offers a
TATE SETTINGS menu (display rotation) and a dedicated virtual system.
- Theme: the complete look of EmulationStation (menus, lists, sounds). See theme manager.
- Tips & Tricks: new in 10.1 — "tips and tricks" sheets for a game, downloaded by the scraper and readable from the game list, like manuals. See LOGO view and manuals.
- Verbose: a boot mode displaying diagnostic messages, useful when the system does not start properly.
- Virtual system: a "fictional" system gathering games from all your real systems by criterion: favorites, multiplayer, lightgun, spinner and trackball (10.1), genres… See virtual systems.
- WebManager (web manager): Recalbox's web interface, from a browser on the same network — rom management, configuration, support archive… See the web manager.