Recalbox 10.1 emulates 141 systems, from the Atari 2600 to the Wii, from the ZX81 to the Sharp X68000, from arcade boards to "fantasy" consoles that never existed. This section gives each of them a page: the technical data of the machine, the emulators available depending on your hardware, the BIOS files that may be required and the expected rom format.
One system = one rom folder. Super Nintendo games go into /recalbox/share/roms/snes/, Mega Drive games into /recalbox/share/roms/megadrive/, and so on. A system only shows up in the interface once it contains at least one game, which is why the list of systems grows as you add games. Each system page states the exact name of its folder and the file extensions it accepts.
/recalbox/share/roms/<system>/ ← your games, one folder per system
/recalbox/share/bios/ ← BIOS files, flat or in sub-folders
Some machines need their original BIOS, which Recalbox cannot ship for legal reasons. Those files go into /recalbox/share/bios/, sometimes in a system-specific sub-folder: each system page lists exactly what is expected, with file names and MD5 checksums. The built-in BIOS checker, reachable from the Recalbox menu and from the web manager, verifies for you that every expected file is present and correct.
A single system is often handled by several emulators (also called cores), which do not offer the same compatibility, the same performance or the same options. Recalbox picks one by default — the one that gives the best result on your machine — but you can replace it for a whole system from that system's options, or game by game from the game menu in the list. That is the answer when one particular title refuses to start or runs slowly: the system page tells you which core to try.
Not every emulator is available everywhere. A Raspberry Pi 3 emulates neither the Wii nor the PlayStation 2, and some heavy cores are only built for PC or Raspberry Pi 5. Every system page contains an availability table per machine; the emulator compatibility page gives the overall picture.
New systems in Recalbox 10.1: the Epoch Cassette Vision, the Philips P2000T, the Vircon32 fantasy console and the Exelvision EXL 100 join the list. See what's new in 10.1 for the full picture.
| Category | Systems | What you will find |
|---|---|---|
| Consoles | 44 | Home consoles, from the Fairchild Channel F to the Wii |
| Computers | 33 | Home and professional micro-computers, from the Apple II to the Sharp X68000 |
| Ports | 23 | Games ported natively to Recalbox, with no emulation: Doom, Quake, Tomb Raider… |
| Handhelds | 17 | Portable consoles, from the Game & Watch to the PSP |
| Arcade | 10 | Arcade boards: MAME, FinalBurn Neo, NAOMI, Model 3, ST-V, LaserDisc |
| Game engines | 7 | Engines that replay the games written for them: ScummVM, OpenBOR, Solarus… |
| Fantasy consoles | 7 | Machines that never existed, with their own creative scene: PICO-8, TIC-80… |