¶ Presentation
Recalbox is a free and open-source retrogaming operating system that turns a Raspberry Pi, a PC or a handheld console into a ready-to-use retro gaming console: install it, plug in a controller, play.
Recalbox emulates more than 140 systems, from the very first arcade cabinets to 3D consoles such as the PlayStation 2, the GameCube or the Wii, including the NES, the Megadrive and the 8/16-bit home computers (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST…).
Recalbox can be described in one word: EASY. We want to provide a system that is as user-friendly and intuitive as possible. No need to edit a multitude of configuration files or to connect over SSH: just install the system and play. Everything can be set from the interface, and a single file, recalbox.conf, centralizes the fine configuration of the system and the emulators.
For advanced users who want to go further, the configuration overrides allow tuning each system, or even each game (only modify them if you know what you are doing).
¶ What does Recalbox run on?
Recalbox is available for several families of machines:
- Raspberry Pi: Pi Zero 2, Pi 3, Pi 4, Pi 400 and Pi 5;
- x86_64 PC: from an old laptop to a dedicated living-room PC, including the Steam Deck;
- Handheld consoles: Anbernic RG351/RG353 and Odroid Go Advance / Go Super.
➡️ Details per machine: Hardware compatibility
¶ Hundreds of open-source software… combined in one system
Recalbox is a GNU/Linux system built with Buildroot. It integrates hundreds of open-source software, from the smallest utility to the emulators: the RetroArch/Libretro cores, standalone emulators such as Dolphin (GameCube/Wii), PCSX2 (PlayStation 2), PPSSPP (PSP) or xemu (Xbox), the Kodi media player, and our interface: a home-made fork of EmulationStation.
¶ With homebrews and hacks, discover games never released on console!
Homebrews are games created from scratch by passionate developers. Many of them are excellent surprises and will give you a great time — Recalbox actually ships with a selection of royalty-free games.
Hacks are modifications of existing games. They reuse all or part of the graphics and gameplay of a game, and differ on the story, the difficulty or the atmosphere. Some are considered true sequels to the original games, such as Super Mario Bros 4 (a hack of Super Mario World) or Legend Of Zelda - Parallel Worlds (a hack of A Link To The Past).
¶ Media Center
Powered by Kodi, Recalbox is also a Media Center. Connected to your home network, it plays your movies, series and music from your compatible devices (NAS, internet box, computer).
¶ Features
- System:
- More than 140 emulated systems, from arcade to 3D consoles.
- Built with Buildroot: a lightweight, fast-booting system with a read-only system partition that is hard to corrupt.
- EmulationStation interface (Recalbox fork): customizable themes, background music, favorites, virtual systems, search.
- Built-in update manager.
- Interface translated into many languages (French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese…).
- Network:
- Network share: access roms, saves and screenshots from your computer.
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
- Netplay: play retro games online.
- Web manager: control your Recalbox from a browser.
- Moonlight: stream your PC games to Recalbox over the local network.
- Controllers:
- Visual configuration from the interface: your controller is displayed on screen and each button to press is highlighted; once configured, it works in all emulators.
- Built-in support for common Bluetooth and USB controllers (PlayStation, Xbox, 8BitDo, Nintendo…).
- GPIO drivers and USB encoders: for arcade cabinets and your original NES, SNES, Megadrive, PSX controllers.
- Lightguns: replay shooting games just like in the old days.
- Gaming:
- RetroAchievements: achievements to unlock on your retro games.
- Internal scraper: picture, video and description for each game.
- Overlays, shaders and softpatching.
- Native CRT output with Recalbox RGB Dual and Recalbox RGB JAMMA: the true rendering of CRT screens and arcade cabinets.
- Kodi Media Center.
¶ Acknowledgements
Recalbox would not exist without the open-source emulators it uses. We would like to thank all the people contributing to these projects, thanks to whom we have the chance to play all these video game classics again 🤩
¶ The main software used in Recalbox
- Buildroot: https://buildroot.org/
- EmulationStation (created by Aloshi, fork maintained by Recalbox): https://gitlab.com/recalbox/recalbox-emulationstation
- RetroArch and the Libretro cores: https://www.libretro.com/
- Dolphin (GameCube/Wii): https://dolphin-emu.org/
- PCSX2 (PlayStation 2): https://pcsx2.net/
- PPSSPP (PSP): https://www.ppsspp.org/
- xemu (Xbox): https://xemu.app/
- Amiberry (Amiga): https://github.com/BlitterStudio/amiberry
- Supermodel (Sega Model 3): https://www.supermodel3.com/
- Kodi: https://kodi.tv/
…and dozens more, listed system by system in the emulators compatibility page.