The Thomson computers — MO5, MO6, TO7, TO8, TO9… — are emulated by the Theodore core. Your games go into /recalbox/share/roms/thomson, in .fd, .k7, .m5, .m7, .rom, .sap, .zip and .7z formats. No BIOS is required.
A keyboard is recommended, but Recalbox offers a virtual keyboard that lets you do everything from the pad.
Theodore picks the machine to emulate from the file name. So super-tennis-fil_mo5.k7 boots an MO5.
If the file name contains no known machine name, the emulator falls back to a TO8. The model can also be forced through an option in the RetroArch menu.
On Thomson machines a program does not start on its own: a command has to be typed. To spare you that, the pad's START button tries to launch the game, choosing the method that suits the emulated machine and the inserted media (tape, floppy, cartridge).
If that fails, use a real keyboard or the virtual one. The exact mappings are documented in Theodore's README.
Apart from the B button, which reproduces the single Thomson joystick button, every pad button drives the virtual keyboard — enough to play most games without a physical keyboard.
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
SELECT |
Show or hide the virtual keyboard |
B |
"Action" button when the keyboard is hidden. Keyboard shown: short press = press the selected key; long press = hold the key down (up to three keys at once; hiding the keyboard releases them all) |
Y |
Move the virtual keyboard to the top or bottom of the screen |
START |
Start the game when the keyboard is hidden; shortcut to the Enter key when it is shown |
📷 Screenshot to come:
thomson-virtual-keyboard.png