As a child of the 70s and 80s, I will always have a soft spot for what we now call “retro” games. I'm talking about games on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and the original Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. You get what I mean. It's great fun to replay the games from my childhood and teenage years, but I don't want to try to track down and buy every classic gaming system to recreate that nostalgic experience.
Luckily, I don’t have to. Instead, I took a Raspberry Pi 5 and put it in my Retro game consoleThis allows me to play games from over 50 gaming systems on one device. This includes the Atari 2600, the NES and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, GameCube, and many others that I spent days playing with in my youth. There's even support for most of the arcade classics that I used to put quarters into.
If this sounds like a project you'd like to tackle yourself, I can tell you it's pretty easy. It might not be as easy as the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC that our Adam Conway turned into a games console, but it's still pretty painless. Like Adam, I went with Batocera, but you can go with other options as well.
Prefer Batocera over another option
RetroPie and Recalbox and Batocera, oh my goodness!
There are several ways to run classic games on your Raspberry Pi. In the past, I've used RetroPie, Lakka, and Recalbox. Each has its advantages, and RetroPie has the most community support of all the retro gaming emulators available for the Pi. Unfortunately, it also requires the most manual configuration and tweaking. While I have no problem with that, I wanted something that was mostly plug-and-play.
On top of that, RetroPie hasn't released a new disk image since 2022, which means there's no Raspberry Pi 5 image. I wasn't a big fan of the menu themes in Recalbox or Lakka, while Batocera is known for having the best Bluetooth controller support of all, so I went with that one.
What you absolutely need to get started
Numerous options, regardless of your budget
Batocera runs on a lot of different hardware. I'll focus on a Raspberry Pi 5, but you can comfortably install and run the emulator on many other options as well. If you have an Odroid SBC, Orange Pi, Rockchip-based SBC, or many others, you're in luck.
In the Raspberry Pi range, you can use a Raspberry Pi 5 like I did, or even opt for a less powerful option. The original Raspberry Pi can run Batocera, as can any other model. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero is supported.
The disadvantage of older SBCs is that they do not offer support for the Sony PlayStation or newer game consoles. The Raspberry Pi 5, on the other hand, can emulate current game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
So grab your Raspberry Pi, a new microSD card, and start gaming.
Installing Batocera on your Raspberry Pi
A few simple preparation steps and you can get started
To begin your retro gaming adventure, you need to make sure you have the necessary hardware, which includes:
- Your Raspberry Pi: Almost any Raspberry Pi can run Batocera, but if you want to play the latest games, I recommend a Raspberry Pi 4B or 5. Make sure you have an official power supply or equivalent, and an HDMI to mini HDMI cable.
- An empty Micro SD card: Make sure you use a large enough drive, not only for Batocera itself, but also for any game ROM files you plan to install.
- A computer to flash the Micro SD card: You will need a PC or Mac with an SD card reader (or dongle) and a Micro SD card adapter to load Batocera onto the Micro SD card mentioned above.
- A television or other display: A TV is probably your preferred option here, but you can also connect it to your favorite computer monitor.
- A game controller: USB or Bluetooth, it's up to you. However, it's important to note that you'll need to be running a recent version of Batocera if you want to use an Xbox Series S|X controller.
- A keyboard: You'll probably only need this for the initial setup, but be sure to have a USB keyboard handy when you first boot up your new gaming device. It will make connecting to Wi-Fi and installing new game files much easier.
After downloading the appropriate Batocera image for your Raspberry Pi, you need to flash it to the micro SD card. You can use Balena Etcher or the official Raspberry Pi Imager for this.
Once the image is flashed, eject the micro SD card, remove it from the reader, and insert it into your Raspberry Pi. Connect the Pi to your TV or other display, plug it in, and you're ready to start gaming.
Getting Started with Your Batocera Gaming System
Enjoy this distribution with pre-installed retro games
When Batocera boots up for the first time, you'll see it resize its image to make all the space on the microSD card available. This is an important step, because you need room for your favorite games, right? You'll notice the Raspberry Pi reboot once or twice, then open the main screen showing the available game systems.
Use your keyboard to open the main menu of Batocera with the Spacebar. Use the arrow keys to go to the Controller Menu where you can pair your Bluetooth game controller. If you are using a USB controller, you can skip this step.
I found that the automatic pairing wasn't working with my Xbox controller, so instead I manually paired my Xbox controller with Batocera.
Now you can start playing your favorite retro games. Check out what comes pre-installed and familiarize yourself with which controller buttons perform different functions in the main menu and in your games.


Expand your retro gaming library
Optimize your experience
You may find that some of your favorite games aren't loaded into Batocera yet, but if you can find a ROM file for the game, you can easily add it. I can't tell you exactly where to find these, but a good search engine should give you solid leads.
Once you have the ROM files you want, you need to transfer them to your Batocera console. The easiest way to do this is through the built-in network share that Batocera creates, but you can also copy your games from a USB drive. This is where your USB keyboard and mouse come in handy again, allowing you to use the file manager to move everything to the right place.
Again, network sharing is the easiest option. By default, it is called BATOCERA and you can access it from any computer on the same network. On Windows, open File Explorer and look inside Network. Mac users, open finderand then click Go > Connect to Server > Browse to find the release.
As long as you copy your ROM files to the appropriate folders in the ROMs folder, the games will appear in Batocera within a few minutes. If they do not appear, you can restart Batocera or select Main Menu > Game Settings > Update Playlists.
Next steps for your retro gaming experience
Manifest your vision
I'm using a stock Raspberry Pi 5 with a case I 3D printed, but the journey doesn't end there. I want to add an NVMe SSD to the Pi so I can take advantage of faster speeds and more storage.
I also want to put everything into a case that looks more like those classic gaming consoles. There are several pre-built options that will give your Raspberry Pi the look of a Nintendo Entertainment System or SNES. However, I might take the harder route and design one that resembles the Atari 2600, which was my favorite platform when I was younger.
