I used to swear by RetroPie but now I only use Batocera. Grid themes, keyboard, good scraping, no performance issues at all up to PSX on RPI3B+ (while with RetroPie stuff like SNES would always have weird stuff here and there), easy to use, easy to SSH with a PC, easy BG music... I no longer bother with others, Batocera has it all for me.
for 4 games i still need mame2003 on all the other mame version they sound muffled and mame2003 is not on batocera mame2003+ does not work but for everything else batocera
@RaspberryTips I disagree regarding your cons of Batocera. In my eyes it has the best interface (even more intuitive than recalbox) and the only missing feature (the web-manager) is not really needed and useless in my opinion. Instead Batocera has one big nice feature, that you didn't even mention: the content downloader (where you can download and install more themes, bezels and even additional games super easy through the menu). I guess you have overlooked this feature. Another feature of Batocera, which you did not mention (maybe also overlooked from you): you can view scraped Game Manuals and Maps
I only tried retro pie and afterwards recalbox. Worked better for me as a beginner. It was definitly easier to play some roms on different systems, but i missed the Feature to install themes as a beginner. Thanks for this comparison 😎
I've used Retropie for a long time. The older menus don't bother me at all, but there are definitely times where installs are hit or miss and things involve more troubleshooting than what it's worth. Batocera just from a performance standpoint definitely has my attention, and I may just give it a try. A big plus for Retropie was that it could switch to Kodi without any fuss, I just hope Batocera can do the same.
4:28 - For the Recalbox, you can press the "Start" button to skip the video intro at the beginning of every boot. So Recalbox would have actually ranked #2 or #3 if the test was done correctly.
Interesting video and long overdue for many of us noobs wondering what to go for. I chose recalbox because it just works but the other flavours look cool as well. (I suffered many hours years ago trying to make the Hyperspin front end run on my pc arcade cab build and it was just a nightmare that still haunts me now so simple is best for me haha)
Both. I choose Batocera for a few reasons, as of version 30, the OS is now a 64 bit architecture taking full of advantage of the processor. Another reason is you can format the userdata partition in EXfat so you can use a micro SD card or SSD with your Windows PC to copy your roms over instead of moving them over through the network, it’s so much faster. The second reason is that Batocera uses Screenscraper to get images, videos and screenshots. It’s so convenient to use a feature built into the Batocera OS instead of universal XML scraper. The last reason is that it’s very easy to overclock. It’s just a option in the settings menu. When I play less demanding titles, I don’t like it overclocked so high. I’ll bring it down back to the base clock. When I’m playing more demanding titles I’ll boost it up. I can do all this without having to take out my microSD card put it into the computer, open and modify the config file, then put the microSD card back into the pi, that’s just way to time consuming. I know the other OS’s do some of the things that I listed, but not one of them does all the things I listed, like Batocera OS at the moment. Sorry to write you a novel.
I just started out with emulation on Rasperry Pi 4 and evaluated Batocera. To me, it was an extreme experience in regards to the user interface! Absolutely gorgeous and with synthwave music playing in the background that is a pleasure to see on your TV The things I found out about Batocera were however (on version 33): - On GBA and GB there was tons of lag when using the scanlines filtering (which I do). When turned off, and just 'blocky' it works fine. On all the other consoles I tested, the scanlines filter worked great. Using no scanlines filter really looks like garbage on a big tv screen (my opinion). - In my test of multiple games, I found out that the sound all of a sudden would disappear in Batocera even though the Output was unchanged. Only thing happening was me opening and quitting like 5-7 games within 10 minutes to check them out. After some time (or after a restart) the sound/music would come back again.
thats the problem with all of them is theres always random sound/video/performance/joystick/controller issues. I used RetroPie but I want to try the others to get trackball working for games like 720°, marble madness and Golden Tee. But honestly the synthwave music is enough for me to now want to try Batocera whereas I wasn't going to consider it before
The problem with Batocera is that it's stuck with Mame .78 rom set..I tried it with mame .139 it wouldn't recognise, whereas Retropie allows you to tweak with 2010 (mame .139 roms).
I've built two systems in the last six months. The first one I used was RetroPie, and while it gave me a lot of options I could play with, it was also difficult to get set up and running like I wanted it. To this day, I'm still tweaking it to get it to do certain things. The second system I built, I used Batocera, and I was able to boot it up and run almost immediately with very little tweaking or configuring needed. Definitely would recommend Batocera unless you just like to tinker and tweak and need a menu to do it. You can still do this in Batocera using the File manager, but you will need to know how the files are organized and where the various config files are located.
So on any of these, is it possible to run steam games? Like can you back out to a main OS home screen and download steam? Obviously can't run big games on a Pi but maybe some little indie games
Batocera wont detect my nvidia gpu, idk how because my laptop has both intel and nvidia gpu. With retroarch i just need to force the app to use nvidia gpu in windows settings but Batocera is a whole other os and theres no setting for choosing gpu, i tried removing the # in the conf file but it still use intel gpu.
I want to use Batocera with the new pi5 which doesnt have a mini jack audio out. In raspbian i used a usb sound card and i got audio from the mini jack exit of it. Is there a way to use a usb sound card with Batocera and get audio this way if you dont want to use hdmi as audio out?
If Lakka met its stated design goals, it would appeal more to the masses. But ... 1) "If the hardware allows for it, Lakka will run without an X11 server." 2) "Perfect for giving your old discarded laptop or HTPC a second lease on life by repurposing it as a retro games console." Not even close, especially when it comes to Audio (HDMI, 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth) and Bluetooth Controllers. I have both old & new gear that run perfectly with the latest Linux distros, but fail with at least 1 of the 2 points when attempting to use Lakka. Adding bluez* and PulseAudio as optional services would go a LONG way without requiring an X11 service (which NO ONE uses any longer), eh?
Retropie has the options. I like recalbox. I’m new to using recalbox as I’ve been on retropie for many years now. The learning curve is very little after spending years on retropie. I will have to check out Batocera.
tried all 3 on a Rasp Pi3A+. Only retropie and recalbox run. Lakka was unavailable and Batocera started but was not able to run any game (it continue to load and nothing happens).
I'm just starting out on my retro gaming on a sbc. My kids are interested in retro games I grew up with from the 80s and 90s. So far I have the exact same thoughts as you on lakka and retro pi. I'm downloading img batocera next.
I tried RetroPie first, couldn't get VICE to install, or remove the overscan borders and got frustrated. Installed Batocera and got "Native" C64 emulation and no overscan borders. Sorted.
Retropie is certainly very configurable, but since i installed a Recalbox custom image for my GPi case i certainly think the latter is much easier. Did not had do fiddle with it at all. With Retropie i had to fine tune many emulators for different systems.
Your analysis of the interfaces is your own opinion. To me, Lakkia has the most boring interface. Retropie is often used in custom arcade machines / mame cabinet and homemade handheld consoles. Those setups don't really care about joystick detection so much. Set it once and forget. The interface needs are different, and retropie is good at it. Bactocera and RecallBox both look great, but at first glance, some text would be too small for tiny screens. Although it probably can be changed.
How is batocera not the first or second place here ,based on your own criteria. Btw, the con you gave was interface... did you know you can change the themes.
I've tried Retropie but I find it too complicated because I'm not as geek as needed and I want something easy to use because I want my children be able to play quickly. I use Recalbox, as it is more out of the box
I used Retropie for 5+ years but now I've switched to Recalbox due to the much better performance on N64 and Dreamcast systems, I've been using Recalbox for nearly 3 weeks and I am surprised by the many hidden features they have, the one thing I miss from Retropie the most is that, in there you can have the systems and the ES Themes you really like and here in Recalbox you are given systems you wouldn't choose to have otherwise if you were given the choice. On the other hand, Retropie hasn't had an update since March 2022, it´s been 16 months since they last updated so they are getting very behind and I wonder if they have already quit or what is going on!! Cheers
Game loading time wasn't exactly fair as you can disable that menu on retropie. It's listerally sitting there doing nothing while it waits to see if you want to config anything. That doesn't count against game load time, as it's not loading the game, but rather, waiting for your input. Also, performance on retropie could have been better if you selected another emulator for that game using said menu before the game launches. But, as you said, this test was based on out of the box. over all, I agree with you.
I have had the best luck with Batocera. I think the only real issue I really had was it doesn't detect my trackball as well for arcade games like Lakka did. Also it is particular about what folders I put my MAME arcade games in. If I put them in the wrong one I get controller issues and bad results. Batocera is also loaded with options and eye candy with all the awesome downloadable themes. It's really cool to look at and great for my arcade setup. Just wish it had less issues with MAME. Lakka works really well. Great for arcade games and compatible with almost everything I throw at it. I did have serious issues running Amiga roms on it. It's just not near as cool as it's rivals in terms of options and the way it looks. But it's very user friendly. Much of that due to how basic it is. One thing critically important is you need to put a complete emulator bios package in the system folder which is easy to find online. Once I did that I didn't have too many problems running most of what I have. Retropie looks really good but I don't think I have the patience for it. I like that it is customable but I spent way too many hours just setting up my collection of roms on Lakka and Batocera without all the other headaches I get from other front ends I have used.
running recallbox with +10k roms and bioses from an ssd on the rasp pi 4, it all runs smoothly and you can tweak it a lot, or just go to the retrarch menu and tweak even more from there
I am Retropie at the moment for my bartop and portable arcade but wouldn't mind trying out Batoccera to see how it performs thanks for this comparison, very informative.
I love using Batocera, everything works perfectly, games work an absolute treat and much more responsive than any Raspberry Pi emulation OS images I’ve ever used! Hands down! Especially their kick ass themes you can download from them too! 🎮🎮
I've only tried retropie and recalbox so far and I hated recalbox cause it didn't provide information about keyboard keys so I had to hit everything to figure it out myself and then the wifi wouldn't work and none of the bioses wanted to load. I think there may have been an issue during installation but as I had such a bad experience I'm not sure I'll bother giving it another go. I have lakka downloaded but not installed cause I'm thinking I should wait for 3.0 to drop as it's seeming as though it's coming very soon accourding to their website. Batocera will probably get skipped by me as it's basically the same thing as recalbox with a different skin and similar issues. I am a power user most ofthe time so I don't hate retropie, more just seeing if any of the others can compare for the systems I actually play which all of the roms support so no loss to me on what they don't, I need to consider getting a new battery for my ps3 controller as I've had it for a very very long time now, probably over a decade. Otherwise I still very much love the PS3 controller and all others of the DualShock/DualSense family. Nice video btw, would have liked to see a bit more side by side comparisons then just text as a suggestion.
I've tried Recalbox so many times but it never really works out and I always end up back on Retropie. It might be a little more complicated but you cannot beat either the amount and types of options available on Retropie that allow you to polish every aspect of your install. And crucially, I absolutely always find performance is much better with Retropie across all the emulators. Not to mention you have many more emulators and ports there too. Also with Recalbox I don't feel like there's a big community like Retropie. Asking questions on their forum often results in either radio silence or unsure shrugs. However Batocera looks really good and I will try this on my new Pi 400 for sure.
Batocera is so much better than Retropie. It has animated themes and the ui makes sense. Retropie looks so outdated and it's so inconsistent. The only thing big it has going for it is the ability to add and update emulators and apps. I only use Retropie if it's the only option. Like on desktop Linux.
Interessante, estou usando Batocera e achei bem fácil de configurar tudo, os jogos rodam muito bem e não encontrei dificuldades. Se eu for testar outro, será o Recalbox.
To be honest, the interface for all of them except lakka can be changed with different themes. Batocera is a great option and middle ground for those who don't like the complexity of retropie and the simplicity of recalbox. Batocera is even better if you have a decent PC, allowing you to play PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Wii, Wii-U and even PC games through wine.
Recalbox with RGB Dual on a CRT TV is my personal to go. Such an out of the box solution for a CRT TV is just amazing and it gets close to the original experience.
Are there no youtubers that can show a netplay demo of retroarch PI cross platform play with a windows client (or host ) ? it WOULD be REALLY interesting AND boost your views
Most reviewers forget to tell that Retropie is the only one that can handle PieMarquee2. I tried all 4 and systems you tested out and as far as I know now Lakka, Recalbox and Batocera don't support a active marquee. If youb manage to find a good configured and tuned Batocera image than the gameplay is (i.m.o.) the best, but since a few of my cabinets have a LCD marquee display I have to stick with Retropie for now. There is so much more to tell about all the different front-ends, but that would take ages.
I compared batocera and recalbox. In my experience batocera is a much better out-of-the-box-experience! More stable, compatible, intuitive … I made a video how to install it. Greetings
i was testing retropie in my pi4, and have a lot of issues with it, then try with batocera and is really better than retropie, is faster at the boot, is better goodlooking that retropie, the compatibility between consoles is the best, maybe batocera is a really weak in the custom vs retropie, but retropie is a lot of custom things, but at the end, is not intuitive, is hard to find the best emulator for every rom, and the scrapper in batocera is better than retropie... For my now batocera is the better for begginers, and it has a Carrousel Mode, like hypersin that really looks cool, with video image description and rate for every game and console, new follow nice content.
Don't have any issue with retropie menus, I have issues with retropie itself, sure it can do a lot of stuff but it does everything bad or half through. Some basic options (like a true kiosk mode, or define controllers per game) are not even there. Retropie just continue to be used because of its past fame but nowadays it would be like using dos instead of windows just for the sake of it. Let it die :)
i used to play with recalbox or batocera, both are good. Especialy recalbox if you use light gun game and batocera seems better globaly in émulation (redream, better SMS config, psx etc).
type "batocera bios pack" on google and click on the 1st link, then download the right file and replace the bios folder with the one in your usb and that's it, you have all the bios batocera is expecting you to have.
Uso o Recalbox em um miniPC tenho problema de lentidão em jogos de PS2 e Wii, vou testar o Batocera para ver se melhora. De resto o Recalbox é muito bom e facil de usar. I use Recalbox on a miniPC I have a problem with slowness in PS2 and Wii games, I'm going to test Batocera to see if it improves. Otherwise Recalbox is very good and easy to use.
Hi, I need to watch this properly when i get home, but a question, my idea with be a little unusual, but I want a PI build, currently trying recalbox where I can fill it with 8bit computers, but instead of booting into a game menu I want to boot into the games o/s, then create a directory for each and place the games in there, so you still have to use Basic or another o/s the way you used to... is this possible?
I think your Retropie image was using a stock clock. It's on the official RPi flash drive installer, it's probably not overclocked as much or not at all. It would explain why everything is equally slow.
Retropie was the first sogtware i tried. I didn't like that i had to look for the ROMS. If you don't have any ROMs you're screwed. Batocera has so many games preloaded on the image. 16k i haven't tried the other software but will check it out. My vote goes to batocera
So lakka booted up the fastest and had average performance, but you marked it as a con. You also listed lakka's interface as a pro and con. It's quite confusing conclusion.
Not for me, way to locked down. Supreme Ultra all the way for me, its a custom retropie with MUCH more emulator support, steam link app, kodi (just like batocera has kodi) and best of all a fully functional desktop that can run X86 software and even steam if you wanted to.
@@Henk717 I'm sure a custom built 9GB rom pack like Supreme Ultra that is pre-tweaked per rom will perform better, but that isn't the point. Batocera has the best out of box experience across the board. Unless I missed something... Is RetroPie Supreme Ultra a distro that I can build myself or download without the rom bloat?
@@pceslayer6815 Yeah, basically how it works that team builds a base image that anyone can use and then others add roms to it. If you go to the Pi4 images on arcade punk at the very bottom of the page is Supreme Ultra V1, that one is just the base image. It won't have the roms preinstalled.
Couldn't agree more. Started off using Retropie but found myself countlessly being challenged by the user unfriendly operating system and bugs. Finally made the switch to Batocera and man it runs like a well oiled machine compared to Retropie. Even just trying to get background music to run in Retropie was an absolute mission but Bato was no problem at all.
RetroPie is awesome, but after days of configuration I ran into an issue where I couldn't get my 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ to pair. I messed with it for hours and tried everything including disabling wifi and reinstalling the Bluetooth drivers but it would freeze when selecting the security mode regardless of which option I picked. I decided to try Recalbox and was paired up in no time at all, super easy interface but lacking options. I also tried Batocera, it seems to be a good sweet spot between Recalbox and RetroPie. I'm currently trying to decide between Recalbox and Batocera, it's crazy to me that RetroPie hasn't been made more user friendly. The fact that it's so difficult to pair up wireless controllers on RetroPie is a deal breaker for me.
I aos got into problems with my 8BitDo, it would work for a while and then simply disconnect, I got better result using the wireless adapter that they sell on my unit
I was able to get it working. Hopefully you are using RetroPie 4.7.1. Try installing xpadneo. To do this go to RetroPie Configuration Options -> RetroPie Setup -> Manage packages -> Manage driver packages. Scroll down and click on xpadneo and click on install from source. Once finished go back to Emulation Station and reboot. Hope this helps you
I wasted a bunch of time trying to get a bluetooth 8bitdo M30 to automatically reconnect to RetroPie after a cold boot. I had to use a different controller and go into the RetroPie menu every time to re-pair the M30. Gave up and bought the 8bitdo dongle. The M30 still needed to re-paired after every shutdown, but at least this could be done by just pressing the pair buttons on the dongle and controller. Going by the 8bitdo manual, it seems this is just the way their controllers work, though? If so, it's ridiculous. I returned the M30 and bought a DS3 instead - paired first time with the 8bitdo adapter and has been rock solid since. Just connect by hitting the Home button once, as it should be. I've got RetroPie nicely set up now, but run Batocera on a few other systems and have always been impressed. The scraper, controller setup and theme downloader are far superior on Batocera - having got used to ES in the latter, the DOS-style setup menus in RP seem archaic.
p4 looses ground to android board..with emuelec it's way better than retropie or batocera, eventhough emuelec looks like retropie with a nice frontend.
A bit lost with some technical words?
Grab my free Raspberry Pi glossary here: download.raspberrytips.com/glossary 💾
I used to swear by RetroPie but now I only use Batocera. Grid themes, keyboard, good scraping, no performance issues at all up to PSX on RPI3B+ (while with RetroPie stuff like SNES would always have weird stuff here and there), easy to use, easy to SSH with a PC, easy BG music... I no longer bother with others, Batocera has it all for me.
for 4 games i still need mame2003 on all the other mame version they sound muffled and mame2003 is not on batocera mame2003+ does not work but for everything else batocera
How's n64 run?
I have a real hard time with arcade low rez settings what is your experince ???
5:10 even though it was muted. i still heard. "E.A. Sports. Its in the game!" XD
@RaspberryTips I disagree regarding your cons of Batocera. In my eyes it has the best interface (even more intuitive than recalbox) and the only missing feature (the web-manager) is not really needed and useless in my opinion. Instead Batocera has one big nice feature, that you didn't even mention: the content downloader (where you can download and install more themes, bezels and even additional games super easy through the menu). I guess you have overlooked this feature. Another feature of Batocera, which you did not mention (maybe also overlooked from you): you can view scraped Game Manuals and Maps
I think it can run Steam Link now too.
I only tried retro pie and afterwards recalbox. Worked better for me as a beginner. It was definitly easier to play some roms on different systems, but i missed the Feature to install themes as a beginner. Thanks for this comparison 😎
Spot on vid. I started off with retropie but the controller config was frustrating at best. Really love recal. Thanks
Thanks!!, Great overview / analysis !!
Thank you! I've used retropie before but I kinda forgot about it now, I'll try Recalbox.
I've used Retropie for a long time. The older menus don't bother me at all, but there are definitely times where installs are hit or miss and things involve more troubleshooting than what it's worth. Batocera just from a performance standpoint definitely has my attention, and I may just give it a try. A big plus for Retropie was that it could switch to Kodi without any fuss, I just hope Batocera can do the same.
Congratulations for the analysis. It certainly took a lot of time and the video is rich of information.
Thank you. Very relaxing and informative presentation.
4:28 - For the Recalbox, you can press the "Start" button to skip the video intro at the beginning of every boot. So Recalbox would have actually ranked #2 or #3 if the test was done correctly.
Interesting video and long overdue for many of us noobs wondering what to go for. I chose recalbox because it just works but the other flavours look cool as well. (I suffered many hours years ago trying to make the Hyperspin front end run on my pc arcade cab build and it was just a nightmare that still haunts me now so simple is best for me haha)
Thx for the video bro, i love ur music btw
would love a video on Batocera
I’ve tried them all and I keep going back to Batocera. They optimize the performance, and it shows.
Your choice is only based on performances or they are other reasons?
Both. I choose Batocera for a few reasons, as of version 30, the OS is now a 64 bit architecture taking full of advantage of the processor. Another reason is you can format the userdata partition in EXfat so you can use a micro SD card or SSD with your Windows PC to copy your roms over instead of moving them over through the network, it’s so much faster. The second reason is that Batocera uses Screenscraper to get images, videos and screenshots. It’s so convenient to use a feature built into the Batocera OS instead of universal XML scraper. The last reason is that it’s very easy to overclock. It’s just a option in the settings menu. When I play less demanding titles, I don’t like it overclocked so high. I’ll bring it down back to the base clock. When I’m playing more demanding titles I’ll boost it up. I can do all this without having to take out my microSD card put it into the computer, open and modify the config file, then put the microSD card back into the pi, that’s just way to time consuming. I know the other OS’s do some of the things that I listed, but not one of them does all the things I listed, like Batocera OS at the moment. Sorry to write you a novel.
@@gmailer13
Wow on the fly overclocking?
Very nice. Batocera is looking more and more appealing.
@@RaspberryTips
No one else on RUclips did this.
I always wondered if there was a performance difference.
Subbed.
I agree, I've tried them all, and I keep going back to Batocera.
I just started out with emulation on Rasperry Pi 4 and evaluated Batocera. To me, it was an extreme experience in regards to the user interface! Absolutely gorgeous and with synthwave music playing in the background that is a pleasure to see on your TV
The things I found out about Batocera were however (on version 33):
- On GBA and GB there was tons of lag when using the scanlines filtering (which I do). When turned off, and just 'blocky' it works fine. On all the other consoles I tested, the scanlines filter worked great. Using no scanlines filter really looks like garbage on a big tv screen (my opinion).
- In my test of multiple games, I found out that the sound all of a sudden would disappear in Batocera even though the Output was unchanged. Only thing happening was me opening and quitting like 5-7 games within 10 minutes to check them out. After some time (or after a restart) the sound/music would come back again.
thats the problem with all of them is theres always random sound/video/performance/joystick/controller issues. I used RetroPie but I want to try the others to get trackball working for games like 720°, marble madness and Golden Tee. But honestly the synthwave music is enough for me to now want to try Batocera whereas I wasn't going to consider it before
@@kneel1 Theres also the fact that Batocera natively supports the Sinden Lightgun
The problem with Batocera is that it's stuck with Mame .78 rom set..I tried it with mame .139 it wouldn't recognise, whereas Retropie allows you to tweak with 2010 (mame .139 roms).
I've built two systems in the last six months.
The first one I used was RetroPie, and while it gave me a lot of options I could play with, it was also difficult to get set up and running like I wanted it. To this day, I'm still tweaking it to get it to do certain things.
The second system I built, I used Batocera, and I was able to boot it up and run almost immediately with very little tweaking or configuring needed.
Definitely would recommend Batocera unless you just like to tinker and tweak and need a menu to do it. You can still do this in Batocera using the File manager, but you will need to know how the files are organized and where the various config files are located.
So on any of these, is it possible to run steam games? Like can you back out to a main OS home screen and download steam? Obviously can't run big games on a Pi but maybe some little indie games
Batocera wont detect my nvidia gpu, idk how because my laptop has both intel and nvidia gpu. With retroarch i just need to force the app to use nvidia gpu in windows settings but Batocera is a whole other os and theres no setting for choosing gpu, i tried removing the # in the conf file but it still use intel gpu.
I want to use Batocera with the new pi5 which doesnt have a mini jack audio out. In raspbian i used a usb sound card and i got audio from the mini jack exit of it. Is there a way to use a usb sound card with Batocera and get audio this way if you dont want to use hdmi as audio out?
If Lakka met its stated design goals, it would appeal more to the masses. But ...
1) "If the hardware allows for it, Lakka will run without an X11 server."
2) "Perfect for giving your old discarded laptop or HTPC a second lease on life by repurposing it as a retro games console."
Not even close, especially when it comes to Audio (HDMI, 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth) and Bluetooth Controllers. I have both old & new gear that run perfectly with the latest Linux distros, but fail with at least 1 of the 2 points when attempting to use Lakka. Adding bluez* and PulseAudio as optional services would go a LONG way without requiring an X11 service (which NO ONE uses any longer), eh?
great video, actually im trying to run gamecube games on the pi4b, but i cant figure out how to do it in retropie, could you help me out here ? thanks
Retropie has the options. I like recalbox. I’m new to using recalbox as I’ve been on retropie for many years now. The learning curve is very little after spending years on retropie. I will have to check out Batocera.
thanks now I will do my own test, but will start with recalbox
tried all 3 on a Rasp Pi3A+. Only retropie and recalbox run. Lakka was unavailable and Batocera started but was not able to run any game (it continue to load and nothing happens).
I'm just starting out on my retro gaming on a sbc. My kids are interested in retro games I grew up with from the 80s and 90s. So far I have the exact same thoughts as you on lakka and retro pi. I'm downloading img batocera next.
the themes on batocera's version of emulationstation are so advanced you can do so much with
thanks for sharing, it's great to know
I tried RetroPie first, couldn't get VICE to install, or remove the overscan borders and got frustrated. Installed Batocera and got "Native" C64 emulation and no overscan borders. Sorted.
Is yuzu emulator on the raspbian os ?
I will try recalbox but can I make game saves?
One thing to note about Recalbox: it can run on any PC's too instead of a Raspberry Pi.
great video! love it. looking forward to trying recalbox. i love that it has TI 99 4a and all the other 80s shit
Retropie is certainly very configurable, but since i installed a Recalbox custom image for my GPi case i certainly think the latter is much easier. Did not had do fiddle with it at all. With Retropie i had to fine tune many emulators for different systems.
Your analysis of the interfaces is your own opinion. To me, Lakkia has the most boring interface. Retropie is often used in custom arcade machines / mame cabinet and homemade handheld consoles. Those setups don't really care about joystick detection so much. Set it once and forget. The interface needs are different, and retropie is good at it. Bactocera and RecallBox both look great, but at first glance, some text would be too small for tiny screens. Although it probably can be changed.
That was awesome man
How is batocera not the first or second place here ,based on your own criteria. Btw, the con you gave was interface... did you know you can change the themes.
I liked seeing the game comparison with all 4 systems.
I've tried Retropie but I find it too complicated because I'm not as geek as needed and I want something easy to use because I want my children be able to play quickly. I use Recalbox, as it is more out of the box
I used Retropie for 5+ years but now I've switched to Recalbox due to the much better performance on N64 and Dreamcast systems, I've been using Recalbox for nearly 3 weeks and I am surprised by the many hidden features they have, the one thing I miss from Retropie the most is that, in there you can have the systems and the ES Themes you really like and here in Recalbox you are given systems you wouldn't choose to have otherwise if you were given the choice. On the other hand, Retropie hasn't had an update since March 2022, it´s been 16 months since they last updated so they are getting very behind and I wonder if they have already quit or what is going on!! Cheers
Game loading time wasn't exactly fair as you can disable that menu on retropie. It's listerally sitting there doing nothing while it waits to see if you want to config anything. That doesn't count against game load time, as it's not loading the game, but rather, waiting for your input. Also, performance on retropie could have been better if you selected another emulator for that game using said menu before the game launches. But, as you said, this test was based on out of the box. over all, I agree with you.
which ones would support a crappy usb controller that i threw together?
Retropie also tends to forget BT devices from time to time. Either get the BT adapter or use Recalbox if you sre using Bluetooth.
Amazing content 🥺♥️
Which has the least amount of input latency?
I have had the best luck with Batocera. I think the only real issue I really had was it doesn't detect my trackball as well for arcade games like Lakka did. Also it is particular about what folders I put my MAME arcade games in. If I put them in the wrong one I get controller issues and bad results.
Batocera is also loaded with options and eye candy with all the awesome downloadable themes. It's really cool to look at and great for my arcade setup. Just wish it had less issues with MAME.
Lakka works really well. Great for arcade games and compatible with almost everything I throw at it. I did have serious issues running Amiga roms on it. It's just not near as cool as it's rivals in terms of options and the way it looks. But it's very user friendly. Much of that due to how basic it is. One thing critically important is you need to put a complete emulator bios package in the system folder which is easy to find online. Once I did that I didn't have too many problems running most of what I have.
Retropie looks really good but I don't think I have the patience for it. I like that it is customable but I spent way too many hours just setting up my collection of roms on Lakka and Batocera without all the other headaches I get from other front ends I have used.
i'vent found one yet that
Intesting video, I only tried recalbox but if I have time to lose, I'll try to install retropie someday ;)
Anybody try recalbox last ver. (7.2) ???
running recallbox with +10k roms and bioses from an ssd on the rasp pi 4, it all runs smoothly and you can tweak it a lot, or just go to the retrarch menu and tweak even more from there
So this comparison is for absolute beginners? I would've liked to see the comparison with all os with optimal settings.
I am Retropie at the moment for my bartop and portable arcade but wouldn't mind trying out Batoccera to see how it performs thanks for this comparison, very informative.
I love using Batocera, everything works perfectly, games work an absolute treat and much more responsive than any Raspberry Pi emulation OS images I’ve ever used! Hands down! Especially their kick ass themes you can download from them too! 🎮🎮
I've only tried retropie and recalbox so far and I hated recalbox cause it didn't provide information about keyboard keys so I had to hit everything to figure it out myself and then the wifi wouldn't work and none of the bioses wanted to load. I think there may have been an issue during installation but as I had such a bad experience I'm not sure I'll bother giving it another go. I have lakka downloaded but not installed cause I'm thinking I should wait for 3.0 to drop as it's seeming as though it's coming very soon accourding to their website. Batocera will probably get skipped by me as it's basically the same thing as recalbox with a different skin and similar issues. I am a power user most ofthe time so I don't hate retropie, more just seeing if any of the others can compare for the systems I actually play which all of the roms support so no loss to me on what they don't, I need to consider getting a new battery for my ps3 controller as I've had it for a very very long time now, probably over a decade. Otherwise I still very much love the PS3 controller and all others of the DualShock/DualSense family. Nice video btw, would have liked to see a bit more side by side comparisons then just text as a suggestion.
I've tried Recalbox so many times but it never really works out and I always end up back on Retropie. It might be a little more complicated but you cannot beat either the amount and types of options available on Retropie that allow you to polish every aspect of your install. And crucially, I absolutely always find performance is much better with Retropie across all the emulators. Not to mention you have many more emulators and ports there too. Also with Recalbox I don't feel like there's a big community like Retropie. Asking questions on their forum often results in either radio silence or unsure shrugs. However Batocera looks really good and I will try this on my new Pi 400 for sure.
Batocera is so much better than Retropie. It has animated themes and the ui makes sense. Retropie looks so outdated and it's so inconsistent. The only thing big it has going for it is the ability to add and update emulators and apps. I only use Retropie if it's the only option. Like on desktop Linux.
Interessante, estou usando Batocera e achei bem fácil de configurar tudo, os jogos rodam muito bem e não encontrei dificuldades. Se eu for testar outro, será o Recalbox.
Batocera is the most complete. Retropie and Recalbox lacks some emulators and functions.
A tip : watch series on flixzone. I've been using it for watching lots of of movies lately.
@Kevin Boone yup, I have been watching on Flixzone for years myself :)
To be honest, the interface for all of them except lakka can be changed with different themes. Batocera is a great option and middle ground for those who don't like the complexity of retropie and the simplicity of recalbox. Batocera is even better if you have a decent PC, allowing you to play PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Wii, Wii-U and even PC games through wine.
Lakka can also change interface themes.
Under Settings, Drivers, Menu Drivers.
Retropie allow using Redream, even if it's not easy, it's a big thing. Recalbox should include custom package
Recalbox with RGB Dual on a CRT TV is my personal to go. Such an out of the box solution for a CRT TV is just amazing and it gets close to the original experience.
Do a video about batocera
Are there no youtubers that can show a netplay demo of retroarch PI cross platform play with a windows client (or host ) ? it WOULD be REALLY interesting AND boost your views
5:00 I think Lakka is slower, because you chose the wrong emulator, there are emulator, that works as fast as other OS.
Most reviewers forget to tell that Retropie is the only one that can handle PieMarquee2.
I tried all 4 and systems you tested out and as far as I know now Lakka, Recalbox and Batocera don't support a active marquee.
If youb manage to find a good configured and tuned Batocera image than the gameplay is (i.m.o.) the best, but since a few of my cabinets have a LCD marquee display I have to stick with Retropie for now. There is so much more to tell about all the different front-ends, but that would take ages.
I compared batocera and recalbox. In my experience batocera is a much better out-of-the-box-experience! More stable, compatible, intuitive … I made a video how to install it. Greetings
i was testing retropie in my pi4, and have a lot of issues with it, then try with batocera and is really better than retropie, is faster at the boot, is better goodlooking that retropie, the compatibility between consoles is the best, maybe batocera is a really weak in the custom vs retropie, but retropie is a lot of custom things, but at the end, is not intuitive, is hard to find the best emulator for every rom, and the scrapper in batocera is better than retropie... For my now batocera is the better for begginers, and it has a Carrousel Mode, like hypersin that really looks cool, with video image description and rate for every game and console, new follow nice content.
Retropie controller management is wild hahaha it really is especially when you're trying to play 4 player Mario kart
Batocera Is better than recalbox... A lot of difference
Agreed on this one. Used Recalbox for six months, then switching to Batocera and never look back.
Don't have any issue with retropie menus, I have issues with retropie itself, sure it can do a lot of stuff but it does everything bad or half through. Some basic options (like a true kiosk mode, or define controllers per game) are not even there. Retropie just continue to be used because of its past fame but nowadays it would be like using dos instead of windows just for the sake of it. Let it die :)
i used to play with recalbox or batocera, both are good. Especialy recalbox if you use light gun game and batocera seems better globaly in émulation (redream, better SMS config, psx etc).
I can't seem to get the right bios for recalbox otherwise it's not bad
type "batocera bios pack" on google and click on the 1st link, then download the right file and replace the bios folder with the one in your usb and that's it, you have all the bios batocera is expecting you to have.
Based on performance i will try Batocera and Recalbox i hate how complicated Retropie is
I like Lakka because of the small size, but Batocera seems to have all tthe bells and whistles for me.
Batocera does have WIFI Detection, but its flaky. After it starts to work, it doesn't fail again.
in my case if i restart batocera wifi wont work, i have to fully shutdown first
@@zead9481 Did the same to me, but after a while it stops. Not sure if its updates or what. So make sure you have updated.
batocera is best, i even have batocera running on my small usb drive on my laptop
Спасибо большое! я начинающий и теперь знаю что начать лучше с Recalbox
Lakka is the best I think you can wait to play that much for the other functions that you get
Uso o Recalbox em um miniPC tenho problema de lentidão em jogos de PS2 e Wii, vou testar o Batocera para ver se melhora. De resto o Recalbox é muito bom e facil de usar. I use Recalbox on a miniPC I have a problem with slowness in PS2 and Wii games, I'm going to test Batocera to see if it improves. Otherwise Recalbox is very good and easy to use.
Lakka is the best
Boots up fast,friendly user ui if you have used a ps3 and it works so well across many system
You didn't mention sound. Batocera suffers from no sound on many Playstation titles.
Hi, I need to watch this properly when i get home, but a question, my idea with be a little unusual, but I want a PI build, currently trying recalbox where I can fill it with 8bit computers, but instead of booting into a game menu I want to boot into the games o/s, then create a directory for each and place the games in there, so you still have to use Basic or another o/s the way you used to... is this possible?
Acredito eu que o Emuelec esteja mais otimizado hoje em dia.
my favortie batocera on my raspberry, on Batocera OS my old netbook (not notbook) , and on USB SSD .(BATOCERA OS LIVE SSD)
My understanding is that these aren't different OSes but just different frontends.
I think your Retropie image was using a stock clock. It's on the official RPi flash drive installer, it's probably not overclocked as much or not at all. It would explain why everything is equally slow.
I'm just gonna say... Android, currently. Works smooth as on Rpi 4, the others are a bit jankier. Lakka is close.
Thank you for your work. But don't be shy to use your voice, it will make the video better.
Retropie was the first sogtware i tried. I didn't like that i had to look for the ROMS. If you don't have any ROMs you're screwed. Batocera has so many games preloaded on the image. 16k i haven't tried the other software but will check it out. My vote goes to batocera
So lakka booted up the fastest and had average performance, but you marked it as a con. You also listed lakka's interface as a pro and con. It's quite confusing conclusion.
I'd go with Lakka.
Batocera > All the rest!
Not for me, way to locked down.
Supreme Ultra all the way for me, its a custom retropie with MUCH more emulator support, steam link app, kodi (just like batocera has kodi) and best of all a fully functional desktop that can run X86 software and even steam if you wanted to.
@@Henk717 I'm sure a custom built 9GB rom pack like Supreme Ultra that is pre-tweaked per rom will perform better, but that isn't the point. Batocera has the best out of box experience across the board. Unless I missed something... Is RetroPie Supreme Ultra a distro that I can build myself or download without the rom bloat?
@@pceslayer6815 Yeah, basically how it works that team builds a base image that anyone can use and then others add roms to it. If you go to the Pi4 images on arcade punk at the very bottom of the page is Supreme Ultra V1, that one is just the base image. It won't have the roms preinstalled.
Couldn't agree more. Started off using Retropie but found myself countlessly being challenged by the user unfriendly operating system and bugs. Finally made the switch to Batocera and man it runs like a well oiled machine compared to Retropie. Even just trying to get background music to run in Retropie was an absolute mission but Bato was no problem at all.
What about emuelec
I choose batocera as a beginner :)
Batocera is easy to use, so stable :)
RetroPie is awesome, but after days of configuration I ran into an issue where I couldn't get my 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ to pair. I messed with it for hours and tried everything including disabling wifi and reinstalling the Bluetooth drivers but it would freeze when selecting the security mode regardless of which option I picked. I decided to try Recalbox and was paired up in no time at all, super easy interface but lacking options. I also tried Batocera, it seems to be a good sweet spot between Recalbox and RetroPie. I'm currently trying to decide between Recalbox and Batocera, it's crazy to me that RetroPie hasn't been made more user friendly. The fact that it's so difficult to pair up wireless controllers on RetroPie is a deal breaker for me.
I aos got into problems with my 8BitDo, it would work for a while and then simply disconnect, I got better result using the wireless adapter that they sell on my unit
I was able to get it working. Hopefully you are using RetroPie 4.7.1. Try installing xpadneo. To do this go to RetroPie Configuration Options ->
RetroPie Setup -> Manage packages -> Manage driver packages. Scroll down and click on xpadneo and click on install from source. Once finished go back to Emulation Station and reboot. Hope this helps you
I wasted a bunch of time trying to get a bluetooth 8bitdo M30 to automatically reconnect to RetroPie after a cold boot. I had to use a different controller and go into the RetroPie menu every time to re-pair the M30. Gave up and bought the 8bitdo dongle. The M30 still needed to re-paired after every shutdown, but at least this could be done by just pressing the pair buttons on the dongle and controller. Going by the 8bitdo manual, it seems this is just the way their controllers work, though? If so, it's ridiculous. I returned the M30 and bought a DS3 instead - paired first time with the 8bitdo adapter and has been rock solid since. Just connect by hitting the Home button once, as it should be.
I've got RetroPie nicely set up now, but run Batocera on a few other systems and have always been impressed. The scraper, controller setup and theme downloader are far superior on Batocera - having got used to ES in the latter, the DOS-style setup menus in RP seem archaic.
p4 looses ground to android board..with emuelec it's way better than retropie or batocera, eventhough emuelec looks like retropie with a nice frontend.
I have used retropie and batocera 30. Batocera 30 is much better, in my opinion.
Batocera seems more and more popular :)
Why do you prefer it over Retropie?
@@RaspberryTips Easier to use, less messing around. Emulators seem to work better.
I like that with Retropie the WIFI works & my Argon 1 case operates properly but N64 emulation is garbage. Batocera runs N64 games MUCH better.
Batocera all the way!, thank you.
Is this youtube or a grade 9 powerpoint presentation?