Retro games on the Raspberry Pi
Play with Me!
After all the preparatory work has been completed, you can integrate the desired games, known as ROMs, into the system by transferring them to the roms/
directory of the SD card. (Please see the "Gray Area" box.) If you emulate several different gaming consoles, you should create a separate subdirectory for each console to store the ZIP archives or ISO images.
Gray Area
From a legal point of view, the use of emulators and ROMs on computer systems proves to be problematic. If the emulator contains code from the original console, it may violate copyright laws, so downloading and using it may be illegal. However, many manufacturers release their software for old consoles that are no longer manufactured. Therefore, it is recommended only to buy emulators from reputable websites.
Game ROMs are also subject to copyright. For example, some manufacturers, such as Nintendo, explicitly point out on their websites that free downloading of ROMs is prohibited [6]. However, many games have not been available on the normal gaming market for many years, and often the rights owners no longer exist or have been taken over by other companies.
To activate the desired console, select the Load Core option from the main menu. In addition to hardware emulators for pure consoles, you will find DOSBox for emulating a DOS system. Next, load the desired game by choosing Load Content | Start Directory | Load Archive.
The menu disappears and the game screen appears. Use the controller to navigate through the game. Lakka automatically saves scores and configurations, allowing you to resume interrupted games from the History menu at your old score (Figure 3).
Lakka also makes it possible to retrieve ROMs from the network by clicking Netplay in the main menu. In a clear-cut dialog, you can define whether to use the Rasp Pi as a host or a client.
Conclusions
Lakka on the Raspberry Pi offers hours of gaming fun without tying the user to a specific console model. The game pace was positive in the test on the RPi3.
However, some DOS games ran so fast they could not be played in DOS emulation. In other games, the player immediately lost track of the game in quickly changing complex scenarios. You shouldn't use very old games on high-resolution monitors, because scaling the content creates ugly block effects.
Lakka offers many configuration options, decent hardware support, and easy-to-use menus. The few weaknesses still to be found under the hood are probably a result of the rapid on-going development of the software and are likely to disappear in future releases.
Infos
- Lakka: http://www.lakka.tv
- Hardware guide: http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Hardware-support/
- Download Lakka: http://www.lakka.tv/get/linux/rpi2/
- Documentation: http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Home/
- Input settings: http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Input-settings/
- Nintendo rights granted: https://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#download_rom
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.