Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (2024)

Emulating retro games is one of the most popular Raspberry Pi projects – to the point where there’s a staggering number of tools capable of running timeless classics from multiple console generations. Better yet, the newest member of the Raspberry Pi family supports five dedicated emulation platforms, so you don’t have to go around downloading separate tools for your favorite consoles.

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With each platform bearing its own set of pros and cons, you might have a hard time picking the one that fits your needs. To help you out, I’ve ranked all five emulation platforms on the basis of their user interface, ease of setup, compatible consoles, performance, controller support, and several other miscellaneous factors.

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Although the Raspberry Pi 5 has been out for almost a year, software support is still a bit spotty on the SBC. Emulators, in particular, continue to have issues with the Bookworm version of the Raspberry Pi OS. This means a platform that I’ve ranked low in the article due to its compatibility issues with the RPi5 might work incredibly well on the SBC’s predecessors. Furthermore, I’ve conducted all the tests on the latest, stable versions of the emulation platforms, so you might not see the features implemented in beta releases.

5 RetroArch

Limited cores and an aggravating setup process make for a terrible combo

Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (2)

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Despite its popularity as the most popular platform in the emulation space, RetroArch’s implementation on the Raspberry Pi 5 is far from perfect. On paper, RetroArch seems a lot better than its counterparts, as you can install it on top of an existing distro instead of flashing a microSD card with an IMG file.

Unfortunately, this benefit is marred by a ridiculously complex installation procedure. Even if you do manage to configure RetroArch, there’s not a lot you can do with the emulator. That’s because there’s a noticeable lack of emulation cores on the platform. Once you set up custom download links for ARM64 cores, you’ll only be able to run games for extremely outdated consoles. To add insult to injury, certain cores, like the one for the PSX emulator, fail to launch any games.

The biggest strength of RetroArch lies in the fact that you can still enjoy your favorite retro games and use the Raspberry Pi 5 as a regular SBC without switching microSD cards. But the fact that you can’t even run Wii, PSX, or even PSP titles leaves a lot to be desired.

4 RetroPie

The best there is… if you’re using anything other than the Raspberry Pi 5

Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (3)

RetroPie used to be my platform of choice back in my Raspberry Pi Zero days. With the Raspberry Pi 4 being a powerhouse compared to its tiny, feeble sibling, I had really high hopes for the platform. Unfortunately, RetroPie just isn’t good enough on the latest entry to the popular SBC family.

For starters, RetroPie has an IMG for every Raspberry Pi SBC except the RPi 5. As such, you’ll have to compile RetroPie using a bunch of terminal commands. Compiling the emulator cores can take more than a few hours on the 8GB RAM model, and that’s before you include the fact that even the latest version of RetroPie supports extremely few cores.

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But the silver lining here is that you can technically dual-boot into RetroPie and the Raspberry Pi OS. UI-wise, it’s better than RetroArch, and while I personally had some technical issues after sideloading a PSP core, I’ve heard some users managed to get Wii games working on RetroPie. That said, old-school games for the SNES, GBA, and the early Atari consoles work well, and you’re free to use the community-created scripts to add more emulators to RetroPie.

Were this article about mini-PCs or even x86 SBCs, RetroPie would’ve been near the top. But on the Raspberry Pi 5, I can’t put it anywhere but slightly above RetroArch.

3 Recalbox

Arguably the best UI, with many pre-installed games and support for multiple controllers

Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (4)

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Although Recalbox lies in third place, it’s a highly capable emulator and makes for a solid recommendation for most gamers. During the initial boot, Recalbox takes a bit longer than the remaining options on this list, but after waiting a few minutes, you’ll be greeted with what’s my favorite UI out of all the emulation platforms I’ve used until now.

When I wrote the tutorial about installing emulators on the Raspberry Pi 5 back in January, I fell in love with Recalbox’s interface. It’s slightly fancier than RetroPie, but a lot more nuanced and easy on the eyes than Batocera and Lakka. Navigating through the menus is fairly simple, and you get the option to transfer games over a LAN connection.

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Besides supporting a web UI, Recalbox also comes with Kodi pre-installed, meaning you can use your Raspberry Pi as a makeshift media server with Recalbox. Most emulator cores, ranging from Nintendo64 to PSX and PSP work well on Recalbox, and the platform lets you enable distinct controllers for up to 10 people (though doing so will require more than one USB hub). Unfortunately, the latest version of Recalbox lacks proper cores for Wii, GameCube, and Nintendo DS, which is what ultimately forced me to relate it to the third spot.

2 Lakka

A PlayStation-like UI that’s extremely beginner-friendly

In stark contrast to Recalbox, I had a meh reaction to Lakka when I initially used it earlier this year. Perhaps it’s because Lakka doesn’t come with a web UI or Kodi support. Or maybe that’s due to the PSP-esque user interface that I’ve grown tired of after spending my entire childhood gaming on the portable handheld.

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Getting back on topic, Lakka has the best UI for beginners. All the features, toggles, and settings are arranged in neat menus. Unlike every platform besides RetroArch, you don’t need to store the ROMs inside separate directories in Lakka. Instead, you’re free to paste the game files inside the ROMs folder after typing //Lakka into the Search bar of the File Explorer on Windows 11.

The only issue is that it follows the Japanese controller layout, where the B/O buttons are used in place of the A/X buttons (and vice versa), but you can remap the controls if you find them disorienting. Otherwise, Lakka delivers superb performance when emulating titles designed for the more modern consoles like PSX, PSP, GameCube, DS, and Wii. There’s even the Play! core for the PlayStation 2, but having tested it with three different ROMs, I can confirm that it’s unusable in the latest version of Lakka.

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All-in-all, you should check out Lakka if you want a familiar, straightforward UI and rock-solid compatibility with most consoles. But if it’s extra features you’re looking for, there’s only one option to choose…

1 Batocera

Plenty of features alongside support for most consoles

Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (5)

UI-wise, Batocera seems a little too flashy compared to its rivals. This is just my personal bias trickling in, but I find its user interface to be serviceable at best. However, Batocera has a solid collection of features, including the ability to assign different controllers for 8 players and support for Kodi and Moonlight services. If you’ve got a sunshine host in your home network, you can use it to stream games directly to Batocera.

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Similar to Recalbox and Lakka, Batocera supports LAN sharing out-of-the-box, though you do need to send all the ROMs to their respective console folders. Otherwise, neither the games nor the consoles would appear on the Batocera dashboard. Speaking of games, Batocera performs just as well on the performance front, and I was able to emulate titles designed for PSP, GameCube, DS, and PlayStation 1.

However, there were some slight problems in certain cores. The Wii one, or to be more specific, the Dolphin emulator, fails to detect my GameSir Tarantula Pro and Manba One controllers in wired and wireless modes. Thankfully, a possible fix involves modifying the controls inside the config files. While a PS2 core was available a few months ago, the current release of Batorcera doesn’t feature any means to emulate PlayStation 2 titles.

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Nevertheless, it’s still the best emulation distro at the moment, and unless Lakka manages to add more features, I doubt this ranking will change anytime soon.

But what about PlayStation 2 emulation?

Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (6)

As someone who considers the PlayStation 2 the best gaming system ever, I can’t deny that I wasn’t disappointed that none of the titles from Sony’s sixth-gen home consoles were playable on the Raspberry Pi 5. Luckily, there’s a rather long workaround that technically lets you run a handful of titles.

The AetherSX2 is (or rather, was, since the emulator is pretty much dead in the water now) a PlayStation 2 emulator for Android devices. With the Raspberry Pi 5 supporting LineageOS, you could browse the Internet Archive for older builds of AetherSX2 and run it after flashing the OS on the SBC. As long as you keep your expectations low, you should get a somewhat decent experience running the emulator on the 8GB Raspberry Pi 5 version.

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Ranking the emulation platforms on the Raspberry Pi 5 (2024)

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