v34 coming in hot! After establishing the label changes the advanced system options are being categorised, and a swell of systems and supported devices has been added.
New emulators
Emulators added
- libretro: Mesen for NES
- Dolphin: Triforce for Triforce x86_64 only
libretro-MESS and libretro-MAME added
This means all platforms that did not support most of the newly added systems in the previous patch now have the capability to support this. However, just because it’s now possible does not guarantee all platforms will support all systems, especially with the weaker platforms like all the SBCs.
MAME on ARM
Various systems were added specifically for various ARM platforms, so much so that I lost track of it all! This is something you’ll have to check the changelog for the specifics, the current compatibility list can always be found at http://batocera.org/compatibility.php
Emulators added for Raspberry Pi 4
Batocera for Raspberry Pi 4 now supports:
- Supermodel for Sega Model 3
- Redream for Dreamcast
- Libretro: Mesen-S for SNES/Super Game Boy
Miscellaneous
- libretro: superbroswar added as a port
- PPSSPP enabled on the CHA image
- Additional MAME/MESS systems: Acorn Atom, Acorn Archimedes, Acorn Electron, Atari XE Game System, Camputers Lynx, Funtech Super A’Can, VTech Socrates, VTech V.Smile, VGM Player x86_64 only
New device support
Anbernic RG552
A new Anbernic handheld gaming console was released, using a more powerful RK3399 chip instead of the RK3326 used in previous consoles. Featuring a large widescreen display in a Switch-like profile! Check out more details about it on the handheld wiki page.
Case support added
DeskPi Pro
This little aluminum case features a power switch, 2.5 inch drive slot, full-sized HDMI slots and built-in cooling.
PiStation LCD
RetroFlag’s recent PiStation case with LCD support has been added! The LCD screen is fully supported, just set the correct flag in batocera.conf to use it (or if you SSH in, use the regular /etc/init.d/S92switch setup configuration tool to do so).
New features
OD Commander
OD commander is a gamepad-focused file manager that will be available for all platforms. Yes, this means Raspberry Pi builds and all the various handhelds will now have a built-in method for file management!
Navigate to the Ports system on your device, and open the new OD commander “port” to access it:
Option organisation
Advanced system options have had an organisation overhaul! Related settings are now grouped into submenus to avoid cluttering up the system’s unique options:
The latency reduction menu also got some fancy “current setting” indicators. Maybe this will become a standard feature?
Options per folder
Using the system.folder["/path/"].option=value format.
For example:
nes.folder["/userdata/roms/nes/Japan/"].shaderset=Mega-Bezel-Community-JP-Night
MangoHUD support on all platforms
v33 introduced global decorations and MangoHUD for x86_64 PCs, now it’s been enabled on most other platforms as well (except RPi Zero/Zero 2).
This means you can now use global decorations and see performance statistics on your little Raspberry Pi 4! There may be more platforms coming in the future.
Adafruit Circuitpython
The subsystem for managing Adafruit’s wide range of LED accessories for the RPi have been added! If you’ve been holding onto any custom scripts for your sick LED setup but have been in woe due to your inability to use them in Batocera, fear no more!
Currently no documentation is available.
MelonDS config app
MelonDS now has a bunch of extra options added to its advanced system settings in ES!
Save snapshot manager supporting more emulators
The save snapshot manager in EmulationStation traditionally only supported RetroArch’s save states and followed its paradigms. However support for more emulators’ save state functions have been added! And the best part, emulators which previously did not support save state slots or screenshots or save state have been patched to add such functionality!
Emulators being prepared so far for this new functionality include PPSSPP and Mupen64Plus. More will come in the future.
This is a slow and gradual process, more will be added in the future as they get patched.
MAME enhancements
MAME standalone received some love this patch! This is in reference to the standalone app on x86_64, not the libretro core available on most other platforms.
High-scores
The in-game “high-scores” plugin has now been enabled by default, meaning your high-scores will no longer go to waste once the game is exited!
CRT presets
Some additional CRT presets by ICEknigh7 were also added. Spice up your gameplay experience with one of these presets (if your system is powerful enough that is, they can be quite demanding)!
Here’s the Geom Deluxe preset in action (click to see it full-screen):
Here’s the Geom Deluxe Composite preset. Basically the same, but with less glowing:
And here’s the Geom Deluxe RGB preset. A bit less intense of a blur, this acts more like a high-quality RGB screen:
Artwork crop feature
An artwork crop option has been added. This makes MAME games that use MAME’s built-in artwork feature behave more consistently with Batocera’s decorations, where only the “dead-space” outside of the gameplay area is filled up, making the viewport for the game itself much larger.
This is how artwork would display before:
And with cropping mode enabled:
Here’s a screenshot showing both the new Geom Deluxe preset and artwork cropping together:
Coindrop plugin
Have you ever missed the nostalgic sound of the coin dropping into the arcade machine as you got yet another game over in your favourite arcade game? Well now you have the ability to relive that integrated right into Batocera!
https://wiki.batocera.org/_media/blog:package_batocera_emulators_mame_coindrop_sounds_coin1.wav
To switch these and the other mentioned enhancements on and off, navigate to the advanced system settings and look for the respective option grouped with the advanced options.
Mupen64Plus advanced plugin options
Mupen64Plus’ ability to use custom plugins used to be dependent on editing custom config files manually as is done with the ordinary standalone emulator, now these commonly accessed options can be altered from within Batocera!
Altering these plugins can make the difference between a game being unplayable slow and full speed, or perhaps to increase the accuracy of the emulation on machines with extra headroom.
3DO multi-disc support
Multi-disc 3DO games were in a bit of a tough spot when it came to support, even in RetroArch itself the process would involve manually swapping the discs over when it came time to load the next disc. The problems arose from the fact that Opera, the libretro core used to emulate the 3DO, did not support m3u playlist by virtue of the games not needing an automated disc swapping mechanism: just swap the loaded disc yourself and the game would continue to function.
However when attempting to do this in Batocera users had noticed that the save file was not being carried over from the previous disc, as Batocera creates a new save file for the “new” game which has a different file name. This would necessitate a manual renaming of the old save file to that of “disc 2”.
Well no more! The option to use “shared NVRAM” has been integrated directly into Batocera for the 3DO system, simply turn on the option for the multi-disc game in its advanced system settings and it shall use the same memory location for creating save files.
New music
It’s around time that a new batch of music came out of the oven. Featuring Nihilore and returning artist Bolt Action! Here’s a preview:
| Bolt Action - Better Believe (Instrumental) | Nihilore - Motion Blur |
|---|
| |
As always you can optionally download these from the content downloader (Batocera Music Vol. 4), in case you’d like to use this background music on an older version of Batocera/keep these tracks if the default music changes in the future.
Other things
- The Batocera version number can now be disabled in the splash screen by adding
splash.screen.enable=0 to batocera-boot.conf.
- System/manufacturer names have been corrected.
- GLideN64 has been disabled. It’s been broken for a while.
- PS5 controllers are now supported on Odroid XU4.
- The remaining code for using legacy Recalbox folders has been removed. If you’re still using files or folders like
recalbox.conf, please update your system to v33 first to use their Batocera equivalents!
- Added RetroAchievements for Amstrad CPC (libretro-cap32) and Dreamcast, Atomiswave and Naomi (libretro-flycast).
- Default keyboard mapping in ES (and ES alone) now includes West bound to
- and North bound to =.
- Default emulators optimised for rk3128.
- Savestates for mupen64plus and PPSSPP have been moved to
/userdata/saves/<system>/<rom filename>.<extension>
- Restored Sonic Retro to non-x86_64 boards.
- Redream: Hotkey by itself no longer opens quick menu. Hotkey + start now quits.
- Kodi virtual filesystem (VFS) and RAR plugin enabled by default.
- RetroAchievements encore mode can now be enabled with
retroachievements.encore.
As always you can check out the full log of changes at the changelog. Happy retro gaming!
