Does anyone know how to force a custom resolution and refresh rate on Recalbox? I've got a Unico ULM26 and I need to change it to 1024x768 60Hz but it only gives me the option of 'MAX 75hz' which causes the screen to go awry.

At the moment I've got it at 1920x1080 60Hz but I had to manually configure loads of games to fit this and it's becoming a bit tiresome. Thank you

Heads up — this one's French-language content, but sharing here since it covers useful info for the wider community.

Recalbox's next Recal'Talk (Patron-exclusive Discord voice call) is set for Friday, July 24 at 9 PM CET. Topics include:

- 10.1 status — already in alpha on the Patron channel, packed with enough new stuff it could've been called "11"

- 10.0.8 recap — solid performance gains on Pi5 2GB

- Broader perf improvements hitting Pi4, Pi3, and other boards too, with a nice boost for Naomi 2 and Model 3 arcade emulation

- GunCon 2 now supports 31kHz displays

- Much of this optimization work came out of development on the Recalbox JVS hardware.

- Casual, low-key format — no strict agenda, just an open Q&A vibe with the team.

I made a server where anyone can chat with the community about retro games and find people to play with online via Recalbox!
Using Retroarch which is built right into Recalbox, players are able to host and join all their favorite retro games for free!
Join the server to find people to play with! 😄 https://discord.gg/qQhJA6hsWT

Good news for arcade and fighting game fans — Recalbox just added official support for the Fightstick R10 Pro (with built-in spinner and trackball) and the R9. Just plug it in and Recalbox auto-detects the stick, adapting the config on the fly depending on the game you launch. No manual mapping needed.

Available now in 10.0.8.

Full details on Blog.

The Recalbox JVS was born from a simple ambition: to offer a solution capable of bringing JVS arcade cabinets back to life, in the same spirit that has always driven Recalbox, just as we previously did with the RGB JAMMA. What the community has just demonstrated is that this passion was shared by far more people than we could have imagined.

Recalbox 10.0.8 just dropped after weeks of testing with our Patreon community, and the headline feature is a big one: massive RAM optimization.

The Pi5 2GB is now the recommended board for Recalbox, delivering performance similar to the 4GB (the 8GB never gave any real gain for Recalbox anyway). It's now the model we sell in the shop, replacing the 4GB.

We stress-tested this with heavy themes (Nex-Pixel, Pop'N'Art) and massive scraped game lists — 230,000 to 560,000 games, all systems active. RAM usage in both the frontend and in-game is cut by more than half. Smoother menus, stable 60 FPS, full library support on the 2GB board.

Bonus: Pi4, Pi3, handhelds, and GPi Case also benefit from this optimization, though they're capped by their own hardware limits.

No new features/systems in this one — it's a pure comfort/performance update, but a meaningful one given how much RAM prices have climbed lately. The 2GB board costs roughly half the 4GB, so this is a real win for accessibility.

🔥 RECALBOX JVS: THE FINAL STRETCH!!

Kickstarter campaign ends today

Recalbox 10.0.8 update

Plenty of special guests + the Recalbox Team

🎬 Join us live at 9 PM CEST: https://www.twitch.tv/recalbox

🛒 Pre-order your JVS here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/recalbox/recalbox-jvs

Environment

• Recalbox Version: 10.0.5
• Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
• Official Sony DualShock 3 (CECHZC2U / PID 054C:0268)
• Same behavior on both Raspberry Pis.

Problem

The controller connects successfully over Bluetooth and works perfectly for exactly 29 seconds, then disconnects every single time.

The timing is extremely consistent (always ~29 seconds).

What works

• Controller works perfectly over USB indefinitely.
• Bluetooth connection succeeds immediately.
• All buttons and analog sticks function correctly while connected.
• Linux correctly detects the controller:
  • hid-sony loads successfully.
  • /dev/input/js0 is created.
  • Motion sensors are also detected.

Example:

PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
Handlers=event6 js0

What happens

1. Pair controller.
2. Press PS button.
3. Controller connects immediately.
4. Controller works normally.
5. After exactly 29 seconds, all LEDs turn off and the controller disconnects.

Important observations

bluetoothctl info always reports:

Connected: yes
Paired: no
Bonded: no
Trusted: yes

The controller never becomes Paired or Bonded.

sixpair

Running sixpair shows that the controller already contains the correct Bluetooth master address:

Current Bluetooth master: 2c:cf:67:6c:ae:eb
Setting master bd_addr to 2c:cf:67:6c:ae:eb

So the controller is correctly programmed with the Raspberry Pi's Bluetooth address.

Bluetooth log

Using bluetoothctl directly (without the Recalbox pairing menu) produces:

Connected: yes
...
auth failed with status 0x08 (Timeout)
type BR/EDR disconnected
ServicesResolved: no
Connected: no

The authentication timeout always occurs after approximately 29 seconds.

Tests already performed

Controller

• Original Sony DualShock 3
• Fully charged battery
• Same behavior after charging
• Works perfectly over USB

Raspberry Pi

Tested on:

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
• Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)

Both produce identical results.

Recalbox settings

Tried both:

controllers.ps3.driver=bluez

and

controllers.ps3.driver=official

No difference.

Manual pairing

Tested without using the Recalbox Bluetooth pairing menu.

Steps:

• Removed device with bluetoothctl
• Ran sixpair
• Connected manually using bluetoothctl

Result:

Same 29-second disconnect with:

auth failed with status 0x08 (Timeout)

Comparison with RetroPie

Using the same controller on the same Raspberry Pi hardware under RetroPie:

• Bluetooth pairing works normally.
• Controller stays connected indefinitely.
• No disconnects.

This strongly suggests the controller and Bluetooth hardware are functioning correctly.

Conclusion

The issue appears to be specific to Recalbox 10.0.5.

The controller:

• connects successfully,
• is recognized correctly by the Linux hid-sony driver,
• functions normally,
• but never reaches a fully paired/bonded Bluetooth state,
• and authentication eventually times out (auth failed with status 0x08), causing the controller to disconnect after approximately 29 seconds.

Has anyone else experienced this with an original Sony DualShock 3 on Recalbox 10.0.5? Is this a known regression or is there a workaround?

Bonjour, j'aimerais acquérir un rgbdual2 avec la recalbox tower et j'ai vu qu'il y a un emplacement pour y intégrer un hat nvme sous la tower mais je ne trouve aucune info là dessus. Savez-vous quel hat utiliser ?

Hi, I've installed the latest recalbox in a miniPC (following the instructions on the website). Many emulators works nicely (like MAME, neo-geo, snes, pc engine and many others), but N64 is a nightmare: I've four controllers, two with USB cable and two wireless and none of this works, only the START button seems to work and the combination to exit from the game. One of the controller is an 8BitDo Pro 2 Bluetooth Gamepad, another one is a Buffalo Classic Gamepad USB, then an EasySMX D10 Controller PC Wireless. What is wrong with this emulator?

Fans of brick breakers and vector arcade games are in for a treat: Beudbeud has just released a brand-new open-source project, the Arduino Arcade Spinner, a DIY spinner designed to be 100% compatible with Recalbox 10—no configuration required.

Long before modern gamepads became the standard, iconic arcade machines such as Arkanoid and Tempest relied on a spinner: a rotary controller that offered far more precise and natural control than a joystick or gamepad.

Recalbox 10.0.7 just landed, and the headline feature is a serious optimization pass for the Raspberry Pi 5 2GB.

Thanks to graphics memory optimizations and an updated bootloader, the Pi5 2GB now performs on par with the 4GB model — meaning it's officially our recommended Pi5 variant for running Recalbox. For reference, the 8GB model never showed any real performance gain over the 4GB for emulation purposes anyway.

We tested with heavy themes (Nex-Pixel, Pop'N'Art) and massive scraped game libraries (230k–560k games) across all systems enabled, so this isn't a "should work fine" claim — it's been pushed hard. Bonus: Pi4, Pi3, handhelds, and the GPi Case also benefit from these optimizations, though they remain more limited since they're outside the Pi5 architecture.

With RAM prices climbing lately, being able to recommend the cheaper 2GB board without a performance trade-off felt like a meaningful update to ship, even without new features this time around — those are coming in 10.1, which is already live on our Alpha channel for Patrons.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get the original Killer Instinct arcade version running on my Raspberry Pi 3 with Recalbox 18.03.16, but I'm stuck.

Here's my setup:

- Raspberry Pi 3

- Recalbox 18.03.16

- Arcade emulator tested:

- Libretro + mame078

- Libretro + mame2010

- AdvanceMAME

The ROM is organized like this:

roms/mame/

├── kinst.zip

└── kinst/

└── kinst.chd

The ZIP contains the ROM files directly in the root (no extra folder inside the ZIP).

When I launch the game:

- With mame078, the screen flashes once and returns to EmulationStation.

- With mame2010, it flashes twice and returns to EmulationStation.

- AdvanceMAME also fails to launch it.

Other MAME games (like Mortal Kombat) work perfectly, so MAME itself is working.

The ROM I tried came from MyAbandonware. I also rebuilt the ZIP to make sure the ROM files are in the root of the archive instead of inside an extra folder, but it still doesn't work.

I also noticed that the Recalbox Web Manager returns an HTTP 500 error whenever I try to open the MAME ROM list, although MAME games still show up and launch normally from EmulationStation.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone managed to run Killer Instinct arcade on Recalbox 18.03.16?

2. Which emulator/core should I use?

3. Does it require a specific MAME romset or CHD version?

4. Is Killer Instinct even supported on a Raspberry Pi 3 with this version of Recalbox?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

A few days ago we officially announced the Recalbox JVS at HFS Summer 2026 — a Raspberry Pi 5 HAT that brings your JVS arcade cabinets (Vewlix, NoirCab, Naomi, Lindbergh, Racecab, Guncab…) back to life with the full Recalbox library. Five cables, plug and play, done.

If you missed the live stream, the replay is now up on YouTube (subtitle EN ok ;)
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YydlQ2AjC0A

The Kickstarter is live and we've already hit 2x our funding goal — super grateful for all the support. Still time to back it if you're interested!

👉 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/recalbox/recalbox-jvs

Any questions? Come chat with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/recalbox

I got a Raspi Pi 2b with recalbox 8.0.1.

N64 and PS1 will not start. When i try to start a game it resets direct to emulationstation menu. I read about different cores. Can you suggest some core for raspberry pi 2B?

I tried asking in Discord, but got no response. Maybe someone here can help?

I'm having problems installing the bios for the pico8. At boot, there is no `share/bios/pico-8` folder but if I create it and install the pico8 binaries, it works fine until I shut off the console. After rebooting, the folder is gone. I have successfully installed BIOS files for other consoles, I'm just having problems with pico8.

Hey r/recalbox!

Just a quick note as we settle in here.

This subreddit grew organically from the community — it's a space built by users, for users, and we love that. Community help and mutual support are absolutely encouraged, keep it up. Some of our team members do drop by from time to time and may lend a hand, but this isn't our primary support channel.

If you have a technical issue and can't find a satisfying answer here, our official support lives on Discord. It's where our team is most active and where you'll get the fastest response.

👉 Join the Recalbox Discord : https://discord.gg/recalbox

As for this subreddit — we'll be here for news, project updates and everything happening around Recalbox. Think of it as the place to stay in the loop.

See you around!

— The Recalbox Team

Hey r/recalbox! We've been watching this community grow for a while — and it's about time we showed up properly. The official Recalbox team is now here, and we'll be using this space to share news, updates and everything happening around the project. We're glad to finally be in the room with you. Stay tuned.

For the past few days, whenever I’m playing on #recalbox, a dialogue box like the one in the image pops up every now and then.

Does anyone know how I can stop this? It’s really annoying, especially as the game keeps running in the background.

Flashed Recalbox OS to my Pi5 last night and initially got a series of splash screens telling me the system's features before coming to a loading screen featuring pac-man ghosts. From here nothing happened for 20minutes until I shutdown. How long is this screen supposed to last?

The SD Card has partitioned successfully , and on a reboot I saw an intro animation play, but then got stuck on that screen again.

Grateful for any advice or help. Looking to run this on Jamma RGB 2 in the long term.

Este error me aparece al tratar de poner nuevos roms en carpetas que ya antes me funcionaban. Si alguien sabe como solucionar este error que me diga, le agradezco mucho.