Batocera.linux

A retro-gaming-emulation distribution similar in mission to Lakka, built around the EmulationStation frontend instead of RetroArch's own menu, with broad single-board-computer and PC hardware support.

Embedded & IoTembeddedemulationretro-gamingEmulationStationsingle-purposeDownload ↗Official site ↗Docs / Wiki ↗

Based on

Independent

First released

2018

Package manager

None (locked-down appliance image)

Desktop environments

None (boots directly into the EmulationStation frontend)

Batocera.linux occupies the same single-purpose 'turn this small computer into a retro-game console' niche as Lakka, but centers its interface around EmulationStation, a widely used graphical front-end for browsing and launching games across many different emulators, rather than RetroArch's own native menu system. It supports an especially broad range of hardware out of the box -- from Raspberry Pi and other ARM single-board computers up through full x86 PCs and even game consoles that have had Linux enabled -- and includes network-play and controller-configuration features aimed squarely at ease of use for a shared or family gaming setup. Both Batocera and Lakka are commonly recommended interchangeably depending on which frontend a user prefers.

MirrorNest doesn't mirror distro ISOs — installation media should always come straight from the project's own official download page (linked above), so you get the correct checksum/signature to verify against.