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Recalbox 7.2 – The Awesome New Update!

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Recalbox 7.2 – released on April 23 at 9pm (GMT+2)!

Hey peeps, here is some awesome news that the Recalbox folks have shared with us – this Friday, April 23rd, at 9:00pm (GMT+2), they will finally launch their long awaited 7.2 update, packed with heaps of new features, new systems, functionalities and optimisations!


source: Recalbox via YouTube

To recap what is new and improved in Recalbox 7.2, which there are many, we thought we’d share the major highlights right here:

MAJOR NEW FEATURES:

Light-Gun Games!

Play more than 250 lightgun games on many different systems (Arcade, Megadrive/MegaCD, Dreamcast, and Playstation to name just a few), no configuration needed! Now gathered under a new “LightGun” virtual system.

Better 3D performance on Raspberry Pi 4!

The team has optimised Recalbox, allowing almost all N64, Dreamcast, Naomi & Atomiswave games to run at full speed on Raspberry Pi 4!

Overclock the Raspberry Pi 4!

And for even more performance, we’ve tested and chosen 4 optimal overclock settings on the Raspberry Pi 4. Overclocking your Pi will increase the frame-rate on CPU and GPU intensive games.

Improved PSX/N64/PSP performance on ODROID-GO Advance/Super

Play almost all PSX, N64, and PSP games at full speed on both ODROID-GO Advance & ODROID-GO Super!



NEW FEATURES:

New systems!

5 new supported systems are added to the nearly 120 systems already supported in Recalbox:

  • Watara Supervision: This cheap Game Boy clone was manufactured by Watara in 1992. It was later licensed to several third-parties, and released under many different names. 69 games have been officially released.
  • PICO-8: A virtual console similar to the TIC-80 with over 4000 games available, largely popularised by the incredible success of “Celeste”, the famous platformer initially developed by Noel Berry and Maddy Thorson on Pico-8 in 2015, before being released on all modern platforms in 2018!
  • Pocket Challenge V2: A Japanese handheld console that specialises in educational games.
  • Elektronika BK: BK (БК), Russian abbreviation for “бытовой компьютер” – “home computer” is a series of Soviet 16-bit home computers, developed under the brand Electronika by NPO Scientific Center. Elektronika BK was the only “official” Soviet home computer. The BK-0010/BK-0011 and Terak 8510/A were manufactured from 1984 to 1993 and sold at the price of 650 Rubles, which was… almost 4 months of average salary!
  • EPOCH SuperCassette Vision: The 2nd generation EPOCH console released in 1984 and counting a total of 30 officially released games and 3 unreleased. The porting of this Japanese emulator to Libretro is a Recalbox exclusive!

Dual JoyCon support (Nintendo Switch controllers)

Recalbox now supports both left and right JoyCons! In addition, you can use both JoyCons as a single combined controller!

Bluetooth Audio

Connect your Bluetooth headphones or speakers! (just pair them like you would a controller, for now).

New cores

3 new emulators are also available, depending on your hardware:

  • Libretro NeoCD added as NeoGeoCD core: loads CDs so much faster!
  • Libretro DOSBOX Pure: Don’t struggle with complicated DOS setups anymore! These games
    have never been more plug & play!
  • Libretro-craft: A Minecraft clone available on x86 & x64 platforms only.

Hide pre-installed games

Pre-installed games are no longer copied into the user share. They stay on the system and can be hidden/shown using an option from the settings menu.



IMPROVEMENTS:

Main menu

The main menus have all been rewritten. They’re now faster, consume less memory, and are more intuitive. The most useful options have been moved so they’re faster to access. Reboots can now be delayed. This way, you can configure everything you need to before having to restart.

New options have been added:

  • Swap A & B buttons: change the way you validate and cancel actions.
  • Factory reset: reset all configurations (only keeps your games, saves, and scraped data)

Sound

In-game video sound/music is now available! You can choose between the following sound mode:

  • Background music only (EmulationStation music)
  • Video sound only (scraped videos)
  • Background music AND video sound mixed
  • Background music OR video sound (when playing videos in the new Gameclip screensaver)

Internal Scraper

The internal scraper has been greatly enhanced:

  • Improved menus. Now more intuitive, less clicks required to get things done.
  • Better region priority management: get better metadata for your region.
  • Ignore file referenced from .cue/.m3u and other multi-file roms: no more scraping the same
    game twice!

System

  • Check image integrity when updating Recalbox
  • Added a new Reset to Factory Settings option to reset all Recalbox & emulator settings
    without losing any user data: games, saves, screenshots, music, etc.

Emulators

Many emulators have been updated and/or reconfigured for new features, or to achieve better performance.

  • Dolphin updated to version 5.0-13178.
  • Stella (A2600) updated to fix lots of bugs (eg: Pitfall II)
  • Supermodel updated to version 839
  • UAE updated to support CHD
  • Np2Kai (PC98) updated to fix several issues
  • Odyssey² updated to add Europeans/French models (new RetroArch options)
  • Mupen64plus-next updated for better compatibility and performance! This core is now available on almost all platforms and performs very well!
  • FBNeo updated to support latest game additions
  • Libretro Duckstation is now available on all platforms!
  • Beetle-Saturn updated to improve compatibility (PC only)
  • Amiberry updated to version 3.3 for better performance & new options
  • Libetro-Parallel-n64 updated and fixed on almost all boards (except low-end PIs)
  • VIC20 is now shown as its own system, instead of only being available under C64
  • Videopac+ is now available as its own system, instead of being available as Odyssey² sub-model
  • Libretro MAME has been optimised to run full-speed on low-end PCs.
  • ScummVM updated to v2.3.0 and merged with ResidualVM



BUG FIXES:

Lots of bug fixes, as usual:

  • Fixed the ODROID-GO Advance v1 controller
  • Fixed the 8bitdo NES30 Pro rev1 controller mapping
  • Fixed missing BIOS MD5 & other minor errors in BIOS database
  • Removed useless BIOS files (PalmOS)
  • Fixed the Retroarch shortcut on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed shaders on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed lost support of open and WPA-PSK-SHA256 WiFi keys
  • Correction a fan problem with the NESPi 4 Case

TECHNICAL FEATURES:

Buildroot

Buildroot has been bumped to version 2020.11.

Kernels

Linux kernels have been bumped to:

  • 5.4 for the ODROID XU4
  • 5.8 for both x86 and x64
  • 5.10 for all Raspberry Pis
  • Both ODROID-GO Advance & GO Super use a special Rockchip 4.4 kernel.

PulseAudio

We’ve moved from a purse ALSA audio backend to PulseAudio! Recalbox now supports more audio devices — and even Bluetooth audio!

image source: Recalbox

 

There you go peeps, to say we can’t wait for Recalbox 7.2 would be a massive understatement!



Visiting The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum

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We are reminiscing about the time we were invited by the Weird and Retro crew to join them in Sydney for the 2015 EB Expo – it was such an amazing experience!

Before the EB Expo shenanigans, we took time out to visit The Gamesmen in Penshurst (NSW), to check out their awesome (Retro) Game Museum.

The Gamesmen has been an Australian game store icon for almost 40 years and it is still going strong. Back in the day, we used to love receiving their catalogues which we would pore over each page, drooling at the latest gaming systems and games – we just wish we had kept those catalogues! Oh yeah, luckily for us (and all of you), The Gamesmen folks have made electronic copies of their old catalogues, so go here now and enjoy some intoxicating nostalgia.

Anyway……… This pilgrimage was a long time coming and fulfilled our wish to go and check out the museum in person. We definitely weren’t disappointed and we were glad to have ticked this off our bucket list. The sixty plus photos we took below from the game museum does not do it any justice – to see it in person was amazing. However, the next best thing to going there was to share what we saw, and as you will see below, your nostalgic senses will not be disappointed.

There was no one favourite section, but the glassed cabinets were like a time machine looking back at our childhood, daydreaming about owning and playing the systems and games on display. The video games system timeline mural was another highlight, reflecting how far gaming has come. The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum had truly encapsulated our past, leaving a delectable mark on our 8-bit brain.

Make sure you scroll through each image slowly, as you do not want to miss anything!

Approaching the Mecca of Australian Video Gaming!

images remain the copyright of ausretrogamer

PS: Special thank you to the Weird and Retro team for inviting us to be part of their WaRrior crew for the 2015 EB Expo and for a memorable road trip!

 

Pac-Man: The Complete History

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As Daniel Ibbertson (aka: Slope’s Game Room) so eloquently puts it, it’s time to drop a coin into one of the highest grossing video game franchises of all time – Pac-Man!

In this history documentary, Daniel discusses the inspiration and creation behind Namco’s flagship mascot, the troubled development between Namco and Midway when bringing him to western shores as well as the interesting backstory behind the controversial Atari 2600 port.


source: Slope’s Game Room

 

Custom Painted GameCube Consoles

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We have previously featured customised GameCube consoles, like the Mario Sunshine one, but these custom painted consoles by Mago Serenil (CustomsGameCubes on Etsy) are just so darn gorgeous!

The best part is, these custom painted GameCube consoles are available from Mago’s Etsy store (Mago is currently on a break, but you can still get in touch via Etsy).

[story source: [technabob]

 

The Rise and Fall of Centuri Inc.

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Remember Centuri? Not really? We bet it will ring a bell when you watch this two-part series (on Centuri Inc.) and realise you probably played one (or more) of their licensed video games a fair bit at your local arcade joints.

Cassandra Chiles-Quirk (aka: Vintage Arcade Gal) has done a stellar job in encapsulating the highs and lows of this once great company of the golden age of arcade video games.

The Rise & Fall of Centuri – Part 1

The Rise & Fall of Centuri – Part 2

source: Vintage Arcade Gal

 

Old School Gaming is Back On Your SNES and Super Famicom!

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There is no stopping the retro gaming renaissance!

If you still have your Super Famicom or Super Nintendo (SNES) handy, then you’ll be happy to know that there are games being re-released on Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse!

First cab off the retro gaming rank is the side-scrolling beat’em up, Super Double Dragon / Return of Double Dragon. This exclusive title is available in Japanese (Super Famicom) and English/US (SNES).

This legendary series follows the young twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, who run a martial arts dojo. Their friend Marian disappears, so we reckon you know the rest of that story of what they need to do to save her.

The player controls either of the (suped-up) Lee brothers. There are seven stages including a strewn of extra stages so your fighting reflexes will need to be sharp. Don’t fret, as your fighters have 30 special moves with power gauges to engage in powerful techniques. Oh yeah, if fighting cleanly doesn’t work, then you can throw items such as barrels, stones, knives, bombs, and boomerangs – woohoo, we love dirty fighting!

If you want some action for your Super Famicom / SNES and you are ready to rescue Marian, go ahead and pre-order Return Of Double Dragon!

Pre-Order Links:

  • Super Famicom – Return Of Double Dragon (Expected to ship: Jul 19, 2018)
  • SNES – Return Of Double Dragon (Expected to ship: Aug 21, 2018)

image source: Play Asia

 

King Of The World: SNK’s NEOGEO Mini Revealed

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The worst kept secret in gaming has finally been confirmed!

The NEOGEO mini, the video game console that celebrates the 40th Anniversary of SNK’s brand has been revealed!The system will include 40 legendary and awesome NEOGEO titles!

The NEOGEO mini is a video game console, which will include 40 nostalgic titles from the NEOGEO system, which made its debut in 1990.

Rest of the world NEOGEO mini version

The NEOGEO mini will feature a 3.5 inch display, meaning the games can be enjoyed without the need to connect it to a TV or monitor! The size of the NEOGEO mini means it fits perfectly in the palm of your hand – just like the Atari Lynx does *wink*

The NEOGEO mini will be available in two different designs, one for the Asian market and the other one for overseas markets. With its design in black, white and red, the Japanese version of the NEOGEO mini will faithfully reproduce the original NEOGEO arcade cabinets that were introduced in Japan in 1990. The overseas version will be a simple and modern design in black, white and blue.

The Japanese NEOGEO mini version

SNK hasn’t released any more details, so we are keeping our peepers peeled to find out when these will be released and the confirmed games list!

So what do you think? We actually love the look of both units. Which one do you like?

PRODUCT DETAILS:
■ Product name: NEOGEO mini
■ Number of titles: 40 titles
■ Display size: 3.5 inch
■ Size and weight: W135mm x D108mm x H162mm / 600g
■ Accessories: Power supply cable (AC adaptor will not be included)
■ Connections: HDMI terminal (Input for TV monitor), headphone terminal, 2 external controller terminals

source: SNK via Facebook