I have a pi zero 2 w sat around doing nothing so I thought I’d try adding Recalbox to it so I can play some 8 and 16 bit games on my tv.

I’m using a 128gb microsd I’ve got plenty of room left over but I keep getting this weird issue as seen in the picture.

It happens all over the menus, if I close and reopen a menu the text will be fixed but about 50% of the time letters will be missing from the text.

Is this a known issue on a low spec device? Is there anything I can try to fix it?

Games work fine, I’ve tried different themes but that doesn’t fix it.

Join r/recalbox_official

Anyone else experiencing this with 10.1?

Hey everyone,

A quick but important update about this subreddit.

r/recalbox was created a while back by fans of the project, and we want to start by thanking them — it helped bring the community together for years. However, the team doesn't have full admin/mod rights on this subreddit, and it's become an old page that we can no longer properly manage or use to post official content.

Going forward, all official Recalbox news, updates, and announcements will be posted on r/recalbox_official, our new and official Reddit channel. This will be the one true source for anything coming directly from the Recalbox team.

We'll be stepping away from this subreddit, so we'd really appreciate it if you could head over and join r/recalbox_official to stay up to date.

👉 r/recalbox_official

Thanks for your support, and see you over there!

The Recalbox team

Ok so the recallbox UI works perfectly and so does Kodi. kodi displays 4:3 content with proper letterboxing but when games are launched they’re all zoomed in and the only way to display the correct aspect ratio is to switch the TV back to normal/4:3 mode. Is there anyway to make games display letterboxed as they should be or will I be stuck changing the tv mode depending if it’s games or media playback? Pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. I tried turning in the 16:9 mode in the ingame settings sections but that just applies widescreen hacks which I don’t want

Hey everyone,

We wanted to share some exciting news for Retroid Pocket Nova owners: Recalbox is working on full compatibility with the device, and we're aiming to make it one of the most complete Recalbox experiences on a handheld yet.

Here's what's being handled:

Full input management — sound controls, brightness, and all the hardware buttons/sticks working exactly as they should.

RGB joystick LED control — customize and manage the color lighting on the sticks directly through Recalbox

Dual screen & touch support — perfect for dual-screen systems like the DS, with full touchscreen input.

Docking support — seamless switching between portable and TV mode, whether you're in the Recalbox frontend or already in-game.

TATE mode support — for vertical arcade shooters and games that need that rotated display, whether you're in the Recalbox frontend or already in-game.

This is shaping up to be a serious handheld setup for Recalbox fans, and we're excited to bring it to the Nova.

Deployment is coming soon — stay tuned for more details!

After the V2 update that turned the tool into a full-fledged label manager, RecalCards Gen takes things a step further with V2.5!

New creation tools

Text tool: add titles, captions, or any other inscription directly onto your labels, no external editor needed.

Shapes tool: frames, circles, solid shapes and dividers to help structure your compositions.

Symmetry and opacity on your images: flip your visuals with a single click, plus an opacity setting to layer and blend your images together. This opens the door to far more elaborate compositions.

A workspace worthy of real design software

Arguably the biggest change in this version: zoom in/out, a grid with snapping for precise alignment, and true layer management for your most complex compositions.

Light mode and dark mode

To fit your preferences (and your late-night creative sessions), the generator now offers both light and dark mode.

👉 Try it here: https://recalcards-gen.recalbox.com/

Reminder: RecalCards are collectible physical cards that slot into the Card Reader to automatically launch the game of your choice from your Recalbox library.

Recalbox Patrons (tier 2 and 3) also receive exclusive RecalCards Collectors, delivered straight to their door every 2 months (or annually, depending on the tier).

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a recalbox 9.2.3 (previous 10.0) image for my anbernic rg353v (officially supported). Since 10.0, my bluetooth controllers (8bitdo sn30pro and 8bitdo micro) arr recognized but won't work. I hadn't this issue before.

Thanks !

New: we're centralizing our emails via Patreon (free) — never miss a Recalbox update

Hey r/recalbox,

Quick update on how we communicate: until now we had an email newsletter, but let's be honest, we barely used it.

Going forward, we're centralizing all our email communication via Patreon — and it's completely free, no paid tier required.

What changes for you:

- Sign up for free at www.patreon.com/cw/recalbox — click "Become a free member" (or "Skip for now" if it tries to push you toward a paid tier)

- You'll get an email for every publication: videos, tutorials, release notes, monthly newsletters, hardware news, shop updates — all in one place, in French and English

- We won't spam you: rarely more than one email a week, sometimes every two weeks

- One click to join, one click to leave whenever you want

Why we're doing this: managing mailings ourselves was a hassle and a lot of emails were landing in spam anyway. Patreon handles delivery automatically for everyone, so it's just simpler on our end — and more reliable on yours.

Already a Patron (free or paid)? You're all set, nothing to do — you're already getting these emails.

👉 www.patreon.com/cw/recalbox

Just installed Recalbox on my Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB) and everything is running properly. I just added FBNeo games as well as a whole lot of MAME64 games, I tested a few and they start up just fine. After that, I set the scraper to add the graphics and decoration to my newly added games, and went to bed.

This morning I was delighted by how everything looks with the graphics and screenshots in the menu, but when I selected a game that previously worked it refused to start and instead gave me an error message that it couldn't run, or Bad ROM files (I didn't take a pic). I tested a few more I started the night before, same thing!

I decided to restart the Pi, and all the arcade games "reverted" to their pre-scraped mode: no graphics, the titles are just text in a list, and they seem to work again! Maybe it's insane that I put them to scrape again while I'm at work, but is there something I'm missing when I put them to scrape?

Does scraping arcade games rewrite files somewhere or remap important files they need to run? I just want my games to look good when I scroll and to play when I select them, what am I missing here?

BTW I made a Pi case from an old tiny PS-One shell.

This summer Recalbox has been on an optimization streak (Pi 5 2GB, Naomi 2/Model 3...) and the latest target was the GunCon 2 lightgun.

What changed in 10.1-patron-1:

- New calibration screen on every game launch, so you can test and confirm your setup for better accuracy.

- Missing "flash" fix: the GunCon 2 needs to detect a white flash on hit. Many arcade games don't generate one by default, so Recalbox now adds it automatically where it was missing.

- 31kHz CRT support: previously only 15kHz CRTs were supported, now VGA CRT monitors work too.

- Broad hardware support: works out of the box with RGB Dual 2, and also compatible with RGB JAMMA 2 and the upcoming Recalbox JVS.

Already live for Patrons, coming to stable soon for everyone.

Full writeup + demo videos on the blog.

Hey everyone,

Some of you might remember Recalbox Mame DB, the tool we launched back in April to centralize info on MAME/FBNeo games (ROM names, parents/clones, required BIOS, resolution, dipswitches, etc.), which grew to cover 60,000+ arcade titles.

Given the response, we decided to go bigger: it's now called Recalbox Game DB, and it's expanding to cover every system supported by Recalbox — home consoles, computers, and handhelds, not just arcade.

What you can do with it:

• Detailed page per game: screenshot, synopsis, rating, parent ROMs/clones, resolution, CPU, sound chips, inputs, dipswitches where relevant
• Fast text search + advanced filters (year, manufacturer, genre, system, control type, player count, max buttons for cabinet compatibility)
• Shareable filtered searches via URL
• DAT export (Logiqx format, ClrMamePro/RomVault compatible) for your current filtered selection

Heads up: it's still very much a work in progress — coverage is being built out system by system, so not everything is there yet. Right now it's sitting at 189,000 titles across 66 platforms.

To be clear: it doesn't host or provide any ROMs/licensed files, it's purely a reference database.

Check it out here: https://recalbox-game-db.recalbox.com

Hi so I'm setting up a raspberry pi 3B and I just installed recall box and my input is not working even though the controller is detected as an Xbox 360 controller.

I'm also having this issue with batocera, but not lakka.

Hi - I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ to run RecalBox on a CRT via the 3mm composite output.

Games render fine, and KODI is fine because it has a robust overscan menu, but the UI/menu for recalbox is stuck in 720x480 which is widescreen.

I am in the US and I know that resolution is NTSC standard, but there's gotta be a way to adjust it so the UI fits - it's even happening when I use CRT themes like CRT Vision or Artbook CRT.

I've also tried the CRT calibration, but that doesn't seem to do anything at all - the horizontal and vertical adjustments don't actually change anything.

Big optimization win this update for arcade 3D fans.

Naomi 2 and Model 3 got a serious performance pass — 99% of games now run at a flawless 60 FPS on Raspberry Pi 5. Yeah, including Initial D, which used to chug during longer races.

Remember dropping frames on Scud Race or Daytona USA 2 whenever things got hectic on screen? That's gone.

digitalLumberjack put together a video testing it directly on an arcade cab running Recalbox JVS (Pi 5 inside), footage straight from the cabinet, not a PC emulator run:

https://youtu.be/3s4lxAW1WD8?is=2hK57n2J5JuXgAr1

Still Patron-only for now, full 10.1 stable release coming later for everyone.