Batocera Retropie 128GB Raspberry Pi 4B Kit - 60 Consoles - Plug and Play Retro Games kit

I was upgrading from a Retropie setup on a 3+ and was curious about the different listings from this seller between Batocera 128gb and Retropie 256gb. After contacting the seller, I was able to test the two different installs.TLDR: The hardware definitely cleans up the performance / experience compared to a pi 3+; I think the 256GB Retropie install is the better option for most people.Details:While both systems have retroarch underlying the emulators, providing control for shaders, video output, and various other settings, Batocera is its own operating system, compared to Retropie, which runs on Raspberry Pi OS and uses Emulation Station as a frontend.The net result of this is that Batocera has less overhead; it boots faster, games load quicker, etc. The retropie takes about 20 seconds longer to initially turn on, and 5 seconds longer to launch a game. Once you're actually in a game, everything is pretty much identical, as you're both running on retroarch in the background.Batocera had fun console-based border art out of the box, and a sleek interface for choosing games; however, I routinely got the impression that the package really wanted to be on a desktop computer rather than a pi device, especially on N64 / Dreamcast / Naomi, or when I was cycling through systems rapidly.However, the more I tried to fine tune the two options to accomplish various wants - outputting display to a VGA monitor; editing the config file remotely from my PC; changing display themes; updating packages and setting certain games to use different launchers; the more I found myself getting something set up right in Retropie based on online help, and then struggling to get it done in Batocera, and deciding "hey, why bother, things keep going right in the Retropie setup".If you're an advanced Linux user who already knows how to interface with the underlying software / hardware, or on the flip side if you're someone who absolutely will not even try to make any changes or updates to the basic defaults and just want to pop the system into your widescreen TV, Batocera seems to be a snappier solution, but not to a degree that's meaningful to me.If you're looking to get something that you will be able to fiddle around with after some basic poking on forums and documentation to customize performance, look and feel, go with the 256gb Retropie version.

Yes, this thing has most all the games I grew up with. Plus TONS more! I'm playing games on consoles I've never even heard of! Everything so far has ran beautifully.The real star of this review, however, is this seller. I've never had such amazing customer service from an online seller. When I initially got my console, something was wrong with the card that neither of us could figure out. After messaging back and forth for a bit, Leo offered to send me a new card, with double the storage space, for FREE! I got my new card, inserted it, and I've been happily gaming ever since.Such an amazing buying experience, and I wholeheartedly recommend this product. You won't be disappointed!

I've tried other emulators and found they weren't all that user-friendly--especially to someone who isn't all that tech savvy. This one, however, is VERY easy to use and it comes ready-to-go. Customer service is good too. Asked a question and got a reply almost immediately. For someone who isn't great with tech and wants an ready-to-play, easy-to-use exhaustive library of games, this is your machine!

The Raspberry Pi has been amazing. There are so many games, it's easy to use, and has awesome graphics. Highly recommend! I also recommend you get wireless controls to go with it as well.

I am leaving my review at 3 stars, the wifi connection on the console has been none existent. Content wise there is a great many consoles and games.

Great console with a very large selection of games.

First of all, fantastic product! 10/10 would highly recommend.Before buying, I didn't know anything about emulators but after a little bit of research, this system kept coming up as the best all-around for the price. It was incredibly easy to use--plug and play--and it works great! There are THOUSANDS of games on it and so many gaming systems on it so your nostalgia can just run wild. It's been a blast playing games I haven't played in decades or had completely forgotten about.It was also sent with a sheet of easy to follow instructions for use and care of the system which has been really helpful and has answered any questions that I had about its use.The only snag I have personally found with using it is that "start and select" will take you out of a game and back to the main menu of gaming systems (which is also necessary to have a proper shut down of the system) but if you are on a game that uses "start" to begin the game, you end up getting in a loop of never getting back to the main menu, meaning that you just have to shut the system down with the power switch and restarting. This is usually something that happens with later gaming systems (for example, it happens with a few of the Playstation One games) It's a minor annoyance only because I don't want to have to shut down the system like that all the time in case it causes damage long-term (I don't know if it does, I just like to make sure I'm taking care of the system)Overall, great value for money, a great product and I'm incredibly happy that I got it. It made a great gift...but I like it just as much, maybe more, than the recipient ;-)