Retro-Zero
July 9, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Retro-Zero is a Libretro-based emulator frontend designed for the Cardputer Zero.
Supported systems
| Name | Core | Supported extensions |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Entertainment System | QuickNES | .nes, .fds, .unf, .unif |
| Super Nintendo | Snes9x | .sfc, .smc, .fig, .swc, .bs, .st |
| Game Boy | Gearboy | .gb |
| Game Boy Color | Gearboy | .gbc, .gb |
| Game Boy Advance | mGBA | .gba, .gbc, .gb, .zip |
| Nintendo 64 | Mupen64Plus GLES2 | .n64, .v64, .z64, .bin |
| Mega Drive / Genesis | Genesis Plus GX | .md, .gen, .bin, .smd |
| Master System | Genesis Plus GX | .sms |
| Game Gear | Genesis Plus GX | .gg |
| Dreamcast | Flycast | .cdi, .gdi, .chd |
| Naomi / Atomiswave | Flycast | .zip |
| Neo Geo | FBNeo | .zip |
| Neo Geo Pocket | Mednafen NGP | .ngp, .ngc |
| FBNeo Arcade | FBNeo | .zip |
| MAME 2010 | MAME 2010 | .zip |
| PlayStation | PCSX ReARMed | .cue, .bin, .chd, .pbp, .iso, .m3u |
| PSP | PPSSPP | .iso, .cso, .pbp, .elf, .prx, .chd |
| PC Engine | Mednafen PCE Fast | .pce, .sgx |
| MSX / MSX2 | blueMSX | .rom, .mx1, .mx2 |
| Atari 2600 | Stella 2014 | .a26, .bin |
| Atari 7800 | ProSystem | .a78, .bin |
| Atari Lynx | Handy | .lnx |
| WonderSwan | Mednafen WonderSwan | .ws, .wsc |
Emulator cores
The emulator cores used by this project are prebuilt Libretro .so cores for the Cardputer Zero / ARM64 Linux environment.
Cores are not all required to be present upfront. Each core is downloaded on demand the first time it is needed, if the corresponding .so file is not already available locally.
If needed, cores can also be added manually by placing the .so files in:
/home/pi/retrozero/cores
For example:
/home/pi/retrozero/cores/quicknes_libretro.so
/home/pi/retrozero/cores/snes9x_libretro.so
/home/pi/retrozero/cores/mupen64plus_libretro.so
/home/pi/retrozero/cores/ppsspp_libretro.so
ROM directories
By default, ROMs are expected under:
| System | Directory |
|---|---|
| NES | /home/pi/roms/nes |
| SNES | /home/pi/roms/snes |
| GB | /home/pi/roms/gb |
| GBC | /home/pi/roms/gbc |
| GBA | /home/pi/roms/gba |
| N64 | /home/pi/roms/n64 |
| Mega Drive | /home/pi/roms/md |
| Master System | /home/pi/roms/sms |
| Game Gear | /home/pi/roms/gg |
| Dreamcast | /home/pi/roms/dc |
| Naomi / Atomiswave | /home/pi/roms/naomi |
| Neo Geo | /home/pi/roms/neogeo |
| FBNeo | /home/pi/roms/fbn |
| MAME | /home/pi/roms/mame |
| PS1 | /home/pi/roms/ps1 |
| PSP | /home/pi/roms/psp |
| PC Engine | /home/pi/roms/pce |
| MSX | /home/pi/roms/msx |
| Atari 2600 | /home/pi/roms/a2600 |
| Atari 7800 | /home/pi/roms/a7800 |
| Atari Lynx | /home/pi/roms/lynx |
| WonderSwan | /home/pi/roms/ws |
You can use the ROM Upload features to directly import ROM to your device.
Controls
You can rebind the keys to external USB or Bluetooth controllers, making the controls more flexible.
Cardputer-Accessories repo to get the 3D model for D-Pad that you can put on the Cardputer's keys.
Saves
Save files are stored under:
/home/pi/retrozero/saves/
Each system has its own save subdirectory.
Example:
/home/pi/retrozero/saves/n64
/home/pi/retrozero/saves/ps1
/home/pi/retrozero/saves/psp
/home/pi/retrozero/saves/gba