RetroMi¶

1. Introduction¶

RetroMi is YUMI-LAB's retrogaming image for the Smart Pi One: a ready-to-flash Armbian Bookworm build with EmulationStation, RetroArch and over 100 pre-compiled emulator cores — Dreamcast, N64 and PSP included, plus PC game streaming via Moonlight. Everything ships pre-compiled for armhf, so there is nothing to build on the device itself.

Actively developed

RetroMi is maintained by YUMI-LAB at github.com/Yumi-Lab/RetroMi. Report issues there.

Prefer a simpler, more polished out-of-the-box experience with RetroAchievements? See Batocera instead.

2. What you get¶

Feature	Detail
EmulationStation	EpicNoir theme pre-installed, 200+ additional themes via the built-in downloader
RetroArch	100+ libretro cores, tuned for the Mali-400 GPU
Controllers	237 gamepads recognised out of the box — PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch Pro, 8BitDo, Logitech
Dreamcast	Flycast (GLES2) — playable on the H3
Moonlight	Stream from a PC running Sunshine, with HEVC hardware decode
File access	Samba shares plus a web-based FileBrowser (port 80) for ROMs, BIOS and configs
USB auto-mount	Plug a USB drive with a `RetroPie/roms/<system>/` layout — ROMs are picked up automatically
Bezels	Decorative overlays for 19 systems, from TheBezelProject

3. Supported systems¶

102 cores across 20 groups:

Group	Systems
`nintendo`	NES, SNES, Game Boy / Color, GBA (13 cores)
`n64`	Nintendo 64, PC Engine / TurboGrafx (5 cores)
`sega`	Mega Drive, Sega CD, 32X, Master System, Game Gear, Neo Geo CD
`sony`	PlayStation 1
`psp`	PlayStation Portable (PPSSPP)
`arcade`	FBNeo — Arcade, Neo Geo, CPS1-2-3
`arcade-compat`	MAME 2000 / 2003 / 2003+ / 2010, FBAlpha2012
`heavy`	Nintendo DS, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Jaguar
`amiga`	Amiga (uae4arm, PUAE)
`computers`	C64, MSX, Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Apple II, BBC Micro, Enterprise 128
`japan-computers`	PC-98, PC-88, X68000, Sharp X1
`portables`	Neo Geo Pocket, Lynx, Virtual Boy, WonderSwan, Pokémon Mini, Arduboy, Vectrex, Game & Watch
`dosbox`	DOSBox Pure
`scummvm`	ScummVM — 250+ point-and-click adventures
`openbor`	OpenBOR (beat 'em up engine)
`misc`	Doom, Quake, Atari 2600, PICO-8, WASM-4, TIC-80, EasyRPG, Cave Story, Java ME
`moonlight`	PC game streaming (Sunshine / NVIDIA)
`skyscraper`	Game metadata and artwork scraper
`retroarch`	RetroArch frontend and assets
`emulationstation`	EmulationStation frontend

4. Download and flash¶

1. Download both parts of the current release, 1.0.4, from the release page — the image is split in two to stay under GitHub's 2 GiB file limit:

File	Size
`2026-03-08-RetroMi-1.0.4-armbian-RetroMi.img.7z.001`	1.99 GB
`2026-03-08-RetroMi-1.0.4-armbian-RetroMi.img.7z.002`	785 MB

The matching .sha256 files and the full changelog are on the release page.

2. Extract — both files must sit in the same folder:

LinuxmacOSWindows

7z x 2026-03-08-RetroMi-1.0.4-armbian-RetroMi.img.7z.001
sha256sum -c 2026-03-08-RetroMi-1.0.4-armbian-RetroMi.img.7z.sha256

Open .img.7z.001 with Keka or The Unarchiver — it picks up .002 automatically.

Right-click .img.7z.001 → Extract Here, using 7-Zip.

3. Flash the extracted .img with Raspberry Pi Imager (Choose OS → Use custom), balenaEtcher, or dd:

sudo dd if=RetroMi-*.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

With dd, double-check /dev/sdX: writing to the wrong device will destroy it.

5. First boot¶

Insert the card into the Smart Pi One and power on. First boot takes 2 to 3 minutes while RetroMi finishes its initial setup, then EmulationStation starts.

6. Default accounts¶

Service	User	Password
SSH	`pi`	`yumi`
FileBrowser (port 80)	`admin`	`RetroMi2026!`
FileBrowser (port 80)	`pi`	`YumiRetroMi25`

Change the passwords

Change both, right after the first login.

7. Adding ROMs¶

Three ways in:

FileBrowser — browse to http://<device-ip>/, navigate to RetroPie/roms/<system>/ and upload your files
USB — build the same RetroPie/roms/<system>/ structure on a USB drive and plug it in; ROMs are detected and linked automatically
SCP — scp game.zip pi@<device-ip>:/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/<system>/

Restart EmulationStation, or reboot, to refresh the game list.

8. WiFi¶

From the EmulationStation menu: RetroPie → Wi-Fi. Or over SSH:

sudo nmtui

9. Controller setup¶

The first time EmulationStation starts, it asks you to map a controller. The full walkthrough — button mapping, hotkeys, supported layouts, troubleshooting — has its own page:

Controller Setup for RetroMi

10. Architecture¶

RetroMi is built in three layers:

Layer 1 — SmartPi-armbian   : Armbian Bookworm server base (armhf)
Layer 2 — RetroMi-packages  : 102 pre-compiled libretro cores (20 groups)
Layer 3 — RetroMi           : themes, config, modules, controllers, bezels

Layer 2 is built separately via QEMU armhf in Docker, so nothing compiles on the device itself.

11. Notes¶

Status: actively developed. Current release: 1.0.4 (2026-03-08).
Source: github.com/Yumi-Lab/RetroMi. License: GPL-3.0.
Want RetroAchievements and a simpler, atomic-update system instead? See Batocera — fewer emulators (117 systems, standalone), but a more polished out-of-the-box experience.