TheRA or The Retro Arena is an all-in-one retro gaming and entertainment software bundle on various platforms from Odroid, Pine, NanoPi, Asus Tinkerboard, Raspberry Pi 4, Nvidia Jetson Nano, and many more. This initiative is for those of us that wish to push development forward on the more powerful and premium Single Board Computers (SBCs) in their categories. We are here for like minded folks that want to discuss retro gaming and all that it has to offer on an expanding gamut of SBCs/Mini PCs.
We wish to expand the horizons of what we offer to the great folks out there looking for a small entertainment platform that is low powered from the electric bill standpoint, yet well powered enough to provide enjoyment of retro gaming systems throughout the history of video games. With our easy to install operating system distribution based on stable versions of Linux it allows to you enjoy an array of video games from gaming consoles, handhelds, and personal computers spanning across the 70s, 80s, 90, and 2000s. Not only that, but you can also enjoy and consume your movies, TV shows, and music with your choice of applications directly or by using the included desktop depending on OS release and availability.
Currently we support the Odroid-Xu4, The Odroid N2, The Odroid Go Advance, The Droid Go Super, The Odroid H2 and H2+, The Odroid C2 and C4, The RockPro64 from Pine, The La Frite and Le Porato from Libre Computers, The Nano Pi Fire 3 from Friendly Elec, The RG351M/P/V/MP RG300x, RG300 IPS, RG280V, RG350M from Anbernic, The Game Force, The ESP32 GBC and GBA CM4 from Myretrogamecase, and more.
The upcoming ARES project will add support for a couple of other devices as well, Raspberry pi 4, and Asus Tinkerboard.
Current Download Links:
Odroid M1S Beta (L/P odroid/odroid):
Khadas VIM3 Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TBz8lKi2TSVS2xJbmfVsCPPWgBFEynZ-/view?usp=sharing
XU4:
https://archive.org/details/xu-4-the-ra-base-pub-v-3.1.2.7z
N2/N2 Plus:
https://archive.org/details/n-2-the-ra-base-pub-v-3.1.8.7z
RockPro64:
https://archive.org/details/rp-64-the-ra-base-pub-3.1.5.img.-7z
If you would like to support us and join our Patreon, here is the link!
aurora retro entertainmENT system
Project ARES Download Links
Project ARES is a step forwards from The Retro Arena, it introduces more emulators, updates to the underlying operating systems, updates to RetroArch and the cores/emulators. It also adds support for X86 PC, Raspberry Pie 4, Atomic PI, Nvidia Jetson Nano, Odroid H2+, and the Libre Computer line, including La Frite and Le Potato.
This project was developed over several months by the Retro Arena and Tech Toy Tinker teams, Eric, Carlos, and Jeff burned the candle at both ends working on this project. And a special thanks also goes to Stephen and the rest of our developers and testing team.
We are working on introducing a new front end called RetroFE, and that makes its first appearance in ARES, it can be installed via the front ends section, however, the controller configuration wizard is not ready yet, and as such only USB controllers work properly at this time.
ARES Source Code(Use this for your own build or on Linux PC):
https://www.gitlab.com/slaminger/ares-setup
A user from our community has taken the time to design a new theme for everyone to enjoy! Big thank you to Chris Brown:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K7sj1N9htE9Ia44mvtBTZRlEZtxm1DDl/view?usp=sharing
Here are the current ARES Beta Builds(most login and password are aresuser/pigaming or aresuser/thera).
As a beta you might find a bug or two, these will be worked out as the project moves from beta to stable.
If a device you want is not below, you will need to compile your own using the above source code.
** For XU4 Beta 2, read the readme inside of the .zip file. If your system hangs for more than two mins during first boot, simply unplug it and plug it back in. the roms and bios folder are now both located inside of roms and are an NTFS partition that will auto expand at first boot.
Odroid M1S Beta (L/P odroid/odroid):
XU4 Alpha:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sorJWdhgmFkJgWsfdhEw8hhd3yQ6OcGm/view?usp=sharing
XU4 Beta Released 2021/06/25, Beta 2 released 4/3/2022
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vpZJIsuiH4shTPcBKkaAFDNX5xgPlk0k?usp=sharing
N2 Alpha:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__3wpq0dYox717rwMCsuS4XzbXaW8x03/view?usp=sharing
RockPro 64 Alpha:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1odaL8exNlvq0GF4yIsg_YSLdwxnk-NqP/view?usp=sharing
RockPro64 Beta 2021-07-18:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x9DtUs0b63yzDLICBH7tYGTdG1X4SOU0?usp=sharing
Raspberry PI 4 Alpha:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ScRmv-_DBKyBs67JTAGkdDsR3MlmuWfo/view?usp=sharing
Raspberry PI 4 Beta - Project David (180+) 09/05 release for Davids birthday. Rest in peace little brother.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Si99RmewkfXiUqS5slq4RUFTmrNbWmWu/view?usp=sharing
Nvidia Jetson Nano Beta and Beta2+4GB(10-17-2021):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u76jqUj7gES4nGkd9EwwaGZ9EF99VG0T?usp=sharing
Odroid H2 Plus:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RNZpIi6f-pAr2bufwcpJxc_62X0pxUWK
Atomic Pi Beta 1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HNmd4bbBE8NyEADn9usR-XIn3u8tM2o6/view?usp=sharing
La Frite(Libre Computer, login and password are aresuser):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gLp6pZ2N3TvowOMV3rf1FHLqnMWhu30g?usp=sharing
Early Nano Pi Fire 3 Alpha(dreamcast and n64 are laggy, some earlier systems work ok)
Login pigaming, password aresuser:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YASU_E748GvbIknN7MWrBaL_TnxWgZVh?usp=sharing
If you would like to support us and join our Patreon, here is the link!
