Retrobios v2026.09.04: 10,330 verified BIOS files for Batocera, RetroArch, Recalbox and 9 other platforms
⚠️ Update as of September 22, 2026: retrobios has grown a lot since the April release detailed below. The latest version, v2026.09.04, now covers 10,330 verified files for 449 emulators across 12 platforms. The one-command install method is unchanged. See the latest releases on GitHub.
style="user-select: auto;">If you use Batocera, RetroArch, Recalbox or any other retro frontend, you know the problem of BIOS, those essential little files that each emulator requires to start. Finding the right ones, with the right names and the right checksums, is often a pain. This is exactly what retrobiosdoes, and the April 2026 version has just dropped.
📦 What the v2026.04.02 pack contains
📦 auto;">In raw numbers:
- 7,302 BIOS and firmware files checked
- 396 systemscovered, from Atari 2600 to PlayStation 3
- 10 platformssupported with dedicated packs
- Each file checked by SHA1, MD5 and CRC32from the source code of each emulator
Covered platforms and their installation path:
- RetroArch / Lakka →
system/ - Batocera 42 →
/userdata/bios/ - Recalbox 10 →
/recalbox/share/bios/ - RetroPie →
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ - RetroBat 7.5.3 →
bios/ - EmuDeck →
Emulation/bios/ - BizHawk → dedicated folder
- RetroDECK → new in this version!
- RomM → new in this version!
✨ New in this version
Two new platforms are entering this pack:
- RomM, the ROM manager based on EmulatorJS, with 48 cores and 373 BIOS entries. Perfect if you're self-hosting your retro library.
- RetroDECK, the all-in-one for Steam Deck that centralizes all emulators in a single Flatpak.
This release also adds the WAD files from the Doomengines (Doom, Doom II, Heretic, Hexen, Strife, Chex Quest) and a SHA256SUMS.txt included in each archive to verify the integrity of the download.
🤓 Why this project is different
What makes retrobios unique compared to a simple “random BIOS pack found on the internet”, is its methodology. Each file is checked directly from the emulators' source code-not from community lists which can be erroneous. Concretely this means that if Dolphin expects a file sys/font_sjis.bin exactly, retrobios provides it with that exact name, not an approximation.
style="user-select: auto;">The project is running on GitHub with 5,600+ stars and 559 forks - this is the benchmark in the scene for verified BIOS packs.
⚡ One-command installation
On Linux / macOS / Steam Deck:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh
On Windows (PowerShell):
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1 | iex
The script automatically detects your platform, downloads only the missing files, and checks the checksums. Or download the ZIP of your platform directly from the GitHub page.
📋 Full Documentation
The exhaustive list of all files with their details (checksums, installation path, emulator concerned) is available at abdess.github.io/retrobios.
Source: GitHub - Abdess/retrobios v2026.04.02
Image credit: “Bios chip-2011-04-11” by Tremaster, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).