Ports of Recalbox on Pine64 boards need beta-testers

[Bkg2k]

mrfixit2001 is in the process of porting Recalbox on two Pine64 boards:

• The Rock64, very close to the Pi formfactor. See Here.
• The Rock64Pro, a more powerfull board that can run the PSP and the N64 at full speed. See Here.

The Rock64 is, IHMO, a very good alternative to the well known Pi3B/3B+.

The Recalbox port is still an alpha/beta version, but we're working closely with mrfixit2001.

You may find the images here:

• Rock64 image: recalbox_rock64_betav2.img.xz
• Rock64Pro image: recalbox_rockpro_beta.img.xz

If you're a luky owner of, or if you are to buy a pine64 board, feel free to test the corresponding image and post your feedbacks in this thread!

Once both versions are stable, they will be available for download on the regular Recalbox download page.

PS: I just tested both version a few minutes ago before writing this post and it looks very promising!

[goroots]

Hello, Sorry for my English.
Thank's to you and mrfixit2001 for this great job 😍
(i saw that .... 3 days ago on github 😉)
I am a user of pi 3b + and I also went on the sheild tv to access the game cube, naomi, dreamcast, 3do, saturn and wii (for this le slowly)
Would this device (pro version of course) be powerful enough to turn them?
Because if that's the case, I'll be up for buying it and doing tests on what already exists.
In advance, thank you for your return.

[voljega]

@goroots I don't think so, the CPU is even a little slower than Pi3, just the ram changes, from 1Gb to 2/4Gb.
I strongly doubt it will be enough for anything above PSP/N64, maybe Dreamcast and thus Naomi, eventually 3DO but that's it. Don't dream about GC, Saturn or Wii.

[Luke_Pine64]

@goroots The RockPro64 provides excellent performance in PSP, N64 and Dreamcast. As Bkg2k wrote above - its (...) "a more powerfull board that can run the PSP and the N64 at full speed".
The Rock64 is approximately on par with the RPI 3, so scale your expectations accordingly.

[goroots]

@voljega @Luke_Pine64 Thank's a lot for your feeback, that's what I said to myself, but I prefer to ask the experts (I'm a dreamer).
For 115 euros, as soon as I have the opportunity, I will take one to see what he has in the stomach. In any case great work and it's always nice to see recalbox focused on new toy.

[voljega]

@bkg2k https://www.minimachines.net/actu/pine64-rock64-r3-75865

It seems board manufacturers absolutely want to fuck with Recalbox team these times ^^

[Luke_Pine64]

@voljega I am a bit confused with your comment - what do you mean ?

[voljega]

@luke_pine64 just a stupid joke on the timing of this new board release really :

raspberry pi3b+ was released, recalbox team started working on it for a few months and then rapsberry pi3a+ was released while beta for pi3b+ was not yet finished (meaning more work for the team to also make a+ compatible)

then the team announces that pine board are beta supported, and just a few weeks after, new version of the same pine boards are also released (meaning again more work for the team for the compatibility)

[MikaXII]

@voljega But the A+ war already compatible because its the same hardware of the B+, and about pine board only @Luke_Pine64 and mrfixit do the dev (and there make pretty good work).

[ProfMielPops]

Bonne nouvelle,
Merci aux développeurs @Luke_Pine64, mrfixit2001

[ProfMielPops]

Good news,
Thanks to the developers @Luke_Pine64, mrfixit2001

[Luke_Pine64]

@voljega I see :) The Pine H64 is a pretty powerful board (somewhere halfways between the Rock64 and RockPro64), but it will be many months before its in a software shape to play games.

Meanwhile, the newest Rock64 image is pretty damn good performance-wise even without overclocking. A new Pro build is coming too.

[OldGreg]

Hello,
If someone wants to compare :
https://www.hackerboards.com/compare/251,259,244/

The Pine64 : only 2 usb, no wifi, no bluetooth... but more powerfull than raspeberry pi 3b+.
The RockPro64 4GB looks more interesting on the board...

;)

[Luke_Pine64]

@oldgreg Thanks. You need to be a bit careful with those pages comparing boards - I submitted 3 corrections (1x for SOPine, 2x for RockPro64) in the past due to incorrect info.
Then there is question of Linux support for the SOC - which is a whole different story :) Raw power doesn't matter as much as solid sw support; as things stand it will be a few months before H6 graphics are usable.

[Luke_Pine64]

Just a heads up to those who wish to help test and offer feedback on here.
The RockPro64 image has been labeled release because 1) it tests very well - big performance improvements over beta in Dreamcast, PSP and Nintendo 64 (probably best performance on ARM); 2) We've not had any major complaints, except for some PCIe incompatibility of external NVMe SSDs and other hardware, from many people who tested.
The Rock64 image stays in Beta due to some lingering issues and some missing features (e.g. setting resolution from recalbox config for RA cores, reicast, Mupen and ppsspp) - nothing major.

[Rocpro]

thank you, good job @Luke_Pine64, mrfixit2001.
if you are looking for beta tester^^

[Luke_Pine64]

@rocpro Always, do you have a R64 or Pro board ?

[diamantis42]

hello,

r64 look good, I want to try it and help you for the beta

I'm looking for buy it with 4GB

just 1 question about this beta, the GPIO works? if I put the rock64 in retroflag case, the script for on off button works?

[paradadf]

@diamantis42 I know pine64 is releasing its own case, which will surely get support first. But, if retroflag cases aren’t being supported at this moment (haven’t tested yet to be honest), support will come for it eventually.

[Luke_Pine64]

Hey @diamantis42, I think that @paradadf is pretty spot-on in his response. I imagine, however, that support for the retroflag cases woulnd't be much of an issue - just a case of implementing the script they require in the the build.