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<p dir="auto">This is a big list, for the benefit of n00bs, of places (beyond the RetroPie setup script) where you can acquire content for RetroPie which is completely in the clear legally with no ambiguity. The fact is that not only is downloading emulators legal, but downloading ROMs can also be legal depending on what they are and where you're getting them from, just like downloading music files or videos or ebooks or anything else. ROMs are just computer files, made of 1s and 0s exactly like any other computer files.</p> <p dir="auto">I should mention that the term "abandonware" is a moral term, not a legal term. Downloading abandonware is at the same time perfectly moral and totally illegal. Redistributing abandonware is a dirty crime for which the Thought Police are certain to break down your door and drag you away off to Room 101 for re-education. So, we will not be listing any abandonware sites here.</p> <p dir="auto">To the best of my knowledge, everything on this list is not only moral to download, but is also legal to download, which narrows the field quite a bit since these two things (moral and legal) are absolutely not the same thing at all. There are many things which are perfectly moral to download but which are at the same time absolutely not legal to download (or which float in a legal grey area) and those things are not allowed on here. We're trying to only include stuff that we know is as legal to download as we can ever know anything is.</p> <p dir="auto">The first thing you'll want to know is that DOSBOX works on RetroPie. This means anything on the <a href="https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">DOSBOX compatibility list</a> should work as well as the thousands if not millions of DOS games and other programs they don't list. To prevent the thread from becoming too ridiculously long for anyone to read, I am categorically excluding DOS games because the library of games which DOSBOX supports and which will run just fine through RetroPie is so staggeringly huge that we have no chance to even start on it. So when it comes to DOS games, I am only including DOS games which have modern source ports that run on RetroPie. Also, I am excluding anything from similar PC-ish devices like Commodore 64 or Mac as well as any source ports for which the full experience is already accessible through the RetroPie setup script, so no Prince of Persia or Tyrian.</p> <p dir="auto">As for everything else, I will divide it into free content and paid content.</p> <h1>Free</h1> <p dir="auto">One site that's definitely worth checking out for multiple systems is <a href="http://pdroms.de/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">PDRoms</a>. They archive ROMs but try very hard to only include ROMs for which they have the permission of the creators to freely redistribute.</p> <p dir="auto">Other sites worth checking out for free homebrews on multiple systems are <a href="https://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Shiru's Stuff</a> and <a href="https://www.portabledev.com/jeux/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">PortableDev</a>.</p> <h2>Arcade</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.mamedev.org/roms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">MAMEDEV.org's "ROMs for Free Download" page</a> has some legal arcade ROMs.</li> </ul> <h2>Atari 2600</h2> <ul> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.atari2600homebrew.com/cave-in.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Cave In</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://atariage.com/forums/topic/269668-bombs-away-vcs-2600/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Bombs Away</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.qotile.net/synth.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">SynthCart</a></p> </li> </ul> <h2>Atari Lynx</h2> <ul> <li>The 2019 <a href="https://atarigamer.com/articles/in-2019-we-have-eleven-new-games-for-the-atari-lynx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Atari Lynx 30th Birthday Programming Competition</a> made 11 free games.</li> </ul> <h2>ColecoVision</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.colecovision.ca/roms_homebrew_0-9.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">ColecoVision NORTH</a> has some homebrew ROMs.</li> </ul> <h2>Intellivision</h2> <ul> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.carolvsghost.com/pg_game.html#download-rom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost of Christmas Presents</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://spacepatrol.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Space Patrol</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/4-tris/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">4-Tris</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://intellivision.us/intvgames/chop/chop.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Choplifter</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/stonix/stonix.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Stonix</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://sebastianmihai.com/main.php?t=115&amp;n=Intellivision-development-Hotel-Bunny" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Hotel Bunny</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://intellivisionrevolution.com/ultimatepong" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Ultimate Pong</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.carlmuellerjr.com/2016/12/d1k-arcade-rom-download-page-dk-arcade.html?m=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">DK Arcade</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://www.carlmuellerjr.com/2016/06/ms_22.html?m=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Ms. Pac Man</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://atariage.com/forums/topic/273509-meteors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Meteors!</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://atariage.com/forums/topic/273481-download-stunt-cycle-still-in-development-digital-game-rom-free/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Stunt Cycle</a></p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264032-new-intellivision-homebrew-princess-lydie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Princess Lydie</a></p> </li> </ul> <h1>Dreamcast</h1> <ul> <li><a href="http://volgarr.rkd.zone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Volgarr the Viking</a> - a free Dreamcast port created by fans with full permission of Crazy Viking Studios. It should work in principle. However, so far I have not gotten it to run successfully on RetroPie.</li> </ul> <h2>Gameboy Color</h2> <ul> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091225052741/http://www.johnromero.com/games_daikatana.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Daikatana for the Gameboy Color was uploaded by John Romero himself to his web site in 2004</a>. He's redone his web site since then and I haven't managed to find the ROM being available anywhere on his new site. If anyone ever gets a chance to talk to John Romero then please ask him about this and the legal status of redistributing the Daikatana GBC ROM.</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://github.com/AntonioND/ucity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">µCity</a> is an open-source city-building game.</p> </li> </ul> <h2>NES</h2> <ul> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://dpadhero.com/Download.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">D+Pad Hero 1 &amp; 2</a> is a series of rhythm/music games for the NES.</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://lizardnes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">LizardNES</a> has a free prototype ROM you can download to try out.</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="http://rainwarrior.ca/music/moon8.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">MOON8</a> is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon redone as a music cart.</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/updates/880758073/1489588191" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Mystic Origins</a> is a very small demo of the upcoming much bigger NES homebrew game Mystic Searches by <a href="http://thenew8bitheroes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">The New 8-Bit Heroes</a>. It has an unusual mapper but it works on RetroPie with the lr-fceumm emulator. To get the ROM so you can play on the PI, you need to extract it from the .jar file provided using <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">7-zip</a> or some other archiving program which supports .jar. Don't worry: <a href="https://forums.libretro.com/t/request-ines-mapper-30-support/9350/26" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">the game's developer is cool with this</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://www.fauxgame.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">STREEMERZ</a> is a homebrew by "Faux Games"</p> </li> <li> <p dir="auto"><a href="https://dustmop.itch.io/the-witnes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">TheWit.nes</a> is an NES demake of Jonathan Blow's The Witness.</p> </li> </ul> <h2>SNES</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://gra.dforce3000.de/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">N-Warp Daisakusen</a> is an open source 8-player game for the SNES.</li> <li><a href="https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Rock 'n Roll Racing</a> for the SNES is available for free from Blizzard (disguised as a "Windows" version by bundling the ROM with ZSNES) under the "Classic Games" tab on <a href="http://Battle.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Battle.net</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://superbossgaiden.superfamicom.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Super Boss Gaiden</a> is ... a thing.</li> <li><a href="https://portabledev.itch.io/chips-challenge-for-snes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Chip's Challenge for SNES</a></li> </ul> <h2>Ports</h2> <ul> <li>Commander Keen 1, 4 and the unofficial 7, 8 &amp; 9. (via Commander Genius)</li> </ul> <h3>Doom WADs</h3> <p dir="auto">WAD is a file format which stands for "Where's All the Data?" If Doom was a console, then modern source ports like zDoom would be the emulator and WADs would be the ROMs. There are two kinds of WADs: IWADs and PWADs. IWADs are full games while PWADs are patches which are applied to games. Most Doom mods are distributed as PWADs to be used on top of the base game. Here are a few notable Doom WADs you can download and use in RetroPie:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.chucktropolis.com/gamers.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Chex Quest</a></li> <li><a href="https://freedoom.github.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">FreeDoom</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.drnostromo.com/hacx/page.php?content=download" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">HacX</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.doomwadstation.net/main/starwars.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">StarDoom</a></li> </ul> <h3>Quake PAKs</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150718154758/http://liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=101" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse</a> is freeware but you might have better luck with the <a href="http://www.moddb.com/mods/x-men-ravages-of-apocalypse/downloads/x-men-ravages-of-apocalypse-tc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">version on moddb</a>.</li> </ul> <p dir="auto">Additionally, you can watch <a href="https://ia601207.us.archive.org/20/items/DiaryOfACamper/diaryofacamper.zip" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Diary of a Camper</a> and other Quake 1 machinima films created as Quake 1 demos, because making short films and distributing them as Quake 1 demo files was totally a thing back in the day.</p> <h1>Paid</h1> <h2>Atari 2600</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/400020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Atari Vault</a> comes with some VCS ROMs. On Windows, you will find your ROMs in the folder <code>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Atari Vault\AtariVault_Data\StreamingAssets\FOCAL_Emulator</code></li> </ul> <h2>Gameboy / Gameboy Color</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Little Sound DJ</a> is a great commercial music program for the Gameboy / Gameboy Color which is sold as a ROM download.</li> </ul> <h2>NES</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/363440/Mega_Man_Legacy_Collection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Mega Man Legacy Collection</a> contains NES ROMs for Mega Man 1-6 as discussed in <a href="https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023470/-It-s-Just-Emulation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">this awesome attempt to finally talk some sense into game companies at GDC</a>. There are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaman/comments/6v818t/extracting_roms_from_the_legacy_collection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">instructions here for extracting the ROMs</a>. No word yet on an extraction method for <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/495050/Mega_Man_Legacy_Collection_2_____2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Mega Man Legacy Collection 2</a> as of this writing.</li> <li><a href="https://morphcatgames.itch.io/micromages" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Micro Mages</a> is super fun.</li> </ul> <h2>Sega Genesis / MegaDrive</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/102625/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics on Steam</a> gives you a folder called "Uncompressed ROMs" which contains DRM-free ready-to-play ROM files for many SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis titles including the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They even encourage people to redistribute their ROM hacks through Steam Workshop. They have also been occasionally putting these on sale for dirt cheap. What I'm saying is that SEGA is cool. SEGA does what Nintendon't. Buy this. No excuses. On Windows, you should find your ROMs in the folder <code>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sega Classics\uncompressed ROMs\</code> and ROM hacks from Workshop should be in the folder <code>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\34270\</code></li> </ul> <h2>ScummVM</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.gog.com/game/myst_masterpiece_edition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Myst: Masterpiece Edition</a> works on RetroPie via ScummVM. If you bought it on GOG and installed on Windows then just copy the entire game folder into your <code>roms\scummvm</code> folder, add it in the ScummVM GUI and you're good to go.</li> </ul> <h2>SNES</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://wisdomtree.itch.io/s3dna" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Super 3D Noah's Ark on itch.io</a> comes with a Steam key, a nice modern source port for several systems (not Raspberry PI tho), the DOS version and the SNES ROM. (because I personally nagged them to add it)</li> </ul> <h2>Neo Geo</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=snk_corporation&amp;sort=title" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Neo Geo games from GOG</a> should work on RetroPie if you <a href="https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/121210">extract the ROMs</a>.</li> </ul> <h2>PSP</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/retro-city-rampage-dx/cid=UP2077-CUSA01316_00-RETROCITYRAMPAGE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc">Retro City Rampage DX</a> for the PSP works great on RetroPie via PPSSPP. Buying this title on the Playstation Store for PS3 or PS4 should include the PSP version as a free bonus.</li> </ul> <h2>Ports</h2> <p dir="auto">You can purchase content which you can also use with RetroPie through buying the full PC versions of all these games:</p> <ul> <li>Commander Keen series (via Commander Genius)</li> <li>Descent 1 &amp; 2 (runs perfect except for total lack of sound!)</li> <li>Doom, Doom 2 and Final Doom</li> <li>Duke Nukem 3D <a href="https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/84339">+ Addons + NAM a.k.a. Napalm</a> (via eDuke32)</li> <li>Quake 1, Quake 1 Mission Packs, Quake 3</li> <li>Wolfenstein 3D &amp; Spear of Destiny</li> </ul> <h3>Stuff that might work maybe if you're lucky?</h3> <ul> <li>Heretic, Hexen 1 &amp; 2, Strife? (via Doom source port(s)) Anyone tried these?</li> </ul> <p dir="auto">Know of more? Please suggest!!</p>