Abdess/retrobios v2026.10.10

BIOS Pack v2026.10.10

on GitHub

Every BIOS and firmware file your emulator setup needs, in one pack per platform, each file checked against what the emulator's own code expects. 12 platforms and 506 emulators read from source.

Install in one command

Detects your platform and BIOS folder, downloads only what is missing, checks every file. Safe to run again.

Linux / Mac / Steam Deck

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1 | iex

Nothing detected? The installer asks which platform and folder to use. To name them yourself, add -s -- --platform retroarch --dest ~/.config/retroarch/system after sh, or on Windows run

& ([ScriptBlock]::Create((iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1))) --platform retroarch --dest 'C:\RetroArch\system'

Download a pack

One pack per platform, the complete one. It holds the BIOS list the platform publishes plus every file its emulators actually open, so a game never stops on a missing file. Files is what the pack holds once extracted, the count a file manager shows; Size is the space it takes extracted. Extract it to the folder in the table.

A pack over 2 GB comes as parts that are each an ordinary ZIP of whole files (Pack.part1of2.zip, Pack.part2of2.zip). Download every part and extract them all into the same folder; nothing needs joining.

What's new since v2026.09.04

• Large packs are published as parts that each open on their own, in place of the .zip.001 byte ranges no archiver could read alone (#77, #79)
• The download table and the README say how many files each pack holds; the collection total is given as such, not as a pack's content (#81)
• The collection grows from 10,330 to 19,002 files, 57 more emulators profiled from source: the doom, build, quake, id Tech and sonic decompilation engines with their free data, jedi knight, tomb raider, crpg and adventure engines, nine new buildbot cores, pom2, aps3e, cap32 at its current pin
• Apple II firmware for the //c, the expansion cards and the localised character ROMs (#75)
• Files the manifest named at a path the repository had moved are back in the installer (#78)
• The RetroBat installer defaults to C:\RetroBat\bios, the folder its own setup creates
• Every platform on its current release: Recalbox 10.1.1, RetroDECK 0.10.10b, ROCKNIX 20261001, RomM 5.3.1, EmuDeck 2.7EA, MiSTer 2026-09-29, RetroPie 4.8.12
• Region tags only where the emulator's code picks a file by territory: an untagged BIOS now ships with every --region pack
• The PlayStation 2 resource files (GameIndex, RedumpDatabase, patches) are pinned per fork, so each of pcsx2, AetherSX2, ArmSX2 and EmuCoreX gets the bytes its build reads
• The checksum list SHA256SUMS.txt is signed; the public key is allowed_signers at the repository root

Under the hood

• Every hash comes from the emulator's source, never from a forum list. Matches with Redump, No-Intro and TOSEC are shown per file on the site.
• What no pack can carry yet, dumps nobody has made and per-console keys, is listed in the gap analysis with what was tried.
• Custom sets: the installer takes --target switch for RetroArch on a Switch or a Pi; from a clone, python scripts/generate_pack.py --platform retroarch --region us keeps one BIOS per region and --required-only the bare minimum each core needs to start.
• Missing something for your setup? Open an issue with the file name and your platform.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who reported and helped narrow these down.

• @habib256 - Apple II firmware (#75)
• @JeremyNhan - installer paths that no longer existed (#78)
• @jh8284946-a11y and @impliednarrative - split parts no archiver could open (#77, #79)
• @Cibomatto2002 - the file count a pack really holds (#81)

SHA256SUMS.txt lists the checksum of each published file, parts included, and SHA256SUMS.txt.sig signs the list; see verifying a release.

Happy retrogaming 🎮