Transform Any PC into a Retro Gaming Console (Batocera Guide)

Last updated: 14NOV2025 (see Changelog for details)

Chances are, you might have an older PC lying around the house. It’s not quite worth the effort to sell on your local marketplace, and nobody in the house wants it, either. How about we turn it into a retro gaming console instead?

In this guide I’ll show you how to install Batocera, a Linux-based custom operating system that will give your PC a console-like experience. Additionally, in this guide I’ll show you how to install PC games to play alongside your favorite retro classics.

Table of Contents

Recommended PCs
Recommended tools
Recommended software
Installation instructions
Configure Batocera
Adding Steam games

Changelog

Recommended PCs

If you don’t have an older PC, here are some example mini PCs that will work well with this setup. I would expect to pay around $200 for a decent starter mini PC, which can play up to PS2 and GameCube. You can go all the way up to $500 and beyond, which will improve performance and expand the systems you can play. For more in-depth information, check out my mini PC playlist on YouTube, or my mini PC spreadsheet for a system-by-system breakdown.

$200-$250 price range:
Beelink EQ14
GMKtec G10

$300-$350 price range:
Beelink SER5
MinisForum UM750L
GMKtec M5

$400-$500 price range:
Beelink EQR7
Minisforum UM760
GMKtec K12

Got a Mac? That works too! The Mac Mini (any with an M-series processor) is an excellent little emulation machine. Here is my written guide (and video guide) on how to set up a Mac for emulation.

Recommended tools

Solid State Drive: There are many ways to install Batocera onto a PC, but in this example, we are going to install it on a separate hard drive. The great thing about this setup is that it is self-contained, meaning that EVERYTHING (the games, emulators, and settings) are all self-contained within this hard drive. This method has three main advantages:

• You won’t affect the main (Windows) installation in case you want to return to it
• 2.5″ and m.2 Solid State Drives (SSDs) are becoming increasingly cheap
• You can move this hard drive to another computer in the future for upgraded performance

Among all of the SSD choices you have on the market, these are the three that I most commonly use. For 2.5″ drives, I recommend 1TB in size because they will cost about $50 and will give you plenty of storage for retro and modern games. For m.2 drives, 512GB is usually around the same price as a 1TB 2.5″ SSD.

2.5" SSDs:
Samsung 870 EVO (high quality)
WD Blue 1TB (balance of quality/value)
Crucial BX500 (budget)

m.2 (2280) SSDs:
Samsung 990 EVO Plus (high quality)
Silicon Power (balanced quality/value)
Kingspec (budget)

Controller: For the most part, you will use a controller to navigate Batocera’s menus. I recommend the more recent 8Bitdo line of controllers, because they have a 2.4GHz USB dongle which will make connecting to your PC a breeze. There are a variety of options available, including an arcade stick:

8BitDo Pro 3 (most retro feeling)
8BitDo Ultimate 2 (more modern feel)
8Bitdo Arcade Stick

USB Keyboard and Mouse: In order to navigate the Batocera file system and add games, I recommend using a USB keyboard and mouse. If you already have a mouse and/or keyboard with a USB dongle, you are good to go! If you don’t, I recommend this one which is small and functions as both a keyboard and a mouse.

Recommended software

Here are the two software applications you will need — one is the OS itself, and another is a tool to flash Batocera onto your SSD.

Batocera: Download the latest “desktop” (x86_64) version
Raspberry Pi Disk Imager: to flash the Batocera image to your drive

Also go to the RetroAchievements and Screenscraper websites and create accounts (for free), and make note of your credentials. We will enter these during the setup process (detailed in the video above).

Installation instructions

Be sure to consult the Batocera wiki page for the most comprehensive and up-to-date information. Another excellent resource is the Batocera Nation YouTube channel.

1. Install the SSD into your PC, then boot it into Windows as you normally would.
2. Download Batocera and Raspberry Pi Disk Imager from the links above.
3. Open Raspberry Pi Disk Imager and find the Batocera img file, then choose to flash it onto your SSD. This will take a few minutes.
4. Shut down your PC, plug in a USB keyboard, and turn on the PC while tapping on the ESC or DEL key to bring up the system BIOS
5. In the BIOS, navigate to the Boot tab and change the boot order so that the UEFI/SSD is higher priority than Windows Boot Manager. This will boot into Batocera instead of Windows as its primary option. Tab over to the Save and Exit option, and save and exit. Alternatively, you can physically remove your Windows drive and it will just boot into your Batocera drive automatically.
6. When your PC restarts, it should initialize Batocera and you are now in! From here, you want to add your games, and you can start playing from there. Check out the video above for some more tips and tricks when getting set up.

Successfully booting into Batocera will depend on various factors, such as your PC manufacturer, Secure Boot settings, and the BIOS options on your PC’s motherboard. If you have any issues booting your drive, the Batocera wiki has lots of troubleshooting options for this specific part of the process.

Adding Steam PC games to Batocera

Adding Steam to Batocera is surprisingly easy, thanks to the Batocera team’s recent efforts.

1. While in the main Batocera interface, press F1 to bring up the File Explorer menu.
2. On the left side, click on the “Applications” option
3. Open the flatpak-config icon that appears in the Applications menu
4. Within the suggested apps, you should see Steam. Click on it to install. If you don’t see it, search for the word “Valve” and it should pop right up.
5. Once installed, you can close flatpak-config and exit out of the File Manager. Press START to open the main Batocera menu, and select Game Settings > Refresh Games List. Now, in your Ports section, you should be able to boot into Steam.
6. Log into Steam using your credentials. By default it should start in Big Picture Mode. If it doesn’t, go into Settings > Interface and choose “Open Steam in Big Picture Mode”. Restart Steam to have the SteamOS interface, and you can download games from there.
7. For games that do not have a native Linux version, go into the game settings > Properties > Compatibility and choose Proton-GE. This will allow you to install and run Windows games using the Proton compatibility layer, which works surprisingly well.
8. Your installed games should automatically show up in the Batocera menu. If they don’t, open Steam and exit Big Picture mode to get into the main desktop Steam interface. Go to the Library section, then select all of your installed games. Right-click on them and choose Properties > Add Desktop Shortcuts. When you refresh your Batocera games list, you should now have a Steam section with your games listed.

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Changelog

14NOV2025
– updated to reflect new video and process

26MAY2023
– published guide