diff --git a/pkgs/misc/emulators/retroarch/default.nix b/pkgs/misc/emulators/retroarch/default.nix
index 5e5ce9edca4ba3..c7c9bf08c71367 100644
--- a/pkgs/misc/emulators/retroarch/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/misc/emulators/retroarch/default.nix
@@ -1,61 +1,52 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, makeDesktopItem, coreutils, which, pkgconfig
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, which, pkgconfig, makeWrapper
 , ffmpeg, mesa, freetype, libxml2, python34
+, libobjc, AppKit, Foundation
+, alsaLib ? null
+, libpulseaudio ? null
+, libv4l ? null
+, libX11 ? null
+, libXdmcp ? null
+, libXext ? null
+, libXxf86vm ? null
+, SDL2 ? null
+, udev ? null
 , enableNvidiaCgToolkit ? false, nvidia_cg_toolkit ? null
-, alsaLib ? null, libv4l ? null
-, udev ? null, libX11 ? null, libXext ? null, libXxf86vm ? null
-, libXdmcp ? null, SDL ? null, libpulseaudio ? null
+, withVulkan ? stdenv.isLinux, vulkan-loader ? null
 }:
 
 with stdenv.lib;
 
-let
-  desktopItem = makeDesktopItem {
-    name = "retroarch";
-    exec = "retroarch";
-    icon = "retroarch";
-    comment = "Multi-Engine Platform";
-    desktopName = "RetroArch";
-    genericName = "Libretro Frontend";
-    categories = "Game;Emulator;";
-    #keywords = "multi;engine;emulator;xmb;";
-  };
-in
-
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "retroarch-bare-${version}";
-  version = "1.6.0";
+  version = "1.7.1";
 
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "libretro";
     repo = "RetroArch";
-    sha256 = "1ym2kws58fbavkc3giz5xqaqiqqdbf7wrz7y7iw53p1bnkc3l8yi";
+    sha256 = "0qv8ci76f5kwv5b49ijgpc6jdfp6sm21fw5hq06mq6ygyiy9vdzf";
     rev = "v${version}";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
-  buildInputs = [ ffmpeg mesa freetype libxml2 coreutils python34 which SDL ]
-                ++ optional enableNvidiaCgToolkit nvidia_cg_toolkit
-                ++ optionals stdenv.isLinux [ udev alsaLib libX11 libXext libXxf86vm libXdmcp libv4l libpulseaudio ];
-
-  configureScript = "sh configure";
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ]
+                      ++ optional withVulkan [ makeWrapper ];
 
-  patchPhase = ''
-    export GLOBAL_CONFIG_DIR=$out/etc
-    sed -e 's#/bin/true#${coreutils}/bin/true#' -i qb/qb.libs.sh
-  '';
+  buildInputs = [ ffmpeg freetype libxml2 mesa python34 SDL2 which ]
+                ++ optional enableNvidiaCgToolkit nvidia_cg_toolkit
+                ++ optional withVulkan [ vulkan-loader ]
+                ++ optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ libobjc AppKit Foundation ]
+                ++ optionals stdenv.isLinux [ alsaLib libpulseaudio libv4l libX11
+                                              libXdmcp libXext libXxf86vm udev ];
 
-  postInstall = ''
-    mkdir -p $out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps
-    cp -p -T ./media/retroarch.svg $out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/retroarch.svg
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-    mkdir -p "$out/share/applications"
-    cp ${desktopItem}/share/applications/* $out/share/applications
+  postInstall = optional withVulkan ''
+    wrapProgram $out/bin/retroarch --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH ':' ${vulkan-loader}/lib
   '';
 
-  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+  preFixup = "rm $out/bin/retroarch-cg2glsl";
 
   meta = {
-    homepage = http://libretro.org/;
+    homepage = https://libretro.com;
     description = "Multi-platform emulator frontend for libretro cores";
     license = licenses.gpl3;
     platforms = platforms.all;
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index f1e80107aa952a..50ee8a0f786d0f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -20367,7 +20367,10 @@ with pkgs;
 
   redprl = callPackage ../applications/science/logic/redprl { };
 
-  retroarchBare = callPackage ../misc/emulators/retroarch { };
+  retroarchBare = callPackage ../misc/emulators/retroarch {
+    inherit (darwin) libobjc;
+    inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) AppKit Foundation;
+  };
 
   retroarch = wrapRetroArch { retroarch = retroarchBare; };