The adapter that allows you to run libretro cores written in Python.

LIMITATIONS

Adapter is intended to work with pygame-based Python cores. Only frame buffer refresh and joypad/keyboard events propagation supported. Sound and other features provided by pygame didn't ever planned for now.

Generally, any library that supports Python API's Buffer Protocol can be used to provide rendered frame buffer, but it wasn't ever explored.

COMPATIBILITY

Developed and tested on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Python 3.12 and RetroArch 1.18.0

Also, tested on custom Lakka 6.0 fork, built for Raspberry Pi 5, which includes manually embedded pygame package and it's dependencies, that are not provided there originally.

BUILD

Prepare essentials:

sudo apt install -y build-essential python3-dev

Obtain libretro developer stuff into libretro-common/ directory next to src/ directory of this repo:

git clone https://github.com/libretro/libretro-common

In fact, only libretro-common/inclide/libretro.h file used.

make

INSTALL

Copy retropy_libretro.so file from build/ directory into standard directory containing libretro cores. You may pick this directory from RetroArch settings, as a hint.

Place RetroPy.conf file from this repo into RetroPy/ subdirectory of libretro system directory (again, look for it in RetroArch settings). Then change pythonLib configuration parameter in this file to actual Python library location for your system.

USAGE

The most smooth approach to develop libretro core in Python is to subclass RetroCore class and use RetroKey constants provided in python/ directory of this repo.

See sample.py for an example how to do this. Example can be launched both as a libretro core and as a standalone Python "game".