RetroArch in a container typically requires that you have some kind of specialized client to play the games over the network. Not anymore. This implementation uses a web browser as the client without the need for anything else installed on your client.
The implementation is pretty straightforward. You can run it locally, or run it on a cloud-hosted service, like Azure Container Instances or Azure Kubernetes Services. In any case, you'll probably want to allocate at least 2 Gigs of RAM and 2 CPUs to make things run smoothly -- more for more graphic-intense emulators.
If you want to build it, simply clone the repo and run Docker Build.
docker build -t retroarch .
Alternately, you can pull the image from Docker Hub.
docker pull blaize/retroarch
To run this locally, run a Docker command:
docker run -v /path/to/your/roms:/roms -p 80:80 blaize/retroarch
Once the container is running, point your browser to the IP address or host name of your Docker environment. Retroarch has a basic install here.
The Arrow Keys DO NOT WORK for some reason. Use the Num Pad to navigate or remap the keys in settings to your liking.
- On the Main Menu, go to and select "Update Core Info Files" and "Update Assets" to get the UI refreshes and a list of available Cores.
- From th "Core Downloader," download your platform of choice.
- Back on the Main Menu, select "Load Content" and browse to the folder
/roms
Pick your game and it will launch it.
Enjoy your retro gaming platform in the cloud!