How to play on RetroPie/Raspberry Pi

It is possible to play the romhacks on Retropie. RetroPie turns a Raspberry Pi into a retro-gaming machine. A number of the romhacks are supported by the Libretro FBNeo emulator that comes included with the RetroPie installation image. For recently released romhacks it may take a little time before Libretro FBNeo adds support for it. Libretro FBNeo uses its own versions of the roms. These are included in Libreto FBNeo specific romsets and can be downloaded from various sites and are ready to be used. Using Libretro FBNeo there is no need to perform the patching.

---

If the RetroPie system uses an older version of the Libretro FBNeo emulator, it might not have the necessary support for the romhacks. If that is the case, it is recommended to update the Libretro FBNeo emulator (the lr-fbneo package) from source. How to do that is explained here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/.

Download the romhacks from a site that has the FinalBurn Neo rom set available: e.g. from FinalBurn Neo ROM set (2022-07-20).

The Donkey Kong romhacks are included in the zipfile arcade.zip. A direct link to this zipfile is available here: direct link to FBNeo arcade romset.

A direct link to the romhacks is available here: direct link to FBNeo roms.

The following romhacks need to be downloaded:

DKONG.ZIP - Original Donkey Kong
(Required to run the romhacks)

DKACCEL.ZIP - DK Accelerate
DKCBARREL.ZIP - DK Crazy Barrels
DKDUEL.ZIP - DK Duel
DKFREERUN.ZIP - DK Freerun Edition
DKHRTHNT.ZIP - DK Hearthunt
DKONG40Y.ZIP - DK Anniversary Edition
DKONGBP.ZIP - DK Barrelpalooza
DKONGBP1.ZIP - DK Barrelpalooza KL
DKONGCHM.ZIP - DK Championship Edition
DKONGCHM1.ZIP - DK Championship Edition KL
DKONGITD.ZIP - DK Into The Dark
DKONGOTR.ZIP - DK On The Run
DKPMX.ZIP - DK Pac-Man Crossover
DKONGRAN1.ZIP - DK Randomized Edition
DKONGREV.ZIP - DK Reverse
DKONGSS.ZIP - DK Skip Start
DKONGTJ.ZIP - DK Twisted Jungle
DKRNDMZR.ZIP - DK RNDMZR
DKWIZARDRY.ZIP - DK Wizardry

Copy these romfiles into the 'arcade' rom folder on the RetroPie. After copying them, they can be played. Make sure to select the lr-fbneo emulator for the rom using the runcommand menu. How to do that is explained here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/.

---

Because the Libretro FBNeo emulator is a supported by RetroArch it is possible to use overlays and shaders to create effects like scanlines and curvature or to add a bezel to the game.

When the input controls are lagging (like on my RetroPie system) it is possible to lower the lag by using Run Ahead feature of RetroArch. Beware though that this feature is unsupported and has the side effect that it breaks the High Score save functionality.