Built-in and downloadable ROMs
Some systems come with free content or can easily download it.
Some of these systems come with built-in games, a combination of modern homebrew releases and former commercial releases. Most of these are worth a look and are useful to test the setup before you add more games.
Batocera comes with a scattering of games across different emulated systems. Highlights include Old Towers, a platformer with a difference for the Mega Drive, and the SDL port of Prince of Persia. There’s a medium sized selection of games that can be downloaded, which are mostly homebrew games for classic systems and modern ports of former commercial games, such as the excellent point-and-click adventure Beneath a Steel Sky.
RetroPie comes with no ROMs and doesn’t have a built-in downloader for free ROMs. There are some free games listed among downloadable utilities in the setup menu, making them awkward to install. We recommend using the standard methods to install games into RetroPie rather than installer scripts.
Lakka comes with several native ports such as the classic Rick Dangerous and a Bomberman clone called Mr Bom. A small selection of homebrew and similar can be added via its interface. Like much of Lakka, it lacks descriptions of what you download beyond what you can glean from the category name.
Recalbox offers quite a bit of homebrew out of the box, so to speak, and most of the popular systems have a game or two to get you started. There’s a few nights’ enjoyment to be had with the system before you start adding ROMs yourself. In addition, there are four download options to add hundreds of homebrew games for modern low-spec systems. Unfortunately, the quality of these games is variable as some of them were created for competitions and game jams.
RetroArch comes with no ROMs but it has a download menu that can pull through a combination of homebrew for classic systems and modern ports of games like Doom and Cave Story.