We are happy to announce that we are about to release our first thematic collections for the Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+ and 4! But you might be asking yourself: What are “Thematic Collections?”. These are collections of games organized by genre or by a common theme, and these having been requested constantly by some of our more faithful users over the years!
Recently we’ve had requests for an Arcade only Shoot ’em Ups collection, a Pinball and a console RPG collections! On our daily use of the Raspberry Pi and the RG-350 emulation handheld, we’ve been using some quickly put together thematic or genre-specific collections as well, and I finally though this would be something nice to put out for our users to enjoy as well!
So, for the next months, instead of focusing on cards that are packed with complete system collections, or even complete platform-based cards, such as the PC-Engine and the Commodore Amiga, we are going to work on curated collections with our favorite games, or even, our favorite type of games following those rules.
There are times that we are on the mood for some beat ’em up action, or to play a bullet hell shooter, or even try a few soccer matches – specially on a World Cup year such as 2022 – without going through thousands of games we will never play just to find that one we want or remembered from our childhood days, so these collections are very handy for that purpose.
However, to make them work, we could not just put together images with lists of games. The entire idea deserves a lot more attention to detail, and also cover more ground so we could embrace many different genres and themes that are favorites of our users, and would also allow them to collect these special editions alongside everything they’ve purchased from us before, so we also designing exclusive EmulationStation themes for these collections, each with their own unique look and feel and even their own soundtrack, to keep you in the mood!
The results are fantastic, and we will begin to share these with you on September 1st, 2021. After that, we will be releasing a new collection every 15 days for the foreseeable future, and we will be able to cover a lot of ground, since we have over 20 of these now planned for release. Typically, collections will be available for sale a few days before and you can pre-order them, and we will try to group 2 to 3 collections in advance available for pre-order on the website, so those that live overseas and want to save on shipping can order them together and save a few bucks.
All collections will be available in physical form (with case, cover, microSD card and instructions) for the Pi 3B/3B+, Pi 4 and Windows PC via RetroBat. Collections will not be available as a digital sale for now, but they will be added to the libraries of the Full Digital Access users.
The Collections We Will Offer
Today we are debuting with the RPG collection and putting it up on the site for pre-order! A massive collection with almost all RPG games ever made! From Adventure on the Atari 2600 to some of the greatest RPGs ever created on the PlayStation, you’ll have them all in one place! You can literally sink your life into these RPGs and spend countless hours enthralled into them!
You can also pre-order the Shoot ’em Ups collection (out on September 15) and the Beat ’em Ups collection (out on November 1st). If you live in the USA, all of them will ship separately as they become available. If you are outside of the United States, the items will ship together when all of them are available.
Here are some of the first collections we are putting out in 2021:
Sept 01 – RPGs – This has been the #1 request among our users, so it is only far we release it first! Navigate through the history of RPG games, from Adventure on the Atari 2600, the first ever RPG game to Final Fantasy on the PlayStation. No matter the type of RPG game: if it is a turn based, action or even a dungeon crawler; or if it was made on the US, Japan or Europe, you will have the complete history of the RPG games in this massive collection.
Sept 15 – Shoot ’em Ups – Probably one of the most sought-after genre-based collections, this is a very rich collection of horizontal, vertical and isometric 3D shooters all in one place, for the first time.
Oct 01 – Beat ’em Ups – Our favorite genre, and one time-consuming beast we can play for hours, regardless of the beat ’em up game. Will also include hack ‘n slash titles.
Oct 15 – Scary Games – To celebrate Halloween, our first collection that instead of genre-based, is based on the theme of the game. Since Ghosts ‘n Goblins on the arcades, games with scary motives are one of our favorites, so we thought it was fitting to release this one on time for Halloween.
Nov 01 – Turn-Based Strategy – Talking about time consuming genres, we bring the best of tactical based RPGs on the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics, but also the likes of Panzer General and other hex-based strategy games, and even games like X-Com. If you enjoy thinking and planning before you move, this is for you!
These other 4 collections above are pretty much ready as far as the libraries goes, only a few tweaks on the design of the front-end needed to finish up. All of them will be available for the Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+, Raspberry Pi 4 and Windows PC through RetroBat.
Future releases include, but are not limited to: Movie, Comics and TV Licenses; Platformers; Puzzle and Board Games; Fighting; Soccer Games; Sports Games; Arcade Ports on Console and Computers; Edutainment; Adventure (Text & Point and Click); Racing Games; Run and Gun; Pinball; War-Themed Games; Cards, Casino and Gambling Simulations; Western-Themed Games; Stealth Action; Real Time Strategy and a lot more!
Again, all collections will include a collectible cover, plastic case, mini case for microSD cards with mini-cover, microSD card (or SD card / USB Stick for RetroBat collections), and instruction manual.