After two years of development, Lakka presented the release of the distribution kit Lakka 6.1, skipping release 6.0. This kit allows users to turn their PCs, set-top boxes, or single-board computers into full-fledged game consoles for running retro games. Lakka is a modification of the LibreELEC distribution, originally designed for creating home theaters. Lakka builds are available for various platforms such as i386, x86_64, Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, Odroid, and more. To install Lakka, users just need to write the distribution kit to an SD card or USB drive, connect a gamepad, and boot the system.
Lakka is based on the game console emulator RetroArch, which provides emulation for a wide range of devices and supports features like multiplayer games, state saving, image quality improvement using shaders, rewinding games, hot-plugging gamepads, and video streaming. Emulated consoles include Atari, Game Boy, Mega Drive, NES, Nintendo 64, PSP, SuperNES, and more. Lakka also supports gamepads from existing consoles like Playstation 3, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 1, and Xbox 360.
In the new release of Lakka 6.1:
- The system environment has been updated to the LibreELEC 12.2 package base, moving from the previous branch based on LibreELEC 11.
- RetroArch package has been updated to version 1.22.2.
- Updated versions of emulators and game engines have been included, with new engines like amiarcadia, amiberry, anarch, and more.
- A separate assembly has been added for Raspberry Pi boards, specifically designed for connecting to CRT TVs. This assembly includes output optimizations for analog port connections, pre-configured support for resolutions such as 240p and 480i, and changed RetroArch settings for authentic behavior on CRT TVs.