The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming: what the new book covers

Raspberry Pi Press released The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming on 20 October 2026. It costs £19.99, with an introductory price of £9.99 mentioned in the announcement by Rob Zwetsloot (check the shop for whether the offer is still running).

What is inside

According to the announcement the book covers:

• a quick-start section to get playing fast;
• an overview of emulation operating systems and which Raspberry Pi models suit them;
• tutorials for emulating about a dozen 8-bit and 16-bit computers, plus a few early 32-bit systems;
• DOSBox Staging, a fork of DOSBox;
• tips for tuning emulation settings, building an arcade machine, and using CDs, floppy disks and DB9 joysticks;
• finding legal games on stores such as Steam and GOG, and the homebrew scene;
• running a Pi on a CRT or old TV, including a PS2 light gun;
• a project on programming Spectrum games in an emulator, with listings online.

Contributors named include Brian Jepson (classic computers), K.G. Orphanides (advanced emulation and arcade builds) and Sean McManus (Spectrum programming). In a reply to a reader, Zwetsloot said most of the content is new rather than reprinted magazine articles. The announcement does not give a page count.

Where to buy

The Raspberry Pi Press store, Amazon UK and US, and the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge.

A note on games and legality

The book's section on finding games legally is worth noting: emulators are legal, but copying ROMs you do not own is not. Buying from digital stores or using homebrew titles keeps you on the right side.

Which Pi?

Which model you need depends on the systems you want to emulate, and prices have moved lately, as we explained in what a Raspberry Pi costs in late 2026. If you also want to run a desktop on spare hardware, see Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac.