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Create a Portable Emulation with a Batocera USB Drive

by Alan Pfahler on October 16, 2026

Batocera.linux is a free, Linux-based retro-gaming operating system that lets you turn a USB flash drive into a portable emulation system. You can boot a compatible PC from the USB, connect a controller, and play games without installing Batocera onto the computer's internal drive.

1. Things You Will Need

  • USB flash drive, 32 GB minimum recommended: USB drive 1 or USB drive 2.
  • A compatible computer, A desktop PC, laptop, or mini PC with USB boot support.
  • A game controller, A USB controller is easiest to set up, many Bluetooth controllers also work: USB Wired Gamepad.

2. Downloads and Flashing to USB flash drive

3. Booting to Batocera for the first time

  • Power off the PC
  • Plug in the Batocera USB flash drive
  • Power on the host computer, this time choosing to boot to the USB flash drive
  • The steps required to do this will vary based on motherboard, typically pressing F2, F12, DEL or ESC during boot will bring up a menu to set the boot device
  • You should see the Batocera splash screen
  • Setup Your Controller

4. Add your games and BIOS files

After Batocera starts, you can add game files and configure your controller.

  • Game ROMs: Add legally obtained game files to the appropriate system folders inside share/roms/.
  • BIOS files: Some systems require firmware files in share/bios/.

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