Gaming • GTA San Andreas running natively on Raspberry Pi 5 (Batocera) + setup guide

I finally got GTA San Andreas running natively on my Raspberry Pi 5 with Batocera.

This is not PS2 emulation. I started with the GTA San Andreas port available through the R36S Wiki, which is based on the Android/ARM version of the game. It wasn’t set up for Raspberry Pi 5 or Batocera, so I had to make a few changes to get it launching and working properly.

The main issues I ran into were getting the game to launch correctly under Batocera and fixing the controller mappings. I’m using an 8BitDo Xbox-style controller, so anyone using a different controller may need to adjust the button mappings for their setup.

I documented the changes I made and put the relevant files/instructions on GitHub so other Pi users can try it:

https://github.com/Levy-Games/GTASA-Batocera-RaspPi

I also posted a short video of it running on my Pi 5 here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/s/gsjnXV0sQb

Performance has been flawless. The screen recording puts a pretty significant load on the Pi, so actual gameplay is smoother and load times are better than what you see in the recording.

My setup:

* Raspberry Pi 5 8GB
* Batocera 43.1
* 8BitDo controller
* Native ARM/Android GTA SA port

I’d be really interested to see if anyone can get the same setup working on other Raspberry Pi models or other Linux distributions. If anyone tries it, let me know how it goes.

Statistics: Posted by LevyGames — Thu Sep 10, 2026 3:07 am — Replies 0 — Views 36

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