Native Streets of Rage on your arcade machine: widescreen, six buttons and a partner

Streets of Rage came out on the Mega Drive in 1991 and is still one of the most played beat ’em ups on an arcade machine, almost always through emulation. Since late October 2026 there has been another way to play it: the Streets of Rage Project has turned it into a native PC program, with a widescreen mode, six-button controls and a computer-controlled partner for when you play alone.

In this guide we explain what the project is, what a bartop gains from it, what you need to install it and how to get it ready to play with a joystick. The information comes from the project’s documentation on GitHub, checked on 3 November 2026, when it was at version 0.6.1. The project does not include the game: it asks for the image of your own cartridge, and we do not link to any game downloads here.

What the Streets of Rage Project is

It is a recompilation of the first Streets of Rage by Rui Nelson, a programmer from Porto. In our guide to native ports, recomps and decomps we explain how it differs from an emulator; here, in short, is how the project works:

• Code translation: a tool of his own, RageDecompiler, reads the Mega Drive processor’s instructions and translates them into C++. It only translates the parts the game actually uses.
• Rewriting by hand: more than a hundred routines have since been rewritten by hand, from the menus to the bosses.
• Video and sound: these are still handled by a Mega Drive emulated inside the program, called MegaDriveEnvironment. The author’s ultimate goal is to rewrite the whole game in C++ and remove that emulated part.

The game itself is the original: same stages, same enemies and same mechanics. What changes is everything around it.

What Streets of Rage gains on your arcade machine

16:9 widescreen picture

The original game displays in 4:3 (320×224 pixels), so on a widescreen monitor, which is what almost every bartop has these days, it leaves two black bars at the sides. The project adds a 384×216-pixel widescreen mode that shows 32 more pixels of scenery on each side. It does not stretch the picture or change the game logic: you simply see more of the street. The score display loses its yellow frame and moves down a little to make room.

Six buttons per player

By default it plays as on the cartridge, with three buttons: special (calling the police), punch and jump. The six-button scheme adds three actions with their own button: back attack, pick up item and throw knife. It suits a panel with six buttons per player, and each player can choose their own scheme.

Two players, or one with the computer as your partner

As well as the original’s one- and two-player modes, there is a new mode, 1 PLAYER AI ASSIST: you choose your character and the computer controls the second player. This artificial intelligence uses no neural networks or training. It is based on what the author discovered by reading the game’s code, such as how each boss behaves, and it has one fixed rule: it can read the game’s memory, but it only acts by pressing buttons, just like a person. It rules out any move that would hurt its partner and steps aside so as not to get in your way.

Clean sound

The installer records all the music, sound effects and voices from your cartridge into lossless FLAC files. It takes about 4 minutes and uses about 265 MB. You can choose the sound chip: the YM3438, which is the default, or the YM2612 from the first Mega Drive. The author did it this way because emulating the chip in real time sounded worse.

Quality-of-life options

In OPTIONS > QUALITY-OF-LIFE there are changes to the original game, all switched off by default:

• a camera that scrolls earlier, so you see more of the street ahead;
• your partner no longer makes you drop your weapon when they grab you;
• a circle over each enemy showing how much health they have left;
• saving the high score table between games;
• keeping your initials set so you do not have to type them for every high score;
• always having the lives and starting stage options to hand, which the original hides behind a button combination.

What you need

A PC or a Mac

The project has an installer, Streets of Rage Builder, for Windows, macOS and Debian-based Linux (Ubuntu and similar), for both Intel and AMD processors and ARM. For now the application is not signed, so Windows and your browser will warn you the first time. The installer guides you step by step and does all the work:

• it installs any missing build tools;
• it downloads the project’s code;
• it checks your cartridge image;
• it records the soundtrack;
• it compiles the game, which takes several minutes;
• and it creates the desktop shortcuts.

The project does not publish minimum requirements. If you are thinking about the computer for your machine, What PC do I need for emulation? covers which mini PC fits in a bartop.

Your own cartridge, in the right version

It only works with one specific version of the game: the 512 KB image of revision A of the cartridge, the same one sold as Streets of Rage and, in Japan, as Bare Knuckle. The installer checks it and warns you if it is not the right one. The project itself recommends dumping it from a cartridge you own, using a Mega Drive cartridge reader, and points out that laws on backup copies vary from one country to another.

What if your machine runs Pandora, Raspberry Pi or Batocera?

• Pandora board: it cannot be installed. You need a PC.
• Raspberry Pi: there is a Linux ARM version, so in theory a Raspberry Pi 5 with Raspberry Pi OS could compile it. But the project does not mention the Raspberry Pi and we have not tested it.
• Batocera: the installer does not work on Batocera. There, the Mega Drive emulator is still the way to go.

If you are choosing a system for your cabinet, in Which system should you choose for an arcade machine? we compare the three options.

How to get it ready on your bartop

The controls

An arcade joystick with a USB interface, like the ones in our packs with USB interfaces, shows up in the game as just another controller. The first controller it finds is player 1 and the next one is player 2. To set them up, go to OPTIONS > CONTROLS and choose PLAYER 1 or PLAYER 2:

• SCHEME: ORIGINAL 3 or ENHANCED 6, depending on how many buttons your panel has.
• DEVICE: which controller that player uses, if the automatic choice gets it wrong.
• BIND GAMEPAD: you press the button for each action, one after another.

Changes are saved instantly. Start pauses the game, and in the pause menu, FORFEIT lets one player drop out while the other carries on.

The picture

In OPTIONS > VIDEO choose FULLSCREEN and WIDESCREEN 16:9, leave VSYNC on AUTO and press SAVE AND APPLY. AUTO keeps the game’s original speed on any monitor, with no tearing in the picture. If you prefer sharp pixels and do not mind the borders, turn on INTEGER SCALING.

Launching it from RetroBat

If your machine uses RetroBat on Windows, it has its own section for recompilations. Copy the StreetsOfRageRecompilation shortcut that the installer creates into RetroBat’s roms\recomp folder and it will appear in the menu with the other games. RetroBat does not configure the controls for these ports, so you set them up in the game as we have seen. To exit and go back to the menu, press HOTKEY + START.

Note: it is a beta

The first public beta came out on 29 October 2026 and there have been eight versions in six days. Version 0.6.1, from 3 November, fixes a bug that left the game stuck on stage 3. To update, you download the new installer and choose the same folder, and it takes care of the rest.

The author presents it as an academic, non-profit project, so it is not something that can be sold pre-installed. We do not pre-install it on any machine: if you are interested, you install it yourself with your own copy.

Other ways to play Streets of Rage on your machine

• Emulated: the Mega Drive trilogy works with the Mega Drive emulator in Batocera or RetroBat, on a Raspberry Pi too, with your own copy of the games.
• Streets of Rage 4: the 2020 sequel from Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush is a current PC game, with Windows, macOS and Linux versions on Steam (€24.99 as of 3 November 2026). It supports up to four players on the same screen, so it suits a 4-player arcade cabinet or a 4-player pedestal cabinet.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal?

The project contains no game files: it publishes its own code and asks for your cartridge image. Laws on backup copies vary from one country to another, and the project itself recommends checking the laws in your country.

Does it work on a Pandora board?

No. It is a program for Windows, macOS or Linux and needs a PC.

Does the widescreen mode distort the picture?

No. It shows more scenery at the sides and keeps the characters’ proportions.

Can two people play together?

Yes, as in the original, with a controller or joystick for each player. If you play alone, you can have the computer as your partner.

Is Streets of Rage 2 included?

No. The project only covers the first Streets of Rage.

Sources

Checked in November 2026:

• Streets of Rage Project on GitHub: project page, installation, controls and options, how it was made and version history.
• RetroBat: recompilations.
• Streets of Rage 4: Steam page.