# Direct upstream downloads — provenance and licenses

The website links directly to RetroPie-controlled file infrastructure and official GitHub release assets. retropie.us is an independent companion, not the RetroPie publisher. The previously prepared S3 mirror is now private and reserved for future work.

## Legacy release files

Three upstream 4.8 files cover Pi 1/Zero, Pi 2/3/Zero 2 W, and Pi 4/400. They were originally released on 2022-03-14 and use a historical Buster base. Their published MD5 values and sizes were checked, gzip streams were read completely, and SHA-256 hashes were calculated from the compressed files. See `manifest.json` and `SHA256SUMS`. These checks are not physical hardware tests.

- Original release: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases/tag/4.8
- Main download page: https://retropie.org.uk/download/
- Release setup source: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/tree/6e83a7d57517b7fbabc1e30309167fc52f85b4f1
- Upstream legal information: https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/

## Weekly development images

- Feed: https://files.retropie.org.uk/images/weekly/os_list_imagingutility.json
- Publisher notice: https://files.retropie.org.uk/images/weekly/README.txt

The feed is normalized and cached. Download endpoints are checked against the stated compressed length. Weekly builds remain experimental, untested and unsupported according to their publisher. Their published SHA-256 values apply to the **extracted .img**, not the .xz file. This project has not checked these complete development-image bytes or booted them.

## Rights remain with the component authors

Every bundled program retains its own license. Some emulator components have noncommercial conditions. A free download is not a blanket license to the aggregate and does not grant rights to game or BIOS files. RetroPie-Setup source is not the full corresponding source of all bundled OS and emulator packages. Any future independent distribution must establish its exact package/source manifest, retain notices, and fulfill all applicable source and redistribution obligations.

Original companion-site code, writing and illustrations use MIT; imported upstream documentation remains under its original license. Those website terms do not relicense downloaded software.