As anyone who’s not been hidden under a stone lately will know, Nvidia’s Shield TV console is really taking off with the kodi community both with new and old kodi users.
So i’ve got the bug and treated myself to one and as soon as i’d set it up, i downloaded kodi and added my own build i use on my intel openelec boxes and various other devices. I tend not to use other peoples builds and this is purely because i like to have what i need in my build and its tailored to suit me.
Then i started looking around various sites and pages for Shield related stuff and to see what people were doing with them and that’s when i found a facebook group that intrigued me…. ( I must warn you now, this is a screenshot heavy blog but i don’t think i could write this piece without them and you’ll see why as we go).
This facebook group i’d heard about was Retromaniakodi. After joining the group i proceeded to browse the posts and lots of them related to a build that had been put together by Stuart Law.
Now i’m ready to download and try this build after reading it has all the up to date addons and retro tv sections! Then i hear it also has rerto gaming, WOW!!! So i download the build, transfer it to my Shield and follow Stuarts instructions on installing it and it blew me away. This is not a ‘gaming’ build as it sometimes gets referred to and Stuart himself told me “I didn’t make a gaming build, I made the best build I could”.
So just what do you get??
Firstly you get an installation process that Stuart has refined to the point where he’s made it as simple as possible to install . The build has all the latest addons and a mind boggling 27 emulators for retro gaming! Here are some screens showing both the addon and emulator sides to the build…
As you can see it’s a very comprehensive build on both fronts and these are just some of the sections it contains.
I’m sure you’ll be aware of most of the addons on the build and infact any that have spoken about on this site will probably have been included. In fact Stuart tells me he has updated this build 11 times in the last 2 weeks to get it to where it is today. Now that’s dedication.
On the emulator side of things you wont find a more comprehensive list than this, i can guarantee you that! All the hand held devices you’ll remember as a kid, as well as the first gaming pc’s and consoles you grew up with. Something Stuart has been surprised by have been messages from parents saying how they’ve enjoyed playing games they knew as kids, with their children. Something i did with my 10 year old as soon as the build was installed (street fighter 2 turbo). We’ve also watched retro tv together although my boy was no where near as impressed with this lol.
Game or roms as they’re called can be downloaded from within the build and easily installed (you’ll need to be aware of any copyright issues etc and make sure your squeaky clean on that front 
).
Controllers can be mapped in each emulator and compatibility varies depending on the device the build is installed on. It’s not just for Shield! It can be installed on pretty much any device but the emulators included are for android OS but you can add emulators for your type of OS and on windows you can use the Bluestacks android emulator to play emulators on their pc.
As i mentioned setup is as simple as possible and uses ES File Explorer to transfer the nicely labeled ‘CUT AND PASTE CONTENTS TO HOME’ folder into kodi and the ‘INSTALL ME’ folder for the emulators. It couldn’t be much simpler and the facebook group provides excellent support.
Here are some screens from a just a few of those classic games that you’ll love…
This build really is something else and a great FAMILY build for tv and games.
The facebook group is a pleasure to be part of with everyone being helpful and polite, something Stuart is as proud of (if not more so) as the build itself.
Spam,adult posts etc are not tolerated and makes the group pleasurable to browse through and ask any questions you might have. In fact Stuart has made these builds on an android phone (which as you can imagine would take immense patience and time) and as a thank you to Stuart, the group have had a voluntary ‘tablet fund’ to raise the money to buy Stuart a tablet to continue working on his builds. I think this shows what a fantastic group this is and in just the 2 weeks it’s been active it now has 2,500 members and this obviously is growing daily. I’ll just add to that, Stuart does not take or ask for any money for the his build or the work he does. He has done raffles for 3 Nvidia Shield’s where members put £1 each in just to cover the cost of the Shield and the postage (again Stuart takes no money from this for himself).
Well i could waffle on about this build lots more but i’ll just invite you try it for yourselves and i can promise you’ll love it.
Join Stuarts group on FB ‘Retromaniakodi’ for the build, install guides and videos and just to be part of this nice little (well not so little actually) group.
And i’ll leave you with this teaser…Stuart has something even more awesome in the pipeline, so WATCH THIS SPACE!!!
UPDATE – Stuart has just clarified that the build is available by adding this repo or just using the URL in a browser
http://rmkodi.uk/repo
And the installation guide video is on YouTube here –