RetroPie - Retro-gaming on the Raspberry Pi

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

I write today to spread the good news.  Enjoy retro gaming, but want to play on your TV instead of a PC?  You could hook a PC up to your TV, but that can be complicated depending on your living situation.  NES Classic and SNES classic may not have all the games you want.  Other mini consoles, such as the ones from AtGames, tend to be piles of crap molded into the form of a game console.  One solution is to purchase a RaspberryPi 3 (~$55) from Amazon or other vendor, a micro SD card for memory, and a USB controller.  You can then load the RetroPie suite onto the RaspberryPi and have an all in one option for emulation.

https://retropie.org.uk/

RetroPie runs on top of a RaspberryPi specific Linux distro called Raspian, however they've made it simple enough that it really doesn't matter.  The website has the details on how to get everything working.  Sometimes it can be a bit confusing due to the nature of how the software can be configured.  The RaspberryPi3 does get it's power from a MicroUSB port, but you'll want to be sure you're using a 5V 2.5A power supply (like this one).  I screwed that up at first.

I've been able to successfully run the following systems:  Atari 2600, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, SG1000, Master System, Genesis, GameGear, Sega CD, and TurboGrafx16/PC Engine, and Playstation.  More systems are possible with some tweaking, but some are in an experimental stage.

I did have some difficulty getting N64 emulation to work.  This requires overclocking the CPU and GPU of the RaspberryPi by modifying a config file.  Doing so will require a  fan to be added for cooling.  Some kits come with one.  I've run into issues where it'll work on one of my MicroSD cards, but not the other.  They have the exact same image, so something weird is going on there.  Once the system is overclocked, N64 runs just fine.

Another issue is running Arcade/NeoGeo/MAME emulation.  This is something that doesn't work as well as it does on the PC.  I messed with it for awhile, but it wasn't worth the hassle.  For that I'll just use a PC.

You can get some nice cases for the Pi as well.  I went with this one.  It has a fan built in for overclocking, and classes it up.

For controllers, I started by using an old XBox360 USB controller, used a PS4 controller which worked great, but settled on this:

Connect to the Pi using bluetooth.  Works brilliantly.

The old site had a very useful thread on this topic.  That was the way I found out about it, and it has changed my life.

[BoomMF 1399]

I just made a Game Boy Zero for my son using a Radpberry Pi Zero W so this hits close to home.

 

 

 

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

Wow I really like that.  May have to give that a try someday.

I did get some of the Arcade/MAME stuff to work.  It’s a trial of looking online to see which MAME Romsets work, then trying them yourself with either Mame2003 or Mame2010 emulators.  I did get many classic games to work, the odd exception being Space Invaders.  Couldn’t get Ninja Baseball Batman to work.  I’ve seen some plans/projects for building a bartop style arcade cabinet powered by a Pi.  Might be interesting.

[BoomMF 1399]

I've been looking for a MAME project to go in the living room.  I have an OG Mortal Kombat coin-op there now, but I've been thinking about replacing the board with one of those multi Jamma systems (600+ games on one Jamma board).  But I might just go full out and do a proper MAME setup.  I doubt it'll be Raspberry driven, but it might be considering how that platform is coming along.

[Loose Stool 112]

I did this as well.  Raspberry Pi works great running MAME.  I've got a ton of ROMS and most work really well.  I did the wireless PS3 controller too.  Good times.

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

I have to say that Playstation 1 emulation on the RetroPie is great.  The only drawback is that PS1 games can fill up your SD card damn quick.  Finally got around to playing Suikoden 1.  Enjoyable and worth playing.  Moving onto Suikoden II, which allows you to import a save from the first game.