Addyb's raspberry pi retro game machine build
Ok thought I'd create this thread for a reference guide for others and myself.Will flesh it out more as I go but first update is all my kit arrived today data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Raspberry pi kit.
List of items
Raspberry pi 3 model b - £31
Raspberry pi power supply - £5
Raspberry pi case - £6
Buffalo classic usb controller - £12
32GB San disk class 10 microsd - £8
Tecknet wireless keyboard - £9
Usb extension cable (1.8m) - £1.50
The patriot usb stick (32GB) and the transcend card reader I already owned.
I bought the usb extension for the gamepad as I sit around 10ft away I wanted to make sure it would reach the sofa.
Raspberry pi 3 and case close up
Pi 3 and case.
Case in pieces and pi fitted
Case disassembled and pi fitted.
Close up of finished pi (apologies for pic quality)
Finished pi.
With all that built I then connected it via hdmi to my tv so it was ready to go and onto the first step.
This is the main guide for setting it up:
First Installation · RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup Wiki · GitHub
Go here and get the latest version of retropie
Download - RetroPie
If you are unsure which version of Raspberry Pi you have there is an easy way to check:
Rpi 0/1= 1 raspberry when the pi boots up
Rpi 2/3= 4 raspberries when the pi boots up
Once downloaded you will need to use an extraction tool to extract the image like 7zip, WinRAR etc
If you get the error Illegal Instruction when it boots, you picked the wrong SD image.
Grab a copy of win32 disk imager from here:
Win32 Disk Imager
You will need to connect your microsd card into your pc/laptop.
run win32 disk imager. This is where I first encountered an issue. I run windows 10 64bit and as you can see this is a 32bit app so it will error on launch. If you are rocking a 64bit windows OS you will need to right click and select properties on the desktop icon and select the compatability tab. Select Windows 7 and apply and then the app will launch.
Once open select where your extracted image is and make sure the drive letter is the one corresponding to the sd card.
Write the image and wait for it to finish (it took me around 30 seconds)
Once finished insert the sd card into the pi, plug in a gamepad and keyboard if you wish and power on the system. It will auto install and reboot once (I think)
Once finished you will be greeted with the controller config screen
Hold down any button for the pad to be detected and then start to map directions and buttons as prompted on screen
Gamepad config
Once you have all buttons mapped just keep hold of any button to skip the ones not needed.
Once finished you will now be at the home screen data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Main screen
Next up its time to get some games (roms) on this thing. You will notice on the screenshot it lists Super Nintendo there. No system will be shown on the main screen until you've added roms to its folder as detailed in the next step.
Ok I used a usb stick for my roms but I assume the same process works for the sd card as well.
Connect it to your pc and create a folder within it called retropie
Connect it back to your pi and leave it for around 30 seconds until the activity light has stopped. Connect it back to your pc and open the retropie directory you created earlier ad you will see more folders inside.
Rom setup
Open the roms folder and you will see an A-Z list of all the systems retropie supports.
From here its a case of just dragging and dropping your roms into its relevant platform folder.
Please note the more you throw into the folders initially the longer it will take when you have to refresh retropie next so don't go crazy data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Once emulation station has refreshed you should now see the games in the relevant sections. You can now play!!
Wait a minute you want artwork and metadata for the games so it looks even nicer? Well that can be done via the scraper option.
Press start on the main screen and select scraper from the list. From here you can select what systems you want to scrape and then it will go off and find the relevant box covers and other metadata for you so you will have that in your system folders instead of just a boring list.
This works well although it didn't find anything for fzero on snes and a couple of neo geo games but there looks to be an option to manually add a url for the image so may try that at a later date. For most emulators I've noticed start select will quit out of the game back to the game select menu. This will not work for mame and will need to be configure in its own menu. I needed the keyboard for this as by default to access the mame config in game is the TAB key. Basically I hit the tab key and configured the pad controls in there.
I used the left trigger for pause and right trigger for bringing up the config menu (instead of P and TAB) and used both together for the exit UI option which will allow you to exit mame.
Other shortcuts are here:
RetroArch Configuration · RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup Wiki · GitHub
I haven't tested the button combos for saving and loading states yet.
If you press A when a games launching(you will see a pop up menu) this will take you to the game config screen. Here you can change a host of emulation options such as screen resolution. Again I haven't messed with these yet.
When I first launched a snes game I thought it looked too pixelated on my 55" tv and changing the resolution in the previously mentioned config didn't seem to improve anything but do not despair. There is a setting you can change elsewhere to improve the display.
In the main screen select retropie and you can enter another config menu here for various systems and smoothing option is one of these. Again there's a host of other options but I haven't had time to have a look and test anything yet. Streets of rage remake install guide. Many thanks to Floob over at retropie who helped me with issues.
Main setup just use this video
Grab the windows download from the remake website and extract the mod and palette folder and also the soR.dat file.
Now you will need to ftp files across so use filezilla and use these settings.
Connection name: retropie
Username: pi
Password: Raspberry
Port: 22
In filezilla navigate to opt/retropie/ports/sorr and upload the files mentioned above.
**If you get a permission denied error when trying to upload files you will need to give yourself permission on the retropie. If you're not at the relevant location type the following to get there.
Cd /opt
Cd retropie
Cd ports
Once in the ports location type the following:
sudo chmod 777 sorr
**
This should be all you need. Enter the ports section back on retropie and the game should launch. At this moment in time you can only quit out of the game by using esc on the keyboard.
Enjoy. The game is great. What you going for addyb retro arcade games or retro console games or mixture of everything ?
Good luck anyway and look forward to seeing how the build develops. Mix of everything mate. To be honest this isn't going to be much of a guide. I've already done it. Its absolutely mega easy and only involves a few steps. But I will still use this thread for a bit of a reminiscence and detail the games I play and may give mini reviews etc. hi Addy
how does the PI cope with more demanding emulators/games from the later systems like PS1/2, N64/GC and with enhanced shaders/filters.
are you using Retropie as a frontend also.
thanks Not tested anything over 16bit yet. I heard ps1 is fine but n64 can be hit and miss.
Yep I downloaded and installed the latest version of retropie. Hopefully I can write up a bit of an install guide later if I get chance. Again there isn't much to it but I'll note a couple of things I came across when doing it. Updated the first 2 posts with a setup guide but tbh just use the link I posted. It's a 10 min setup job to get you into a game.