Raspberry Pi and RetroPi for retro gaming [split topic]

[momatt]

I think I'm going to drop a few quid on one of those controllers and see about getting a Retropie setup. I've enjoyed having the hacked PSP, but...eh, I have no excuse. I just like shiny new toys.

Do it!  Coolest gadget I've got in a loooong time.  It's especially nice having the satisfaction of 'making' it yourself.
Though admittedly, setting up the controller was tricky.  But I'm no IT expert, so if I can do it anyone can.
Get a nice box for it too, mine is in a MegaDrive-shaped one I got for about £10.

A mate of mine brought his Raspberry Pi w/ Retropie installed to the pub the other night so we had all sorts of fighty-game contests.

You brought a games console to the pub?  Did you bring a TV too?  Genuinely curious!

[Brigadier Pompous]

PS1 seems to run fine on a pi3. N64 supposedly a bit hit and miss, not tried it on mine.  Once the stable pi4 build is out it should be up to coping with dreamcast games...

[Famous Mortimer]

Do it!  Coolest gadget I've got in a loooong time.  It's especially nice having the satisfaction of 'making' it yourself.
Though admittedly, setting up the controller was tricky.  But I'm no IT expert, so if I can do it anyone can.
Get a nice box for it too, mine is in a MegaDrive-shaped one I got for about £10.

I've had the Pi 3 for ages, used as a media centre then sat gathering dust for the last year after I moved house. Almost everyone says setting up the controller is fiddly, but I'm patient.

You brought a games console to the pub?  Did you bring a TV too?  Genuinely curious!

Well, a Pi that he hooked up to the projector screen in the pub with an HDMI cable and a couple of those wireless controllers. Turns out I'm shite at nearly all games.

[magval]

Hack a PS Classic instead, it's much easier and runs PS1 games perfectly as well as everything before it (no luck with N64 to my knowledge)

[Famous Mortimer]

Hack a PS Classic instead, it's much easier and runs PS1 games perfectly as well as everything before it (no luck with N64 to my knowledge)

Or, I could use the stuff I've already bought which does almost exactly the same and won't cost me any more. And I won't have to hack. 

[magval]

Sorry mate, I skimmed your post and missed that you already had the gear.

I've unintentionally come across as one of those Internet-dwelling "try the thing that worked for me instead of the thing you've already done" wankers, there. Apologies.

I have done both though, (started the thread after all), and I'd definitely recommend going the PSXC/USB hack method over the Retropi setup, which I found was much more complicated and required a moderate amount of computer literacy to pull off.

PSXC, USB drive and an 8bitdo adaptor for wireless controller of choice is extremely easy, and cheap too if Amazon decides to ell the Playstation for £15 again.

[momatt]

On some games I seem to be getting a fair bit of lag.  It's especially noticeable in Sonic The Hedgehog games.  I don't know if this is because they're harder to run (unlikely?) or it's just more noticeable as they require faster reaction-speeds.
Anyway, it's bloody annoying.  Has anyone else seen this, or have any clues on how to fix this?  There are multiple solutions on other fora, but most blame the controller or the TV.  I don't think that's causing it in my case.  The TV is set to game mode, now I'm out of ideas.
X

I've massively enjoyed getting loads of crazy Sonic hacks and getting back into Rolling Thunder 2 anyway.

[Famous Mortimer]

Sorry mate, I skimmed your post and missed that you already had the gear.

I sort of sounded like a prick, so sorry as well.

Setting up the controller is proving a little bit of a ballache. Got of those 8bitDo's, and as long as it's wired up I can play most games fine (for some reason, it's not working with the NES emulator at all). Had a bit of a fiddle about on a few games though. But, as soon as I unplug it, it makes a vibrating sound like it's connecting, and one of the lights on the bottom comes on (indicating, I would imagine, that it's connected), but nothing works. I did as much "connect via Bluetooth" in the options as I could figure out, but something's still not right. Still, I had a lot of fun failing miserably at the Gamegear version of "Castlevania: Dracula X".

I'm sure I'll sort it, if it had been any easier I'd have wondered what all the warnings about it being fiddly were about.

I'm quite happy with the Pi overall too. I got another microSD card and put UbuntuMATE on there, and it's working nicely. Connects to the Mac with all my videos on it, so I can stream from there now, Youtube seems to buffer / glitch a little, but I remember the previous desktop-y build of Raspbian I had on there and it didn't work Youtube at all, so things are progressing.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I've definitely spent way more time tinkering with my RetroPi than actually playing any games on it. But it was all worth it this weekend when my son laughed his head off at Pac-Man.

[momatt]

Well, a Pi that he hooked up to the projector screen in the pub with an HDMI cable and a couple of those wireless controllers. Turns out I'm shite at nearly all games.

That's a pretty cool pub!

It does quite amuse me when I sit at home, playing these 20-year-old pixelly games on a big 4K screen.
Just ridiculous.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Anyone having issues with 8Bitdo Bluetooth connections should take a look at this:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/8Bitdo-Controller/

[Famous Mortimer]

Belated thanks to Huxleys Babkins as I was struggling to get the controllers sorted, followed those instructions and it was nice and easy after that. I spent a lovely morning failing miserably to get past the first bit of "Castlevania".

[Goldentony]

Anyoine know what they're doing with these things because i've got a Raspberry Pi and an SD card that constantly boots into emergency mode despite all the fucking around i've been trying on Linux forums that appear to be written in hieroglyphs

[momatt]

Anyoine know what they're doing with these things because i've got a Raspberry Pi and an SD card that constantly boots into emergency mode despite all the fucking around i've been trying on Linux forums that appear to be written in hieroglyphs

I've no idea what I'm doing and I got it to work by following some YouTube videos and put a standard RetroPie image on the SD card (using another computer).
I followed something like this:
https://troypoint.com/setup-retropie-raspberry-pi-3/

I then put all the games on it via the home WIFi from my computer.

[Goldentony]

you know what lads until a near depressive breakdown episode I wasnt properly equipped for the challenges this presented but now ive realigned my arse thank you for the advice, cheers!

[momatt]

Did that really help?  Let me know if you have any problems.

Yeah, it's not really that easy, but I managed it eventually.
The hardest part was pairing it up with the bluetooth controller.  I cant remember how I did that, but it probably involved watching a few contradictory YouTube videos and following the best one.

[Goldentony]

Yeah I re-imaged it and i'm going to hopefully get a wireless thing set up to transfer a big load of fucking games off a card to the card in the machine once the postman comes with his big sack

[momatt]

You bought the ROMs? 
I torrented all my Megadrive ones, but there's a air few missing from the 'Complete Set'.  Nothing that I couldn't find elsewhere though.

One thing I'd quite like to be able to set up is save-games, but not really looked into that yet.  But I've glanced and it looks complicated.

[Famous Mortimer]

Creating save states with Retropie seems like a piece of piss, so I assume you're referring to something different.

[momatt]

Creating save states with Retropie seems like a piece of piss, so I assume you're referring to something different.

Oh, I wasn't!  I think I just got confused by the terminology, but didn't spend too long looking into it.