The Raspberry Pi and Retropie discussion thread

[TIX]

yeah.. It seemed like a good idea at the time 

[mr_me]

4 hours ago, TIX said:

Hey guys, I have a pi 3 model b+, and I want some advice,

 

a couple of years ago I have thrown myself into the whole "make my dream image" and somehow I managed just that !

I enjoyed this image in multiple occasions, but recently after some updating sh!t, some of the emulators start behaving

I'm especially sad about the Atari 8bit and Atari 5200, because it was very difficult (for me) to set them up..

 

So what is the best way to go, if I don't want to put myself through all this again ?

I'm interested mainly for the 8bit era computers and consoles (especially Atari's) ..  is there a ready made image with all this emus preconfigured ?

 

Backup your work.  Particularly with raspberry pi because there's a higher risk of storage corruption.  You should have no worries about doing a major upgrade if you have a backup.

[ClassicGMR]

Here's the documentation (since I'm no longer at work now ? )

 

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#making-a-backup-option-1

Edited April 29, 2020 by ClassicGMR

[glazball]

I understand your frustration @TIX but one way to look at it is that you'll be able to configure your new setup exactly to your liking.  Setup can certainly be part of the fun, at least it is for me.

[TIX]

Any ideas on how to remove the infernal hissing on the Atari800 and 5200 games ? (lr-atari emu)

This emulator is a nightmare to setup, but finally I got it running. The sound though is generally bad in all games, and it doesn't matter if I output through HDMI or RCA..

 

HELP

Edited May 14, 2020 by TIX

[lplp]

Hello,

I was on here last week and you all gave some great advice about info and input for setting up my first retropie system on raspberry pi 3b+. I'm using old emulators like atari 2600, atari 800, Apple 2 and mame. It's taken a while to figure out but it's mostly up and running. I think my next steps would be scraping and backing up my image. I loaded skyscraper but also heard about Selph scraper. Before I begin, does anyone have a recommendation on which is the best scraper for these older systems? Thank you again!

[ClassicGMR]

5 hours ago, TIX said:

Any ideas on how to remove the infernal hissing on the Atari800 and 5200 games ? (lr-atari emu)

This emulator is a nightmare to setup, but finally I got it running. The sound though is generally bad in all games, and it doesn't matter if I output through HDMI or RCA..

 

HELP

Unfortunately I will have to defer to others here. I don't emulate 5200 games. Never got into them.

 

3 hours ago, lplp said:

Hello,

I was on here last week and you all gave some great advice about info and input for setting up my first retropie system on raspberry pi 3b+. I'm using old emulators like atari 2600, atari 800, Apple 2 and mame. It's taken a while to figure out but it's mostly up and running. I think my next steps would be scraping and backing up my image. I loaded skyscraper but also heard about Selph scraper. Before I begin, does anyone have a recommendation on which is the best scraper for these older systems? Thank you again!

Sky Scraper is the better of the two IMO. Selph's Scraper used to be but it times out way too much even when it does work. Sky Scraper will time out on occasion but I have had very good luck with it.

[lplp]

Thank you!! 

[lplp]

Any suggestion for the best source to scrape from for those old systems? I'm running screenscraper since it was on top of the list. Is there ever a need to run from other sources also. It gave 5 or 6 choices on sky scraper.

[ClassicGMR]

Looking forward to getting my Pi 4 setup. I just watched a review of a great OS package that will be sweet to have on my desk.

 

I'll be running a Pi 4 with the SmartPi Touch 2 case and screen. I am going to set up an SD card for now with the boot record then use an SSD drive for everything else. Once the Pi Foundation gets off their duff and allows boot from USB I'll change it. It'll be running the Raspbian X Night Hawk package which has Retropie already included in the distro. VERY nice looking setup.

 

 

 

 

[lplp]

Hello everyone! Still working through finishing setup on my new emulation system.  I was looking at the Ultimate PC Interface V3 for old controllers to plug into USB on pi. Mainly want to use it for Intellivision and Atari 2600 and Atari 800 emulators on Raz Pi 3b+ Retropie Emulation Station setup with original controllers. I had a few questions:

-Will it work well on that setup?

-Will the controllers always be easily recognized by that system as I unplug and swap them or will I have to reconfigure every time?

-What effect will the adapter have on my current 8 bit do sn30 pro + bluetooth controller which is the only one I use right now? Will that still be easily recognizable without reconfiguring when I swap it with the adapter?

I really appreciate any experience or feedback on this. Or if someone recommends another adapter that might be smoother for this usage. I saw that Bliss Box 4 way adapter might be good also. Thank you!

Edited May 16, 2020 by lplp
Add

[ClassicGMR]

Oh my... I don't want this but I need it.

 

 

[lplp]

Hello. Would anyone know how to properly configure the Ultimate PC Interface V3 with a Hyperkin Trooper 2600 Joystick so it can play Atari 2600 games on Retropie? I also have an 8bitdo sn30 pro plus Bluetooth controller and wireless keyboard for helping to set up and use if necessary. I can't seem to figure out the proper steps to get this going. The system currently works great  if only 8bitdo is on. Thank you for any help!

Edited May 27, 2020 by lplp

[mr_me]

First make sure the hyperkin joystick and usb adapter are working.  Test on any computer.  To have the usb adapter recognise the joystick, have both dipswitches up, and hold the button on the controller while plugging the usb adapter in to the computer.

http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/interface/interface.php

[lplp]

Thank you. I added firmware first to the adapter on my pc and that was recognized as successful. I'll try the joystick there.

After that, would you know how to proceed adding this to retropie system on my tv? Does it need to get configured as a controller on emulation station or any of the individual atari emulators (2600 or 800)? Its all locked up when I try it so I was wondering if something somewhere in the system has to be configured.

Also at what point in retropie startup would the adapter be plugged in and at what point would the joystick be plugged in?

The 8bitdo analog sticks work perfect with the atari emulators, its just not the same feel as the joystick for those old games.

Finally, are there any modifications that could be made to the 8bitdo for 4 way games like mame pacman on the analog sticks?

 

Thank you very much to all who have helped. My system is working great otherwise thanks to all the help from here. My last step has been trying to get a good controller configuration.

[BobZ]

I use my original Wico Atari Joystick in RetroPie (Rasp Pi 3b+) and turned a usb mouse into a paddle controller.

Both work great. I’m using the joystick with Atari 2600 and 800xl emulation. I use the paddle for the 2600 only of course. With the joystick, I also set up buttons to emulate all of the switches on the actual 2600 console.

 

I’ll paste links to the videos for each. I don’t get into technical details but neither builds were difficult. If anybody is interested I’d be glad to reply with details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mr_me]

5 hours ago, lplp said:

Thank you. I added firmware first to the adapter on my pc and that was recognized as successful. I'll try the joystick there.

After that, would you know how to proceed adding this to retropie system on my tv? Does it need to get configured as a controller on emulation station or any of the individual atari emulators (2600 or 800)? Its all locked up when I try it so I was wondering if something somewhere in the system has to be configured.

Also at what point in retropie startup would the adapter be plugged in and at what point would the joystick be plugged in?

The 8bitdo analog sticks work perfect with the atari emulators, its just not the same feel as the joystick for those old games.

Finally, are there any modifications that could be made to the 8bitdo for 4 way games like mame pacman on the analog sticks?

 

Thank you very much to all who have helped. My system is working great otherwise thanks to all the help from here. My last step has been trying to get a good controller configuration.

Might depend which Atari 2600 emulator you are using.  If you're using "stella", try disconnecting all other game controllers so it is seen as the first controller.  If you're using "lr-stella", that probably requires retroarch/emulationstation.

[ClassicGMR]

So I got my SmartiPi 2 display with the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB model a few weeks ago. I finally got around to setting it up today. I HAD decided to install one of the newer fancy shmancy GUI OS that have come out recently but the screen is too small to make it worth the effort.

 

I just went with RetroPie and a 64GB SanDisk Fit 3.0 USB drive to hold it all. I was able to safely overclock to 2GHz on the CPU and 700MHz on the GPU chip. I never saw the temp go over 50° C but I have yet to push it harder than testing PSX games. I'll still be keeping one of my SNES30 gamepad for it. The Fit drive is a nice touch since it doesn't show at all. ?

 

I cannot believe how many things I forgot about setting up the RetroPie and quality of life addons life transition loading screens, getting the screen scraper to work right, finding my favorite theme again (showcase) and setting up the arcade ambiance. I still think it was a pain but not as bad as the first time I ever set up. ?

 

The HDMI display is very good but there's no sound. I had no idea. So I had to come up with a speaker solution. I went with a $6 Gigaware Universal Mp3 Folding Speaker that runs on AAA batteries (I have rechargeable) and has a volume control. We'll have to see how it goes!

 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by ClassicGMR

[PacManPlus]

Not to de-rail this thread too much but...  Is there anything special about the RPi Zero and the GPIO pins?  I'm Already running retropie on a RPi2 with 'retrogame' to take input from the GPIO pins and it's fine... But on the Pi Zero I get *NOTHING*.  I've tried two different RPi Zeros, re-configuring the '/boot/retropie.cfg' file, tried EVERY BCM pin, and nothing.

 

I know I have it connected correctly, as I've done these before (on different Pis) and they worked. 

I've made sure '/etc/udev/rules.d' has a file called '10-retrogame.rules' with the line 'SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="retrogame", ENV{ID_INPUT_KEYBOARD}="1"' in it.

I've made sure '/etc/modules' has 'uinput' in it.

This is very frustrating.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bob

[solidus]

On 6/5/2020 at 6:12 PM, ClassicGMR said:

So I got my SmartiPi 2 display with the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB model a few weeks ago. I finally got around to setting it up today. I HAD decided to install one of the newer fancy shmancy GUI OS that have come out recently but the screen is too small to make it worth the effort.

 

I just went with RetroPie and a 64GB SanDisk Fit 3.0 USB drive to hold it all. I was able to safely overclock to 2GHz on the CPU and 700MHz on the GPU chip. I never saw the temp go over 50° C but I have yet to push it harder than testing PSX games. I'll still be keeping one of my SNES30 gamepad for it. The Fit drive is a nice touch since it doesn't show at all. ?

 

I cannot believe how many things I forgot about setting up the RetroPie and quality of life addons life transition loading screens, getting the screen scraper to work right, finding my favorite theme again (showcase) and setting up the arcade ambiance. I still think it was a pain but not as bad as the first time I ever set up. ?

 

The HDMI display is very good but there's no sound. I had no idea. So I had to come up with a speaker solution. I went with a $6 Gigaware Universal Mp3 Folding Speaker that runs on AAA batteries (I have rechargeable) and has a volume control. We'll have to see how it goes!

 

 

Any tips on good things to get setup? Im using retropie for the first time actually, but on a PC. Ive only ever used Retroarch standalone. Currently everything is default except shaders.

[RevEng]

1 hour ago, PacManPlus said:

Not to de-rail this thread too much but...  Is there anything special about the RPi Zero and the GPIO pins?  I'm Already running retropie on a RPi2 with 'retrogame' to take input from the GPIO pins and it's fine... But on the Pi Zero I get *NOTHING*.  I've tried two different RPi Zeros, re-configuring the '/boot/retropie.cfg' file, tried EVERY BCM pin, and nothing.

I don't really have specific knowledge here, but I do know the gpio layout for RPi2 is different than zero. Have you adjusted for the new layout?

[PacManPlus]

 

6 hours ago, RevEng said:

I don't really have specific knowledge here, but I do know the gpio layout for RPi2 is different than zero. Have you adjusted for the new layout?

Thank you - I tried every pin, different ground wires...  I can't get *anything* out of any of these pins.  I don't get it.

Edited June 11, 2020 by PacManPlus

[RevEng]

Is retrogame installed and running?

[PacManPlus]

Yep, and I did a 'ps -ef | grep retrogame' to make sure it was in the process list.

[+fdr4prez]

2 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

Yep, and I did a 'ps -ef | grep retrogame' to make sure it was in the process list.

Did you try this, from its github page

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Retrogame

 

RetroPie 2.0+ Compatibility

Note that by default retrogame won't work with SDL2 applications that depend on evdev for input events. Specifically this means applications like the latest version of RetroPie and EmulationStation won't be able to see key events generated by retrogame. However you can fix this issue by adding a small custom udev rule to make retrogame keyboard events visible to SDL2.

Connect to your Raspberry Pi in a terminal/SSH session and execute the following command to create and edit the file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-retrogame.rules:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/10-retrogame.rules

Once the nano text editor loads, copy this single line into the file:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="retrogame", ENV{ID_INPUT_KEYBOARD}="1"

Save the file by pressing Ctrl-O and enter, then press Ctrl-x to exit. Restart your Raspberry Pi and run retrogame again, now button presses should register in SDL2 applications like the EmulationStation frontend to RetroPie