Osgeld Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Quote *Is there any quality difference in function and gameplay for those emulators mentioned above between a PC setup and a RetroPie setup? Rasberry pi is a PC, its not a intel / windows pc, its an arm / linux pc but in the grand scheme of things its no different than plugging in a laptop to a tv (smart or not) Quote *What would be the best space efficient controller or controllers setup to get to be able to play Atari, Atari 800 & Intellivision along with most Mame games? Personal preference, I just use a modern gamepad. Quote *I see that there are some sites that keep popping up when I search this stuff that sell RetroPie/Raspberry Pi boxes and/or PC drives "all set up and configured with emulators and thousands of ROMs that are just about ready to plug and play". I don't mind spending a bit more to get a plug and play setup ready to go. Has anyone done this before and had a good experience and if so, which are the most reputable places to purchase such a system? Yea that breaks all sorts of copyright and legal stuff which is why they look like a game of whack a mole, its probably fine, but its being sold from a shady dealer, good luck Quote *For these very old gaming systems, is a lot of updating of the Retropie/Emulators/Roms very necessary or can I expect mostly smooth sailing once I have a setup ready to go? no, usually once you have the system setup and working you don't have to touch it .. now getting it to that point may make you want to hate life cause its a single board linux computer with a volatile software history and everyone one and their brother writing "advice" about it which was outdated the next day. That being said its calmed down a lot with the release of the model 3 boards so anything semi modern in helpful articles should be fine (but then the pi foundation release the 4 which is basicly incompatible with every freaking thing to date ... good job guys) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lplp Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Thank you very much for the help to get this started! I guess l'll give a shot at setting it up myself with Raspberry Pi and RetroPie. My next questions would be: *There is so much stuff online. Does anyone know of a good, solid step by step tutorial that they've used to get this done from beginning to end which would include the specific websites and parts needed and where to get them? *For the older game emulators, which is best version of Raspberry Pi to most avoid frequent glitch issues? *Where exactly would I find the "loaded image" and which ones are best to cover the older systems? *Any specific brand/model usb controllers recommended that cover most of these older games smoothly, especially from a joystick perspective? Seems like many of them don't have joysticks on them. Thank you all again for any leads! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Get a 3b+ they haven't updated retropi for 4 yet and everything else is going to be old or cause more confusion The retro pi website has good instructions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 2 hours ago, lplp said: My next questions would be: *There is so much stuff online. Does anyone know of a good, solid step by step tutorial that they've used to get this done from beginning to end which would include the specific websites and parts needed and where to get them? *For the older game emulators, which is best version of Raspberry Pi to most avoid frequent glitch issues? https://retropie.org.uk/docs/ They also have a support forum. Just make sure you do not buy a premade image. You will get no support for it unless it is their release from their site. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lplp Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Thank you all for the leads! That link has lots of good information and structure. I think that's the sort of thing I was looking for. I started googling around for roms for the older systems (atari 800, atari 2600, mame arcade games, etc) which is all I'm looking for. Is there any good sites to use to find latest versions/sets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 48 minutes ago, lplp said: Is there any good sites to use to find latest versions/sets? And that's the line we have to draw. "Google is your friend" is all we're allowed to say. Good luck with the setup though and if you have any questions ask away! (Just not about rom files) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lplp Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Great. Thank you. I guess I will order all the components from the tutorial and pick a controller. I already have some micro SD cards. Is it worth trying a Bluetooth controller with a USB dongle switch or is the straight plug in USB controller better? Is swapping controllers easy for different uses or try to stick with one as much as possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 17 minutes ago, lplp said: Great. Thank you. I guess I will order all the components from the tutorial and pick a controller. I already have some micro SD cards. Is it worth trying a Bluetooth controller with a USB dongle switch or is the straight plug in USB controller better? Is swapping controllers easy for different uses or try to stick with one as much as possible? What Raspberry Pi model did you order? It most likely has built in bluetooth, so no USB dongle is needed, but I've never used a bluetooth controller. Some have noted an input lag when using bluetooth, but YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lplp Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Gonna get the 3b+ as recommended above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 I use a pair of 8bitdo SNES Bluetooth controllers with no problem. I have used a USB keyboard and a wired XBox 360 controller but would sometimes get the "low power" lightning bolt on a standard 2.5A power supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spriggy Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 2 hours ago, ClassicGMR said: I use a pair of 8bitdo SNES Bluetooth controllers with no problem. Yup, likewise. I use the 8bitdo s30/n30 pros with my Pi3+. Gr8 gear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 i had the famicom version of those for a while, they were nice, though I am one of those people that have a joystick problem, as I am always trying to find yet another one so I tried something else but had sold the 8bitdo and then got rid of that something else and got something that was super awesome but it was 2.4 ghz so required a dongle and fell asleep too easy, then got my basic wired logitech which I have had for a month and its good but already looking at options im like a guitar guy or a computer keyboard guy but with controllers, so I try not to chime in too much, my wife says I have a mental condition about them 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lplp Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Hello. As mentioned in thread last week, I ordered a bunch of components to put together Raspberry Pi 3b+ Retropie system. Much has arrived but not controller yet. I'm excited to get started on it and was wondering if I could begin setup with just a USB keyboard since the 8bitdo controller won't be here until later in the week. I have the pi itself with power supply, case, hdmi cable, and mini sd card with reader. Can I circle back later to add the controller or should I just wait for it all at once? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) Yes you can always change or add a controller. Just manually run the configure controller option from the retropie menu after you connect it. Edited April 27, 2020 by ClassicGMR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 https://retropie.org.uk/2020/04/retropie-4-6-released-with-raspberry-pi-4-support/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazball Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Thanks for the heads-up on that @NE146! A good friend of mine has been talking about setting up RetroPie but I told him he should wait a bit for RPi4 support. He'll be happy to hear. I would guess that the RPi4 should be powerful enough to handle N64 and DC, which is where the 3 fell short. I really enjoyed setting up RetroPie on my RPi3 but I've since moved on to a more powerful solution. Still, for the price you really can't go wrong. I may pick one up down the line just for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 2 hours ago, glazball said: Thanks for the heads-up on that @NE146! A good friend of mine has been talking about setting up RetroPie but I told him he should wait a bit for RPi4 support. He'll be happy to hear. I would guess that the RPi4 should be powerful enough to handle N64 and DC, which is where the 3 fell short. I really enjoyed setting up RetroPie on my RPi3 but I've since moved on to a more powerful solution. Still, for the price you really can't go wrong. I may pick one up down the line just for fun. Please take note from their site: We are marking the Raspberry Pi 4 image as beta for now – primarily as there are still some things to improve on, but most packages run well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 yea beta + open source = better wait a few days at a minimum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Here's a review. Looks pretty good, if you keep in mind it's still a low-end device... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 52 minutes ago, Osgeld said: yea beta + open source = better wait a few days at a minimum It’s been a work in progress for a while. There have been nightly builds people have been using for a while now. I’m ok with grabbing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 41 minutes ago, RevEng said: Here's a review. Looks pretty good, if you keep in mind it's still a low-end device... And ETA Prime has some great tutorials but he’s almost a Linux/Retropie obsessive. I enjoy them but ... grain o’ salt with his vids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 1 hour ago, ClassicGMR said: And ETA Prime has some great tutorials but he’s almost a Linux/Retropie obsessive. I enjoy them but ... grain o’ salt with his vids. Well, not as much as he's Android-obsessive, but yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 (edited) 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 ? Edited April 29, 2020 by TIX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 There may be some out there that are preconfigured… In fact I’m pretty sure there are. The downside to that is is they are not supported by the RetroPie team. As far as avoiding this problem in the future I treat this just like I treat MAME. If everything is running the way I want it to why update it? If it eventually crashes I do have the image backed up and I can rewrite the microSD the way it is or if it crashes I can always install the new one. But why mess with something that’s already working the way you want it to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 (edited) One thing I've learned in the decades of dicking with emulators is that it's OK to keep several revisions and configurations of a single emulator or of a full-setup. Edited April 29, 2020 by Keatah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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