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Raspberry Pi Gaming thread - Cheap emulation and gaming projects

K

Kyolux

Member
Got my kit last week. Haven't really started looking at it yet, but I'm looking forward to setting it up.

So what's everyone recommends for controllers? Also anything usb work? I got a wii u pro controller with that dongle that makes it a wireless 360 controller through usb. Would that work for now?
 
Harlock

Harlock

Member
Kyolux said:
Got my kit last week. Haven't really started looking at it yet, but I'm looking forward to setting it up.

So what's everyone recommends for controllers? Also anything usb work? I got a wii u pro controller with that dongle that makes it a wireless 360 controller through usb. Would that work for now?
Click to expand...

Don't know about the Wii U controller, but this will help with general setup:

How To Enable Browser Based RetroPie Manager Raspberry Pi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgQDg6SzBDg&t=3s

Universal XML Scraper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGY6HQxXSME
 
U

UpUpDownDown

Member
shimrra said:
Anyone have any issues with running MAME or NeoGeo? I got a RP3 and followed the instructions and the old consoles games run great its just Mame & NG that just doesnt want to run.Really frustrating.
Click to expand...

Mame is hit or miss depending on the rom sets. What little I've read about it sounded very confusing

The secret to neogeo is using Final Burn Alpha as the emulator (FB folder I think). Not the actual neogeo one.
 
B

Benedict

Member
Just got the flash symbol in the top right corner. I have a Pi 3 model b and the official power supply. What could cause the issue?

I have a USB stick, USB BT dongle (for keyboard) and a BT gamepad connected at the moment. I'ts connected to a power strip with 4-5 other power plugs. not all active.
Edit: and I can't get my FC30 Pro Game controller to work either, I can move characters and pause the games, but nothing else and can't exit the games either, without pulling the power cable.

Guess I'll try tomorrow and see what I've done wrong.
Edit2: Couldn't wait, had to update firmware for FC30 Pro, thought I'd done that last year.
 
U

UpUpDownDown

Member
Benedict said:
Just got the flash symbol in the top right corner. I have a Pi 3 model b and the official power supply. What could cause the issue?

I have a USB stick, USB BT dongle (for keyboard) and a BT gamepad connected at the moment. I'ts connected to a power strip with 4-5 other power plugs. not all active.
Click to expand...

If you unhook everything but the power supply, do you still get the square in the top right?
 
Bloodember

Bloodember

Member
Here's the 3D designs for my handheld.

34189270922_24e7ebafb6_o.png

34347510825_a7ff230299_o.png

34347511315_1843c83f78_o.png

34347510345_245b98e9b3_o.png

On the back, the two holes are for two buttons, so I have six buttons. The extra button on the front is an extra button so I can exit games.

Will be printed in two parts, the back will take 13 hours and the front will take 10.5 hours. Going to start the back shortly.

It has a 5" screen. It also has stereo audio with volume control and a headphone jack. I also have 2 micro usb ports, one for charging and the other is a data port. Plus a power switch at the top. The ports are all labeled but it doesn't look like the text transferred to the .stl, probably not deep enough.

This probably isn't the final version, as I will try it out and refine it till I have it perfect, I doubt it is now.
 
Bloodember

Bloodember

Member
Lettuce said:
You might want to have rounded edges otherwise thats just going to cut into the hands
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

UpUpDownDown said:
Love to see the inside layout.

You're running it off a rechargable battery pack?

Looks great!
Click to expand...

Yes, it's an adafruit 3.7V 2500mah lipo. I made the layout, but it wouldn't be understandable unless you knew what all the blocks mean. When I put it all together I'll take some pictures of the inside.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Benedict said:
Just got the flash symbol in the top right corner. I have a Pi 3 model b and the official power supply. What could cause the issue?

I have a USB stick, USB BT dongle (for keyboard) and a BT gamepad connected at the moment. I'ts connected to a power strip with 4-5 other power plugs. not all active.
Click to expand...
What theme are you using? I get the lightning bolt sometimes when I'm running themes that support video. If I use pixel or any other lightweight theme, it runs perfectly (using an HDD).

I've only got the lightning bolt in the emulationstation frontend. Never seen one in-game, even PSX, where it streams information frequently from the usb to the pi.
 
C

Costia

Member
Bloodember said:
Here's the 3D designs for my handheld.
...
This probably isn't the final version, as I will try it out and refine it till I have it perfect, I doubt it is now.
Click to expand...
Is this with a pi zero or rpi3? It looks small and thin.
I have an Rpi3 and with a 5" screen and x2 18650 batteries. Its around 135*95*35mm.
And that's without buttons/speakers and such.
http://i.imgur.com/dEI8ZFh.jpg?1
Though I don't have a case or a design yet. Just connecting the various components for now.
What did you use to design it? solidworks?
 
Bloodember

Bloodember

Member
Costia said:
Is this with a pi zero or rpi3? It looks small and thin.
I have an Rpi3 and with a 5" screen and x2 18650 batteries. Its around 135*95*35mm.
And that's without buttons/speakers and such.
http://i.imgur.com/dEI8ZFh.jpg?1
Though I don't have a case or a design yet. Just connecting the various components for now.
What did you use to design it? solidworks?
Click to expand...

It's a zero, the dimensions are 180x135x24.62. I already have the bottom printed, the top is printing now. I already see that I need to redesign some of it. I used tinkercad.

edit: Both pieces are done printing, the top had some issues. Going to redesign it. The sharp edges actually don't bother me, but I might radius or chamfer them on the new design.
 
L

Lettuce

Member
Am considering building either a GBA zero Pi or GB Zero Pi device. Are there any small screens out there that have the correct aspect ratio at all for either a GB or GBA?
 
M

M3d10n

Member
I got a RPi 3 B for free and promptly went to see if I could get 240p output on my CRT TV with it. I have an old VGA to S-Video converter board I bought years ago, which I hooked to the Pi using a HDMI-to-VGA converter.
y4mwBOOS_J3PnOVCB8oJDelK1TGaitH1N-IDW7YTuggphRwPCA9DD4jGpsOHfjcd3Eo2Sb1g3ETSZIc_Uo-EDwOmFx9dLlxaS3koheaKq69Zb0tVVw-YbJEVhbadwjEXtlt2GZHN9dglUI2kBPgk_L2_FmyGmBmEaO8Esh0V9G0A4hQBuQychR1_8xzPidyTryMjoGOy09luk4jqP4qi1sgaw
Click to expand...

Then I set a custom HDMI 768x240 resolution on the Pi config and to my surprise it worked perfectly!

Here are the results:
y4mHONa3c_JoNp6dAALUXJNJ5C_3Rb_55pdEZy_5w-ttswc4h0ZK9szdo7fIQFIODLEdniREtulruLporcoEO7Cd6AdZHOgomIy1sCOoks4U-ZsGZCQOmI4THBe9H4B_vXQFNn_aNu-_yXnrrWIDkgBq-lcKZvljRxJLOw_P_68UaoPKt8Lon96hkn45OgOE-xAGHyJ-sp2rVwXYVmBzWZTDA

y4mq1v5JO4rqOUZUlZclpdZYOxgmwbIHmyEbTLKek0eb45u-ZwDrPcWVtzcTWtwXa5VVk2uOJbwYa23-L2BUWmaKwspjg9xwxo-lYwJ-VCOsXLm0BQOa8k3CYT-MWv_0JQvGh9cf320pQWT6uaovJoTPdD-MAayfTruwr9hw-cLBmiw-bcwvJfC8iraOQZgW0n7xKougtxAw_IUHiAHyvifWg

y4mkywdOdgdNys8kBskja2k-0MXriaYA44XjV7xrhIHblgZBHbZl9_qk3-WvBuCOuNR6zKI0q6IyNddTRc8y4xaBc6cXZTfqRC52tZMsOSF_Gs7v7jdC0vAZ8i7Q1nvTErHJUR8NWtU_Gy36NzhJ__60XDf2yy48QfTlCGM_d3C_h0rPPNzpzlJCTFDh-foEJSJdPL_G9PBAyYg-ENetGRVQw
Click to expand...

My only problem is that the menu aspect ratio is squished and makes the settings hard to read.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
A friend gave me a Pi for my birthday, I don't know much about them and will prob get his help to work out how to use it better. But how's PS1 emulation on it?
 
I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
Lynd7 said:
A friend gave me a Pi for my birthday, I don't know much about them and will prob get his help to work out how to use it better. But how's PS1 emulation on it?
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty great.

I got a second PI just to have a handheld NES/SNES/PSX. I've played Crash Bandicoot 2, Castlevania:SOTN and Devil Dice on it and have seen no issues.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Randomly looking through the RetroPie forums, I found a guy who is making a new frontend (replacement for EmulationStation).

Apparently is going to be 100% customizable, so the look of it can be anything you want. I really like the improvement on speed. Everything loads very fast... Very promising I think.

COahjRO.jpg
Click to expand...

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/9598/announcing-pegasus-frontend

Demo 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqkBGTTKjqs

Demo 2 (Speed test): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqYX54hImU
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
What do most of you like to use for a filter on GBA games? I'm just starting to try the filters and work out how this all works. Just use the standard GB grid filter?

EDIT: Also, the PS3 controller mappings for the main ES menus is different to when entering into a game right? Like if I went into a PS1 game it would have the correct mappings for that game?
 
K

Kyolux

Member
Bummer.. I was ready to setup my retropie tonight, but I found out that I couldn't install the image on my microsd card by using my phone.

Ended up just ordering a usb adapter.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
Ok I think I answered my question about the control mappings, the emulator seems to switch to the proper layout.

I've been playing with the settings for PS1, currently I have.

- Video Smooth - False
- Aspect Ratio - 4:3
- Render Resolution - Output Resolution (I think it was called)
- Video Shader Enable - True
- Video Shader File - CRT (Standard)

For the resolution, is that setting the emulator to render the game at 1080p? Is that what the option is for?

I am just setting thes options in the Retropie main menu and not in the RetroArch interface.

Thanks for any help.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Lynd7 said:
Ok I think I answered my question about the control mappings, the emulator seems to switch to the proper layout.

I've been playing with the settings for PS1, currently I have.

- Video Smooth - False
- Aspect Ratio - 4:3
- Render Resolution - Output Resolution (I think it was called)
- Video Shader Enable - True
- Video Shader File - CRT (Standard)

For the resolution, is that setting the emulator to render the game at 1080p? Is that what the option is for?

I am just setting thes options in the Retropie main menu and not in the RetroArch interface.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
O7QuA2w.png


"Enhanced Resolution" and "Enhanced Resolution Speed" are the ones you need to enable for increased internal resolution. Keep in mind that they can be hit or miss. Some games will perform poorly, glitchy polygons, etc. For the most part it works fine if the game is fully 3D. Make sure they are disabled for anything 2D.

As for other options, the most important change I did to all the emulators was to disable threaded video. If threaded video is on, it helps with performance but at the cost of input lag. You can disable it for most of the emulators and still get pretty much perfect performance. Bust a Groove was unplayable for me until I disabled threaded video and the input lag went down.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
O7QuA2w.png


"Enhanced Resolution" and "Enhanced Resolution Speed" are the ones you need to enable for increased internal resolution. Keep in mind that they can be hit or miss. Some games will perform poorly, glitchy polygons, etc. For the most part it works fine if the game is fully 3D. Make sure they are disabled for anything 2D.

As for other options, the most important change I did to all the emulators was to disable threaded video. If threaded video is on, it helps with performance but at the cost of input lag. You can disable it for most of the emulators and still get pretty much perfect performance. Bust a Groove was unplayable for me until I disabled threaded video and the input lag went down.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll look into the threaded video option, where's that located?

Also I was changing the settings outside of the RetroArch menus, I was altering the basic settings thru the Retropie menu interface.

If not the internal resolution, what does that render resolution setting mean?

Thanks.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Lynd7 said:
Thanks I'll look into the threaded video option, where's that located?

Also I was changing the settings outside of the RetroArch menus, I was altering the basic settings thru the Retropie menu interface.

If not the internal resolution, what does that render resolution setting mean?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Threaded video:
From Emulation Station (If you want to change this to all emulators):

retropie ----> configuration editor ----> advanced configurations ----> configure libreto options ----> all/retroarch.cfg ----> video_threaded

It's on by default. Set it to Off.
Click to expand...

From within RetroArch (I do it this way manually):

Main Menu ----> Settings ----> Video -----> Threaded video

If you want to save it permanently for that specific emulator, go back to main menu ----> configurations ----> save current configuration.

Otherwise when you exit the game, the changes will not save.
Click to expand...

As I said, for most emulators you'll still get the same performance (plus the added bonus of less input lag) .For PSX it depends on the game. More graphical demaning games can hinder performance if threaded video is off. It's just a matter of testing for yourself. I changed it because the input lag bothered me a lot. If you're happy with how it runs now, maybe don't change anything.

As for your question about setting the resolution outside of RetroArch, I don't know. I edit every emulator manually from within RetroArch so I haven't used those emulation station configs very much.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
Threaded video:




As I said, for most emulators you'll still get the same performance (plus the added bonus of less input lag) .For PSX it depends on the game. More graphical demaning games can hinder performance if threaded video is off. It's just a matter of testing for yourself. I changed it because the input lag bothered me a lot. If you're happy with how it runs now, maybe don't change anything.

As for your question about setting the resolution outside of RetroArch, I don't know. I edit every emulator manually from within RetroArch so I haven't used those emulation station configs very much.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info, will help. So when in a game and loading RetroArch by pressing Select and another button, it'll only affect that system? And be saved as universal for all games on that emulator?

I'm guessing the output resolution thing is just what the emulator is spitting out? Like it's scaling the image to that instead of it being done by the TV or monitor?
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Lynd7 said:
Cool thanks for the info, will help. So when in a game and loading RetroArch by pressing Select and another button, it'll only affect that system? And be saved as universal for all games on that emulator?
Click to expand...
That's correct. If you save the config using the configurations ----> save current configuration method, the changes you made affect all games of that system you're playing.

You also have the option to save game specific configs. Like for example you want to disable something for just one game instead of affecting all of them. This video explains how the save configuration within retroarch works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJYkv3njAk

I'd recommend going lightly on RetroArch configs if you're not experienced with it. A wrong save here and there can be a pain to revert back if you can't remember what you changed.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
That's correct. If you save the config using the configurations ----> save current configuration method, the changes you made affect all games of that system you're playing.

You also have the option to save game specific configs. Like for example you want to disable something for just one game instead of affecting all of them. This video explains how the save configuration within retroarch works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJYkv3njAk

I'd recommend going lightly on RetroArch configs if you're not experienced with it. A wrong save here and there can be a pain to revert back if you can't remember what you changed.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yeah I'm being careful, I only really want to work out integer scaling and resolution settings and play with filters till I find ones for each system.
 
B

btrboyev

Member
shimrra said:
Anyone have any issues with running MAME or NeoGeo? I got a RP3 and followed the instructions and the old consoles games run great its just Mame & NG that just doesnt want to run.Really frustrating.
Click to expand...

Stick with mame 2003 and 2010. Some mame games just don't run well. Not because of power issues, but because the ports of mame aren't perfect.

Use Final Burn alpha for all Capcom and neo geo games. They run near perfect.
 
D

djblackice

Member
Can anyone perhaps help me out? I recently obtained some ready made images to set up my Pi and am getting an error when using the Win32 Disk Imager. I bought a new Samsung 128gb Evo micro SD card and it keeps saying:

"ERROR 5: Acces is denied..."

I have scoured for a solution but it's still not allowing me to write the image.

Thank you in advance.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
djblackice said:
Can anyone perhaps help me out? I recently obtained some ready made images to set up my Pi and am getting an error when using the Win32 Disk Imager. I bought a new Samsung 128gb Evo micro SD card and it keeps saying:

"ERROR 5: Acces is denied..."

I have scoured for a solution but it's still not allowing me to write the image.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Check the little slider on the side of the SD card. Maybe it has the write protection on.
 
D

djblackice

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
Check the little slider on the side of the SD card. Maybe it has the write protection on.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I thought of that too and slid it back and forth in each direction just to make sure, but no dice. I'm truly baffled about this issue and it seems others have had the same issue based on my google search.

Sucks because the image I have currently is a cool little attract mode version of Retropie.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
djblackice said:
Thank you. I thought of that too and slid it back and forth in each direction just to make sure, but no dice. I'm truly baffled about this issue and it seems others have had the same issue based on my google search.

Sucks because the image I have currently is a cool little attract mode version of Retropie.
Click to expand...
If you put your micro sd card on your phone, does it let you format it and copy stuff to it?
 
D

djblackice

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
If you put your micro sd card on your phone, does it let you format it and copy stuff to it?
Click to expand...


Have an IPhone unfortunately, haha. Regardless, I was able to get the repair prompt on Windows to show and ran the repair. Now, it has magically resolved the error!

I swear computers sometimes are the devil, haha.
 
Grinchy

Grinchy

Banned
Does anyone know if I can have my Pi boot directly into Kodi but also allow me to open Retropie in the more rare times when I want to? My TV controller works with Kodi, so the ability to have it boot right into Kodi means I don't have to have any kind of controller plugged into the Pi at any time.

If I dual boot, I'd still have to have another input plugged in to select Kodi. And with my current setup of Kodi being installed over Retropie, I have to have another input plugged in. I just can't tell if there is a way around this.
 
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