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Raspberry Pi Gaming thread - Cheap emulation and gaming projects

A

ALLseeingEYE

Member
Does anyone have preference on storage space for Raspberry Pi? (I have Pi 2 Model B)?

I'm currently looking at in Canada:

- 32gb Micro SD for $20
- 64gb Micro SD for $30
- 500gb external HDD for $60

The external HDD is tempting, since I could potentially fit more Sega CD and PS1 games (I'm really impressed by the PS1 emulator so far).

** To anyone who is using one, how do you find the load times compared to the micro SD? and also, is it a huge hassle to get working seamlessly with Retro Pi? i want to make a arcade machine replica, so I would want everything as seamless as possible with little to no fiddling after setup. Basically be able to plug it in, have it auto-boot up, and just browse games seamlessly with an arcade stick.
 
Vol5

Vol5

Member
eso76 said:
Not familiar with Retropie, can you replicate those settings in other emus ?
Looks good, i'd like to know if this thing can handle NeoGeo and CPS2 stuff with those filters enabled.
Click to expand...

Sure. There a massive selection of shaders to play with. Be warned though, some will crash the system.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
ALLseeingEYE said:
Awesome work Fredrik,
I am planning to make an arcade cabinet as well. Regarding the arcade sticks, where did you get your parts, what exactly did you need (what's an IPAC?), and was it $120 shipped?

I was considering using X-arcade parts, but wasn't sure if it was worth buying parts or just buying the whole double stick. I would love to do it as inexpensive but high quality as possible.
http://shop.xgaming.com/
Click to expand...
I got it from arcadeworlduk at ebay, linked below, but I'm located in Sweden so you have to check out your own total cost for it, £84.99 for the kit as of today excluding shipping cost. There is a whole bunch of different kits available on ebay so do some digging and I'm sure you'll find exactly what you need.
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/390632815101

The iPac2 is basically an IO board for your sticks and buttons. It's almost plug and play, you connect the cables from the stick and buttons to the board (no soldering needed) and plug the included cable from the board to a USB port on your Pi and you get stick controls in MAME. There is a connection chart at the official website where you can see how the cables should be connected to get the controls you want.
https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac2.html

All the parts you need is included in the kit I talked about above, even the cables, so it's super easy to get it up and running. The wood work is what was the real challenge for me since I haven't done anything like this before. But it was sooo worth it! :D

Since I didn't get the finish as I wanted anyway I have now dared to paint some Pacman art on the side ;P And here you see the button mapping too, the Menu and Select button is pretty meaningless today, they're only used for the internal emulator menu which I never use now that the buttons are all mapped correctly and everything could've been done with a keyboard in the usb port instead, so I'd probably remove those buttons if I did another one.
g82ExfN.jpg
 
M

Mirk

Member
So the snes30went on sale today. Picked one up once it gets here I will post some impressions. Been waiting forever for a good bluetooth snes controller. So I hope this is it!
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Mirk said:
So the snes30went on sale today. Picked one up once it gets here I will post some impressions. Been waiting forever for a good bluetooth snes controller. So I hope this is it!
Click to expand...

Needs the original colours, inferior purple is just an eyesore. I hope they do a mega drive pad though.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Mirk said:
Its sold here and here

You can get it in the super famicom colors. here
1423543444-981641_2.jpg
Click to expand...
Want. Do we know if it will allow for button remapping? I notice it had a picture of an 8-bitty on the ad page (implying it supports 8-bitty mapping) but the problem is, the 8-bitty has shitty button maps.

This'll be great if it's supported as a HID and BT controller. Now just give me a Saturn one and I'll be happy. Or maybe I'll just hack one into a Saturn controller myself, damnit.

Edit:
WHAT
 
C

Cthulhu_Steev

Member
Mirk said:
On their site they have all their resellers http://www.8bitdo.com/buy.html

So if you are buying from Europe you can get the "proper" colors if you want. :p

Purple 4life yo
Click to expand...

If you can find a (working) Euro link that sells the PAL pad then please link it! They're either dead links, a Link to the Nes Pad (see what I did there?) or, most bizarrely*, this gavel:
entrada-en-vigor-de-la-reforma-del-codigo-penal.png



* I presume it's indicating an auction or something, preordered anyway.
 
eso76

eso76

Member
Vol5 said:
Sure. There a massive selection of shaders to play with. Be warned though, some will crash the system.
Click to expand...

Will definitely pick one.
I would like to build BUY a full size arcade cabinet for my studio one day.

Or maybe two, for vertical and horizontal games :p
 
B

Bacon

Member
stangend77 said:
I want to pick up a pi to install RetroPie on. Does anyone have any thoughts on this starter kit? Seems like a decent deal to get myself started. Thanks for any input!

http://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Original-Preloaded/dp/B008XVAVAW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1429882291&sr=8-3&keywords=raspberry+pi+2
Click to expand...

I bought that a couple weekends ago, it's worked out well for me so far. I bought a 32 gb micro sd card with it to replace the 8 gb micro sd card that comes with that kit though.

I priced out what it would cost to buy all those parts separately and it was significantly more expensive.
 
S

stangend77

Member
Bacon said:
I bought that a couple weekends ago, it's worked out well for me so far. I bought a 32 gb micro sd card with it to replace the 8 gb micro sd card that comes with that kit though.

I priced out what it would cost to buy all those parts separately and it was significantly more expensive.
Click to expand...

Just what I needed to hear. Plus I feel beyond safe trusting someone named "Bacon" to have good taste!!! Time to order!
 
eso76

eso76

Member
Might be a silly question but bear with me.

Would a 64GB Micro SD card work ? (that would accomodate all my retro goods)
 
B

Big Dog

Member
Will updating to version 3.0 wipe all the ROMs from my SD card as well? I don't want that to happen while I'm still at school... :(
 
M

Mergesort

Member
What are some good retro multiplayer games to play on this?
How easy is it to connect Xbox 360 controler, do i need the wireless dongle?
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Mergesort said:
What are some good retro multiplayer games to play on this?
How easy is it to connect Xbox 360 controler, do i need the wireless dongle?
Click to expand...

pretty much anything from Bomberman to Streets of Rage, selection is just huge for any platform it can emulate.

It should work, mos likely you will need the dongle for the 360 pad and configure it in the RetroARCH config.
 
R

Rich!

Member
anyone got any good tutorials or guides for making a handheld games console with a pi?

I'm in the UK, if that helps regarding parts.
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
M

Mergesort

Member
MRORANGE said:
pretty much anything from Bomberman to Streets of Rage, selection is just huge for any platform it can emulate.

It should work, mos likely you will need the dongle for the 360 pad and configure it in the RetroARCH config.
Click to expand...

Yeah i guess i will end up with a huge list of games to play.
I got only one dongle for my pc, isn't there some kind of bluetooth onboard the pi? Don't really want to switch around or maybe i just have to buy a second dongle.
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Mergesort said:
Yeah i guess i will end up with a huge list of games to play.
I got only one dongle for my pc, isn't there some kind of bluetooth onboard the pi? Don't really want to switch around or maybe i just have to buy a second dongle.
Click to expand...

Raspberry Pi needs Bluetooth dongle if you want to connect any devices unfortunately. you can easily get one for a few quid.
 
M

Mergesort

Member
MRORANGE said:
Raspberry Pi needs Bluetooth dongle if you want to connect any devices unfortunately. you can easily get one for a few quid.
Click to expand...

Would a simple bluetooth dongle work with a xbox 360 controler? Wouldn't want to get a real microsoft dongle, as they are most likely going to cost more.
 
S

Seik

Banned
Just pulled the trigger on a Rapsberry Pi 2 with a case for it.

I want to build it in a nice little emulator box for the future HDTV in my bedroom. :D

If it ends up well, I'll buy another set for a birthday gift to an old friend. Can't wait to tinkle with this neat little gadget.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Shit, that's a great idea. I don't know how well one can get iCade controls working on anything PC-based (because it works as a BT keyboard, with a button press being one letter and release being another... so if I push the first button, it sends a "y", then on release a "k", for example). Might be easier to just use one of those arcade->USB converters instead.

But yeah, I really, really like that idea! Super cheap and everything's there for you.
 
suikodan

suikodan

Member
I finally got RetroPie to work after wasting a microSD because the Pi froze during the process.

I have some questions after spending a lot of time on making this start but very little time actually "inside" it.

1- I guess I have to configure *each* emulators for controls as it won't take the default controls that I defined for Retroarch, is that right?
2- I started the NES emulator but I had no sound. Same thing for the DOOM port where there was no music. Lack of configuration on my part or the emulators themselves are lacking these features?
3- I guess that I have the remove any content inside the folders that I don't want to appear on the menu, right? (Like IBM or APPLE2)
4- I'm very tempted to rip open my iCade and use its controls (and an extra screen) to have my mini-cabinet. Anyone knows if I can use a i-pac board with a Pi and the iCade's controls?
 
D

dock

Member
I have a Raspberry Pi B+ that I'm not using. I originally bought it for something else, and that didn't work out, so I'd like to try this out.

One part I don't fully understand... why isn't this process more straightforward? Shouldn't it be possible to download a preconfigured image that the Pi can boot from? All Pi B+s have the exact same hardware, so shouldn't there be an image that is designed for this hardware and doesn't require any steps to get it working?

If I take the Micro SD card from someone else from this thread (with a B+), and put it in my Pi B+, shouldn't it work?
 
H

HBP

Member
dock said:
I have a Raspberry Pi B+ that I'm not using. I originally bought it for something else, and that didn't work out, so I'd like to try this out.

One part I don't fully understand... why isn't this process more straightforward? Shouldn't it be possible to download a preconfigured image that the Pi can boot from? All Pi B+s have the exact same hardware, so shouldn't there be an image that is designed for this hardware and doesn't require any steps to get it working?

If I take the Micro SD card from someone else from this thread (with a B+), and put it in my Pi B+, shouldn't it work?
Click to expand...

It's pretty simple, the instructions in the OP are great, if you want to use a bluetooth and wifi dongle it's slightly more complicated but not much. Other than the time to download the image and put it on the SD Card it is a quick process.
 
H

HBP

Member
suikodan said:
I finally got RetroPie to work after wasting a microSD because the Pi froze during the process.

I have some questions after spending a lot of time on making this start but very little time actually "inside" it.

1- I guess I have to configure *each* emulators for controls as it won't take the default controls that I defined for Retroarch, is that right?
2- I started the NES emulator but I had no sound. Same thing for the DOOM port where there was no music. Lack of configuration on my part or the emulators themselves are lacking these features?
3- I guess that I have the remove any content inside the folders that I don't want to appear on the menu, right? (Like IBM or APPLE2)
4- I'm very tempted to rip open my iCade and use its controls (and an extra screen) to have my mini-cabinet. Anyone knows if I can use a i-pac board with a Pi and the iCade's controls?
Click to expand...

1 I don't have retroarch but I just did the basic config in Retropie and it has been working in all the emulators I have tried with a PS3 controller.

2. I had a similar issue (I had no sound anywhere), I had to modify a config file to force audio out for HDMI and it fixed the issue

/boot/config.txt
uncoment or add
hdmi_drive=2
then reboot
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
dock said:
I have a Raspberry Pi B+ that I'm not using. I originally bought it for something else, and that didn't work out, so I'd like to try this out.

One part I don't fully understand... why isn't this process more straightforward? Shouldn't it be possible to download a preconfigured image that the Pi can boot from? All Pi B+s have the exact same hardware, so shouldn't there be an image that is designed for this hardware and doesn't require any steps to get it working?

If I take the Micro SD card from someone else from this thread (with a B+), and put it in my Pi B+, shouldn't it work?
Click to expand...

Yes you can swap mini sd cards on similar models.

I don't understand how the process is difficult. Just extract the files and boot the pi and chose which buttons player 1 needs.
 
G

grendelrt

Member
Any impressions on the performance of the late 2d stuff on Mame? Examples like cps2,in the hunt, demon front, etc? How about neo geo performance as well?
 
G

grendelrt

Member
MRORANGE said:
Final Burn Alpha might be better for cps2 stuff
Click to expand...

Thats cool, more curious about the horsepower of the PI 2. I posted this on another forum, you guys have any insight into this?

I was thinking of building a small emulation machine using one plus a JPac to use in my Blast City. Mainly to play some older console stuff and one off boards, like In the Hunt. Been doing some research and this is what I have found so far:

Pi 2 has composite and HDMI out stock. You can also buy Gert's VGA add on for like 9 bucks or build your own for VGA out. From what I have seen though the VGA doesnt go down to 240p. I am hoping that someone can confirm it can do 240p, if not I am thinking the following options:

1) Gert's VGA + CRT Shaders + 31khz Dsub on Blast (just need a basic scanline shader since it will be running on a 31khz CRT)
2) Gert's VGA + VGA to RGB stepdown + 15khz dsub on Blast
2a) HDMI out + HDMI to VGA box + VGA to RGB stepdown + 15khz dsub on Blast

Options 1 and 2 seem the best to limit conversions. I am not sure if the PI 2 has enough power for CRT shaders though and would prefer a natural 15khz signal.
 
B

BLUElightCory

Member
Just got my Pi 2 set up with Retropie and a couple dozen games and after a few hiccups getting the controls functioning correctly it's working great.

This is my first experience with emulators and I know they're nothing new, but I can't stop thinking about what 12 year-old me would have thought of this back in the early-mid 90's. I've got friggin' MKII and NBA Jam in my living room running on a credit card sized machine that cost $60. It's crazy if you think about how far tech has come.
 
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