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Raspberry Pi Gaming thread - Cheap emulation and gaming projects

J

JP

Member
ZeroCoin said:
I would just install the retropie image. Here is the RetroPie site. It won't run a full desktop environment, so it saves some space and overhead. If you actually want a desktop environment though, Pixel is a fine choice.

I haven't needed to do any overclocking for the stuff I'm playing, but you may as well if you have heatsinks. Not sure what a safe overclock is without active cooling, but hopefully someone else can chime in.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, I managed to find that RetroPi image not long ago so I'll install that tomorrow. I want it to be as close to a console experience as possible so I'd much rather it booted straight into it..

I'm assuming that because everything is booted from the SD card that I'd be able to have a second SD card with a full OS installed so that I could choose which to boot into? Obviously, after powering down. I do want to learn more about the Pi so I think that it would be handy to be able to do that.

People do seem to overclock their systems but I'm not really sure of the real world benefits in RetroPi, unless somebody on here gives me a good reason not to I'm very tempted to get one of the cases with a fan built in. This was just after the Pi 3 launched but this feller has managed to overclock the CPU from 1.2GHz to 1.45GHz and the SDRAM from 400MHz to 500MHz only using heatsinks like I'll have. What I am reading though is that it can be really variable from Pi to Pi, so what is stable on one isn't necessarily stable on all of them.

I'm not wanting to do anything risky and it all comes to how much of an advantage I'd get in a real wired situation.
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
^^

IMO Overclocking the Pi3 for the purposes of Retropie is not worth it. You'll see some minor improvements in performance on a handful of N64 games, but that's about it. Everything else will run at 100% speed no problem on a stock Pi3 using the latest emulators on Retropie.

The Pi3 already necessitates a heatsink at stock clock speeds if it's in a case, and overclocking will just crank the heat up to even more absurd levels necessitating a fan in many cases.

Unless you want to eek out a few more frames-per-second in a couple of N64 games (that still don't run all that well either way), I recommend keeping everything at stock speeds.

In my experience even mild overclocks can lead to more frequent hangups and crashes as well, so keeping things stock will net you better stability too.
 
Z

ZeroCoin

Member
JP said:
Thanks for that, I managed to find that RetroPi image not long ago so I'll install that tomorrow. I want it to be as close to a console experience as possible so I'd much rather it booted straight into it..
Click to expand...

This will work well for that. I'd recommend setting up a splash screen in the setup once you get going. The less of the Linux boot process you see, the more it feels like your own custom console.

JP said:
I'm assuming that because everything is booted from the SD card that I'd be able to have a second SD card with a full OS installed so that I could choose which to boot into? Obviously, after powering down. I do want to learn more about the Pi so I think that it would be handy to be able to do that.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. One of the best things about the pi in my opinion, is that everything that defines what that pi is doing is stored on that card. Can lead to problems if you don't have a reliable card obviously, but it also lets you easily backup a card or swap cards to try something totally different out. Not sure Retropie is for you? Back it up and put Recalbox on the card. Want something more desktop like? Slap in a card with Pixel on it and give it a spin.
 
K

Koren

Member
ZeroCoin said:
Absolutely. One of the best things about the pi in my opinion, is that everything that defines what that pi is doing is stored on that card. Can lead to problems if you don't have a reliable card obviously, but it also lets you easily backup a card or swap cards to try something totally different out. Not sure Retropie is for you? Back it up and put Recalbox on the card. Want something more desktop like? Slap in a card with Pixel on it and give it a spin.
Click to expand...
Well, you can do the same with any computer ;) If you don't want to have several HDD, you can use a bootable key and an external storage to backup with ghosts (and for testing, booting an OS on a USB key is fine)

But yes, that's really nice and simple on a device where the system is on an SD Card.
 
Z

ZeroCoin

Member
Koren said:
Well, you can do the same with any computer ;) If you don't want to have several HDD, you can use a bootable key and an external storage to backup with ghosts (and for testing, booting an OS on a USB key is fine)

But yes, that's really nice and simple on a device where the system is on an SD Card.
Click to expand...

Was referring more to some competitor boards that include some on board storage, but sure.
 
J

JP

Member
ZeroCoin said:
This will work well for that. I'd recommend setting up a splash screen in the setup once you get going. The less of the Linux boot process you see, the more it feels like your own custom console.

Absolutely. One of the best things about the pi in my opinion, is that everything that defines what that pi is doing is stored on that card. Can lead to problems if you don't have a reliable card obviously, but it also lets you easily backup a card or swap cards to try something totally different out. Not sure Retropie is for you? Back it up and put Recalbox on the card. Want something more desktop like? Slap in a card with Pixel on it and give it a spin.
Click to expand...
Sounds perfect, thanks for that.
ScOULaris said:
^^

IMO Overclocking the Pi3 for the purposes of Retropie is not worth it. You'll see some minor improvements in performance on a handful of N64 games, but that's about it. Everything else will run at 100% speed no problem on a stock Pi3 using the latest emulators on Retropie.

The Pi3 already necessitates a heatsink at stock clock speeds if it's in a case, and overclocking will just crank the heat up to even more absurd levels necessitating a fan in many cases.

Unless you want to eek out a few more frames-per-second in a couple of N64 games (that still don't run all that well either way), I recommend keeping everything at stock speeds.

In my experience even mild overclocks can lead to more frequent hangups and crashes as well, so keeping things stock will net you better stability too.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's exactly want I wanted to clarify although I was hoping for a different answer.

I'll use the heatsinks, make sure it's getting cold air and hold on for the rumoured Pi 4 to take care of what I was hoping overclocking would do.
 
B

BlueScrote

Member
I think it's been touched on a bit, I'm having the oddest problem with retroarch randomly deciding what pad is player one and what pad is player two. Normally it seems to pick player one as the bluetooth controller that isn't even connected.
 
J

JP

Member
Had a very quick go on this and it seems pretty simple to get everything up and running although I haven;t really configured anything apart from getting rid of the overscan in the Pi itself.

How do I get into the RetroArch settings when I have a game playing? I just want to try a few efferent settings for the games.
 
I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
MRORANGE said:
It's doable, you just need the right tools, I haven't finished mine due to time constraints and not having the right track bing to finish some parts off.
Click to expand...

I'm not very handy with a soldering iron. I'm thinking about asking a friend to help. He's quite the 3D printer and home-hacker type.
 
I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
MRORANGE said:
If your friend can solder and has a 3D printer then try this project, it's not exactly $20 but it's very cheap to make:

http://www.instructables.com/id/20-Portable-Raspberry-Pi-Game-Console/?ALLSTEPS
Click to expand...

I'm not adverse to spending some cash, actually. But I did balk at the $200-$300 assembled ones on eBay.

The beauty of this is that if I can get hardware I like, I'm perfectly adept at all the software side, and can make this exactly what I want. That's worth a bit of money to me.

EDIT: PIGRRL2 would be perfectly acceptable, I think. Something that could play SNES, NES and PSX, plus select MAME titles would be great. MAME would need a bit of configuring I think, but I could do it on a per-title basis.
 
V

vato_loco

Member
I'm loving my RetroPie so far. It works like a charm with everything I threw at it so far, but I confess I haven't tried N64 games yet.

One thing I noticed is that using a PS3 controller with Bluetooth introduces very noticeable lag. My other controller is a DualShock 2 with USB adapter and it works like a friggin' charm, but switching to the DS3, it is incredibly noticeable.

Other than that, it's working perfectly!
 
S

spazchicken

Member
Icebergslim said:
Im so so so tired of this shit. The wife wanted kodi added to the box. I installed kodi and it completely screwed up my attract mode set up. I said whatever Ill just using the regular ES.

The problem then became how do I hide the stupid Retropie menu from my kids. Well come to find out there is a kid friendly package you can download. After installing this bullshit I see it doesnt actually do anything besides remove options from the start menu.
Since It doesnt do what I needed it to do I uninstalled it. Once I exited, the Pi froze. Forced to reboot I pull the plug and bam I get the boot screen image but it just doesnt start. From experience I know the only way to fix this is to start over. All my hours and days of work gone because of this stupid fucking package.
I think I'm done with Retropie and Raspberry pi in general. This has been nothing but a headache.
There are to many dumb ways to screw up your work. Im going to pay some fucking scalper and just get an nes mini. What an absolute waste of time.

Edit: And now I cant get my controllers to function correctly. I spent so much time getting this to work now its broken all over again. I'm starting really wish I never bothered with mess.
Click to expand...
I did the process three or four times due to this same issue. In the end I just loaded up what I really wanted and called it a day. I don't plan to try to add anything or tinker with it ever again.

Hopefully this issue is fixed with version 4 if not an update for version 3.
 
J

JP

Member
I'm loving tis so far, I'm even thinking about getting a second Pi 3 in a few weeks to build out first Kodi box...maybe, possibly. 😉
Le Colonel said:
You can even use a 128go card on a pi3. No issues on mine
Click to expand...
I'm possibly thinking of doing this at some point, I haven't quite decided whether 64Gb or 128GB is the way to go. Although it's worked fine for you, has anybody else on here had issues or are there known issues with them?

I'm correct in thinking that SD cards on the Pi 3 have are physically limited around 20MBs due to the hardware use? I know that SD cards never really attain their quoted speeds so if I'm buying a card rated at 45-48MBs, I'm not going to be losing anything by doing?

Also, I had an interesting issue yesterday while trying to delete ROMs. I deleted them in RetroPie itself but found that they would still be there after a reboot? I then did the same in File Manager but again found that they returned after a reboot.

What am I doing wrong here? It's probably something really simple that I'm just not getting.
 
Z

ZeroCoin

Member
JP said:
I'm correct in thinking that SD cards on the Pi 3 have are physically limited around 20MBs due to the hardware use? I know that SD cards never really attain their quoted speeds so if I'm buying a card rated at 45-48MBs, I'm not going to be losing anything by doing?

Also, I had an interesting issue yesterday while trying to delete ROMs. I deleted them in RetroPie itself but found that they would still be there after a reboot? I then did the same in File Manager but again found that they returned after a reboot.

What am I doing wrong here? It's probably something really simple that I'm just not getting.
Click to expand...

As far as SD speeds, here's a link to some benchmarks of various cards. Pi SD benchmarks

Some of the changes to metadata are queued up and written before a shutdown. A friend of mine would change some ROM names in the editor, but they would always change back when he used it again. Make sure that you are shutting down / restarting the system through the quit menu.
 
Z

ZeroCoin

Member
Psxdad said:
What do you guys use for a Genesis controller? Doesn't feel quite right using a SNES 8bitdo.
Click to expand...

I just suck it up and use the 8bitdo. It's off for sure, but I'm finding that I get used to it pretty quickly. I love the Genesis, but the 3 button controller was never amazing even back then. I just wish there was an easier way to switch to the 6 button controller inputs using the select button or something along those lines.
 
J

JP

Member
I'm thinking of buying a small wireless keyboard for the Pi 3 as the wired one that I'm currently using is an absolute pain when I have check on my Mac for information as it's quote some distance away.

Do people recommend buying a bluetooth keyboard or buying a 2.4Ghz wireless model? I appreciate that I'd have to use a dongle with the second, which is a slight inconvenience but not really an issue but what are the benefits of going with one over the other?
 
Dragoshi1

Dragoshi1

Member
Hey all, I'm having an issue trying to get Doom 1 and 2 to launch.

I followed this video to the letter, yet in the end, when I try to launch a game, it goes to a black screen after that grey config box opens, and then goes back to the Retropie Ports menu.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, exactly, I even placed the script this guy made in the proper place, and everything is named properly.

Any clues?
 
Z

ZeroCoin

Member
JP said:
I'm thinking of buying a small wireless keyboard for the Pi 3 as the wired one that I'm currently using is an absolute pain when I have check on my Mac for information as it's quote some distance away.

Do people recommend buying a bluetooth keyboard or buying a 2.4Ghz wireless model? I appreciate that I'd have to use a dongle with the second, which is a slight inconvenience but not really an issue but what are the benefits of going with one over the other?
Click to expand...

Here's the keyboard that I use for the most part. But I haven't tried to use a Bluetooth keyboard so I can't really speak to whether that would be better out not. I prefer to just use a USB dongle and not worry about pairing or support. Also use it for my PS4.
 
D

derFeef

Member
JP said:
I'm thinking of buying a small wireless keyboard for the Pi 3 as the wired one that I'm currently using is an absolute pain when I have check on my Mac for information as it's quote some distance away.

Do people recommend buying a bluetooth keyboard or buying a 2.4Ghz wireless model? I appreciate that I'd have to use a dongle with the second, which is a slight inconvenience but not really an issue but what are the benefits of going with one over the other?
Click to expand...

I have a K400r and it works fantastic with the pi. Just pair it once on the PC and then insert the dongle into the pi - even the touchpad works out of the gate and everything. I can only recommend it.
 
C

Chris R

Member
How well does the Zero run stuff like SNES? Or would it be more limited to previous gens/handhelds?

Thinking of doing something like the new Zero + Battery in a case the size of the GB Micro...
 
S

stangend77

Member
Chris R said:
How well does the Zero run stuff like SNES? Or would it be more limited to previous gens/handhelds?

Thinking of doing something like the new Zero + Battery in a case the size of the GB Micro...
Click to expand...

I made a zero running Recalbox for my girlfirend, and it plays SNES, NES, and Genesis great. Not sure on any SuperFX carts or such, but we have put it through the paces on the Marios and Road Rashes extensively with no issue.
 
E

Eric_S

Member
Lettuce said:
RPi4 announcement in coming then
Click to expand...

Sure.

Some time in the unknown future. ;)

RPi3 A+ is next in line I would wager. Then we'll see how long it'll take until they can get another good SoC with the level of openess for things like the GPU that they want. Or if they will simply commission a 40 =>20/28nm die shrink and take the power savings/ clock increases and be happy with that.
 
L

Lettuce

Member
Card Boy said:
There will be, they said this before the Pi 2 aswell and if they kept to their word we would of only just got the Pi 2 this year. Competition will force them.
Click to expand...

The thing is the competition is beating them already on a hardware front but its the community behind the Pi that make it so popular and successful
 
V

vato_loco

Member
How does the RetroPie handle GameCube and Wii games? Does it hold up well? I'm looking to play some Zelda and Metroid games.

Running on a Pi3.
 
A

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
vato_loco said:
How does the RetroPie handle GameCube and Wii games? Does it hold up well? I'm looking to play some Zelda and Metroid games.

Running on a Pi3.
Click to expand...

Considering N64 emulation isn't perfect, I would say not well/at all.
 
R

R1CHO

Member
vato_loco said:
So only the x86 systems can support the dolphin, then.

Arse, I was really hoping I could play me some Zelda.
Click to expand...

No. There is an Android port and some powerful SOCs like tegra x1 and co. are able to run GameCube games pretty well.

Pi is just not on that league.
 
J

JP

Member
Has anybody here had issues with ModMyPi in the UK?

I ordered some hardware from them last week for delivery today, they delivered it but the box is empty. now they're wanting me to pay to send the box back to them before they'll deal with it.

EDIT:
It seems to be sorted out now, although I'll know fully in a couple of days when I hopefully receive what I've paid for.
 
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