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Raspberry Pi Gaming thread - Cheap emulation and gaming projects

Sh0k

Member
New to the Raspberry Pi, received my Raspberry Pi 3 kit yesterday, set it up and everything is working fine with the Buffalo SNES controller while running SNES games. I tried to run MAME games and besides the controller, I need to have a USB keyboard connected to input the coin insert, start game and quit the game back to the Retropie menu; is there a way to program these inputs as a combination key presses on the Buffalo SNES controller?
 
New to the Raspberry Pi, received my Raspberry Pi 3 kit yesterday, set it up and everything is working fine with the Buffalo SNES controller while running SNES games. I tried to run MAME games and besides the controller, I need to have a USB keyboard connected to input the coin insert, start game and quit the game back to the Retropie menu; is there a way to program these inputs as a combination key presses on the Buffalo SNES controller?

SELECT and OPTIONS (or equivalent) should be set up for coin and player one start in mame, R2 should get you to the TAB menu and (I think, from memory) SELECT plus Y (equivalent to TRIANGLE on PS4 pad) should quit the emulator - as long as you haven't changed any hot key settings/
 

shaowebb

Member
Finally got my graphics fully Designed for my bartop. I'll post the side panel design a after work. It's gonna be a kiosk setup. No arcade stick. Nes30 pro controllers with a nice logo of them for the arcade to match.

Anyone know a good place to order the graphics in a high quality print online? Unsure where to go for arcade sticker panels.
 

Sh0k

Member
SELECT and OPTIONS (or equivalent) should be set up for coin and player one start in mame, R2 should get you to the TAB menu and (I think, from memory) SELECT plus Y (equivalent to TRIANGLE on PS4 pad) should quit the emulator - as long as you haven't changed any hot key settings/

Thanks for the reply, is this the default config in Retropie? Im usin the Mame4All emulator and none of the combinations work to start or quit a game, always need to input 5 in the keyboard to insert a coin, 1 to start the game and ESC to quit the game. Once I press 5 and 1 in the keyboard, I can play the game with the SNES pad. Haven't changed any hot key settings.
 
Thanks for the reply, is this the default config in Retropie? Im usin the Mame4All emulator and none of the combinations work to start or quit a game, always need to input 5 in the keyboard to insert a coin, 1 to start the game and ESC to quit the game. Once I press 5 and 1 in the keyboard, I can play the game with the SNES pad. Haven't changed any hot key settings.

for mame you can change all inputs from the TAB menu, I'm sure it is default set to R2 trigger button from there you can change coin buttons and controls etc. if that's not working I would take a look at the hot keys settings - I use an XB1 pad and a HRAP Kai IV and the hot keys just worked for me. It might be worth plugging in a USB keyboard while you're getting set up.
 

Sh0k

Member
for mame you can change all inputs from the TAB menu, I'm sure it is default set to R2 trigger button from there you can change coin buttons and controls etc. if that's not working I would take a look at the hot keys settings - I use an XB1 pad and a HRAP Kai IV and the hot keys just worked for me. It might be worth plugging in a USB keyboard while you're getting set up.

It may be that the SNES pad Im using only have Left and Right triggers, not extras L2 and R2 like in the XBOX pad. I'm going to play around with the MAME setup when I get home to see if I can setup a combination of triggers. Thanks a lot for your help!
 

suikodan

Member
Got an icade from few years back brand new.

What do I need or recommended parts to build a retro emulator with icade?

I did that two years ago...

In short:
- 9 or 10 inches LCD screen (had to use a saw on each side of the iCade for it to fit though)
- USB joystick connected to the joystick's controls
- USB Soundbar
- Rpi2 with Retropie

extra:
- BT controller and BT joypad
- Power Switch
- Added a back door and a bottom panel to the iCade to hide the stuff and hold the cables

It was a fun project

636D1DB4-3AD5-4B57-B228-71BD00034A9A_zps2avlmdvk.jpg


FF214BD2-BA5C-475B-88F7-EDCAEEB250F2_zpsv4yurdl1.jpg


57C8332B-91EA-4672-BF9C-5A167E1A468E_zpsrp1wq2md.jpg
 

shaowebb

Member
Okay. Just got home. Here's the sidepanel design I worked up for my bartop Pi Arcade. It'll be kiosk setup which means the controllers will have mounts they can rest on at the front of the cabinet and no arcade stick, but a top plate with a decorative logo that matches the side panel. Using 8bitdo NES30 pros so I matched the logo to them.
Still need to find a good print service online to get my artwork from though. I may have a place to do lexan up for a backlit marquee with this graphic though.


Also this was my alternate idea. Goin 80s. Instead of red t molding switch to pink and rock this. Would probably deserve led's or something though and its better suited to a stick build with arcadey stuff in mind than what I'm wanting to do which is a bartop for console titles and to rock my nes30 pros.
 

Godcannon

Member
Is there any official portable pi? Surprised I am not finding any.


Raspiboy. It was a kickstarter. Someone from work decided to build an arcade cabinet instead and sold me the one they backed and just got in today, it's in the mail. Can't wait to try it out.
 

bluehat9

Member
So my friend ordered a kit from amazon, but the sd card comes with noobs pre-installed? Do we just wipe it for retropie? When I made mine I just had a fresh blank sd card.
 

Sykotik

Member
So my friend ordered a kit from amazon, but the sd card comes with noobs pre-installed? Do we just wipe it for retropie? When I made mine I just had a fresh blank sd card.

Mine came with NOOBS, as well. From within NOOBS I connected to my Wi-Fi, and then installed Recalbox. It gives you quite a few options on OSes to choose from, though. Recalbox is retroarch + emulationstation + kodi.

Recalbox has worked well for me, but, as I understand it, it's a bit behind on the latest updates, though it seems the latest version is coming "soon".

You can install retropie using noobs as well, but you can just google how to do that, if that's what you want. Or, you can just format it and do it the way you did it on yours.

Edit: I want to emphasize how easy it was to use NOOBS. It literally just opens and gives you a list of OSes you can choose to install, even multiple OSes on a single card that you can choose to boot into when the Pi boots up. When you connect to Wi-Fi it gives you even more choices. Recalbox had everything I wanted, so I stuck with that.
 

Sh0k

Member
for mame you can change all inputs from the TAB menu, I'm sure it is default set to R2 trigger button from there you can change coin buttons and controls etc. if that's not working I would take a look at the hot keys settings - I use an XB1 pad and a HRAP Kai IV and the hot keys just worked for me. It might be worth plugging in a USB keyboard while you're getting set up.

Quick update, accessed the MAME config menu with a keyboard and from there I setup SELECT and START as insert coin and P1 start, SELECT+ START to reset back to the UI. It works perfect with the SNES controller now, thanks a lot for your help!
 

BriGuy

Member
So my friend ordered a kit from amazon, but the sd card comes with noobs pre-installed? Do we just wipe it for retropie? When I made mine I just had a fresh blank sd card.
I reformatted the card, downloaded the Retropie image from the official website, and dragged and dropped it on the sd card. Then I just plugged it into the pi and it was done.
 
Quick update, accessed the MAME config menu with a keyboard and from there I setup SELECT and START as insert coin and P1 start, SELECT+ START to reset back to the UI. It works perfect with the SNES controller now, thanks a lot for your help!

Glad you got it all sorted :)
 

ZoronMaro

Member
So I've been interested in making a Pi box for emulation and I have a couple basic questions.

1) It seems like RetroPi is what most people are using, I assume it's optimized for Pi's and has the best compatibility and stuff right? Is there any reason I would use one of the other distros in the OP like recalbox?

2) I'm definitely going to be dumping my PS isos and be interested in testing the more experimental emulators so I'd like to have the ability to overclock. Looking at cases for this purpose will any case with a fan be fine? I read a fan does more than a heatsink for these and apparently a lot of cases are too small to fit both. If anyone has any recommendations that'd be ace as well.

3) I'd prefer a wireless controller and the 8bitdo controllers seem to be well regarded around here so that should be fine right? This isn't really a question after I saw the thread dedicated to shilling 8bitdo.
 

Chinbo37

Member
I know this isn't the right thread but if I wanted to build an itx Windows based emulation pc what are the minimum specs to emulate everything up through ps2 and Wii cpu and gpu wise?

Would a new i3 and gtx 1050 ti be enough?
 

c0de

Member
I know this isn't the right thread but if I wanted to build an itx Windows based emulation pc what are the minimum specs to emulate everything up through ps2 and Wii cpu and gpu wise?

Would a new i3 and gtx 1050 ti be enough?

Depends on if you want to up resolution but you would be generally fine with that.
 

snack

Member
how do playstation games perform on a stock retropie3? right now, i have snes, and arcade/neogeo games running smoothly like butter. wondering if psx would be smooth as well?
 

Drain You

Member
Raspiboy. It was a kickstarter. Someone from work decided to build an arcade cabinet instead and sold me the one they backed and just got in today, it's in the mail. Can't wait to try it out.

I'm really surprised there hasn't been a really solid handheld build put up for sale as a non kickstarter. I really want to make a portable pi I just never can decide on a good enough case. Raspiboy is might be the nicest one I've seen yet that was made specifically for a pi
 

snack

Member
I had problems with my controllers so I reset all my input configurations by going to "Manage Packages -> Core Packages -> emulationstation -> Configuration or
Configuration / Tools -> emulationstation" and chose the option to Clear/Reset Emulation Station input configuration. I reconfigured my snes buffalo controller, the retro arch RGUI (start+x) isn't working as well as other things like loading, saving states, resetting game and quitting game. I am wondering if I need to do an additional step to enable all these joypad hotkeys again?
 
3) I'd prefer a wireless controller and the 8bitdo controllers seem to be well regarded around here so that should be fine right? This isn't really a question after I saw the thread dedicated to shilling 8bitdo.

Another option is to use Dualshock 3's. I prefer them to the 8bitdo tbh.
 
I had problems with my controllers so I reset all my input configurations by going to "Manage Packages -> Core Packages -> emulationstation -> Configuration or
Configuration / Tools -> emulationstation" and chose the option to Clear/Reset Emulation Station input configuration. I reconfigured my snes buffalo controller, the retro arch RGUI (start+x) isn't working as well as other things like loading, saving states, resetting game and quitting game. I am wondering if I need to do an additional step to enable all these joypad hotkeys again?

In emulation station, press start and configure the controller. The last key it'll ask you to setup is the HOTKEY. The HOTKEY is the button you pair with to do the shortcuts. Default is SELECT on an SNES style controller, but you can set it to START or anything else.
 
I didn't have have time to read this thread yet, but has anyone gotten this crazy thing working:

http://www.daftmike.com/2016/07/NESPi.html?m=1

It loads NFC carts and starts the games from that!! Seems abandoned and incomplete but there are instructions. I'd love to build one myself. Nintendo should have made their Classic Systems with these cute little "amiibo" NFC carts.

And damn, even the cool NES Classic like cases are marked up triple on eBay:

http://retroflag.com/
 

Tendo

Member
When I am looking at cases I see some have fans and some don't. If I'm playing SNES games do I need to worry about getting a case with a fan?
 

ZoronMaro

Member
Hmm, might be fine with just heatsinks for SNES, but I don't know with no airflow. Have you looked at something like the Flirc case that uses the whole case as a heatsink?

How would this compare to something with lots of airflow? Or is the reasoning that since the whole thing is a heatsink if you really need to you can just stick this under a giant room fan or something?
 

19Kilo

Member
How would this compare to something with lots of airflow? Or is the reasoning that since the whole thing is a heatsink if you really need to you can just stick this under a giant room fan or something?

I think the idea with the case is that it is completely passive, no need for a fan. And ambient room air should be enough to keep the case cool. I don't know how a heatsink+fan combo inside a case would compare to the flirc, but ETA Prime did a video a while back comparing no heatsink to an ebay heatsink to the flirc case and the results look pretty good.
 

Godcannon

Member
Thanks!

So It does not come with the actual pi?

Mine came with a Pie Zero, as well as all the other pieces to assemble. It seems like the only thing I needed was a charger, which I had several of already so wasn't a big deal.

Here's the site with more and better info.

http://www.8bcraft.com

I'm still making some tweaks, but LOVE it so far.

As per usual, you gotta read the instructions carefully and have a little patience, but it's SO worth it imo.
 

RetroGreg

Member
FIIIIINALLY starting my two player bartop.
Hope to get a lot more done tomorrow.
Debating between 6 and 8 buttons!

4519219398823164920-abds0l.jpg

6 buttons. Anything requiring 8 should be played with a controller. It will look better with 6 too.

Edit: Forgot to say good luck with the build! You're going to have a great time!
 

IMACOMPUTA

Member
I got a cabinet build thats shaping up, but I really would like to setup a nice external plate on this bartop arcade that has both a power switch for the Raspberry Pi as well as the volume controls for the speakers.

Looking for any suggestions here folks. If you got a link to a switch that inline plugs onto the standard Raspberry pi power cable that I can mount externally to the case of this cabinet it'd be a big help. Ideally If I could have it setup like a computer where the back of the cabinet has a detachable power cable that is wired up after the switch that the Raspberry pi plugs into it'd be awesome because then I could pack my cables seperate from my cab if I move.

Just looking for hardware hints and tips here folks. New to this whole thing and while the woodworking is easy for me and the PCB stuff from my arcade stick modding is easy as well, I got no clue how to search for switches and volume knobs setups to mount to this case.

You can cut an extension cord (or power strip if you need more than one outlet) and wire it to this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ME5YAPK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I used one of these and it works really well:
19105915_974533506889fns0w.jpg

19059874_974533586729n4s34.jpg


6 buttons. Anything requiring 8 should be played with a controller. It will look better with 6 too.

Edit: Forgot to say good luck with the build! You're going to have a great time!

Yeah, thanks for the input. You're right. I only wanted them for PSX games that use L2/R2, but they probably won't be used often and will take up space. Maybe I'll do pinball side buttons since I'll have some to spare.
 

Psxdad

Member
I know you can store roms on an external drive but can you run the OS and everything using one? As in you don't need an ad card at all?
 

Sheppard

Member
Does anyone have a tutorial or video on how I can make a power/reset switch for the Pi?

Basically, I would like the power button and the Reset switch to work on my SNES.
 
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