How to Build a Raspberry Pi-Powered Retro Video Game Console

DIY Gaming On the Cheap

If you like retro video games, you have several options. You can notice plenty of older video games ported to newer systems and the PC (the Nintendo Switch is great for Neo Geo games, simply oddly not for NES and SNES games). You can go a offset-party classic game system like the SNES Classic Edition. You can get a cartridge-playing retro game organization like the Super Retro Trio+. You can even find an original classic game system and plug it into your TV's legacy video connectors, or into an analog-to-HDMI upconverter.

You lot tin besides build your own emulation-based retro game system with a Raspberry Pi. It's inexpensive, powerful, and easier to set than you might think. All yous need is a Raspberry Pi lath, a microSD card, a micro USB ability adapter, and a example to put it all in. And, of grade, some class of game controller. Thanks to the developers of open-source software RetroPie, the LibRetro emulation API backbone, and the EmulationStation forepart-end, turning a $35 computer board into every video game system made before 2000 is (relatively) fast and easy.

You don't need to solder anything, or write any lawmaking, or even bargain with command lines unless you really want to. At that place are plenty of options to explore and menus to dive into, though, then you should take some computer savvy before y'all brainstorm. If you aren't afraid to poke around computer settings, you'll be fine.

The Hardware

To start, you need a Raspberry Pi. If you're not familiar with Raspberry Pi, it's a series of cheap ARM-based microcomputers designed for didactics and experimentation. It will serve as the core of your retro game organization; everything else will feed the Raspberry Pi information, ability, or input/output capabilities.

At that place are several dissimilar versions of Raspberry Pi, and for video games we recommend the nigh advanced model, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. It has the fastest processor of all the Raspberry Pi boards, and includes wireless features like Bluetooth and dual-band Wi-Fi. Don't worry about a premium toll for the premium Pi; at $35, it'southward literally pocket alter more than than the lower-end models.

On its own, the Raspberry Pi doesn't come with a ability supply, and so yous'll need to supply your ain. Any micro USB power supply that tin can output ii.5A should work, and the official power supply costs but $11. Don't skimp hither; fifty-fifty if you lot tin can ability on the Raspberry Pi with your phone charger, the inconsistent current can lead to glitches and poor performance.

The Raspberry Pi doesn't have any onboard storage to speak of either, so you need to get a microSD card. Again, this is a very inexpensive investment. The RetroPie software doesn't take upwards a lot of infinite, and most older games aren't particularly big, so you don't need a huge menu. You can get past on a 16GB microSD carte, but nosotros recommend at to the lowest degree a 32GB card just to exist on the safe side. Yous tin pick 1 up for effectually $11.

Finally (for the device itself), you need a place to put the Raspberry Pi. It ships as a plain reckoner board, and it will run just fine naked, only you should actually get some sort of plastic crush to protect it from dust, wet, and getting knocked around. Raspberry Pi cases are inexpensive and plentiful, and you can even find Raspberry Pi starter sets that include the board, the power supply, a example, and usually a memory card all in one parcel.

If you want to go fancier, you tin can 3D print your own Raspberry Pi case from a slew of creative models on Thingiverse and other 3D press sites. You tin besides gild cases separately, with options for creative or cornball designs, like the very NES Classic-like Retroflag NESPie. These cases can run from $x to $25, bringing the total toll for your retro game organization to, at almost, around $90.

Necessary Accessories

You also need a game controller. RetroPie is robust in terms of controller compatibility, and if you take a PlayStation iv or Xbox One, you can use their controllers hands. Yous tin too order retro-styled game controllers, with or without analog sticks, wireless connectivity, or other features, from manufacturers like Retro-bit and 8Bitdo.

Y'all should have a keyboard on hand. It generally won't be necessary, but it will aid if you lot want to navigate system menus or change settings on your retro system.

I terminal particular: You should become yourself a standard USB drive. Whatever size (bigger is meliorate), any design, any speed. It's the easiest fashion to put games on the console.

Step I: Prepare the OS

Physically putting the arrangement together is the piece of cake office, just without an operating arrangement you lot can't actually do anything with it. That'south where RetroPie comes in. It'due south a Raspberry Pi-friendly Linux distribution with a compatible version of LibRetro's RetroArch software overlaid on acme, set to automatically jump into the emulation software you want to apply without dealing with a lot of Linux command lines on your finish.

To get-go, install the free software 7-zip and Etcher. These will permit you lot put the RetroPie software on your microSD card without whatsoever typing or circuitous commands on your part.

Go to the RetroPie website and download the latest version of the software (currently version 4.four). Make sure you get the version for the Raspberry Pie 2/3. Information technology volition download as a unmarried .img.gz file effectually 700MB. Employ 7-zip to unzip the file to an .img.

Put the microSD card in your computer. You might need a reader if your reckoner doesn't have an SD card slot and/or if your carte du jour doesn't come up with a microSD to SD adapter. Don't touch anything on the bill of fare and don't drag whatsoever files onto it. To plough this menu into a functional RetroPie installation, you need to write a full disc image onto the bill of fare.

Open Etcher and select the microSD card drive and the .img file yous unzipped. Click Starting time and the software will format the card properly and write the disc paradigm to it.

When it'southward done, Windows might prompt you to format the menu in order to use it. Don't! It'due south ready for the Raspberry Pi at present, so just take it out of your figurer.

Step 2: Build the Box

This can wait like 1 of the most daunting tasks because yous demand to piece of work with a bare circuit lath, but it's incredibly direct and like shooting fish in a barrel. Unless you're using accessory boards to build especially complicated custom devices, Raspberry Pis are finer jumpsuit and plug-and-play.

First, accept the microSD card y'all wrote the RetroPie disc image to and insert information technology into the lath's microSD carte du jour slot. Some Raspberry Pi cases offer easy access to the slot, but just in case, it'southward easiest to insert the card before yous install it, unless you're planning on juggling multiple cards with different disc images (a viable plan for Raspberry Pi users).

Second, screw the Raspberry Pi board into your instance. The case should come up with compatible screws. If you 3D print your ain, bank check what screws are needed. And then close up the instance, probably with a few more screws.

Attach an HDMI cable, a game controller, and your keyboard into the appropriate ports. Connect the HDMI cable to a Goggle box or monitor.

That's it! Your box is built.

Footstep Three: Plow It On (And Set Up the Controller)

When everything'due south set up, plug the power adapter into the wall to power on the Raspberry Pi. If you use an optional power switchboard or a instance with a congenital-in ability switch, press or flip the switch to plough information technology on. Without a split switchboard, the Raspberry Pi powers on as soon as yous plug it in.

Information technology might take a few minutes to prepare everything up the first time. The screen should display a startup process, showing Linux commands getting executed earlier the RetroPi logo appears.

The system will prompt yous to fix your gamepad, which should exist plugged into 1 of the Raspberry Pi'southward USB ports. Follow the instructions to map your controller's inputs to the appropriate commands on the organisation. This manual scale helps make sure that buttons do what they should be doing in RetroPi's Linux environment. Don't worry if you lot press the incorrect button; you can reconfigure your controller afterward, and accept a keyboard as a backup input method if yous actually need to reset things.

When everything is prepare up, the RetroPie main menu will appear. You tin't do much from hither now, but if you want to look through the different settings menus, feel free (only be careful before making any changes).

Before nosotros motility on to the next step, plug your USB bulldoze into the arrangement and wait a infinitesimal. Then pull the drive out.

Okay, now that that's done, press the button you configured as Starting time on your gamepad, select Quit, and shut downwards the Raspberry Pi. Information technology's of import to run through the shutdown procedure before you plough off or unplug the organization; information technology'south just like a regular computer that way.

Step Iv: Load the Games

We tin can't tell y'all where to get roms, so hither'southward the interface of the SNES Classic!

RetroPie can play games from several dozen classic computers and game consoles, thanks to LibRetro'southward dorsum-end. Yous can play NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, Neo Geo, and even Atari Jaguar and Virtual Boy games, if you can discover them. We can't tell you how, because that'southward very much a legally grayness-to-blackness surface area. All the same, If you have a method of pulling game images from your own cartridges, you can put them on the RetroPie easily, putting your entire classic game collection into a tiny box.

Yous tin can besides play older calculator games on the RetroPie, which has many more options for legitimate imaging and importing. Archetype DOS games, for example, can be purchased on GOG.com. GOG configures DOS games to run in Windows using the DOSBOX emulator, but the games themselves are completely intact and can be put on the RetroPie.

Likewise PC/DOS, RetroPie supports systems like the Commodore 64, MSX, and ZX Spectrum. If you have your original disks and a drive that tin can read them, you tin can use them to create disk images that can be played past RetroPie.

I told you lot to put your USB drive in the RetroPie organisation and then take information technology out to gear up the drive for games. RetroPie detects any USB drives y'all plug in and adds the advisable folders for all of the game systems information technology supports. When you plug the drive back into your computer, it should have a new retropie folder. Nether that will be three folders: BIOS, configs, and roms.

BIOS is for the system files required by certain emulators. Similar game roms, we can't tell you where to observe them, simply they aren't necessary for every platform.

Configs holds private emulator configurations. This can be useful if you need to tweak settings, but you lot don't need to touch them right now.

Roms is where the games get. Every supported platform your retro system tin currently play volition take its own folder. Not every available emulator is installed on RetroPie by default, and then if you want to play something actually esoteric you'll need to tell RetroPie to install it first. The most common systems should exist bachelor, though.

Whatever game roms or executables y'all want to play, and however you get them, put the files in their respective folders.

When your USB drive is full, take it out of your computer and plug information technology into your retro system. Turn the system back on and wait. Seriously, wait. RetroPie will automatically copy everything from the retropie binder on your drive to the microSD card, and depending on how many games you want to put on it and how big the files are, information technology tin can take a few minutes to transfer everything. Unless your USB drive has a read/write light on it, you won't get whatsoever indication when it'southward washed, so you might desire to go some java or something.

After a skillful wait, pull the USB drive out. Press Start, select Quit, and cull Reset Emulationstation. This will refresh RetroPie's interface and display whatsoever games copied to the arrangement.

Step Five: First Playing

At present you can play your games. RetroPie organizes the games added to its library onto private menu screens for each organisation. Pressing left or right on the gamepad flips betwixt the game libraries of whatever console or computer RetroPie supports, every bit long as you lot uploaded games to it. Empty libraries won't bear witness up, then if you only meet the RetroPie screen and can't go to individual systems, go through stride four again.

Select a game and press the button you mapped to A to kickoff it. RetroPie volition load the relevant emulator and start running the game. From hither any console or handheld game, or any computer game that supports gamepad controls, should just piece of work with your controller, since you already mapped the buttons on information technology.

When y'all're washed playing a game, agree the Hotkey Toggle button (usually Select, depending on how you gear up your controls) and press Start. This is the hotkey combination to quit your game and go to the principal menu. You tin can too concur down the Hotkey button and press the right shoulder button to save your game state, or Hotkey and the left shoulder button to load your game state. The RetroPie Configuration folio explains all of the hotkey combinations y'all can use, past default.

That's it! You now have a retro game organization that can play nearly any video game made earlier 2000 (as long as you lot can legitimately load it onto the microSD carte).

Customizing and Fixing

At present that your retro system is fix up, you tin can kickoff customizing the interface. You also should be aware of how to gear up whatever bug that might come up. In fact, you might have already tried to play a game and it acted weird, or looked stretched-out. These are easy fixes, simply you need to swoop into RetroPi'due south bill of fare system. If you desire to update RetroPie or any of its emulators in the future, or download themes and customize the look of your menus, you should as well set up network connectivity. You don't need an internet connection to utilize your retro game organisation, only it's nice to have for maintenance.

The RetroPie bill of fare offers access to near configuration and setup options yous demand to fix and tweak your organization. Yet, because this is a Raspberry Pi-friendly Linux distribution running a split up graphical forepart-end that taps into dozens of carve up emulators through a separate API, the menus can feel a bit convoluted.

For system-level settings including internet connections, select Raspi-Config in the RetroPie carte du jour. This will dump you into a very stark text-based menu system. Don't worry; this is just what Linux looks similar naked. You can even so utilise the direction pad on your gamepad to choose menu items; pressing up and downward navigates the agile list on the screen, and pressing left and right switches between buttons similar OK, Finish, and Cancel. Y'all tin can as well use a keyboard to navigate the menus, if it'southward more comfortable (and if y'all desire to employ the onboard file manager to manually browse files, a keyboard is vital).

Option ii in Raspi-Config is Network Options. This lets you set up your network connection. If you accept a Raspberry Pi iii Model B or B+, you can connect to your network over Wi-Fi. You need to break out your keyboard for this step, considering y'all need to manually enter your network'south SSID, and so your password. One time that data is in, your system should be able to connect to the internet for updates and downloads. If you lot have a Raspberry Pi 2 or earlier, or want to use a wired internet connectedness, you can also just plug an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on the board.

For basic graphical and emulation issues, the Configuration Editor is your get-to carte du jour. It lets yous gear up bones emulator defaults, or tweak each individual emulator. The most common event with a fresh RetroPie system is stretched-out games. RetroPie defaults to emulating games at 16:9, while virtually classic games were designed to be played at 4:3. This is an easy prepare in the Configuration Editor, found in the RetroPie carte. This is another text-based configuration screen, like Raspi-Config. Select option i, then option 0, then pick 1 (Aspect Ratio). Changing 16:9 to four:3 will fix any stretched-out classic games you want to play. When you're done, press correct on the direction pad so the highlighted button says Cancel, and cancel your way support the menu tree until information technology puts you back in the EmulationStation graphical forepart-end.

Speaking of the graphical forepart-end, if you connect your system to the internet yous can cull different themes to supervene upon the fairly plain default pick. In the RetroPie menu, select ES Themes. From here y'all can download any of dozens of different themes. One time they're installed on the system, you can select them in the UI Settings menu. I quite like RetroHursty69/magazinemadness, which gives every game library its own classic video game magazine pattern.

Have Fun

RetroPie is very powerful and flexible, and in that location are plenty of things to play with to customize how games await and feel. And, of form, y'all can at present play games from dozens of consoles, handhelds, and computers on this little box, and you built it all yourself! Have fun!

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/microsoft-xbox-one-1/28378/how-to-build-a-raspberry-pi-powered-retro-video-game-console

Posted by: fraziertiontems.blogspot.com

Share this post