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Show Notes
In lieu of the ever-unattainable Mini NES, Graev decided to build himself a Retropie out of a Raspberry Pi. He showed it to me this afternoon and I knew we had to devote this week's QuickCast to discussing this cool new toy.
Here's what we chat about this week:
- The gist of what a Retropie is and basically how to set one up
- The hardware you'll need
- The peripherals you can pick up to enhance your Retropie system
- The games
- The 'legality' or ethics of the emulator/rom scene​
Episode Links
Here are the accessories and gadgets we mentioned in this week's episode:
I’m actually in the process of building a pie arcade cabinet, I’ll post some pics when it’s finished. The hardest part is wiring the buttons so far 🙁
That’s awesome! We would love to see it. I think one day when I have the space, I’ll build one. I found a guide for buying the buttons and joystick stuff on Amazon and wiring it up. Seems tough, but rewarding.
You can use pretty much any modern controller that is capable of connecting to a Windows machine. The github has instructions for most of them. Here is the PS4 one for example https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/PS4-Controller
If I make one of these I think I’d try to use my 360 controllers. I have one of those generic USB adapters laying around somewhere…
That’s awesome. I have a wired USB 360 controller right now plugged in. I use it for the games that are basically ports from console to PC. Works great. If it can work with a retropie, I think that’ll be even better than a SNES controller — though less retro.
Just listened to your episode. I have been building Retropie machines for awhile. I think the coolest feature I have found that keeps me playing games and not just tinkering with it (which I still do a lot of)is Retroachievements. You can sign up for them at Retroachievements.org and it is just a couple of steps to add your RA account to Retropie. There is a github page that’ll walk you through the process.
I also built a Retropie arcade machine and that was a very fulfilling experience but there is something nice about sitting on the couch playing emulators with a wireless controller on the big screen. Best controller is SNES 8bitdo Bluetooth. It feels identical to original SNES, but is wireless.
Here is a vid of my 2 Player Bartop Arcade I built https://youtu.be/C7imt7YqCKQ
There are also vids of retroachievements on my YouTube feed using Retropie. Add me on retroachievements, coreyhussell
Keep up the good work