/vr/ - Retro Games

Use a PC if you're looking at Pi because it's versatile
Use a Wii if you're looking at Pi because it's cheap
If you're the 1:20 who are somewhere between the two,use Android since you must not care about 240p anyway

>>3454485
PC is cheap because everybody already has one.
You just have to move it around or buy extra cables.
Can Android devices run Higan Balanced nowadays?

>>3454453
Honestly, it's barely any better than just setting up a Wii with Homebrew. Might be worth it if you're specifically wanting to play on an HDTV, but then you might as well just connect your PC to it instead.

>>3454485
>>3454507
And how good is the emulation on Pi in terms of speed and accuracy? 16 bit stuff? How's n64 emulation, compared to its already eh emulation on PC?

>>3454453

>I have a hammer, can I use it to drive screws?

This is literally what I think every time someone wants to use a fucking Pi for an emulator box. Pi's are cool, and you can do cool things with them, and everyone uses them in the dumbest way possible.

>>3454527
A Pi is just a computer.
It's more like a Pi is a screwdriver and a PC is a drill.

>>3454534

When I first started programming my brother and I were talking and he goes:

>When you learn to use a Hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

Pi's are great, but there are better options for emulating.

>>3454548
As cost effective?

>>3454548
Eh, I think that Pi's (2 and up) are pretty good if you just need a small portable emulator box.

I got one for occasional random projects, but I've set it up as a multiplayer box for long airplane trips.

If you have a good PC to start with, I'd use that, but a raspi does have a few instances where they're not a bad option.

>>3454645
a used wii with a component cable and classic controller costs less than a Pi with a case, controller and sd card. and it can output 240p over composite, s-video and component or 480p over comonent, I use mine on the hdtv in double scale with scanlines.

>>3454453
Why the hell would it be any good for console games? It's a cheapskate PC, it runs PC games, and ones that are any good!

Don't bother.

It's slow as shit.

Just connect a cheap shitty laptop to your TV, it will do everything the Pi does, better.

>>3454802
What?
>It's a cheapskate PC, it runs PC games
Besides the fact that computers can run emulators, the Raspi is terrible for running most all PC games, because it's an ARM machine, not x86, and it won't run windows (other than that shitty IOT win10 port).

Quake and Doom are available for it because they're open source, so it can be recompiled for the Raspi.

>>3454809
No it's not

I have a RPi3 with the latest RetroPie. Works great, nice GUI, using bluetooth controllers. Love it, much cheaper and space efficient than a PC

Haters gonna hate

>>3454812
What do you think emulators are made for? No shit it's bad at running PC games, but what takes more power, running something straight - recompiled, or running something emulated? They even tell you, most of its computing "power" is in the "GPU".

>>3454453
questions easily answered by google

It's a 35 dollar credit-card-sized ARM computer that's powered by a 5v wall wart. As long as you have a reasonable level of expectations about the thing it'll be fine. You're basically getting up to 4th gen console support, and some limited Arcade/5th gen support.

And don't use Retropie; it's an overdesigned bloated piece of shit. Use lakka.

>>3454845
I have a RP2, works fine for everything except n64 etc. Haven't found a psx game that does not run yet.

>>3454882
Huh, never heard of that. Will give it a go

>>3454904
You have a funny definition of "everything". I saw a review where it wouldn't run street fighter 2!

Oh, sure, it ran the SNES version, but it failed to run a CPS-ONE game!

I've got my RP3 set up with retropie 4.0 and so far the only issues i've had are from Dreamcast and PSP games. PSX works like a dream and for most consoles it's flawless. Even has drivers for most controllers.

>>3454910
you're misinformed

>>3454910
Pi has way better mame support than the wii. Rpi2 runs cps2 games no problem

>>3454882
>use lakka
>uses retroarch
>same thing retropie uses
>ugly as fuck
>terrible gui
>no support wiki

Yeah, Retropie does what LakkaDON'T

>>3454882
From the FAQ page:
>The Raspberry Pi 3 is a decent choice, too.

Not even the first choice. AKA Lakka wasn't written for RPi3 and won't run as well on RPi3, vs Retropie or RecalBox which were

>>3454961
Jesus christ it gets worse

You still need BIOS for NES/GBA games on Lakka. Something RetroPie got rid of two versions ago

RPi2 owner here. It's pretty much my favorite device ever. Combined with the 8BitDo SNES30 Gamepad, it's an excellent retro machine.

Atari, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis, Neo-Geo, Turbografx, earlier MAME, and GB/GBC/GBA run excellently for the most part. The number of games I could not get working perfectly I can count on one hand. N64 isn't where it should be but we should be seeing some great improvements if the Pi 4 is noticeably more powerful. Most PS1 games seem to run decently, but there is more input lag compared to the other systems.

Playing through pic related for the umpteenth time on my Pi currently. Incredibly low lag, runs and sounds great, and feels like I'm playing on a real SNES controller with the 8BitDo.

Get one! Emulation """purists""" might tell you that the emulators are garbage or something, but I really can't tell any difference between the Pi and PC when I'm playing NES or SNES. In fact, once you have it all set up, the RPi is a superior experience because of the nice front end and lack of dealing with Windows.

>>3454453
I kinda want to take one and hook it up to a bunch of batteries. Though I doubt I could get an appropriate screen

I have an RPI3 and couldn't be happier. It can emulate anything 8 or 16-bit, and can with a little tweaking run some 32-bit and even 64-bit shit, just maybe not at full speed.

Retropie blows chunks though, primarily because it insists on running Emulation Station to pick ROM files instead of just doing it through RetroArch, so that means there are two opportunities for your controllers and shit to be misconfigured. I just installed raspbian and compiled RA from source and just run it that way.

How powerful are these things exactly?

Pi-1 - genesis?
Cubieboard - CPS1, and the mali GPU can't handle anything that actually uses it?
Beaglebone - if the powerVR video chip is a bit faster, this thing actually can handle Quake3 like they like to claim the Pi can?

>>3454961
>>3454964
The fuck are you reading this? My lakka install has no BIOSes at all and I play GBA games at full speed. I think FDS games need one, though. In any case, Retropie is literally a frontend for Retroarch, which doesn't need one. It's useless as fuck.

>>3455078
Trying to assign a rating based off some old game console is useless.

The Pi1 is shit in a box. It was novel as fuck upon release, but it's garbage for almost anything productive. Last I used one for was a NAS; command line only, and even then it has a garbage transfer rate. In any case, while you can take a ballpark guess at how capable the devices will be based off their specs, it all comes down to how well their software is supported/compiled. The Pi isn't even remotely the strongest of these little computers but since everyone and their dog has one there's decent software support for it.

>>3455101
But the Pi should be able to handle typical 2 button games, and has a stronger GPU than the Allwinner based boards and others with just the MP400 ... unless I'm sorely mistaken.

I'm not comparing it to consoles, I meant as what they can run, the emulators.

>>3455118
Based off current ARM-based emulators they say the Pi1 will reliably emulate up to the Genesis/PCE at full speed; everything else starts to have framerate issues. My Pi2 was able to emulate everything I threw at it, which included SNES, SCD and 32X, with the only game I specifically remember having issues is Cosmic Carnage. Never tried PSX. Pi 3's done GBA.

I assume people are using even more stripped down OSes for the PiZero based builds, then again they are supposed to be a bit more efficient than stock Pi1s, so they should at least be able to muscle through standard (No SFX chip) SNES games.

I have a Pi 2 with retropie 3.0 on it. Some N64 stuff doesnt play well at all. Most Psx games ive thrown at it run really well. I havent tried Psp games on it. Dreamcast stuff ran really slowly, Neo Geo Cps 1/2 stuff run pretty good. Cps 3 is spotty. I think street fighter 3rd strike is cps3 and that runs really well on it. Mame stuff runs well.

Setting it up is fairly simple, Tweaking it is another thing.

Heres the TL:DR to save you time. It comes down to this, If you dont enjoy setting up, experimenting , tweaking, learning new things, solving problems that will crop up. Do what others have said, hook up a pc to a tv or get a wii and mod it.

and heres me semi ranting

-Mindset
You have to be the type that enjoys fixing computer problems if you wanna get everything running just right. Ive spent nearly as much time messing around configuring and then testing things as I have actually playing games on it. If you arent the type that enjoys googling a problem and trying different solutions to fix it dont get it. The newer stuff I would have to try it with different combos of Emulators / plugins / Roms, to get them to run just right.

-Knowledge
You have to get a basic grasp of Linux commands which is like dos commands. You need a grasp of Terminal access, SSH access, FTP access. Basic Networking Knowledge so you can access it thru the terminal and ssh. You need a grasp of how to edit the settings files which are like Lua files or other scripting files. An understanding of Flashing an image onto an sd card. Decent Google skills cause the resources for it are few and far between compared to Pc emulators.

>>3455193

-continued


-General Hassle
At first you have to do everything thru a keyboard. At least in retropie 3.0 you needed a keyboard until you configured the controller. There wasnt a default way to close the emulator from the controller so thats at a minimum you need to setup which is scripting files.
The thing has no on/off switch, You cant just hit a button to turn the thing off. You have to go to the shut down command, wait for it to shut down and then remove the power.

-Cost
It lures you in by being cheap, In the end it isnt though, it starts piling up real easy. If you have stuff you need for it great. So the Pi is $35ish ok, Then youll want a case for it thats ~$5-$10 there. Your gonna want an Hdmi cable for it thats like ~$3 there , Wanna Add wifi? $15 for a dongle. Bluetooth? another $15, Wanna do a 4 player smash brothers? Gonna need a Decent powered usb hub another $20. Decent power brick for it? add another $5. Do you want a dedicated controller for it? What kinda controller do you want for it? wired xbox? cheap usb gamepad? want a retro usb nes/snes/n64/gamecube controller. get ready to spend an extra $5 to $50 on that. Wanna make it semi portable to bring on a trip? Get ready to enter a world of batterys and over priced lcd screens. Bottom line, you can be as cheap or as expensive as you wanna be.

>>3455207
Pi 3 has wifi and bluetooth built in

>>3455193
>>3455207

-Conclusion
It may sound like I hate the Raspberry Pi. I honestly Love it. I enjoy tinkering with it. I love that it takes up no room. Even with all the wires and stuff the footprint of the thing is nothing. I love that it uses extremely little power. Just needs a decent cellphone brick. It opened up the world of Retro games and let me share them with my nephew. I like its portability. After I set it up, got a couple wireless usb gamepads for it. I stuck it in a small bag, took it to work when it was going to be a dead day and spent a couple hours doing street fighter and Smash brothers with my coworkers at my desk. which was a blast. Even now im looking for a screen and battery combo so I can take it on trips.

>>3454453
This emulation on a Raspberry Pi is pretty good. I've been able to play a decent number of old consoles on this little beauty, many up to the 32-bit era of console games (including that of the N64 and PSX). It isn't that difficult to set it up.

Go to the RetroPie website, download the SD card image from the website (version 4.0 is the latest) and use a program like WinImager or dd to put it on the card. Once you do, you can pop it into the Raspberry Pi (version 3 is the best), connect your controller, and away you go.

If I recall, it has a few emulators already installed. To get more, connect it to your network (either through ethernet or WiFi), login into the Raspberry Pi via the command line, and execute the retropie_setup.sh script in the /home/pi/Retropie-Setup directory. From there, you'll be able to update your system, update your core packages, install emulators, and also install optional software. You'll also be able to set-up optional stuff like Bluetooth controllers.

Here's a tip: the ROMs go in the /home/pi/Retropie/roms directory. If you put the disc image onto the SD card via WinImager or dd, you can easily pop out the card and put into your computer (if you have an SD card reader).

Other ways of transferring your ROMs include using SSH to remote login, or using SMB to transfer your games via your Windows PC.

Here's another tip: if you're going to play newer games (e.g. PSX games), make sure to split the memory evenly between the CPU and the GPU. For example, the Raspberry Pi 3 has 1024 MBs of RAM, so give 512 to the CPU and 512 to the GPU. Otherwise, your games may run like crap.

Give the little gem a try. It's pretty fun.

>>3455234
>>3455251
Thanks for the input. I love tinkering, actually, and considerinf what is ultimately supported, sounds like it's worth the hassle. A very basic project for DIY 101 with fun consequences

>>3454453
Whatever you do please don't be a hipster faggot "modder" and destroy a real game console to put a Raspberry Pi inside. These things piss me off so bad. It's like taking a beautiful old muscle car body and putting it over the chassis of a Honda civic.

>>3454495
Nvidia Shield

>>3455460
Maybe the NES was already broken? Its easy to use broken shit for this instead of working systems.

>>3455460
What's the problem, the internals of the console get put somewhere else!

Where's the destruction?

Nintendo Shell with Pi
⇧
⇈
Broken NES
⇊
⇩
S-video/HDMI capable new-PCB NES with old CPU.

>>3454453
>how good is Raspberry Pi for emulation on TV?

Terrible. Lots of lag.

>>3455479
>>3455460
Ooops, that misaligns absurdly!
What's the problem, the internals of the console get put somewhere else!

S-video/HDMI new-PCB NES with old CPU.
⇧
⇈
Broken NES
⇊
⇩
Nintendo Shell with Pi

>>3455091
Retroarch without a front end is ugly as sin. Using it on PC it looked terrible, navigated terribly, and was terrible at creating rom lists by itself. I'd have to manually hunt for the rom in the file system every time


And like I said, the Lakka FAQ page, idiot

>>3455251
All the emulators are already on it. They aren't in the main menu until you add roms

>>3455482
There's no lag

Anyone ever use a pi with an emulator outputing analog 240p?

>>3455586
No, nobody ever did that.

So, do any of these retro gaming distros emphasize non-emulated games? (you know, like Hexen 1/2, Lemmings, Shadow Warrior, ROTT, Scorched 3d, Forsaken, Albion, Re-Volt)

>>3455560
I was going to add "unless you're a turbofag with some kind of irrational hatred for Retroarch" but I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.

>>3456176
If an arm-absed Linux port exists it has a chance of running it. If it has been further ported with the Pi's hardware in mind (proper GPU support) it might even run well. If It's just old DOS games it has a few x86 emulators for it, but it's still emulated.

>>3454802
yeah, you are a jerk...

the raspi is an arm machine, not an x86.

it can run SOME pc games, but not at the level of an actual pc.

if you want an actual board that runs pc games, look up Lattepanda, Udoo X86 or the UPboard, those are the cheapskate pcs (unfortunately, they arent that cheap in comparison to the raspi)

>>3456518
I think at that point you might as well get one of those compute sticks. They come with a case, drive etc for about $100.
Or you build yourself a full fledged PC and save money by reusing parts you already own.

>>3456502
>If It's just old DOS games it has a few x86 emulators for it
those are games with source out there

>>3456553
well, thats true, the intel compute sticks have the same internals as the x86 boards, but are exponentially more expensive, and also, with intels new focus shift, they arent gonna last long....

>>3456581
>with intels new focus shift, they arent gonna last long.

Sorry, could you fill me in on that?

>>3456581
There's a lot of clones nowadays.

>>3456615
They are cutting down Atom now that it is actually gaining ground.

>>3454453

Pi analog video is shit. 480i composite only == flickery, no scanlines, composite shit artifacts.

You can spend a bunch of money and time dragging 240p out of it, but that's money and time better spent on a little x86 box or a wii.

It makes an acceptable HDMI emulator thing. But any laptop made in the past 5 years has a digital output and will play games better.

Conclusion: the Pi is a fun novelty.

>>3456176
RotT and Hexen would play nicely with a gamepad!

They'd also split well if you had a vertically oriented screen.

>>3456625
>pi is a novelty

Stop being so fucking contrarian. The way you have fun isn't the only way to have fun

>>3456625
>the Pi is a fun novelty.
No! Very no!

Pi is seriously serious business!

>>3456885
He said it was fun you autist

>>3456625
>>3456885

Hating on the pi isn't even contrarian by /vr/ standards. We basically all hate it.

I own 4 Pis, they're great for little portable projects, for the type of permanent installation where you wouldn't want to 'throw away' a $300 laptop.

original hardware on CRT > pi on HDTV > original hardware on HDTV

>>3457219
Some of us have wives that won't let us horde the original hardware

>>3457287
What a cuck

>>3457297
Sex is pretty good

>>3457307
Can't be that good if you're saving pics of other women

>>3457287
>>3457307
>Some of us have wives
Some of us call those your hands. If you'd stop fapping to jpegs for a bit it's free up your "wives" to do some hoarding.

>>3457307
So you collect bows instead? That's not compensating at all.

>>3458267
No and it's not my picture

>>3454523
You can emulate N64 and probably dreamcast, however I am not sure about post PS1.

>>3458328
>You can emulate N64
You can emulate xbone almost as well.

Damnit, I wish they'd just release a beaglebone with S-video again! That's all we need for this range of solutions to be a solid option! VGA or component would be okay too, I guess...

Hey, I came across this thing, which seems unexpectedly interesting...

The A13-OLinuXino

It's similar to a cubieboard, not sure if it actually is a compatible cut-down cubietruck like appearances suggest. The neat thing about it is that it's got a VGA port!

Thoughts?!?

augh yeah folks if u want my advice you will get you a rasberry pie and put your old consoles in the closet and not pay them extortionate prices for them old crappy games, that's my opinion, and not give into them reseller SCUMBAGS who jack up the price of super mario 1 to 100 bucks a cart and say it's rare, when any dingleberry can get a rasberry pie and stick every game known to mankind on there and put it in the bathroom to play on there LUXURY CRAPPER, imma get me a rasberry pie with a fugging BUFFALO USB CONTROLLER to put in my crapper and get me a fugging NES MINI too, and have a little shelf beside my LUXURY CRAPPER to put my controllrs and boxes, then i'll put some beers in the sink with some ice and bring me sum sandwichs in a bag and shut the bathroom door and do some LUXURY CRAPPIN while i RETRO GAME augh yeah folks

>>3460490
>this
....

>>3460490
...
>plus

Holy shit, where did this Orange Pi thing thing come from? Dual A7 and VGA for 15 bucks?!? The absolute madmen!!

>>3454453
check below
>>3455251
also to add. there are 2 easy ways I use to put roms on the pi.
>wifi setup on pi then go to PC file explorer and search "\\retropie"
>format usb (if not already by default) to fat32 and make empty file named "retropie"...stick it in pi, let it do its magic for a minute or 2 and then insert it back to pc, now its files are on usb. stick roms in folders and repeat back to pie and allow it to write them automatically for u.

once u have roms in correct EMU rom folder the EMU will automatically pop up on the UI.

it had multiple emulators for some systems so u can select which one. Some have filters. U can select gamepad input individually for each game. Add this to your bookmarks:
>https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/RetroArch-Configuration#default-core-controls-for-all-emulators

have fun!

>>3456620
>cutting down Atom
Not that that's actually any sort of big deal, right? I mean, with jaguar and puma around?

>>3461383
but intel atom main strength is its low price, thats why so many intel atom tablets and boards exist.

anything else is gonna be expensive as hell...

>>3461934
AMD is all about low price. Though that integrated Radeon does give it a different strength, when it's there. I take it you mean low price by x86 standards? Maybe via nano could pick up some of the slack?

>>3454910
I play third strike on my rpi2

>>3461260
This is a bit annoying, only two models of that use the VGA compatible Allwiner A20 chip, most use the Allwinner H3 SoC, including the Orange Pi PC, Orange Pi Plus, Orange Pi 2, Orange Pi One and Orange Pi Lite - all uninteresting!

Only the plain "Orange Pi" has the VGA connector! Damn!

>>3461260
This is a bit annoying, only two models of that use the VGA compatible Allwiner A20 chip, most use the Allwinner H3 SoC, including the Orange Pi PC, Orange Pi Plus, Orange Pi 2, Orange Pi One and Orange Pi Lite - all uninteresting!

Only the plain "Orange Pi" has the VGA connector! Damn! Oh well, at least the VGA issue is not half as bad as only the Beagleboard C4 and Beagleboard Xm having S-video.

>>3462150
pretty much.

the atom tablet line is supposed to be able to provide x86 chipsets for tabs and IoT stuff at low prices, thats the reason the 3 x86 boards exist (lattepanda,udoo x86 and UP) and also the reason the GPD WIN is gonna exist

the new intel IoT line (the joule computing module) is gonna take that place, but these boards arent for computers or Rpi like projects, and of course, are gonna be more expensive..

also, AMD works differently as a X86 and certain apps wont work that well, as they would in an intel chip.

soon the Udoo, lattepanda and the UP are gonna become extinct unless theres an alternative.

>>3454453
I find Core 2 Duo or Quad based USFF towers to be the better option unless you need to hide it behind the TV. About the same price as well on Ebay or thrift stores. Most have HDMI out anyway.

The problem is with the PI, anything 5th Gen and Up is a crap shoot if it's going to work right. For PS1 you have to overclock it (easily done).

But eveything else is done for you, just download the retropie image, install it to a micro-SD card and off you go. With a SSFF tower, you need to do a lengthy setup process but you get better frames on PS1, N64 (the popular games), and Saturn.

>>3462186
So the whole problem is jaguar/puma SBCs not being as optimized, and jaguar miniITX boards working with the socket paradigm, and VIA looking doubtful about producing new chips?

Puma cores with a bit of GDDR on the motherboard just might have a bit of a nice efficiency boost, graphics wise of course. Not sure if a bit of quirky high speed ram can provide a meaningful general performance boost.

>>3454968
Does it slow down around the cult or Saturn valley? My wii and psp both do.

>>3454453
>how good is Raspberry Pi
It's not.

>>3460490
>canadian detected

>>3454453
It's totally fine as a emulation platform, add a few dualshock 3's and youre golden.
Setup? Well, Google is your friend.

Else get a Nvidia Shield if you want good emulation straight on your TV without much hazzle.

>>3454783
Wii is shit, no HDMI and even with homebrew you are very limited.
Seriously a cheap chinese Android minipc or Shield are the best ways to go.
No need for an old laptop or desktop that's loud and draws power.

Pi is OK if you're not a numbnut about it.

>>3462696
>No need for an old laptop or desktop that's loud and draws power.
Doesn't have to be so. You should be able to undervolt most machines lying around now, though naturally a prescott system isn't due to be quiet no matter what.

We have one in our living room with some of the ibuffalo SNES controllers, works great. It's nice for having friends over, nobody objects to drinks and retro games.

We have it on a network too, so we can resume from save states on other devices, like our computers.