The Raspberry Pi and Retropie discussion thread

[newtmonkey]

I've got a Monster Joysticks case/joystick and a Raspberry Pi 4, and it's absolutely fantastic.  Excellent stick/buttons, and build quality is decent for the price.  Putting the case/joystick together is a bit fiddly, but it's a good afternoon/evening project.

 

I put this thing together several months ago and loaded it up with one of the prebuilt images, but didn't really care for it—annoying unskippable videos playing while booting up, garish themes, etc.  More importantly, it kept crashing/rebooting.  I tried replacing the power supply with an official adapter, but that didn't help so I figured there was some overclocking or something going on.

 

ANYWAY, this weekend I decided to finally just start from scratch.  I installed a fresh (blank) RetroPie image, ran into a bunch of hiccups but was able to get it finally working 100%!  I learned a lot about RetroPie/RetroArch/Emulation Station, and even a bit about Raspberry Pi OS.  It's actually been quite fun running into issues and learning how to solve them.

 

Now, time to play some Splatterhouse, Strider, and Ghosts N Goblins!

[Osgeld]

I started to get all fancy with video intro's and snazzy splash screens and all the bells and whistles and it would just lock the pi up, that was using a stock image just using the options in retropi so there's something not quite right with it 

[ClassicGMR]

On 2/7/2021 at 10:52 AM, Osgeld said:

I started to get all fancy with video intro's and snazzy splash screens and all the bells and whistles

I'm sorry to hear that. My pi is set up this way and has worked fine for a while.

 

[jblenkle]

I've always used my Rasberry Pi for gaming, but I wanted to experiment around and set up a MicroSD card with the Rasberry Pi operating system on it.

 

I've downloaded it and the program to write the image to the SD card which I've successfully done and it's my understanding all I need to do is insert the card in the Pi and turn it on.

 

But all I get when I do that is a blank screen and my TV tells me "No Signal". The Pi doesn't boot or anything else.

 

I stick my gaming SD card back in and everything boots up normally.

 

Can anyone take a guess as to what I might be doing wrong?

[jblenkle]

On 2/16/2021 at 5:07 PM, jblenkle said:

I've always used my Rasberry Pi for gaming, but I wanted to experiment around and set up a MicroSD card with the Rasberry Pi operating system on it.

 

I've downloaded it and the program to write the image to the SD card which I've successfully done and it's my understanding all I need to do is insert the card in the Pi and turn it on.

 

But all I get when I do that is a blank screen and my TV tells me "No Signal". The Pi doesn't boot or anything else.

 

I stick my gaming SD card back in and everything boots up normally.

 

Can anyone take a guess as to what I might be doing wrong?

Found my own solution...I didn't actually have a Rasberry Pi. I had an OrangePi. At the time, I didn't realize there was a difference.

[+fdr4prez]

1 hour ago, jblenkle said:

Found my own solution...I didn't actually have a Rasberry Pi. I had an OrangePi. At the time, I didn't realize there was a difference.

You're comparing Apples Raspberries and Oranges 

 

[ClassicGMR]

Well I just had to set up my NESpi all over again. My grandson managed to yank the card out after turning it on. Errors everywhere! And, of course, I slack a lot so the backup was very, very outdated. So... here we go again!

 

It took me 2 days total to get everything set up from a clean format to my definition of finished - this includes intro videos, transition screens, BIOS, theme change, bluetooth controller, NESPi shutdown script and scraping... so much scraping! Plus working both days added time to everything.

 

I will say this about Buster 4.7.1 though... Retropie is SO much easier now than I remember setting up. Maybe it all just "came back to me" during the install process but I feel like the process has been refined so much now. Like a basic install is almost fully automated. I have to say that I actually enjoyed the reset this time!

[ClassicGMR]

I hit a stupid snag just FYI for those that don't know about it:

 

Skyscraper is fabulous on the Pi BUT if you initially disable video downloads and scrape THEN decide to try and scrape videos for the same system it will not download them. Either do it initially or you'll have to re-scrape everything all over again. What a pain. Not even sure why I didn't get the videos in the first place and it was a conscious decision.

[mwyounce]

I've been working on building a retropie into an Atari Flashback case. 

 

I'm almost done, but I just wanted to share this startup screen that I made using the Atari 2600 label maker website, if anyone else would like it.

 

 

[ClassicGMR]

I finally found a reliable and functional way to add background music / arcade ambience to my RetroPie setups. Can't believe I never found this thread before with all the searching I had done but this one works and still works with the current Buster builds.

 

https://installtekz.com/how-to-add-music-to-retropie-on-a-raspberry-pi/

 

I added it to my PiCade last night and it runs the arcade86.mp3 file immediately. Shuts it down on game start and runs it again on menu return. I believe he has other settings as well but that's all I needed!

Edited July 31, 2021 by ClassicGMR
missing link

[John Stamos Mullet]

So I'm curious if anyone else has any feedback on this:

 

in your opinion, which Retropie (on RPi) emulator is best for Arcade Donkey Kong?

 

the only ones currently working correctly are:

 

lr-fbneo

lr-MAME2003

LR-MAME2003plus

Current branch MAME not in Retroarch.

 

I just want the most accurate version in emulation. Conventional wisdom would say that should be current branch MAME, but there are two things about it that big me:

 

1. noticeable audio crackles/pops on RPi 3b+. Seems a bit laggy
 

2. the inclusion of the blue and white "initializing" splash screen and mouse cursor at game boot. I have this in a modded A1up cab, so I don't want distracting loading screens that give away that it is emulation.

 

as to the others: MAME2003/plus colors are completely wrong, and the audio sample are not great.

 

lr-MAME (current branch in retroarch) would be great, but the high score saving isn't implemented. 
 

lr-FBNeo seems to be the best compromise, but I'm not sure the sounds are as accurate as they should be. Specifically Mario's walking sound. 

[ClassicGMR]

Well I don't think I have an actual opinion. I never realized there were issues with various emulation sources. I just boot up DK and play it. I will pay more attention to this next time I go to Funspot and play the actual hardware.

[Cynicaster]

Yeah, I use Mame2003 on the Pi and DK is playable but noticeably off.  The walking sound effect isn't even close, and the colors of the girders look weird.  If I want to play a serious game of DK, I'm just going to do it on my PC-based system.  

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Cynicaster

[ClassicGMR]

On 8/24/2021 at 9:41 AM, Cynicaster said:

Yeah, I use Mame2003 on the Pi and DK is playable but noticeably off.  The walking sound effect isn't even close, and the colors of the girders look weird.  If I want to play a serious game of DK, I'm just going to do it on my PC-based system. 

 

I'll have to check this out this weekend and do a quick side by each between MAME2003 (which is 0.178 I think?) and MAME 0.234. Hell I still have 0.037b on my PSP I'll have to boot that up too!! ?

 

On a separate note I am almost 100% finished with my PiCade. It turned out really well. I blew $2 on a sticker here, $5 on a sticker there and started realizing I wanted this to be a centerpiece item! I spent $13 on the custom sized bezel art from posterburner.com and got 2 copies for that price! (eBay seller wanted $16 for one. )  Last item I am waiting for is a *Super Nintendo Entertainment System logo* sticker that will fit exactly between the Select and Start buttons on the front panel.

 

A few days ago I bought a 5v/3A battery bank from Amazon and it powers the PiCade with no issues. I have serious reservations about the "30,000 mAh capacity" but the battery lasts a few hours and that's fine by me. No lightning bolt at all! I have even had a keyboard and an XBox USB controller connected at the same time and it doesn't seem to cause under-voltage at all. The only downside is I can't charge the battery bank and use it. I figure that's not an issue because if I'm charging the battery I'm most likely at home and I have a plug to use the arcade anyway. The battery is attached to the back panel with an extremely heavy duty velcro and it will not move. I used a 1 foot (0.3m) 45 degree USB A to 90 degree USB C cable to route the power from the battery bank to the system. I had to drill a small cutout on the side to allow the cable to exit the cabinet and not dangle.

 

The buttons have all been swapped out for A/B/X/Y/L/R/Start/Select. The button on the right side I left alone. I removed the button on the left side and put in a USB 3.0 extender for easy access to the USB ports.

 

I REALLY like the results!

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by ClassicGMR
Added PiCade info

[Mik's Arcade]

Does anyone know what else I might do to get sound samples to work?

 

From what I read, all you need to do is get a set of just the individual game samples and put them in the right folder, ie:

 

BIOS/mame2000/samples

BIOS/mame2003/samples

BIOS/mame2010/samples

 

I downloaded the sample for Sega's 1980 game Tranquilizer Gun, which has no sound at all.

 

I took the sample  TRANQGUN.ZIP that has the 8 WAV files

animal

animalhit

cry

emar

gun

jeep

point

walk

 

I put the files directly in the samples folder, and also the .ZIP file.

 

It has the same name as the ROM as well.

 

I tried all 3 emulators and the sounds still don't work.

 

Did I miss a step somewhere?

 

thanks in advance.

 

The MAME - RetroPie Docs site (MAME - RetroPie Docs) doesn't have any additional info unless I'm not seeing it.

 

 

[Mik's Arcade]

Oh, and here is my arcade. I started off with the Raspberry Pi kit a couple years ago. I was so successful at building it that I grew beyond the lame USB controllers. I craved having a bartop so I could play twin stick shooters and the Street Fighter series the way they were meant to be played.

 

So, I bought a bartop kit from GameRoomSolutions.com and built this all by myself with the help of their youtube vidoes. It was NOT easy, but I got it done. The wiring for the joysticks and buttons to a USB encoder was a huge PITA, but man is it worth it.

So, for the past for years I just keep adding and improving this thing as I learn more.  I've got 20 systems on here now, but really the COIN-OP arcade games are my favorites.  I can't stop playing all these great games from the 70s to early 1990's.  I was a child of the 80's, so this is just the ultimate escapism for me.

 

I've even got some odd gems on here like I got Bomberman's Streets of Rage remake and the cancelled Thrill Kill on the PsOne.  And of course, tons and tons of Japanese games that never made it over here.

 

I love emulation.

[Hydro Thunder]

2 hours ago, Mik's Arcade said:

Oh, and here is my arcade. I started off with the Raspberry Pi kit a couple years ago. I was so successful at building it that I grew beyond the lame USB controllers. I craved having a bartop so I could play twin stick shooters and the Street Fighter series the way they were meant to be played.

 

So, I bought a bartop kit from GameRoomSolutions.com and built this all by myself with the help of their youtube vidoes. It was NOT easy, but I got it done. The wiring for the joysticks and buttons to a USB encoder was a huge PITA, but man is it worth it.

So, for the past for years I just keep adding and improving this thing as I learn more.  I've got 20 systems on here now, but really the COIN-OP arcade games are my favorites.  I can't stop playing all these great games from the 70s to early 1990's.  I was a child of the 80's, so this is just the ultimate escapism for me.

 

I've even got some odd gems on here like I got Bomberman's Streets of Rage remake and the cancelled Thrill Kill on the PsOne.  And of course, tons and tons of Japanese games that never made it over here.

 

I love emulation.

LOVE the MK font!  I didn't realize that Streets of Rage Remake ran on the Pi (tells you what I know); probably still the very best of the SoR series (though SoR4 is fantastic as well).  GameRoomSolutions I have heard great things about, and I love what I've seen from them.  Great barcade!  What type of joysticks and buttons do you have there?  They look much better than the ones I got with my cheap Etsy arcade cab

[ClassicGMR]

Your sample files have to match the set. MAME2003 uses 0.78. The directories are correct from what I can see. The samples stay zipped just like the rom sets. 
 

Quote

/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/samples/

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by ClassicGMR

[Mik's Arcade]

11 hours ago, ClassicGMR said:

Your sample files have to match the set. MAME2003 uses 0.78. The directories are correct from what I can see. The samples stay zipped just like the rom sets. 
 

 

thanks for the comment.  I wonder why it does not work then?  Very odd.  I wonder if there is any other setup of flag I need to set somewhere so it will know to look there?  I've got the ZIP in the samples folder and it matches the ZIP in the arcade folder.

 

The only thing to note is that ALL of my arcade ROMS are in a folder called ARCADE so that could be the issue

 

ROMS\ARCADE

 

and not

 

ROMS\MAME2003

 

I have MAME2000, 2003, 2010, 2014, MAME4ALL, ADVMAME, FBALPHA and FBALPHA2012 all installed.  the default is MAME 2010 and I can set each individual game to whatever emulator it works best on, so all the ZIP files are in the ARCADE folder.

 

I created a folder   

 

/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/arcade/samples/

 

and put the ZIP in there, but it didn't work

[Mik's Arcade]

19 hours ago, Hydro Thunder said:

LOVE the MK font!  I didn't realize that Streets of Rage Remake ran on the Pi (tells you what I know); probably still the very best of the SoR series (though SoR4 is fantastic as well).  GameRoomSolutions I have heard great things about, and I love what I've seen from them.  Great barcade!  What type of joysticks and buttons do you have there?  They look much better than the ones I got with my cheap Etsy arcade cab

those are the Sanwa joysticks and buttons.

 

Well, Retropie supports "ports", but they are pretty hard to set up.  It took a LOT of work to Bomberman's Streets of Rage Remake to work but it is worth it.  It is the final edition that put out and it has everything.

 

I don't have the energy to try to get Cave Story on there at the moment, but that works too.

 

 

[ClassicGMR]

Even if you are using "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade" the docs still state the samples go into "/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/samples/".

 

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/lr-mame2003/#samples - See the Samples subheading.

 

EDIT: Another example is MAME2010 (0.139). You can use the "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade" directory but the samples MUST be 0.139 and go into

"/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2010/samples/".

Edited September 22, 2021 by ClassicGMR
Updated to direct link. Added info for 2010

[Mik's Arcade]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:02 PM, ClassicGMR said:

Even if you are using "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade" the docs still state the samples go into "/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/samples/".

 

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/lr-mame2003/#samples - See the Samples subheading.

 

EDIT: Another example is MAME2010 (0.139). You can use the "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade" directory but the samples MUST be 0.139 and go into

"/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2010/samples/".

thanks again for the tips.

 

I must have the wrong set of sound sample then as the folders setup is good. I'll look for the ones you said.  

 

on a funny note, I was looking at the post above about Donkey Kong.

 

I was OBSESSED with getting that one right. The sound was definitely off, and I forget what I did, but I had to find the corrected samples somewhere off the internet and put them directly into the Donkey Kong ZIP to get it right. I don't think the emulator mattered.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Mik's Arcade

[Wizzard]

I just have an interesting observation, although I am sure it is a known fact. I just bought RPI 1b+ for playing and for using it with my Atari 2600 Jr case and found out (no surprise) that the latest version of Stella does not run fast enough on RPI1 to play the games (tried Recalbox 7.22).

Then I tried latest RetroPie for RPI 1 and it does not even boot (some problem with partitions). So, I am not sure if the RetroPie guys test their images, but I think that it is the best to use clean Lakka image, it is the simplest option.

[Mik's Arcade]

On 9/23/2021 at 8:19 PM, Mik's Arcade said:

thanks again for the tips.

 

I must have the wrong set of sound sample then as the folders setup is good. I'll look for the ones you said.  

 

on a funny note, I was looking at the post above about Donkey Kong.

 

I was OBSESSED with getting that one right. The sound was definitely off, and I forget what I did, but I had to find the corrected samples somewhere off the internet and put them directly into the Donkey Kong ZIP to get it right. I don't think the emulator mattered.

as a follow up, I have gotten other sound samples to work (Zaxxon, Wizard of Wor), so something is up with either the ROM or the sounds for the Tranquilizer Gun game I originally tried to get this working for so thanks for the help

Edited October 23, 2021 by Mik's Arcade

[ClassicGMR]

Retropie 4.8 released a few days ago. First major update in a long time. I will be trying this one out this weekend on a spare 3B+ board I have.

 

 - Retroarch updates

 - EmulationStation updates

 - Bluetooth improvements

 - Updated modules like lr-stella and DOSBox

Edited March 17, 2022 by ClassicGMR