(No Raspberry Pi’s were harmed here, Processed cheese slices still wrapped in plastic were used to keep the crumbs out. Engineering!)

Welcome to Retropie on Rye!

The overview and idea here was to create a machine to emulate older game systems using the raspberry pi 3. This is obviously a lot cheaper than going around and buying all the systems and added components to make them work with today’s technology. It was also a lot less of a headache than getting the emulators on my PC and having to constantly troubleshoot problems with the varying hardware inside.

So as a simple how to, I created this 6 minute video. Quick shout out to my lizard, Spike, who decided to make his cameo debut halfway through the shot.

All you need to accomplish this task is a raspberry pi, wireless keyboard, sd-usb converter drive, power hookup for the raspberry pi, hdmi cable, access to a PC, hdmi compatible monitor, a usb flash drive, and optionally, a controller.

First, you have to download the emulation station/Retropie to the SD card using the sd-usb drive. After it’s finished you can plug it in to your raspberry pi to install the ISO. Once thats finished, you reboot the pi and emulation station should be active. You can then sync your controller and set the inputs. Once that’s completed, you can download ROMs either through the add optional package function (if you connect to the internet) or if you would rather do it the more involved way, you use your extra usb drive. Boot up the pi with the usb drive connected and it will create folders to place downloaded ROMs in. Shut down the pi, plug the usb into your PC, find a suitable site to get the desired game, download the package, and unload it into the previously mentioned folders. Boot up the pi and VIOLA! You should have the option in emulation station to select your new game.

I used https://retropie.org.uk/ to download retropie. The how to’s are also located on that site.

I also used https://howchoo.com/g/n2qyzdk5zdm/build-your-own-raspberry-pi-retro-gaming-rig as a more detailed way to download additional packages.

There wasn’t a whole ton of time needed to do this project. It was pretty straightforward and unless something goes wrong with your file transfers, you should have your retro gaming system ready in under an hour. I loved that aspect of it, it was easy to work with and easy to understand. I’m honestly considering buying one of these after semester’s up just because of how simple everything was. Basically, if you love old games and want an all in one, this is the place to go. Being able to change out your games whenever you desire is definitely a big win in my book.

Thanks for reading everyone, hope you found as much success in your projects as I did in mine!

Shawn


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