Gaming with Raspberry Pi

[WoodenSaucer]

In another thread, we were talking about Raspberry Pi, and Brian said if it has any gaming relevance, someone should make a thread. So here it is!

Anyway, I'm not going to start the thread with an exhaustive How-To, or anything, just discussion. If anyone wants to write up a how-to, go for it. But my starting question is: How many of you guys are using a Raspberry Pi for gaming?

I'm using one to power an arcade cabinet. A while back, I bought a pretty decent quality cabinet kit that I put together. It was bare-bones, just the cabinet. I had to put my own screen and joystick panel in it, and also the brains. The absolute cheapest way to pull the "brains" part off was to use a Raspberry Pi with a Linux distribution that's made for retro gaming specifically on a RP, called RetroPie. It was pretty easy to install onto an SD card from a computer, and then just slap it into the RP. RetroPie uses a lot of different emulators for retro gaming, but since I'm using it for an arcade cabinet, I'm mainly using MAME. It has a decent graphical interface that works well with a joystick panel.

I'll say this about Raspberry Pi. I'm not sure how much more powerful they are now; I think mine is an RP3. But it's perfect for retro gaming, up to a point. If you're trying to emulate much beyond like Sega Genesis 16-bit level, there's a good chance it might struggle. But it's really great for the old stuff.

 

[Brian Boru]

Good stuff, thanks for that

So… the RP is a mini computer then I assume, since you can load Linux on it. Is there any "normal" software for it, say text or image editor, messenger, browser, email?

Are there any games written specifically for it, or is it more of a facilitator or platform service?

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Good stuff, thanks for that

So… the RP is a mini computer then I assume, since you can load Linux on it. Is there any "normal" software for it, say text or image editor, messenger, browser, email?

Are there any games written specifically for it, or is it more of a facilitator or platform service?

It's basically an ARM-based computer board that has 4 USB ports, WiFi, an SD slot, and an HDMI integrated. It's small enough to fit in one hand, and unless you're mounting it somewhere, you might want to buy a small case made for them. Everything runs off of the SD card.

Sometimes people use them to power custom projects, like robots. For some use cases like that, people write their own low-level operating systems that only do the specific purpose they're going for, and they use them headlessly.

But they can also run ARM-based Linux distributions, and yes, you can run a whole desktop environment with browsers, word processors, or whatever programs Linux runs, as long as they're compiled for ARM. It's pretty interesting, really.

But I only use mine for retro gaming.

BTW, I noticed the price is way higher than it used to be. RP4 is running for $150 or more. I paid like $30 for my RP3. That was before the pandemic, though.

 

[Johnway]

I am currently using a raspberry pi with retropi and emulator station. On the whole it works very well, as alight weight pc to run a whole load of games and is only restricted to the size of the SD card.

There is currently an issue i'm trying to figure out as to why bluetooth isn't working and when i plug in a second controller to use, it causes all sorts of problems. I might have to uninstall/remove entries for the controllers and try again. But for the most part i play alone so its ok to leave it for now.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I am currently using a raspberry pi with retropi and emulator station. On the whole it works very well, as alight weight pc to run a whole load of games and is only restricted to the size of the SD card.

There is currently an issue i'm trying to figure out as to why bluetooth isn't working and when i plug in a second controller to use, it causes all sorts of problems. I might have to uninstall/remove entries for the controllers and try again. But for the most part i play alone so its ok to leave it for now.

One thing about RetroPie is that using it works really well, but configuring it is a pain in the backside. If everything works, it's great. But if you run into problems, it's a migraine.

Are you using Rasberry Pi 3 or 4?

 

[Johnway]

One thing about RetroPie is that using it works really well, but configuring it is a pain in the backside. If everything works, it's great. But if you run into problems, it's a migraine.

Are you using Rasberry Pi 3 or 4?

Its a raspberry pi 4 and we've installed a Flirc case. works a charm. Currently using an 8bitdo joypad and works fine for the most part. Certainly good enough for playstation games anyway.

indeed retropie is a bit of a pain, as described second joypad issue and its quite involved. luckily adding roms is mercifully painless with Samba and a network cable. i would try and take the SD card out but its a bit tricky to take it out.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Its a raspberry pi 4 and we've installed a Flirc case. works a charm. Currently using an 8bitdo joypad and works fine for the most part. Certainly good enough for playstation games anyway.

indeed retropie is a bit of a pain, as described second joypad issue and its quite involved. luckily adding roms is mercifully painless with Samba and a network cable. i would try and take the SD card out but its a bit tricky to take it out.

So you can get PS1 level gaming out of it, but not PS2? Sounds like it's a little upgrade over my RP3, but not a huge upgrade. I was surprised to see how much higher the prices are now.

 

[Johnway]

So you can get PS1 level gaming out of it, but not PS2? Sounds like it's a little upgrade over my RP3, but not a huge upgrade. I was surprised to see how much higher the prices are now.

yeah from the research i've done and from official retropie sites, the Raspberry pi 4 doesn't have the power to do it. I mean, technically you could, but it would barely work. hell, we still haven't got a proper emulator working for the sega saturn because of how that thing was designed.

its probably why everyone is excited for Raspberry pi 5.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've considered fiddling around with a raspberry pi in the past, but I could never really justify spending the money on something that realistically would just gather dust in a drawer after a week.

I did do a group project where we used them, but I didn't work on the raspberry pi part at all.

 

[Brian Boru]

realistically would just gather dust in a drawer after a week

Yeah, I was tempted too 'just because', but when GF asked the obvious Q, I couldn't think of much beyond doorstop as a usage case

 

[Johnway]

Speaking of use for the raspberry pi. originally it wasn't mine. it was something my colleagues at work pitched in at work (around £20 each) and bought it for the IT department. We would have it set up in the corner of the office and we set up weekly gaming hi-score challenges for a particular game. When people wanted a quick break from work/lunch break or waiting for the kettle to boil they would jump on the raspberry pi.