Hi, ive been considering trying to make a raspberry pi emulator for my parents to play games they loved, ie. Bubsy.
My questions are:
Is it easy?
What model works best, I assume the 3?
Where is a reliable place to purchase?
What other parts are required to make it?
Thankyou in advance for taking the time to read this and hopefully reply.
Instead of a pi (only because I don't know much about it, but would love to), can you piece together any old tech lying around the house to achieve the same thing? An ol laptop or PC and buy some replica console
usb controllers? An old Wii can fairly easily emulate 16bit consoles and more that casuals will like. Most Android phones probably have enough power, but to buy need controllers, and have some way to cast (like HDMI out)
Otherwise, we await the pi master…
Is it easy?
Not hard. There are a tonne of videos on youtube about the best distro to use and what works best.
What model works best, I assume the 3?
Yep. I'd run the 3.
Where is a reliable place to purchase?
element 14 is the best place to get your Pi from hands down. Overnight delivery.
What other parts are required to make it?
That is up to you. You can get a variety of switches and controllers for the GPIO. You can probably get away with just a keyboard… but check the videos and make your own.
there are some amazing arcade cabinets out there. I use the MAME emulator on windows boxes for arcade classics, but im not sure it is ported to any of the Pi distros (not that i have really looked either.)
I have a dual boot retroPie-Kodi raspberry Pi 2.
- RetroPi was pretty easy to set up.
- My kids just use 2 usb SNES controllers (very cheap on ebay).
- You should be able to find plenty of guides on the net.
apart from element 14, au.rs-online.com is also an option for purchase.
Raspberry Pi 3, Retropie 3.6 image (free), and consider the excellent 8bitdo NES30 Pro controller. Emulates everything. Well, almost.
I do like the look of that controller!
Can I ask if you MAME, does the basketball game 'nbapbp' run at a playable speed?
Or perhaps some kind soul knows of a detailed compatibility list (not just the mame graphics OK/ sound OK list)?
I get all my info from:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/
There is almost certainly some reference to a list of titles that perform well on the Pi. Pi3 is only a couple of weeks old and is significantly quicker than the Pi2, so it might work! I understand that NBA Jam is fine, though NBA Play by Play looks more advanced graphically.
GL!
Edit: Also remember that you'll have about 3 or 4 options for running MAME ROMs in Retropie. It's just a frontend, but presents multiple compiled emulators. Some work better than others in certain games - and you can configure each game to use the 'best' emulator on a game by game basis. For instance I use FBA for most NeoGeo titles.
Edit 2: Pi3 has inbuilt Wifi and Bluetooth, saving you on dongles. And that 8bitdo controller is bluetooth enabled, and works a treat.
Thanks people! Ill look into the videos after work. I have googled it abit, I was just concerned it would be harder then they said it is.
I would love to see a GameCube/ Wii emulator (Dolphin) for the Pi 3. I think there's nearly but not quite enough hardware to run it smoothly and there's a version compiled for Linux.
Gamecube could be cool. Im keen for some duke nukem 64.
I sorta wish rp would do a 60-70 buck version with better processor 2-3gig ram and a good graphics. They are amazing for what they are but that could be the next level.
They're always about that much AUD and I'd say the next Pi should be about that. Except for the GPU, that could be better and I'm pretty sure the Pi can already run an N64 emulator anyway. I'm not sure but Google it. If it can run Android it can anyway and there are Android images for the pi there anyway.
Bump :)