Why do people buy ready-made kits?
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@ruthless4u I know there are a lot of questions from people posted here, but the basics really are not difficult. I can tell you how I started (all of 3 months ago) - I went online and bought a basic hardware kit (PI, case, PSU, heat sinks, HDMI cable, 32 GB card) plus a USB controller, which was cheaper than buying the parts separately - if you get them from a reliable supplier, then you know your hardware should be fine and that is one less thing to worry about. Then follow the instructions on this site to download the image and put it on your SD card and then you install your ROMs. It is pretty straight forward. I had everything up and running within an hour or so.
My plan was to mess around and start digging into the dirt a bit, until I was comfortable with some of the simpler nuts and bolts of RetroPie, and if I was happy with how I was doing, build a cabinet to play 1980s arcade games, which is what I am doing now. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoy tinkering, and this is a great way for me to waste some time :-)
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@douga
One issue I do have is I see a lot of kits for sale from places like Amazon to Walmart. Some of them look like they require soldering which I have issues with due to unsteady hands. I hope to buy a kit soon and give this a try. -
@ruthless4u you shouldn’t have to solder anything to run RetroPie. The cheaper versions of the Raspberry Pi Zero ($5-10) have a header that needs to be soldered on if you plan to I nterface any electronics, but a standard RetroPie setup doesn’t need that. I would suggest you get a beefier Pi ie the latest 3B + ($35) if you plan to run anything more modern than SNES games though.
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@ruthless4u said in Why do people buy ready-made kits?:
@douga
One issue I do have is I see a lot of kits for sale from places like Amazon to Walmart. Some of them look like they require soldering which I have issues with due to unsteady hands. I hope to buy a kit soon and give this a try.Well, if only some look like that, buy the others who don't.
I would recommend buying from specialized arcade shops rather than Amazon anyhow. Most of them gladly answer any questions you may have about their products.
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@clyde Or even just the individual parts. To get started, all he needs is five things: the Pi 3, a simple case, an HDMI cable, an AC adapter, and a micro SD card.
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@eldrethor
I would add an adapter to put the full-sized SD card in a PC/Mac and at least 1 controller. Having a USB keyboard and mouse on hand would be useful too. The case could be skipped, though as @ruthless4U said he has children, maybe not such a good idea.I found that buying a reputable kit containing what you listed plus the SD card adapter was cheaper than getting the individual parts, but if you shop round, it may be possible to get them all individually for a better price. I would definitely be careful to ensure I got a reputable power supply though.
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@douga said in Why do people buy ready-made kits?:
I would definitely be careful to ensure I got a reputable power supply though.
That can't be stressed often enough, as many problems come from insufficient power.
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@clyde said in Why do people buy ready-made kits?:
@douga said in Why do people buy ready-made kits?:
I would definitely be careful to ensure I got a reputable power supply though.
That can't be stressed often enough, as many problems come from insufficient power.
One thing i've noticed is that the pi doesn't seem to run off a standard 5v supply. I connect it to a samsung or amazon charger and it works fine. I think they are slightly more than 5v at 5.1v or something...
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What I like about Retropie is that if I just wanted to game, it is easy to install a fresh image on an SD card, copy some ROMs across and I'd be good to go. What I LOVE about Retropie is that it does allow you to tinker and customize it to your hearts delight. I think it speaks volumes that I got my first Raspberry Pi for Christmas and I haven't really played any games on it yet but I am thoroughly enjoying my time working on it. But that is just me and I can understand others not feeling the same way.
And it is daunting at first looking through all the guides and thinking it is too much to know and not knowing where to start. But I have found that just taking it one step at a time I have been able to do things I thought would be beyond me. Like I started to change a few elements and images in an established theme for my own personal build, but it soon morphed into me actually managing to understand the coding behind the theme and in turn has seen me building an entirely new theme that I hope to eventually share with this community (limited spare time, yada yada yada, it is taking me a while).
And hey, maybe after a few years of tinkering I may even eventually use my retropie gaming setup to play some actual games :)
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@mooreelectric said in Why do people buy ready-made kits?:
And hey, maybe after a few years of tinkering I may even eventually use my retropie gaming setup to play some actual games :)
Don't be ridiculous. ;)
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@clyde Wait. What? People actually play games on Retropie? That's a novel idea :-)
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@douga I take that as a mere rumour.
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@clyde I don't know what I was thinking. Must have just had a moment of madness
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A friend asked me to build him a Retropie last year. I've been spending on hour or so a night tinkering with it, trying to get everything perfect. If all goes according to plan, I hope to make it his Christmas present in a few years.
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People can be intrigued by the thought of not having to do much. They like the idea of a pre made kit that they can play there childhood games on and have minimal setup
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