Booting Retropie from network ?

[Jockinaus]

I am thinking of having three Pi 3b's around the house running Retropie. What I would like to do is have them all running off the same Retropie image. Ive looked into this and am ready to spend some cash getting more Pi's, but I was wondering if someone could confirm Ive got the right idea on how to do this ?

So, Each Pi will have an SD card with Berryboot on it. You need a separate Pi to act as a server ( Question, does the server Pi need to be a 3b ? Ive got a spare original Pi B and a Pi zero). Once Ive got the server running, I should be able to boot from my network drive ? . Also wondering, can you boot from cloud storage ?

Thanks in advance :)

[mitu]

@Jockinaus It would be more easy to use a network share to mount your ROM folder via file shares, in the end you'll need to NFS mount most of your filesystem anyway. It's easier to manage and there's less configuration to do so.
Having said that, the Raspbian page on Network booting should get you started. RetroPie does not have any special provisions for running networked, so you'll have to experiment on your own. Remember that RetroPie is just Raspbian Lite underneath, it's not an OS by itself.

[Clyde]

@Jockinaus Also consider that some data may better be stored locally for speed, e.g. game images and videos. Loading each of them over the network as you browse your games in Emulation Station may slow down your user experience unpleasantly.

So, as @mitu said, having only your rom directory stored remotely and the rest locally may be better than a full network boot. Some scrapers like Selph's Scraper provide the option to store images and videos outside of the rom folder.

[Jockinaus]

Thanks guys for the help. Ive picked up another Pi 3B today to play around with :)