Does RetroPie work *at all* with early Arcade ROMs on Raspberry Pi 4?

[Appogee]

Hi all. I've had a brand spanking new Raspberry Pi 4 in my hands for a few weeks now, and I'm champing at the bit to get a retro arcade-era machine up and running.

I'm aware that RetroPie isn't yet released for the Raspberry Pi 4, and that the devs are no doubt working away on this in the background. I imagine there's a ton of work to do in getting diverse dozens of console emulators working efficiently with the huge back catalogue of games that RetroPie can successfully run on a Pi 3.

My question is: does the current version of Retropie (4.5.1) run at all on a Raspberry Pi 4?

My main interest for now is on getting early classics (eg. Donkey Kong, Bosconian, Xevious, Defender) up and running. As these are much simpler games than those which followed on consoles, I'm hoping RetroPie 4.5.1 might already be able to run them.

Or is the architecture of the Pi 4 so different to a Pi 3 that even the core of RetroPie won't run on it yet?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom and insights :)

[sirhenrythe5th]

Retropie 4.5.1. does not run on a Raspberry Pi4 at all.

But propably a MAME-Version does.
Without using Retropie and by installing a LINUX-Distribution and a MAME-Port for Linux should run at least the games of the golden aera. (in fact it could be a much better experience than on a Pi3, because MAME does profit from stronger CPUs.)

[mitu]

@Appogee said in Does RetroPie work *at all* with early Arcade ROMs on Raspberry Pi 4?:

My question is: does the current version of Retropie (4.5.1) run at all on a Raspberry Pi 4?

No, it doesn't - that version is not compatible with the Pi4. The Pi4 uses a new Raspbian Linux release (codenamed Buster), while 4.5.1 is based on the previous release (codename Stretch).

[Clyde]

Patience is a virtue … 😇

[Appogee]

@Clyde said in Does RetroPie work *at all* with early Arcade ROMs on Raspberry Pi 4?:

Patience is a virtue … 😇

I'VE BEEN VERY PATIENT!!!111oneoneone

LOL, just kidding!

I appreciate the enormity of what the devs need to do, and also, their earnest efforts that we all get to enjoy. I would never be anything but thankful for being able to leverage their volunteer work.

[jpuli004]

I tried this and it's been working pretty good so far.

It's my first build but simple enough to follow.

[Darksavior]

@jpuli004 He used an outdated method he stole from a tomshardware article.

[jpuli004]

@Darksavior Didn't know that. Is there a better (or more current) method?

[Darksavior]

@jpuli004 Do a manual install on raspbian lite buster: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Manual-Installation
When you get to cloning the repo, use this instead: git clone --branch fkms_rpi4 --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
It's a wip, so expect bugs.

[Muckypaws]

I created a tutorial for installing RetroPie on a Pi4 with the Buster release and official RetroPie Image for the Pi4, here: https://muckypaws.com/2020/06/10/pi-4b-gaming-rig-part-1/