Installation procedure (pi4 question)

Planetdune

I wanted to build a place to play retro games (I guess most here do/did). I bought a Pi4 (4gb), have zero experience with these things, thought it would be straightforward copy some files and done but after some watching vids and reading this seems not to be the case. I even read that the Pi4 is not supported?? I would find this hard to believe as the Pi4 has been out for months by now.

As far as I currently understand this I need to do the following:

Install Raspbian
Install Retropie
Install EmulationStation
Add Roms

Is this correct? Do I need Raspbian or can I just skip that part and install Retropie directly?

Thanks!

quicksilver

@Planetdune said in Installation procedure (pi4 question):

I even read that the Pi4 is not supported?? I would find this hard to believe as the Pi4 has been out for months by now.

It is not currently supported but is actively being worked on by the retropie devs. The pi 4 has some significant hardware and driver differences compared to older models so it's taken some time for them to get everything working properly on it (in their spare time and for free I might add). That being said if you want to manually install retropie on your pi 4 you can follow the instructions here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/dnimkw/raspberry_pi_4_manual_install_method/

Keep in mind not everything may be working properly as it's still a work in progress. Hence it's not officially supported yet.

Planetdune

@quicksilver I'll try but that looks complicated, I am reading this:

Install Git.
Clone the repo: git clone --branch fkms_rpi4 --depth=1

And I am like...

"what is a git?"
"where do you get a git?"
"How do you clone a repo? What is a repo? What is that weird branch something line?"

I am used to Windows since Win 95 but never used anything else and this all looks scary...

quicksilver

@Planetdune Retropie is hobbyist software so its never going to be as easy to use as a windows OS. However if you are interested in learning it really isnt rocket science and it can expand your knowledge of computers. You just need to be willing to research and experiment. Remember if you mess something up, you can always wipe the SD card and start over. If that doesnt sound interesting or fun or you just want to play games with minimal effort then I would recommend waiting until Retropie is officially supported on the pi 4, then it will be significantly easier to setup and use.

mitu

@Planetdune Then wait until an official image is released.

Nylan

Hi,

this is what I've done over Raspbian

git clone --branch fkms_rpi4 --depth=1 --single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Perform basic install
After Installation, exit and to start Emulationstation

Note that if you installed the Desktop version of Raspbian you can't launch Emulationstation from it. You have to quit the desktop or set your pi to start under console instead of GUI ( you can set this from raspi-config )