Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems

Impman66

I guess it's "The easy way" to do things. Rather than spend time on creating their own thing, its far easier to buy something ready made, plug and play and out the box.
They are then stuck with loads of stuff they don't really play, and not being able to change anything as they haven't took the time to learn.
I prefer to have the games I want, the theme I want and the capability to change those things if I so require.
Before now I may have done the same thing, but I wanted to learn, and going on this forum, has given me the confidence to try and create my own theme, and learn a bit about HDMI and Linux. Learning this way gives myself support rather than no support whatsoever from those that buy pre-built, outdated stuff.

sad_muso

@Impman66 This. I guess this is the easy option for casuals, but like you I wanted to build something myself whilst learning and having fun along the way. I'm so chuffed with what I've achieved to date and I still have a long list of things I want to try and implement. It's the hobby that keeps on giving, and I haven't even started playing games much yet!

Stuffu

@Impman66 said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

Before now I may have done the same thing, but I wanted to learn, and going on this forum, has given me the confidence to try and create my own theme, and learn a bit about HDMI and Linux. Learning this way gives myself support rather than no support whatsoever from those that buy pre-built, outdated stuff.

Same here, previously I was more or less aware of Linux but now I can find my way around a lot more, even if I'm still a novice. Then again, not all people wants to/can put in the effort it actually takes to get a system they way you want.

pikey87

I'm brand new here. I bought an Amazon pie that should arrive Monday. I can completely understand people here being against them, it's perfectly understandable. But... For someone like me that wants to get my feet wet with a known good setup, it's perfect. I can always read up and learn more about it, because eventually I do want to build one of my own, but the appeal of thousands and thousands of games ready to go is undeniable. Especially since the time taken to learn everything would cost far more to me than a simple plug and play. I still plan to make my own, but in the meantime, as a completely unknowledgeable newbie, I also want Access to the games immediately.

sirhenrythe5th

@pikey87 i cant speak for all the members here, but i started with emulation in the 90s and therefore had most of the games a long time before the Raspberry Pi or retropie was released.
And you can get them even easier now than in the 90s, so if it is only about the games on the prebuilds for you - that is not a real argument imo

dankcushions

@pikey87 i understand the appeal, but you will be disappointed. the people who know how retropie works are not putting together these systems, and even if they were, retropie isn't a consumer-friendly product; you WILL get problems and will not be able to seek support for them here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

truglodite

@pikey87 said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

But... For someone like me that wants to get my feet wet with a known good setup, it's perfect.

IDK, you know the saying it's better to teach someone to fish than hand them a fish. If you buy the fish already prepared to eat, that's not going to help one bit with you learning to fish. Premade retropie is no different. You might think you have the most efficient way to go from wanting to playing... for a few games... then when that one you really want to play doesn't... buy another premade that does that game? How many before it gets old? Before long it will be time to toss that brief experience away and join the ranks of learning retropie from scratch. IMHO, that fleeting moment isn't worth it... best to start right off learning to catch the fish before thinking about enjoying it for dinner. All this said, I think the devs have made retropie about as easily accessible as they possibly could. It's not that hard to figure out if you take your time and deal with one addition/feature/issue at a time. Start with lr-mame2003, your most favorite games you like to play, then go from there. The lr-emulator selection and how retroarch handles controllers makes learning to get a lot from retropie a very efficient journey. Also, you don't want to drag a preconfigured POS weight around with you as you ask questions and learn... that will add lots of frustration in sorting issues, versus having a scratch made retropie setup where devs know exactly how it works.

truglodite

@grant2258 said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

agreed but a lot of people are unaware until they make the mistake

Yep, we have laws to protect consumers from bad actors, and as long as they don't go too far they work out for the better of everyone. Speaking of, aren't most of these systems coming loaded with ROMs anyways? If so, stopping it wouldn't even involve consumer laws, as copyrights are being violated. I honestly don't understand how Amazon or Ebay aren't complicit actors in the whole deal (surely, at least one copyright complaint has been lodged against each seller at some point in time)... or further how any of those folks manage to make any real $$$ before getting cuffed.

gorgar19

Personally I enjoy the reading the docs here and getting suggestions or ideas from the forums then figuring how each emulator is setup .
Even if more times then I care to admit my tweaks ended up with me reflashing the SD card and starting from scratch.

pikey87

I've gotten and had time to play with my preloaded/worked box. I'd like to post a few thoughts, if they aren't wanted feel free to say so, and I'll happily drop it. Of course I won't drop names of any kind besides games/programs and such.

This thing is AMAZING! it's got all kinds of fail-safes for absolute hacks like me. Ironically, the booklet lists this site and a few screen names as tech support for this thing. 🤣 It has a power off fail safe, which bizzarely I tested immediately when a car hit a telephone pole 100 yards from my house. The screen stays black for 5 minutes or so with a please wait message, then goes to the main menu, which is set up like my mame arcade stick. (Aka Chinese pirate box, makes my wife chuckle Everytime I say that)

Everything works, everything I've tried runs beautifully, and the fact that it has a button combination to hold to reset everything I've messed up without deleting saves is great. Maybe I will run into issues that I can't fix or get help on here, like I was warned about (in a friendly manner) but I can get help in other places, and using this box as a benchmark, and Having you guys as a resource when I do decide to make my own is a fantastic position to be in.

mitu

@pikey87 I smell a rat here. Are you reviewing your own product ?

pikey87

@mitu said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

@pikey87 I smell a rat here. Are you reviewing your own product ?

No, I'm absolutely not. I got pointed to here from gamefaqs (which doesn't tolerate ROMs at all) and I'm completely pi inept. The town I grew up in didn't even have internet until 1997, and today there's NO internet access 20 miles north. The first ROM I ever downloaded was in 2018. My PC knowledge is nill. I just like my old games, and I want to be able to play them, and others I've missed without breaking the bank.

Reddit is generally worthless for retropie help besides a few links, because the gatekeeper mentality there is obscene. If you don't know how to program your lawnmower to run from your toaster, go fuck yourself is the mentality there.

There really are those of us that only gamed on console for 20+ years. I'm not selling, endorsing, or pushing a single thing. I just don't know my ass from my elbow computerwise. If you didn't want me to talk about pi from another source, all you had to do was say so.

The accusatory post was absolutely unnecessary. As I said before, I'll HAPPILY drop talking about a complete newbies experiences with a premade box. But I don't have to tolerate being called names, regardless of anyone's status on a low traffic site.

AdamBeGood

@sad_muso That is the thing, you spend all the time umming and ahhing about how to get games to work at their best, and then move on to the next challenge without enjoying the result of the work! All fun though!

mitu

@pikey87 said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

The accusatory post was absolutely unnecessary. As I said before, I'll HAPPILY drop talking about a complete newbies experiences with a premade box. But I don't have to tolerate being called names, regardless of anyone's status on a low traffic site.

We're not a review site for scammers selling RetroPie and illegal roms. Nobody called you names, but you seem particularly picky on a simple legitimate question.

truglodite

@pikey87 said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

@mitu said in Too many Amazon sellers selling fully loaded sysyems:

@pikey87 I smell a rat here. Are you reviewing your own product ?

...regardless of anyone's status on a low traffic site.

Oh burn, lol!

mitu wasn't directly 'accusing', rather he stated his suspicions of malfeasance. You also do not have the experience with the nature of discussions on this site to be able to make a judgement on what kinds of posts are necessary or not, unlike mitu who is a fixture here. Instead of biting his head off for attempting to defend the legitimacy of this site, you should have thanked him and other prolific folks here for delivering the goods that were stolen and sold cheaply to you. It's not about gatekeeping around here (kind of suspect the same is true for reddit as well). So I call BS... anyone can ask a question here and it gets kindly/promptly answered, whether you're a complete noob or not. That you come in knowing less is OK... just requires more work on your end to catch up learning certain things. It's not much really... I am sure you would feel very rewarded by accomplishing success on your own with retropie.

OldSchoolGuy

@sad_muso Ditto. I started out being scammed by an Amazon seller exactly like many others, and I found that the system was pretty horrible. After months of learning and tweaking, I finally have a system worthy of my Old School nerdy expectations. I have also been able to build several other complete systems as a hobby and gave them away as gifts for close family members.