Try Retropie on a PC!

jamesbeat

This is a Retropie forum, not the Raspberry Pi forum.
I understand that it is Pi-centric, as that is the most common platform, but it is also available for x86, and I wanted to share my positive experience with people who are disappointed in N64 performance on the Pi.

As to being collectively misled, I don't believe that I was deliberately misled, but I do think that my definition of 'playable' differs from that of many of the people discussing the subject.

One guy did warn me what to expect, and that's what made me delve deeper and watch the videos carefully.

The Pi is magnificent, and as I said, I would almost consider myself to be a fanboy under certain circumstances.
I have a bartop arcade cabinet that uses a Pi, and I think it is ideal for that application.

While it can be made to work to an extent, I don't believe that the Pi is currently the best piece of hardware for those looking to use N64 emulators.
My post was directed at people in that position, to show them that there is an alternative that works very well.

herb_fargus

@jamesbeat I also think we could do a better job of showing that RetroPie could be used on a PC for those that want the added performance. Of course RetroPie originated on a pi but the pc is a good option too (I use both depending on my needs)

People still see RetroPie only as an image that is downloaded for the pi but really RetroPie is just a script that installs other software which is why it's adaptable to other systems (albeit with a few platform code tweaks)

bazmonkey

@jamesbeat Fair enough. Enjoy!

bazmonkey

One more thing :-)

@jamesbeat said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

I'd like to try the lighter distro, because Ubuntu is a bit bloated and slow to boot, and it's really not necessary for Retropie.

Just wanna put this out there that you can totally strip down an Ubuntu installation as well as you could use another distro. If you can do without the graphical environment altogether, what you'd be left with is little more than the base Debian installation that RetroPie typically runs on.

jamesbeat

@herb_fargus said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat I also think we could do a better job of showing that RetroPie could be used on a PC for those that want the added performance. Of course RetroPie originated on a pi but the pc is a good option too (I use both depending on my needs)

People still see RetroPie only as an image that is downloaded for the pi but really RetroPie is just a script that installs other software which is why it's adaptable to other systems (albeit with a few platform code tweaks)

Retropie, in my opinion, is the most important thing to happen to retro gaming in a long time.
The reason is not because emulators are a new thing, but the user friendliness of the setup - it may only be a script, but it makes things so easy anyone can do it, and that's a big deal.

I'd love to see an official distro for PCs.
I managed to set it up ok using the guide, but I've been using Linux for over a decade.

If there was a retropie distro like there is for Lakka, I think it would really catch fire.

The Raspberry Pi is still a niche device, but almost everyone has access to an old PC from the last ten years.

If you could stick a DVD or flash drive into a PC and turn it into a retro gaming powerhouse, even the less techie people could enjoy it for little or no cost.
It would probably draw a lot of attention to the Pi as well.

herb_fargus

@jamesbeat I did make a small USB based gaming thing for windows (still needs some tweaks) but it's essentially lakka with Emulationstation and some configs for standalone emu's.

https://github.com/HerbFargus/Portable-Game-Station

Also RetroPie is starting to get too big imo too many people are starting to abuse it for selfish gain which really kills my motivation for the project. I kinda wish it were back to being less user friendly to filter out the opportunistic freeloaders.

jamesbeat

@herb_fargus said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat I did make a small USB based gaming thing for windows (still needs some tweaks) but it's essentially lakka with Emulationstation and some configs for standalone emu's.

https://github.com/HerbFargus/Portable-Game-Station

Also RetroPie is starting to get too big imo too many people are starting to abuse it for selfish gain which really kills my motivation for the project. I kinda wish it were back to being less user friendly to filter out the opportunistic freeloaders.

Yes, that's definitely a problem - I've watched it happen for years with MAME, and I expect it will happen with Retropie too.

I feel sad for the devs when these people use their selfless contribution to the community to make some cash for themselves.

There's another side to this coin though.
Because of the Retropie devs, for the last few hours, I have been playing Super Mario World with my five year old daughter.

I didn't have to pay anything, because some kind people shared their work with the world to make it a better place.
If you could see the expression on her face, you would know that it's all worthwhile, and people really do appreciate the work you are doing.

Here's my counterpoint to your argument that making it too user friendly will encourage freeloaders:
It will for a while, and that's unavoidable.
There are always going to be unpleasant people looking to make a fast buck.
However, if you make retropie popular enough, everyone will know that it's supposed to be free, and will see the freeloaders for what they are.

This is why it is so important to have a no-brainer distro - the freeloaders are selling to the people who don't have the confidence to set it up themselves.
People who aren't confident in their technical ability will Google retropie, be put off by the complexity (even though it's already extremely user friendly) and then look for an easier ready-made solution.
This is where the freeloader comes in and offers them that ready made solution in exchange for money.
If it's easy enough that any idiot can do it, you remove the market for the freeloaders.

The only sticking point is the roms, because the end user will always have to do that part.

dankcushions

huge improvements with perfect dark here:

amazing what's been achieved in the last few weeks. exciting times

Shakz

Cant get it to work myself. Keep getting a "Could not build Retroarch - frontend" error when trying to compile retroarch. Something about ffmpeg

Thegodfather

@jamesbeat I'm a noob in all of this stuff.
I wan't to try retropie before buying a raspberry pi, but at the same time I would like to give a second life to my old PC, make it into a retro gaming machine, and set it up on my "man cave" (tried lakka didn't like it).
Do you still need a keyboard and mouse to login to your PC running retropie? Or when you turn it on, it loads retropie automatically?
It would be a bit of a nuisance to have a keyboard laying arround just to load retropie on the pc...
I appreciate any kind of help you can give me.

Shakz

Well I got it to work by not running any updates and just performing an install with the vanilla Ubuntu 16.4.1. NES and SNES work fine...as well as n64. However no dice on Dreamcast. It launches then boots me right out. Gave some sort of permission denied to /dev/fv0 or some such thing. I chmodded it...and no longer get the error but still the games wont launch. I may setup a VM on my main machine so I can start from scratch easier.

jamesbeat

@Thegodfather
I'm pretty much a noob myself, but the installation instructions are pretty much noob proof.

Once everything is set up, you don't need a keyboard and mouse attached.
It boots straight into retropie and everything (including shutting down the machine) can be controlled with the controller.
It basically transforms a Pi or a PC into the reto gaming console you've always wanted.

I only hook up a keyboard and mouse if I'm using one of the computer emulators, for example if I am using the ZX Spectrum emulator, I need a keyboard because the original machine had a keyboard.

If you're only going to play console games, you will only need to connect a keyboard occasionally for maintenance (if at all).

jamesbeat

Last night I started to set up an old laptop with Retropie.
I decided to go with Lubuntu 16.04 instead of Ubuntu, because this laptop is very old and Lubuntu is less resource hungry.

The installation took a lot longer, but appears to have worked ok.
I say 'appears' because by the time it had finished installing I had given up waiting and gone to bed!

When I looked at it this morning, Emulationstation appeared to be working ok, but I didn't have time to copy any roms over, so I couldn't really test anything

I'm going to transfer some roms to it tonight and see if it works.

If it works properly with Lubuntu, I think I'll change my main machine over to that too, because it is lighter and faster to boot than Ubuntu.

This could be a really good solution for people who have a very old PC and want to use it for retropie.

I'll test it tonight and report back.

Thegodfather

@jamesbeat Yeh, I've read the installation instructions and found it to be easy enough to follow, but was not clear on how the boot would work. The only reason I didn't tryed it out, was because I didn't want to go to all that trouble and not get the results that I wanted.
My plan is to disassemble the PC, remove some of the not needed components for this, and then house the retro gaming machine in the tv stand or in the coffee table. And ofcourse for this I would need it to boot up directly do retropie, and not need to use a keyboard and mouse everytime I played, since like you said I will mainly play console games.
Thank you for replying :)

And to those that might say that buying the raspberry pi would be easier, I know that thank you very much. But I'm looking for a fun and challenging project, and this is it for now.
The next one will probably be to build a custom arcade machine using the pi.

gizmo98

@Shakz please use lr-reicast.

BuZz

@Shakz said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

Cant get it to work myself. Keep getting a "Could not build Retroarch - frontend" error when trying to compile retroarch. Something about ffmpeg

it references a logfile when there are errors - you could post it via pastebin.com or similar. Otherwise I cannot advise. Note I have updated the retroarch module to make sure ffmpeg dev libraries are installed in case it was related to missing dependencies. You can update retropie-setup and just try and install retroarch and post a log if you get errors.

Shakz

@BuZz Thanks for the tip Buzz, I ended up starting with a fresh install and then just ran the install all core/main via source. It worked that time. The first time I think I went to each section and selected items to install...this messed things up somehow. When I get home Ill try lr-reicast (like Gizmo suggests) as I had it compling when I went to bed last night but could not stay up and wait for it to finish/test.

jamesbeat

@Thegodfather said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat Yeh, I've read the installation instructions and found it to be easy enough to follow, but was not clear on how the boot would work. The only reason I didn't tryed it out, was because I didn't want to go to all that trouble and not get the results that I wanted.
My plan is to disassemble the PC, remove some of the not needed components for this, and then house the retro gaming machine in the tv stand or in the coffee table. And ofcourse for this I would need it to boot up directly do retropie, and not need to use a keyboard and mouse everytime I played, since like you said I will mainly play console games.
Thank you for replying :)

And to those that might say that buying the raspberry pi would be easier, I know that thank you very much. But I'm looking for a fun and challenging project, and this is it for now.
The next one will probably be to build a custom arcade machine using the pi.

I wouldn't say that the Raspberry Pi install is easier than the PC install, it's just different.
It's easy to flash the image to a card, but you still have to set it up.
With the PC, you just install the OS and then run the script. It's really easy either way.
I found getting roms onto a PC easier, because you can just drag and drop because there is a standard Linux windowing system.

Psssst. Don't tell the Raspberry Pi people, but if the arcade cabinet you plan on building will be a full size one (ie if you have enough room inside) then definitely use a PC.
I have built both a Raspberry Pi based bartop and a full size upright cabinet with a PC, and the difference is night and day.

Thegodfather

@jamesbeat said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

Last night I started to set up an old laptop with Retropie.
I decided to go with Lubuntu 16.04 instead of Ubuntu, because this laptop is very old and Lubuntu is less resource hungry.

The installation took a lot longer, but appears to have worked ok.
I say 'appears' because by the time it had finished installing I had given up waiting and gone to bed!

When I looked at it this morning, Emulationstation appeared to be working ok, but I didn't have time to copy any roms over, so I couldn't really test anything

I'm going to transfer some roms to it tonight and see if it works.

If it works properly with Lubuntu, I think I'll change my main machine over to that too, because it is lighter and faster to boot than Ubuntu.

This could be a really good solution for people who have a very old PC and want to use it for retropie.

I'll test it tonight and report back.

Sorry to bother you again, but did it work?
My old PC is from the early 2000's so a lubuntu install would be nice.

jamesbeat

@Thegodfather
I just got home from work, transferring roms now.
It might take a while, because this laptop isn't the fastest.
I can't remember the specs exactly, but I know it's a single core (Celeron M maybe?) at 1.4Ghz, so this should be a good test.

It seems to run Lubuntu just fine. Gotta love those lightweight Linux OSes.

The main thing I'm concerned about is the extremely basic graphics.

This wouldn't be a problem if it was a desktop machine because I could upgrade the graphics card, but because it's a laptop I'm pretty much stuck with what it comes with.

I hope it works, because having a Retropie laptop that cost $0 would be very cool.