Using game disks with RetroPie

snipersnake004

Ok. Here's my situation. I have a BUNCH of old PS2 games sitting in a drawer at home, begging to be played. Big problem... I don't have a PS2 anymore. So when I came across RetroPie, I'm like, YAY! PS2 gaming time! But I don't know how to connect those disks to RetroPie. I have a disk reader, that's not a problem. I don't have much knowledge mounting disks, but I can find a guide of some sort. Here are my only thoughts of how to fix my problem:

Copy disks' content somehow? PROBLEMS: Many disks, including most PS2 games, have anti-copy software thingys.
Just connect the disks and hope for the best??? PROBLEMS: This is why I'm asking around...

BORING TECHNICAL STUFF*****
I'm running a Pi3 V1.2.
I'm running the Pi off a simple USB A to USB C cable.
I'm running RetroPie 4.7.1 (Latest version at time of writing)
That RetroPie was flashed using Raspberry Pi Imager, downloaded from the official website. The image is located inside the imager at Choose OS, Emulation and Game OS, RetroPie, RetroPie 4.7.1 (Pi 2/3)
No USB devices.
Generic SNES layout controller.
I haven't actually tried any of the methods above.

PLEASE HELP!

lostless

@snipersnake004 not going to happen. A raspberry pi has nowhere near the power for PS2 games.

lostless

@snipersnake004 but to continue this, you need a decent pc to run ps2. Also the disks don’t have any real sort of copy protection that a pc dvd drive can’t read. So you can just make an image with a pc with no issues. The protection was in the physical way the disks were made that can’t be reproduced if you burn a disk.

snipersnake004

@lostless So... I'll just find the ROM inside the game disk?

snipersnake004

@lostless Also, I wasn't just talking about PS2 games, but also other games. I only used PS2 as an example. Another question, a HARD one this time, how to connect Sega Master System cartridges?

mitu

Some emulators have support for direct disc reading - see https://www.libretro.com/index.php/category/retroarch-disc-project/. You'd need an external USB DVD/CD drive to read the disc, but it should work for the systems supported. PS2 is not one of them and won't run on a Pi anyway.
You can rip your disc and produce an image/set of files that will be read by the emulators, most emulators that support disc based systems work like this.

Another question, a HARD one this time, how to connect Sega Master System cartridges?

Most emulators work with the contents of the dumped cartridge (i.e. ROMs). If you wish to use a real cartridge one method is to get a ROM dumper (working with SMS games), connect it to your PI and dump the ROM before starting the game - it's not that simple.

snipersnake004

@mitu When I Googled "rom dumper", the first result was a Wikipedia page describing something called the "Retrode". But the website for that is down, and I can't find any other ROM dumpers. Also, I don't fancy paying 80 dollars. Do you have any suggestions?

mitu

@snipersnake004 said in Using game disks with RetroPie:

Do you have any suggestions?

No, I don't. Why do you want to use a real cartridge instead of a ROM file ?

snipersnake004

@mitu SLAPS FACE Why didn't I think of that before...