How many of you found out about RetroPie because you couldn't buy the NES Classic?

Zeke · 10 Jan 2017, 21:43

Me! I've been jonesing for big-screen 8-bit/16-bit gaming since the NES Classic was announced... I had toyed with the idea of a Raspberry Pi in the past, but finding out about RetroPie sealed the deal. Starter kit in the mail!

joen · 12 Jan 2017, 09:04

Hahahaha I did. I saw this little nice but expensive gadget with only 30 games on it. but somewhere wanted to, well at least look at it before buying.. but sold out.. and then looked at reviews as I wanted to know more about it.. Retropie!!!! haha.. I just finished my Arcade Cabinet with a pi3. I jused old controls of an old iCade, connected them via GPIO and retrogame. AWESOME!!! I have loads of fun playing Mame roms. who cares about NES hahaha cheers!! JT

Skeeter · 15 Jan 2017, 18:16

I was slightly interested in the NES Classic. But when I checked into getting one they were long gone unless you were willing to spend the crazy eBay prices for one. It's OK though, I was more of an Atari guy back in the day anyway. It's kind of funny because I had just about every system at one time or another and now they're all gone except for my Nintendo's. I'd much rather have my Atari's back, haha, especially my 8 and 16 bit computers. I still have in my possession every Nintendo console ever made not counting the handhelds. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, and WiiU all in the house. I do have one handheld, the new 3DSXL and a PS4, but my son uses them the most.

Back OT...my always wanting an arcade machine of my own lead me to RetroPie. I was recently looking around and discovered the bartop arcade machines. Cheaper than a full sized and pretty cool but still more than I had to spend. That's when I also discovered the Raspberry Pi as a lot of those bartops are using them. At first I thought it was some sort of OS, didn't realize it was a small computer, haha. That lead to RetroPie and yesterday I got my first Pi and of course it's now running RP. I've got Mame and tons of ROMs running on my PC but the cool factor of a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie is totally awesome. I'll be upgrading my SD card from 32gb to 128gb soon and no telling how many more Pi's I'll get. And I still haven't checked out Raspbian, that will happen when I pick up the 128gb card.

Sorry for the long winded post. But yeah, RetroPie is fantastic!

tendo_nerd12 · 17 Jan 2017, 18:33

yeah its amazing what it can do and what they have done for everyone with retropie, hats off them for sure.

AntonPhibes · 25 Jan 2017, 20:29

I did initially check out the NES Classic but I was more interested in the Sega Genesis equivalent. After finding out how poor that unit was I started checking into alternatives and found Retro Pie and that sold it for me.

mikenerv · 31 Jan 2017, 23:56

After using the same emulators on my old ds for years I switched to using them on the iphone. each of the emulators kept crapping out until happy chick came around. later I was wanting to get a bluetooth joystick and saw the classic had been announced which led me back to investigating retropie and decided yep thats for me. this weekend my friend brought over the classic. it is very cool but limited without doing the hack. the pi is smaller and can do so much more. I stopeed looking for the classic now.

ray2272 · 1 Feb 2017, 02:33

I'd say this describes me, but in a roundabout way. I actually tried building an emulation PC after seeing Retron 5 and the like. The idea of a single machine to play all my old games had me hooked. Of course, once I saw the simple menu system and the like of the NES Classic, I was curious if there was anything out there that was set up to operate in a similar fashion, and found some YouTube videos of EmulationStation in action. At that point, it wasn't long before I had my own RetroPie hooked up in the home theatre.

Sosaria · 1 Feb 2017, 02:49

I have been using a retropie for a few months now, but with the NES Classic being so hard to get, it kind of pushed me into getting more retro console roms since the official one was unobtainable.

For the most part, I use the retropie to test out games I don't have and want to buy before spending the money on ebay for a used cartridge, etc.

Chicken-Farmer · 26 Feb 2017, 21:06

My "Ah Ha" moment came after my son and I were standing in line outside a target for the NES Classic on launch day. We arrived a couple hours early before the store opened up. With 1 hour to go before the store opened a manager poked his head out and said they had 2 in stock. We were #5 in line. No worries, the same shopping center had a game stop in it with a sign on the door "10 NES Classics in stock". So we stepped out of line and went to stand in line at game stop. We were #8. For some reason the game stop was not opening until 10:00 so we had a few more hours to wait. Everyone in line was excited and talking about their favorite NES games. We were so sure that we were getting the NES Classic that we started talking about what games we would play first, second, etc. About 9:00 the game stop employee showed up, unlocked the door, entered, and locked up again. Excitement was in the air. Probably 30 minutes before opening the employee poked his head out and said that they only had 4 in stock! What? the sign that you posted on the door said 10 consoles! I have a feeling he stepped inside, called his buddies and set aside consoles for them. Or even worse, took 6 for himself to sell at inflated prices later. My son and I were disappointed, but still hopeful because Amazon was going to be going live later in the day. We made sure we were primed and ready. I was able to get the NES Classic into my shopping cart but Amazon would not allow me to finalize the order. Shortly after, Amazon crashed as millions of people were trying to do the same thing I was.
While looking for places to purchase the NES Classic I stumbled upon this thing called a raspberry pi. I literally thought it was a cell phone at first! The rest is history. We now have a retro gaming station that blows the NES Classic out of the water. Cheaper and better in every way. So because Nintendo once again flubbed a product launch, we ended up better because of it!

Lyle_JP · 26 Feb 2017, 21:19

My pi story is very different. I was looking for a replacement for my networked media player. I have been using an ASUS O!Play, but it was long discontinued. The only things out there like it were the Roku boxes and something from WD, neither of which I liked much. Then someone said, "Why don't you just buy a raspberry pi and stick OpenELEC/Kodi on it like everyone else?"

"What's a raspberry pi?" I ask. Then I do some research, and it becomes the first "gotta buy" piece of electronics I've seen since my Playstation3. Of course in no time I had Kodi on it. But I said, "I wonder what else it can do?" So I got a nice desktop, some productivity freeware, and all the internet software I could want on it. "Okay, what ELSE can it do?" That's when I notice some folks on the LibreELEC forum (which I had switched to at that point) discussing if RetroPie could be integrated into LibreELEC. So then I Google Retropie and nearly lose my mind.

The rest is history.

tekn0 · 27 Feb 2017, 06:25

@tendo_nerd12 said in How many of you found out about RetroPie because you couldn't buy the NES Classic?:

yeah its amazing what it can do and what they have done for everyone with retropie, hats off them for sure.

Agreed. I personally find the NES Classic laughable in comparison to what retropie is capable of.

Duveldg · 27 Feb 2017, 18:23

I had a Nintendo Classic Mini and hacked it with Hakchi2 because I wanted some games that where not installed by default. But then I found an article about a retropie with a lot more options the Nintendo Classic Mini so I bought a retropie and found out it worked much better with a couple of 8BITDO sfc30 controllers. And I had so much more options to work with.

Now I have a retrobox with 5500+ games fully installed with cover and info.

PetroRie · 27 Feb 2017, 22:14

@tekn0 said in How many of you found out about RetroPie because you couldn't buy the NES Classic?:

@tendo_nerd12 said in How many of you found out about RetroPie because you couldn't buy the NES Classic?:

yeah its amazing what it can do and what they have done for everyone with retropie, hats off them for sure.

Agreed. I personally find the NES Classic laughable in comparison to what retropie is capable of.

Its waaaay overrated in my opinion. if it had the entire NES library I would say meh it has the entire NES game library so it's worth it. But just 30 games with no other features expect for playing them??? I have been saying this to everyone who wants a NES Classic; GET A RASPBERRY PI 3 AND INSTALL RETROPIE! You get to play so many other classic consoles (PSX, N64, NEOGEO etc.), you can get the entire game library for them via Torrents, you have cheat support, you can connect 4 controllers, you can use any USB controller, it has shaders and overlays you can use, it supports online multiplayer, it has Kodi which is a HUGE bonus if you want to watch full HD movies and tv shows, there are so many options you can use to tweak the thing. It costs half the price of the NES Classic.

I've seen some people mentioning that they have an input lag but I never ever noticed anything at all. I really cannot see why someone would prefer the Nes classic over the Pi.

tony_retrogamer · 15 Apr 2017, 13:47

I was trying to get a NES classic but I cold not find one. That is how I found out about Retropie. Not only can I play way for NES games but I also got SNES, Genesis (megadrive), Gameboy, Gameboy Advanced and many more.

Vodkanakas · 15 Apr 2017, 18:24

Well it wasn't more that i couldn't buy it but wouldn't buy it. Why spend the money on that short list of games when you could spend about the same and get way more out of your purchase and still play with classic controllers (With adapters for the controllers not the usb versions. Most just dont have that feel of authenticness.) So i bought my first Pi and am loving it.

Drakaen391 · 15 Apr 2017, 18:28

The classic didnt even have all the games I would call "good games"

I would have jumped on it if it took the old cartridges though

tony_retrogamer · 16 Apr 2017, 23:41

@Vodkanakas said in How many of you found out about RetroPie because you couldn't buy the NES Classic?:

Well it wasn't more that i couldn't buy it but wouldn't buy it. Why spend the money on that short list of games when you could spend about the same and get way more out of your purchase and still play with classic controllers (With adapters for the controllers not the usb versions. Most just dont have that feel of authenticness.) So i bought my first Pi and am loving it.

I did not even know I can play using a Raspberry Pi. I only found out when I could not get a NES classic. I though emulation was only for the PC which I tried to hook up to the TV and was cumbersome to play.

ravagetalon · 17 Apr 2017, 12:38

Guilty. I decided to build one of these once I learned they were arbitrarily discontinuing the NES Classic. Nintendo hates money I guess. Oh well, I now have a box that's about a thousand times more capable.

dragon_0n4 · 17 Apr 2017, 14:36

@ravagetalon well....in Nintendo's defense, the NES Mini was a "limited special edition" which was never meant as a long-run selling console like the others. See here

dragon_0n4 · 17 Apr 2017, 14:41

I've been playing with emulators since I started messing with them on Win XP. Started with a gameboy emu, then snes...and on, and on as I found more lol.
The NES mini wasn't the main factor, for me; rather, it was seeing everyone making a rPi3 system to look like one. Premade cases, skins for the official rPi case, lego cases! So many possibilities!
That coupled with a custom retro/8bit theme for retropie = emulation heaven!