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

[ray2272]

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]

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]

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]

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]

@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]

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]

@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]

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]

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]

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]

@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]

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]

@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]

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!

[mediamogul]

@dragon_0n4

the NES Mini was a "limited special edition" which was never meant as a long-run selling console like the others.

Still, once the winds changed and it was obvious how popular the NES classic was going to be, they could have adjusted their plans. Since absolutely no company in the world hates money, it's possible the decision to discontinue this product boils down to the need to keep manufacturing lines fully open for the Switch, or perhaps even to what Nintendo of Japan might see as potential brand confusion in English speaking markets and a long-term dilution of their intellectual properties that could impede the launch of the Switch. Nintendo of Japan has never given these markets much credit for common sense.

[edmaul69]

@mediamogul i hate they now have discontinued the mini. If people hadnt hacked it so fast, maybe it would have gone longer. I really wanted one. I even bought 2 raphnet wii classic remote to usb adaptors with plans on purchasing one. I stood in line several cold mornings to no avail.

[mediamogul]

@edmaul69

If people hadnt hacked it so fast, maybe it would have gone longer.

That could be a factor as well, but with all the money left lying on the table, you'd think that some of it could have gone into system revisions that would combat piracy. Nintendo is so absolutely secretive about their decision making, that we may never know what really went on here. After years of supposition and investigation, it's only been this past year that we finally have a believable explaination as to why they've never released the arcade version 'Donkey Kong' on a virtual platform.

[Capeman]

@mediamogul Out of curiousity, what was that reason?

[mediamogul]

@Capeman

It's recently come to light that Nintendo may not have have full, or perhaps any distribution rights to many of their early arcade titles, Donkey Kong included. If true, this would be the result of an undisclosed settlement between them and Ikegami Tsushinki, who were responsible for programming the games in question, as well as developing the hardware. To make a long story short, Nintendo tried to cut this company out of their original agreement by reverse engineering their previous designs when creating 'Donkey Kong Jr.'. There are a few things that give credence to Ikegami Tsushinki having some legal claim to the software. Most humorously is the company developing a direct clone of 'Donkey Kong', Nintendo's most popular title at the time, in the form of 'Congo Bongo' to SEGA, without any legal challenge.

[Capeman]

Figures it was copyright issues. If copyright law could figure itself out, thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people at this point wouldn't need to resort to hacking together projects like RetroPie to bypass all that corporate BS. I guess there's always a silver lining.