Try Retropie on a PC!

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.

jamesbeat

@jamesbeat
Welp, I tried it and it doesn't look good...

Serious lag in the menu system and all emulators that I tried. NES was the least laggy, but it was still a little offputting.
N64 was a joke, didn't even bother trying PSX, SNES was noticeably slow, even Game Boy was stuttering.

I am convinced that this is because of the graphics though. This laptop has ye olde Intel graphics, and I had to use some non standard settings to even get lubuntu installed.

I'm going to try some tweaks, but I don't have much hope for this old machine.

I think things would be different if it was a desktop with maybe a cheap second hand graphics card.

I have a horrible feeling that the compatibility list would read 'playable' for a couple of systems, but they are playable only if you hate yourself.

I still say give that old machine a try. What do you have to lose?
Even if it's not really playable, it would give you a feel for what Retropie is like.
I strongly suspect your old desktop would run it fine, my laptop is over ten years old and wasn't very good to begin with.

Shakz

@gizmo98
Still no dice

-----------------
REIOS: Booting up
-----------------
@@	ngen_ResetBlocks()
Freeing fpcb
recSh4:Dynarec Cache clear at AC0082FE
iNimp FFFF
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'SH4ThrownException'
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: line 827:  4822 Aborted                 /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-reicast/reicast_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dreamcast/Star Wars - Episode I - Racer v1.001 (2000)(Lucas Arts)(NTSC)(US)[!]/Star Wars - Episode I - Racer v1.001 (2000)(Lucas Arts)(NTSC)(US)[!].gdi" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

gizmo98

@Shakz i have not documented it but bios files must be under ~/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/ as you can read here:
http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-1-3-released/

jamesbeat

I'm building a second Retropie machine for my computer-based emulators (ZX Spectrum, C64 etc) that will have a keyboard, mouse and monitor rather than controller and TV.

Because I want this machine to be smaller and quieter, I decided to use the Pi 3 (I actually tried a Zero to begin with, but it wasn't powerful enough for the Atari ST emulator).

I'm putting this here for two reasons:

The first reason is to demonstrate that I have absolutely nothing against the Pi, and am eager to use it when it is the right tool for the job.
It's perfect for this application, as it is small enough to be housed in a compact case, and it is silent.
Because I will be sitting a lot nearer this machine, it will be nice to have no fan/HDD noise.

The second reason is because I bought another Pi3 yesterday (I sold the last one without ever hooking it up) and I tried N64 on it.
I won't be using this machine to play N64 games, but I had to try it after all the arguments that took place in this thread.

Before I go any further, I would like to make the following statements, just so we're all clear about where I stand on the Pi:

I love the Pi.
I bought the original model when it first came out, and paid through the nose to buy one from a scalper just so I didn't have to wait to get one.
I bought a Pi 3 yesterday.
I drove over an hour round trip to buy my Pi 3 because I was too excited to wait for delivery.
As of yesterday I now own five Raspberry Pi's, which is likely more than many people on this forum.
My current project is building a Retropie machine based on a Pi 3.
I have two future Raspberry Pi based projects planned; a 'barstick' arcade cabinet based on a Pi 3, and a portable console based on a Pi Zero.

I believe that the above statements firmly establish that I am very much a fan of the Raspberry Pi, and have been for many years, ever since the very first model was released.

I tried N64 emulation on both the Pi 3 and my x86 based Retropie box, both hooked to the same tv, using identical PS3 controllers.
Both machines were powered on and hooked up to different inputs on the same TV, so I could flick back and forth between them.

I ran the x86 setup 'out of the box', but for the Pi 3, I played around with settings to get the best performance I could, giving it an unfair advantage.
I tried Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day.

From my experiment I understand how the Pi 3 can probably sort of seem okay if you have nothing to compare it to, but when compared to the x86 version the difference is night and day.

I can now state unequivocally that for N64, my old PC running Retropie absolutely blows the Pi 3 out of the water - it's not even close.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat What sort of spec is the PC?I haven't tried it on the PC myself. I have a dual boot with windows / Debian. Might give it a whirl.

dankcushions

@jamesbeat

I can now state unequivocally that for N64, my old PC running Retropie absolutely blows the Pi 3 out of the water - it's not even close.

yes. of course, as everyone has told you several times.

the pi3 is significantly worse than the worst full pc you can buy. you'd have to go back to the 90s to find an x86 computer that has less horsepower. your phone is probably better than it. can we please move on!

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat What sort of spec is the PC?I haven't tried it on the PC myself. I have a dual boot with windows / Debian. Might give it a whirl.

Certainly nothing special - it's a Core 2 Duo 3.00 GHz 4GB RAM.
This is probably overkill, but it's what I happened to have handy and it's a small form factor PC, so it's not too obtrusive to have near the TV.

jamesbeat

@dankcushions said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat

I can now state unequivocally that for N64, my old PC running Retropie absolutely blows the Pi 3 out of the water - it's not even close.

yes. of course, as everyone has told you several times.

the pi3 is significantly worse than the worst full pc you can buy. you'd have to go back to the 90s to find an x86 computer that has less horsepower. your phone is probably better than it. can we please move on!

That is obvious, and is not the point I'm trying to make.

Having made the comparison between the N64 emulator both on x86 Retropie and Pi 3 Retropie, I am stating that the Pi3 with current software is incapable of satisfactorily emulating the N64.
It might be just about tolerable for some games using custom settings, but if N64 emulation is important to you, the Pi 3 is not the answer.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat I think everyone with any experience of N64 on the Pi already knows this. You are posting this like it is some huge revelation.

mediamogul

First I find out that Wrestling is fake and now this. I'm starting to wonder if diet Dr. Pepper actually does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper.

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul I hate to tell you dude, but... the Easter Bunny is a lie too. It's just Santa in a costume!

mediamogul

@AlexMurphy

That's it, I'm writing my Congressman about all this! He's still real, right? Seriously, if I find out he's just two leprechauns stuffed into a cheap suit, I'm out.

Eldrethor

@AlexMurphy Lalalalala I can't hear you!

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul Nah, He's three leprechauns in an expensive suit. That you paid for.

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat I think everyone with any experience of N64 on the Pi already knows this. You are posting this like it is some huge revelation.

I'm posting it for those people who are considering buying a Pi3 expecting N64 to work well.
There is a lot of misinformation on the net about this, including many of the posts in this very thread.
Someone new to Retropie and doing their research could easily be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that the Pi3 will run N64 well.
Look at the compatibility list for example.

Another reason why I posted it is for people who already have a Pi3 and are disappointed with N64 performance.

For those people I have offered a solution, which was widely panned for some inexplicable reason.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat Man, you seem to have a bit of a persecution complex. I appreciate there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding N64 emulation in general, and on the Pi. I do not know anyone who has bought a Pi to only run N64 and if they did I would call them an idiot. And they would deserve it.

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy
I don't think it would he fair to call them an idiot given all the misinformation out there.
There's comptibility lists, youtube videos etc that all seem to point to N64 running well.
I think someone could do their research and still come to the wrong conclusion.

Also, that doesn't take care of the people who know that the Pi3 can't really handle N64 but don't know that there is a way to have a retropie setup that will work well.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat