Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.
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Just a thought. We all love the old retro games but is RetroPie the next "Kodi"? I can see it going that way. YouTubers using the name to make money, dodgy sites selling "fully-loaded" Pi's "8500 games!!!" An industry built on the back of hobbyists' free time and passion. Meh.. Thoughts?
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@AlexMurphy
I've never done anything as big as RetroPie / Kodi / etc to be able to give a fair say. I only made some contributions, but I did because I love to code. I have fun doing it.If someone is profiting from my work, this is a damnable act, but I prefer to ignore it and continue to have fun by coding.
But I know that RetroPie is what it is today because some guys spent time doing not-so-fun tasks. So, it really should be very frustrating to see someone profiting from your work.
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@meleu I don't mean to be a gloomy pessimist but I see how Kodi, that I have been using for years, has changed. Some good things, mostly bad, in my view. I just don't respect people willing to stand on other people to earn a few quid.
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I apologize for a noob question. How is Kodi profiting? I don't know this
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Kodi accepts donations for their work. More info here.
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Speaking of not-so-fun tasks, I really feel like some of the biggest gaps in RetroPie's out-of-the-box capabilities is in the area of relatively mundane software. I mean it would be nice for it to have the option of doing boring things like reading ebooks, reading comics, web browser, FTP, email and chat which you can control from the gamepad. Maybe include an ebook downloader which lets you access everything from Project Gutenberg. Maybe get it to run SunVox. Also I'm kinda wondering about Pico-8.
You can access these things from the Pixel desktop environment but they aren't controlled with the gamepad. I really think an important goal for RetroPie in terms of design should be to make as much of the system as possible controllable with the gamepad.
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@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Speaking of not-so-fun tasks, I really feel like some of the biggest gaps in RetroPie's out-of-the-box capabilities is in the area of relatively mundane software. I mean it would be nice for it to have the option of doing boring things like reading ebooks, reading comics, web browser, FTP, email and chat which you can control from the gamepad. Maybe include an ebook downloader which lets you access everything from Project Gutenberg. Maybe get it to run SunVox. Also I'm kinda wondering about Pico-8.
You can access these things from the Pixel desktop environment but they aren't controlled with the gamepad. I really think an important goal for RetroPie in terms of design should be to make as much of the system as possible controllable with the gamepad.
That makes no sense to me - surely the whole point of Retropie is to be a retro gaming system to allow you to play old games, not to be some OS replacement?
Raspberry Pi 400 - overclocked to 2.3GHz
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@BenMcLean I was talking about not-so-fun tasks, not torture. :-)
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@chubsta said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
That makes no sense to me - surely the whole point of Retropie is to be a retro gaming system to allow you to play old games, not to be some OS replacement?
Just having more options is nice. The PSP and Wii came with a web browser. A web browser would be helpful for looking up info about games such as walkthroughs. An FTP client would be nice to have just one more convenient way to grab files over the network. An ebook reader would be helpful for looking at game walkthroughs, and comics are just fun. I'm not saying this kind of stuff should install by default, but having some of it in the optional packages might be nice -- but only if it can be controlled with the gamepad. That's the tricky part.
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@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Speaking of not-so-fun tasks, I really feel like some of the biggest gaps in RetroPie's out-of-the-box capabilities is in the area of relatively mundane software. I mean it would be nice for it to have the option of doing boring things like reading ebooks, reading comics, web browser, FTP, email and chat which you can control from the gamepad. Maybe include an ebook downloader which lets you access everything from Project Gutenberg. Maybe get it to run SunVox. Also I'm kinda wondering about Pico-8.
You can access these things from the Pixel desktop environment but they aren't controlled with the gamepad. I really think an important goal for RetroPie in terms of design should be to make as much of the system as possible controllable with the gamepad.
Nah, I think RetroPie is fine. Even if you had the webbrowser and you want to check out some walktrough, that means you have to load the game, play, close the game, run the browser, read the walktrough, close the browser, load the game, play. It would be the same if you would run a ebook reader. So thats not practical at all. If I need a walktrough I just use my android phone.
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Right now you have to carry a mouse and keyboard because so many parts of the OS still aren't navigable with the gamepad. That is a problem and anyone who doesn't see the problem with that is just being stupid. Kodi won't even do YouTube searches properly without your setting up a complex process of getting developer permissions from Google. If I'm by myself then I might not use the web browser much but if I'm with other people then it can be important to be able to put web pages up on the screen.
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But surely retropie isn't an OS replacement, it is a retro gaming system and doesn't need to do all those other things! I don't understand why Kodi is even included in it all, it seems out of place to me, if i wanted a Kodi install then i could just stick it on an 8gb card separately.
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@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Right now you have to carry a mouse and keyboard because so many parts of the OS still aren't navigable with the gamepad. That is a problem and anyone who doesn't see the problem with that is just being stupid. Kodi won't even do YouTube searches properly without your setting up a complex process of getting developer permissions from Google. If I'm by myself then I might not use the web browser much but if I'm with other people then it can be important to be able to put web pages up on the screen.
LMAO calling people stupid because they see things different compared to you? WOW, so mature. I think you don't get the point of what the dev's wanted to do with this project. The goal is to have a Retro console system. Not an OS.
Your previous made no sense too, you cannot run multiple instances on RetroPie. I cannot simply run an emulator, minimize it and start a browser and switch back etc. Yet you call me stupid while you couldn't figure this out. RetroPie is fine, it is what it says it is.
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RetroPie isn't an OS replacement. It's an OS. Period. Just like every game console's OS is an OS.
RetroPie is a linux distro that ships with a graphical frontend designed to make configuration of retro console emulators convenient. If you want something that only plays NES games then get an NES.
I'm just saying 1. All features should be controllable with gamepads and 2. It would be nice to also have some standard computer features such as other consoles commonly ship with these days, especially since being a linux distro means that adding this stuff as options is trivial.
Look at what features are standard for consoles. The Wii and the PSP both have a built in web browser. It's nice to have. The homebrew comic readers on the PSP proved to be so popular that Sony finally broke down and added one officially in later PSP firmwares. Also it would be nice to be able to bring up Google Earth and control it with the gamepad, zooming in on people's houses and stuff. Oh, and maybe a fractal zoomer too, like gnu xaos or whatever that newer one's called.
Kodi is already in the RetroPie setup script. It just isn't set up to work easily with the gamepad. That ought to be fixed.
Also I stand by everything I said. As much as possible should be doable with the gamepads if possible and disagreeing with that would have to be stupid since its so obvious.
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@BenMcLean if you want to be pedantic, retropie is not a distro. It's just a script to install a bunch of different software.
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RetroPie certainly isn't a distro. What herb said.
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Please stop saying anyone who disagrees with you is stupid, I, and i would go so far as to presume many, many users, have no need for a comic reader or google earth on my retropie installation as i consider it to be a 'wrapper' for emulators and i do not see the two being connected at all. Why not ask specifically for a porn viewer, for a spreadsheet, for a newsgroup or torrent client? All are just as valid as your suggestions...
The clue is in the name - RETROpie - , not OSpie, WINDOWSpie, EVERYTHINGUNDERTHESUNpie - perhaps when GoogleEarth is old enough to be considered 'retro' then they will support it and you will get your wish...
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Crikey, that's a wish-list and a half! I think it goes two ways-you either get RetroPie or you don't. I think you're def. falling into the latter.
I'm going to say nothing more than this-this has been built in peoples free time and started as a hobby. They don't get paid, don't get the recognition they deserve. I feel grateful that they have achieved what they have and have made it available for free to everyone-it's been a real game changer for me as it is. I think your ideas are pretty unreasonable considering what the project is, and my fear is that people who come along and make these demands like yours, give RP a slating, will ultimately end up pissing the devs off and they'll stop supporting it-then everyone is screwed.
So give it a rest, appreciate it for what it is and be thankful you've not had to pay for it.
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@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
RetroPie isn't an OS replacement. It's an OS. Period. Just like every game console's OS is an OS.
Sorry "argument" doesnt make sense at all. RetroPie isn't an OS, it's more a collection of a couple emu's.
@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
If you want something that only plays NES games then get an NES.
If you want something with a webbrowser get a PC.
@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
It would be nice to also have some standard computer features such as other consoles commonly ship with these days, especially since being a linux distro means that adding this stuff as options is trivial.
It's all about Retro gaming, to be honest I don't care about a webbrowser. I got my RPi3 just for Retro gaming, for me it's the perfect solution. It's not the goal of the devs to create an "OS".
@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Look at what features are standard for consoles. The Wii and the PSP both have a built in web browser. It's nice to have. The homebrew comic readers on the PSP proved to be so popular that Sony finally broke down and added one officially in later PSP firmwares. Also it would be nice to be able to bring up Google Earth and control it with the gamepad, zooming in on people's houses and stuff.
Yeah MODERN consoles maybe but we're into OLD consoles. The webbrowser of the PSP sucks, I really cannot believe if someone would even use the PSP browser for serious web surfing. And whats with the Google earth stuff? That really doesn't make sense at all, it really would be pointless I cannot see the link between retro gaming and Google earth? If you want to read pdf files you always can install adobe reader on your smartphone or tablet.
@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Kodi is already in the RetroPie setup script. It just isn't set up to work easily with the gamepad. That ought to be fixed.
Kodi does work easily with a controller, all you have to do is set it up. It takes just a couple seconds.
@BenMcLean said in Is RetroPie the new xbmc / kodi? Discuss.:
Also I stand by everything I said. As much as possible should be doable with the gamepads if possible and disagreeing with that would have to be stupid since its so obvious.
Hahaha you call people stupid again? LMAO, whats wrong with you grow up. You come to a public forum and ask people for their opinion, when they disagree with you you call them stupid hahaha. No one forces you to use RetroPie, if you don't like it don't use it. The dev's are doing it for free, they don't get paid at all. Stop bitching about something you got for free dude.
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Please stop saying anyone who disagrees with you is stupid
Read what I said again. Keep re-reading it until you realize what it actually says or go blind, whichever comes first.
I, and i would go so far as to presume many, many users, have no need for a comic reader or google earth on my retropie installation
Yeah that's why the idea is just to add more stuff to "optional packages." I have a huge 128 GB memory card and use my device for multiple things. Those huge cards are getting cheaper and cheaper all the time nowadays.
as i consider it to be a 'wrapper' for emulators and i do not see the two being connected at all. Why not ask specifically for a porn viewer, for a spreadsheet, for a newsgroup or torrent client?
A generic image viewer is actually built into RetroArch already. Something that plays a slideshow of images when the machine is idle might actually be useful in some situations.
I can't see someone needing to control a spreadsheet with the gamepad, but a torrent client would be awesome, yeah.
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