How I Set Up My WaveShare GamePi43 & Related Stuff

dsquared

The GamePi43 (GP43) is handheld console. It is modeled on the original Nintendo GameBoy but is quite a bit bigger (17 cm x 11 cm x 3 cm or 6.75 in x 4.25 x 1.25 in) and is available from Amazon & EBay. You will need to buy a Raspberry Pi, connect it, assemble the console and configure the microSD card before you can enjoy it. It is straight forward enough.

I thought, I would consolidate everything I have done to my GP43, because information is all too brief or missing all together. The only official information about the product is on the manufacturer’s website and is too short and probably written with the aid of google translate, i found you can play virtually any game that doesn’t require 1 or more joysticks with this hardware combination. So PS1 games are playable. I have not tried hooking up an N64 controller for N64 games yet. It features a 9.5 cm x 5.5 cm (3.75 in x 2.125 in) 4.3inch IPS display, 800x480 pixels. The screen is great, the audio can be a little tinny sounding.

First off, I thought I would comment on what version of Raspberry Pi (RPi) to use – you can use a RP 2B+, RP 3B+ or a RP 4B+. Their WaveShare website instructs you to download an Operating System(OS) from their Website for your particular type of RPi. I believe that a RP 2B+ or 3B+ will be fine for the console. There is also a premade image for ReCalBox for the RP 2B+, 3B+ or 4B+. Also, if you go for the RP 2B+ or 3B+ you are limited to RetroPie V4.4. I purchased a RP4B+ 2GB because I intend the RP board to be used for other OS's(if you can still find a RPi 4B+ 1GB that will be more than enough) – This is fine for RetroPie and the emulators I am running. This meant that I could use RetroPie V4.6, (at that time of this post the current release is RetroPie V4.7.1) which I downloaded from the WaveShare website. So, for purposes of the rest of this article, I will be describing my experiences with the RP 4B+. Waveshare also has retropie & recalbox images for the RPIi 0 - but I suspect there may not be enough horse power and assembly maybe tricky given it's smaller footprint.

The other thing to note is that the Amazon product description says that it doesn't come with the 18650 lithium batteries. This resulted in me buying some batteries at the time of the GP43 order. When the GP43 did arrive - I found that it did have the batteries already. - Wait for the GP43 to arrive before spending more money on unneeded additional batteries. The batteries arrived a lot earlier than the GP43 and their return period had expired when the GP43 arrived.

1 Setup & Edit the MicroSD Card

You will need 2 files to set up the microSD Card: the image of RetroPIe V4.6 and a driver (GamePi43-200730 Driver-Support Retropie-v4.6) – Download them from the GP43 website. On a PC, copy the image of RetroPie V4.6 to your microSD card. I used an application called Rufus.

On a PC, copy the driver (do not unzip it) to the root directory of the SD card (BOOT directory of the Raspbian). I did this through the Windows File Manager on my PC.

A. On your PC, open (with notepad) the config.txt file in the root directory of the microSD card, add the following code at the end of config.txt, then save and eject the microSD card.

max_usb_current=1
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0

2) Assemby

I would recommend the following order to assembly the console.
A. Attach the RP 4B+ to the GP43 - that is straight forward enough.
B. Gently, attach the microSD card extension.
C. Gently, insert the microSD card into the microSD card extension.
D. Attach the HDMI interface to the GP43 and RP 4B+
E. Mount the sides and secure with screws provided.
F. Insert the batteries with proper orientation.
G. Mount the back and secure with screws provided.
H. Charge the GP43.

3) Edit the MicroSD Card on Your RP 4B+
This step requires you to connect a USB keyboard to the GP43 and connect the GP43 power supply to the GP43. Boot it up. The official instructions want you to detach the HDMI interface from the RP 4B, connect a micro HDMI cable to a monitor and the RPI for this step. I found you could just use the screen on the GB43 and avoid the cable. monitor, disassembly and reassembly.
Boot the unit by powering on the GP43. The initial booting will take a bit longer than subsequent startups. After it has finished booting you will be in EmulationStation. Press F4 (on the keyboard) after it has finished booting, you should now be in the Linux terminal. Then enter the following commands one line at a time. This will install the driver. Reboot after this step.

tar xzvf /boot/GamePi43-*.tar.gz
cd GamePi43/
./GamePi43

reboot

The GP4B website discusses how the blue HotKey (HK) is disabled because of compatibility problems with RetroPie V4.6 and the GamePi43-200730 Driver-Support Retropie-v4.6 Driver file. They provide instructions on how to enable the HK. I was never able to get it to function properly, so I keep it disabled for now. The web site recommends you then boot up the GP43 and configure the buttons – I found this was already done. In addition, their website gives directions on how to expand your partition for more games - I found this was also already done.

Congratulations your GP43 is ready to use.

4) Other Stuff
Here are a few of the tweaks I made to the GP43 once it was working. You will need a keyboard for these steps (either wireless or USB).

A Setup wifi: (You will want wifi as it is in my opinion the easiest way to add games). In the Retropie Desktop

Go to the Raspi-Config Script
Select “1 System Options”
Select ”S1 Wireless LAN”
Enter your country code
Enter your SSID (Name of Network)
Enter your passphrase (password)
Select “Finish” on the System Options screen
You should be back at the Retropie desktop.
Confirm You have setup you wifi by selecting “Show IP”
Make note of you IP

B Update the RetroPie-Setup script. I have found this is the only update I could do to my GP43 – any others bricked it. In the Retropie Desktop:

Got o “C Configurations / tools”
Go to “S Update Retropie-Setup script”
Answer “Yes” to – Are you sure you want to update the Retropie-Setup script?”
Exit and reboot

C Increase Console Font: (I find the default font too small on this small screen. This will increase the font size in the terminal and File Manager). In the Retropie Desktop

Go to the Retropie Setup Script
Go to “C Configurations / tools”
Go to “193 consolefont”
I chose “3 Medium (VGA 16x28) – you may change to something else or leave it.
Exit and reboot

D Change the Keyboard (If you aren’t in the UK – you may want to change the keyboard to your particular region/country in my case US) This is helpful when you are editing files, because sure enough you are going to want a “#” or a ”|” and while you can just hit left alt + 3 for a “#” or left alt + Pipe|Backslash for a “|” – it’s just easier this way. I have never been able to change through the Raspi-Config Script option.

Go to the terminal by hitting F4 on the keyboard
Enter the following command:
Sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard
Look for the line XKBLAYOUT=”gb” and change the “gb” to “us” in my case, or whatever code you need
Hit CTRL + o
Hit Enter
Select CTRL + x
Reboot

E Change the Timezone. This will update your timezone. From the Retropie desktop select the Raspi-Config Script.

Go to “5 Localization Options”
Go to “L2 Timezone”
Select “OK”
Select your Geographic Area
Select your best Timezone option
Select “OK”
Reboot

F Change your locale settings This will tell your RPi how to interpret the type of characters you are using. I was never able to do this through the Raspi-Config Script.

Go to the terminal by hitting F4 on the keyboard
Enter the following command:
Sudo nano /etc/locale.gen
Add a “#”and a space to the line in white “en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8”
Uncomment and delete a space from the line that reads “en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 (The line should now be white)
Hit CTRL + o
Hit Enter
Select CTRL + x
Reboot

G Setup Retropie Manager. This will give you one method to load files(BIOS’s & ROMs) onto your RPi and enable some system monitoring. In the Retropie Desktop

Go to the Retropie Setup Script
Go to “P Manage packages”
Go to “exp Manage experimental packages”
Go to “216 Retropie-manager” (towards the end of the packages)
Go to “S Install from source”
Select “OK”
Go back and select “216 Retropie-manager” again
Go to “3 Configuration / Options”
Select “3 Enable Retropie-Manager on Boot”
Go back, back, back (sounds like a chicken)
Go to “R Perform Reboot”
On your PC open your browser and type the following into the web address of the RPi (from step A-10) “XXX.XXX.X.XXX:8000” you will then be taken to your Retro-pie manager.
From here you may add ROM’s to the relevant ROM subfolder. By selecting the “Manage Rom files for emulated systems” and copying game ROMs from your PC to the relevant ROM Sub folder eg “nes.” Just drag & drop your ROMs to the area on the screen.
From here you may add BIOS files to the BIOS directory by selecting the “Manage all supported Bios files “ Just drag & drop your BIOSs to the area on the screen.

I would recomend you backup your MicroSD image (with both partitions) after you get the console up and running. It will save you some time if you have to go back and start from scratch. I found the ext4 partition (where the games are stored) causes some grief to most windows backup applications. I found that the AOMEI BackUpper Standard edition could handle the task and is free.

Good luck! I hope this guide will prove useful to somebody else.