Hi from a complete Noob

amadsen

Thanks Baker. I'm reading through everything and I see the req. I just thought maybe people tend to choose something higher. I don't think I'll be putting too much strain on the pi at least any time soon so I'll just stick to the minimum power req.
I've got a couple of micro SD's floating around Petro. Was going to just start with an 8GB that's spare. the roms I got equal about 5gb. I have plenty of usb sticks too for interim. The set I got was just the most complete and diverse range so I could essentially plug and get playing. I'll weed out what I don't want and add titles down the track.

rbaker

@amadsen said in Hi from a complete Noob:

The set I got was just the most complete and diverse range so I could essentially plug and get playing

Which emulator are you referring to that you believe is plug and play? I'm hoping that the name "mame" doesn't appear in your response :)

amadsen

haha oh god really? no mame are in there but I expected them to be the worst of it, I've had a friend make himself a arcade machine and he had all sorts of issues with controls. others like snes n64 sega some ps. I have a genuine 64 and a sega but get sick of bringing them out wearing out the games controllers i rather have them as tidy displays for the most part and play on occasion. It'll all be new to me but seemed like a fun inexpensive project I don't claim to know much lol hopefully just enough to get myself into trouble.

rbaker

@amadsen Just don't become the 20000th person to post a support request saying that MAME crashes to the menu and roms will not launch - have a read of this in preparation:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide

amadsen

@rbaker said in Hi from a complete Noob:

@amadsen Just don't become the 20000th person to post a support request saying that MAME crashes to the menu and roms will not launch - have a read of this in preparation:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide

haha ok :)

amadsen

hehe well it's all arrived. putting it together was simple enough. really didn't need the fan that came with it, but for now it's in and permantly running 5v/gnd. That's the easy part. from what I could tell I bricked my build twice trying to install all the packages when doing the retropi config or whatever it was called. Once I stopped that it's been ok except now for getting the same result from having to dc power while on. cause I had no keyboard in and it went to the cmd line. In any case I'm just making mistakes along the way to actually getting it sussed, which is kind of fun. I've thrown a bunch of roms onto a usb that was configured by the pi and once I've reloaded my sd with retro hopefully they will be all sweet too. Baker I read the mame help and have opted to use the 2003lr although yet I haven't tried any, I'll work out all my other dilemmas before I even go to mame lol.

rbaker

@amadsen said in Hi from a complete Noob:

same result from having to dc power while on

You mean you are unplugging the cord to switch off the pi?? If so, your card and it's contents will not last long. You must shut down using the correct menu choice before removing power. Failure to follow this procedure will corrupt the sd card.

amadsen

baker just once or twice. as I do realize exactly what you said will be the result of always doing this way, it just seemed I was left with no other choice, I've also since failed to be able to get back to emulation station from n64 rom, tried the select+start but wouldn't work so before I get back into a rom I'm reading up on the hotkeys.
Although I read the basics about the pi and retropie setup, I have to admit I didn't realise I should have read more about the backend setup. I had a misconception of being a simple end user with only a little setup by myself. Ie. the n64 rom I did run (conkers) ran like complete ass jittery screen sketchy audio etc, so now I will be looking at the dismanx and some other core settings I've read that can improve n64 experience. AFTER i figure out how to safely exit a rom back to home. I'm keeping my keyboard and a usb thrustmaster controller connected until I'm happy with the end results.

I've been playing with things like memory split but put it back to 256 for the time being till I understand more.

dankcushions

@amadsen said in Hi from a complete Noob:

n64 rom I did run (conkers) ran like complete ass jittery screen sketchy audio etc, so now I will be looking at the dismanx and some other core settings I've read that can improve n64 experience. AFTER i figure out how to safely exit a rom back to home. I'm keeping my keyboard and a usb thrustmaster controller connected until I'm happy with the end results.
I've been playing with things like memory split but put it back to 256 for the time being till I understand more.

memory split and dispmanx are not things that will help anything n64 (or much else). conkers won't run great regardless of what you do.

amadsen

@dankcushions I tried a different random rom (1080 snowboarding) and it was fine. if those settings aren't 1s I should look at can you suggest others that may help better? I've read about overclocking the pi3 but that seems a bit drastic this early on.

I've changed to hi res emulator and 1280x720 50hz and conquers ran alright at the beggining but starting to get laggy again just before the menu. lots more playing will come i'm sure now I'm getting far more familiar with things.