Source
r/pcgaming•
exobuzz

RetroPie - Retro-gaming software - AMA

[Verified AMA]

RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi, ODroid, or PC into a retro-gaming machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many other projects to enable you to play your favourite Arcade, home-console, and classic PC games with the minimum set-up. For power users it also provides a large variety of configuration tools to customise the system as you want.

You can download RetroPie from our website at https://retropie.org.uk/

Today the following people are here to answer your questions:

u/exobuzz - current project lead and developer

u/dankcushions - developer

Thanks :)

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Update 20:56 ET - Thanks everyone for joining in. Feel free to add more questions - I will answer them later.

Posted Nov 8, 2019, 9:56 PM UTC · edited

11395
NuclearGeek•

I just want to say thank you for your years of service. I have had my modified pacman running for over 10 years now through lots of iterations and I am enjoying my latest version of RetroPie the best! I always challenge new friends to their favorite retro game then take revel in their face when I kick their ass in it! Thanks for all the fish! https://imgur.com/gallery/gPAo8qQ

21
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks very much :-) I like your cab.

3
NuclearGeek•

Thank you! All original except the internals and controller. I rescued it from a storage auction. Had been sitting in storage since 1985. I can't wait to replace it with the Raspberry Pi 4.

4
palbuddy1234•

More than 10 years ago a friend and I made a cab. It's amazing to us that a Raspberry Pi gives us better computing power than what's in my friend's cab and it's only 35 US dollars!

2
DiscDastardly•

When can we expect to see a RetroPie image for the Pi4?

17
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I can't give you a date as we are doing this in our spare time etc, but development is going well. There have been some issues to resolve with the new graphics stack and changes to get things working properly on it (as well as updating code to work with Raspbian 10 Buster).

We have a Raspberry Pi 4 development branch which should be merged back soon - then we may look at releasing some alpha images. However I can't say when. Our developer Psyke83 has done a lot of work on the Raspberry Pi 4 though and things are progressing nicely.

While people are waiting, they can always run https://www.lakka.tv/ which is excellent, or test out the in-development code following the instructions here - https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/dnimkw/raspberry_pi_4_manual_install_method/

18
ProClifo•

It's a shame you have to do all of this in your spare time. I definitely think RetroPie development would be worthy of a full-time job, but I guess that would bring other challenges.

3
NuclearGeek•

I have mine still in the box waiting on release

3
xturmn8r•

It’s a shame to keep it waiting - if you don’t have a pi 3 that you can use to scratch your retro gaming itch, and you do have spare time I would advocate getting a lakka build running, or trying the manual install method, or googling some images that are available for the pi4.

The nice thing is that when the official image releases come then you can enjoy the improvements on what’s already available (my limited experience is that gaming is quite prone to stuttering). I split my gaming between my 3B+ and the pi4.

Lastly - donating some money is assuredly appreciated

https://retropie.org.uk/donate/

1
NuclearGeek•

Oh it's been working for years, just moved everything over to a Pi 3 earlier in the year. Just excited to upgrade to the 4 when it is ready

2
xturmn8r•

I commented before I saw your name - love your Pac-Man arcade! I’ve got an LCD and arcade controls waiting to be put into a bar top arcade I’m going to make once I get done with some other projects

2
hedgecore77•

Lakka hits me with an endless reboot loop on composite output. Lcd works fine but that's not what I'm after.

1
Diamond_Flummox•

From what you’ve seen, do you think the Raspberry Pi 4 is capable of emulating Dreamcast/PSP emulation better than the previous models?

9
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Yes. It will bring performance improvements, and it may improve further with updates to the RPI4 graphics stack.

8
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

Definitely, but mostly because it's of the GLES 3.x GPU, rather than the performance increase (which is significant, but not always the bottleneck)

4
destroyermaker3570K, GTX 980•

Testing already proves it. Lots of tests on Youtube

1
criothMOD/r/pcgaming AMA Guy•

Thank you very much to the RetroPie team for joining us today! Hope you all enjoy!

7
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks for inviting us!

5
Sgt-JimmyRustles•

Thank you very much to the RetroPie team for joining us today! Hope you all enjoy!

Damn, i didn't get to ask questions lol.

1
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

It's not over yet :-)

1
lilbud2000•

My name should be familiar 😉

2 questions

What improvements or add-ons would you like to see in Emulationstation? Either backend or stuff to do with UI design and customization options.

Where do you think the Pi's limit is? Like how far can the hardware be pushed before the form factor and board itself can't handle it anymore

And thanks for creating such an incredible project, and creating such an incredible community as well.

7
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks for your contributions to the project lilbud. Appreciated!

Probably should get localisation included in Emulation Station at some point. That's a feature others have asked for. I have been thinking about this for the RetroPie-Setup interface too. Something to look at after RPI4 release and some packaging improvements I want to do for RetroPie.

Looking at how much performance you get on the even smaller boards in modern mobiles, I think we will continue seeing improvements - but I have no idea of the roadmap. My excuse is I'm a software guy and a bit clueless about hardware :-)

5
Jandalf81•

I know this AMA is over but I have an idea for EmulationStation...

Add a way to show and load savestates

I tried to hack together a way with shell scripts (see https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18978/script-setup-for-an-automatic-savestate-selector) but this is not ideal...

2
Funboringness•

How will you respond to Retroarch's CD backup feature?

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exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Once it's implemented in RetroArch and we update to that version I would assume it should work fine on RetroPie. We ship RetroArch with minor modifications. But it's a great idea to be able to use your original gaming media.

6
Nodever2•

How did you get into developing this software? Do you do it for free? Also thanks for developing such a fun thing!

5
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

For free, and for fun! Though there are donations and a patreon.

I personally started using RetroPie, and then started helping others, and then finally started doing improvements to the MAME (arcade) systems. I am a developer for my day job so that helps, but C/bash scripting is all new to me, so it’s been fun to learn!

And thanks! You are very welcome <3

4
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks!

I mention a bit about this here - https://jwills.co.uk/projects/retropie/ (my blog which also details other projects I work on).

"On October 30th 2012, Pimoroni launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Picade – a small table top arcade cabinet for a Raspberry Pi (or other small computer/board). In June 2014 I received my Picade, installed a Raspberry Pi in it. I had previously looked around at available software and had come across the RetroPie project, which was an automated set of scripts to pull together an easy to use emulation system on top of Raspbian. Although decent at the time, it lacked some features I wanted, and I had some ideas for improvements. I started contributing in July 2014, and have been actively working on it since then"

We all develop RetroPie in our spare time, but we do receive donations (https://retropie.org.uk/donate/) and I have a patreon @ https://www.patreon.com/retropie - Donation money is split up between developers (and sometimes amounts are donated to emulation software we use etc).

4
Zopenko•

First off thank you. What is that one feature that you want to implement, but still haven't

5
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Appreciated!

I'd like to implement better management of the installed components - things like being able to choose between versions of an emulator, and being able to switch between perhaps a bleeding edge version or the last stable. I'd like to improve the interface also - with additional ways to browse the available packages (not just how it is currently, which is by core, main, optional and experimental).

Maybe some initial localisation of some interface text in the future also.

7
SaggtitariusZach•

VLC Media Player would be an excellent thing to add if you're still taking requests. Being able to carry a portable console around is great but being able to play video files off the plugged-in USB (please dont make copying the video files over to the pi's SD card necessary, but if that's the only way to do it then alright) would add a whole new type of functionality to the RetroPie without sacrificing anything.

2
xturmn8r•

Kodi is already an optional / experiment package, have you tried it?

3
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

I have been working on proper cross-emulator benchmarking tests for ages, but there's still not ready :(

I also have hopes of full-speed N64 emulation on the Pi3 - that one is looking promising!

3
TY_Lizzle•

I have little experience coding, but would love to contribute. Is there anything I can do to contribute to the project?

5
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

absolutely! supporting on the forum is a great way of helping. beyond that, testing and reporting good bugs 💚

5
y-ello•

Hi guys, I love Retropie!!! Thanks for bringing back the gaming fun! It's my console now, I don't need anything else to play.

I have a suggestion: it's possible to create a shortcut to toggle between 'all games' / 'favorite games' inside each system's gamelist? The old windows frontend Maximus Arcade had this option and it was great.

That would be awesome!

Keep the good work! ;)

4
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I don't really do much development on the EmulationStation frontend code - but there are others who do on our forum. You could post a request there and you may get one of the EmulationStation devs interested.

Thanks for the kind words.

2
Dude_man_59•

Not exactly the same thing, but if you used "hidden game" instead of favorites, you can hide non favorites using kiosk mode and the Konami code.

2
JeffGreenTraveled•

Long time user of RetroPie. Y'all and Herb do a fantastic job, and the RetroPie community is my favorite. I really can't articulate how much joy, passion, and learning you've sparked in me. I've become more handy making cabs, working on a handheld currently, and have taught myself some python... the RetroPie project gave me something to learn and really sink my teeth into while I was interning away from friends and family.

I've rewrote this question a few times... I think what I want to know is what prompted y'all to create RetroPie and what keeps you moving forward? The move to the Pi 4 seems like a lot of work based on what I'm reading. Has the project exceeded what you originally intended it to be? Is it still an enjoyable hobby for y'all?

I really can't thank y'all enough for keeping some memories of my childhood alive and also allowing me to learn some useful skills as an 'adult'. :)

4
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I appreciate your sentiments - thanks. It's also why I got involved - and then hooked.

RetroPie was started by a lovely chap https://blog.petrockblock.com/ and he still works on it - but he also develops hardware for the RPI. I got interested after buying a raspberry pi and backing a kickstarter arcade cab project - details here https://jwills.co.uk/projects/retropie/.

It has been a lot of work to add RPI4 support. Partly because of the number of packages we include, but also due to changes in the graphics stack and various issues we encountered. However devs like Psyke83, hhromic, mitu and others have done lots of work on RetroPie to get everything working.

It has definitely grown more than I expected. Along with that came problems such as the Trademark issue we had, as well as people selling RetroPie commercially with games. I don't enjoy dealing with this side of things as much as I do coding. Mitu has been a great help on the forum, and that has allowed me to spend more time coding which is great. We are lucky to have such a great team who give up their spare time to work on it. I also love when people get involved and then take time to help others.

Thanks again.

3
JeffGreenTraveled•

I try my best on the forum even though I was only a CS major for 1 year haha. And ya I had a bit about Herb and his palpable frustrations re: copyright.

Best of luck. Thanks for everything.

2
[deleted]•

Dankcushions, if you could emulate an actual pie what pie would you emulate?

3
mjshanbom•

How much of what you do is limited by the emulators that have already been created?

3
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

well, totally, but we all have fixed and added features to existing emulators, and assisted in the testing and development of new ones :)

2
sentcha•

You guys are awesome! I had so much fun building my own retropie console! I plan on donating now that my finances are in better shape.

Alright I’ll be annoying and ask first. Is there any rough time frame when an image for retropie on the pi4 will drop? Thanks again for all your hard work!

2
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks

Please check out my other reply https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/dtmjix/retropie_retrogaming_software_ama/f6xkn6q/ - hopefully we will have an alpha image soon, but I can't say exactly when. Issues crop up, and it's not really possible to give a time frame.

5
sentcha•

As soon as I hit send on my comment I saw 2 other people beat me to it 😖.

Oh I actually remembered I had a proper question. What kind of retropie hardware setup do you guys use at home?

2
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I have a Picade cab (https://shop.pimoroni.de/products/picade) with a Raspberry Pi 2. I also have RetroPie (but booting into Kodi first), connected to my main TV. That's a Raspberry Pi 3 b+.

In my office I have it on my Linux Desktop PC for development as well as on a variety of boards scattered around the desk. Bit of a mess :-)

5
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

I have a two pi3s :) i will get a pi4 at some point, but there is also some exciting stuff coming for the humble pi3 ;)

2
giantmessofbranesi9-9900KS, RTX 2080Ti•

Thanks to your lovely software, my house's super cool secret fort has a Raspberry Pi 3 hooked up to an aged 1080p monitor that offers all the greatest retro games* of all time to fill any millenial or gen Z with child-like wonder and nostalgia. It is amazingly easy to setup, config, add ROMs, etc.

I understand the Raspberry Pi 4 is out, or out soon. Does RetroPie support it? If not, is it on the roadmap? Third, what kind of emulation gains do you think will be gained out of a Pi 4 versus a Pi 3? I'm guessing not much, in that it probably won't run whole consoles it could never come close to running before, but it already runs older console ROMs fine.

*^(All of those games were, of course, acquired through 100% legal means via my legally purchased cartridges and CDs. I use the legal backups on the Pi so that I don't degrade the physical media! This is, of course, all completely legal in the country I am residing in, of course.)

2
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks.

I have given some details about Raspberry Pi4 support here - https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/dtmjix/retropie_retrogaming_software_ama/f6xkn6q/

The Raspberry Pi 4 has a faster CPU so it will definitely benefit Arcade emulation. Also the faster GPU will bring improvements to emulation like Dreamcast and N64. However the new graphics drivers are still in active development, so we are likely to see further improvements in the future.

4
palbuddy1234•

Thank you so much for your hard work. It's a joy to see this develop. No rush for anything as you don't owe me anything. Here is my question:

Can you make an easier way to swap out and download components? Perhaps like swap out Kodi and put Libreelec in or something?

Does it go against the license to have retropie with all the videos, box art, etc. already downloaded with no system roms or game roms?

Thanks in advance, I look forward to your next release! You've given my son and I some great times!

2
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I intend to make some improvements to packaging. But libreelec is a standalone system so can't be part of RetroPie. However you can use RetroPie to just install components you want. Eg you could use the RetroPie-Setup script to just install one or two emulators without having anything else installed.

Glad you're enjoying the software. Appreciated.

2
HOBO_SAUCE8700K 4.9ghz/1080TI SC2 +73/+400 OC/1TB 960 EVO M.2•

What do you think is better:

chocolate or strawberry cheesecake?

Thanks!

2
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

I'd like a slice of both!

2
HOBO_SAUCE8700K 4.9ghz/1080TI SC2 +73/+400 OC/1TB 960 EVO M.2•

Good answer. Were best friends now.

1
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

Thanks everyone - I'm going to sign off for a bit now. Please feel free to add more questions and we will answer later. Cheers!

2
HP_Restored•

Thanks for your time and hard work! You guys are awesome!

How do you feel about people selling SD cards preloaded with RetroPie on eBay and such?

2
ellohir•

I'm not a dev but people selling illegal copies of games is a big legal problem for the team. Emulation is currently the only way to preserve these games and all the work and effort the team makes is in jeopardy because of those freeloaders.

3
dankcushionsRetroPie - Developer•

thanks!

well, it’s against the law and against the license: https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/

it’s extremely demotivating and frustrating, but i try to just ignore it as i personally can’t do anything to stop it. for my part i try and make sure i never support or encourage the use of such cards/preloaded products, and it motivates me to make sure our images and support are the best around.

people have left emulation projects over these grifters, though. it definitely isn’t as victimless as the sellers would have you believe.

2
AlphaWhelp•

How well does it run MAME?

1
exobuzzOPRetroPie - Project Lead•

That really depends on the hardware. We ship with a variety of MAME versions as well as FBNeo (Formerally known as FBAlpha). For a low powered Raspberry Pi 0 or 1 the lr-mame2000 or standalone mame4all is best. For the Raspberry 2/3 the libretro mame2003 core works well and runs many games at full speed (including neogeo and CPS1/2 hardware). There are also versions of advancemame. For a faster desktop PC you can run newer libretro mame versions.

More details are available in our documentation - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/

2