Запускаем и эмулируем Windows на Raspberry Pi с помощью QEMU. Как превратить Raspberry Pi в игровую консоль

Raspberry Pi — это компьютер стоимостью 1800 рублей, который может выполнять множество действий, но большее что может потребоваться игроку, это превращение микро-компьютера в ретро-игровую консоль. Представьте себе размер мини-консоли NES или SNES классических, с несколькими сотнями игр внутри памяти, нежели оригинальные игровые приставки, с десятком картриджей, которые необходимо перезагружать в слот. Благодаря примерно полчасу свободного времени и небольшому техническому обновлению, игроки смогут преобразовать этот компьютер размером с колоду карт в полноценную консоль, способную эмулировать почти все классические системы видеоигр с 1970-х, 80-х и 90-х годов.

Как это работает?

Эмуляцию лучше всего производить на новейшей, самой новой и, соответственно мощной Raspberry Pi, потому что даже старые игры требуют большой производительности. Тем не менее, на данный момент, рекомендуется модель Raspberry Pi 3 для начала этого проекта (а не Raspberry Pi 3 B+; модель 3B+ более мощная и имеет улучшенную беспроводную связь, но не все операционные системы, включая Recalbox, были обновлены разработчиками, чтобы полноценно работать на ней).
Большинство игроков смогут загрузить интересующие их игры в 32-гигабайтную (или менее) карту-памяти microSD, для хранения операционной системы и РОМ’ов, образов. Как правило, игры для более старых, картриджных консолей требуют меньше места, в то время как игры для более новых консолей на базе компакт-дисков нуждаются в большем количестве места.

Также понадобиться джойстик, который зависит от типа игр, в которые игрок будет воспроизводить на мини-консоли. Контроллер DualShock 4 подходит как для 2D, так и в 3D-игр, в то время как, Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad более удобен только для 2D-игр.

Практически любой вариант в случае с установкой эмулятора на Raspberry Pi 3 будет исправно работать, но нам необходимо установить корпус как в игровой консоли NES, с возможностью отключать консоль через кнопку питания. Для полного подключения к ЖК-телевизору, также будут необходимы кабель HDMI и доступ к компьютеру с системой Mac (Linux) или Windows. Также может понадобиться мини-беспроводная клавиатура, или другой контроллер ввода, чтобы помочь справиться с любой программной неполадкой, но это необязательно.

Игрок может просматривать эмуляторы и игры, а также совершать другие действия в Recalbox при помощи джойстика, что не потребует дополнительное использование клавиатуры или мыши. Эмулятор — это программное обеспечение, которое заставляет компьютер работать как другое компьютерное устройство. Также существуют эмуляторы, которые настраивают мини-компьютер Raspberry Pi в качестве игровой приставки (Nintendo Entertaiment System, Sega Genesis, PlayStation или даже ПК в системе DOS). Большинство игр представленых в интернете в виде файлов, называемых РОМ’мами, позволяют быть воспроизведенными при помощи эмулятора как полноценный игровой картридж или диск, в системе с которой они были скопированы.

РОМ’ы, как правило, защищены авторскими правами. Создание цифровой копии собственных картриджей для использования на различных эмуляторах является законной, но обычно требует специализированного оборудования. Компании как Nintendo дали понять, что считают использование эмуляторов для игр без разрешения владельца авторских прав незаконным. Некоторые независимые разработчики делают оригинальные игры, называемые «доморощенным» для классических игровых консолей, и это совершенно законно (D-Pad Hero, Alter Ego и Blade Buster).

Использование Raspberry Pi 3 в качестве игровой эмуляционной машины очень популярная задача разработчиков, которые придумали несколько операционных систем, для воспроизведения образов и РОМ’ов. Каждая операционная система включает эмуляторы почти для каждой, существующей на данный момент консоли (от популярных консолей, таких как Супер-Нинтендо, до более невостребованных приставок, таких как Sinclair Spectrum).

RetroPie была первой операционной системой, но другие следовали ее идеи, включая Recalbox и Lakka. В этом руководстве, описывается работа в системе Recalbox, которую проще всего настроить для управления. RetroPie может воспроизводить больше функций, нежели чем Recalbox, например, поддерживать классические контроллеры, подключенные к Raspberry Pi GPIO, или играть в онлайн-игры, поэтому, если вам нравится Linux и, игроки не против уделить большее вермя настройке, то можно использовать выше упомянутую систему, но RetroPie и Recalbox имеют такие же эмуляторы, поэтому игровой процесс не будет сильно отличаться.

Raspberry Pi может надежно эмулировать более старые, ориентированные на 2D-графику консоли, такие как Nintendo, Super Nintendo или Sega Genesis. Когда дело доходит до 3D-консолей, вроде PlayStation, то они эмулируются хорошо, но игры Nintendo 64 и Dreamcast хотя являются эксклюзивными, но с плохой реализацией воспроизведения, а эмуляторы для более новых консолей, обычно, даже не включены, потому что Pi не достаточно производителен, чтобы запускать их. Игроки могут заметить некоторую задержку ввода с контроллеров в некоторых играх, особенно если вы используете контроллеры Bluetooth. Игроки также столкнуться с другими причудами — звук может случайно исчезнуть, или Raspberry Pi может перестать выводить видео без причины. Эти вещи случаются нечасто, и устранение неполадок, возможно, станет частью игрового процесса.

Запись Recalbox на карту-памяти

Как и в любой операционной системе, в Raspberry Pi первым шагом является загрузка и запись файлов на карту microSD:

1. Загрузите самую новую версию Recalbox для вашей Raspberry Pi с компьютера, работающего на Windows или Mac (Linux).
2. Загрузите и установите Etcher (бесплатное программное обеспечение), используемое для копирования изображений операционной системы Pi на SD-карту.
3. Вставьте карту microSD в компьютер (если у вас нет встроенного SD-кардридера, то нужно его купить или попросить на время у друга).
4. Откройте Etcher. Нажмите «Выбрать образ» и найдите файл Recalbox, который вы загрузили в первом шаге.
5. Нажмите «Выбрать диск» и найдите карту microSD. Затем нажмите «Flash» и дождитесь, пока Etcher скопирует образ.
6. Когда это будет сделано, выньте SD-карту, вставьте ее в свой мини-компьютер Raspberry Pi, подключите контроллеры, затем подключите Pi к источнику питания и вашем ЖК-телевизору или монитору.

Настройка Recalbox

Когда вы сначала загружаете Recalbox, он автоматически запускается через несколько этапов настройки, чтобы после вывести главное меню.

Recalbox включает в себя сразу несколько бесплатных игр. Если вы не видите сразу консоль управления, то значит у вас нет каких-либо игр для запуска. Если у вас есть поддерживаемый Recalbox USB-джойстик, вы можете перемещаться в меню с помощью направляющих кнопок или использовать клавиатуру для этого. Прежде чем начать играть в игры, вам нужно настроить несколько вещей:

1. Настройте свои контроллеры. Кнопки на большинстве популярных проводных контроллеров, включая USB-контроллер Buffalo, контроллеры Xbox 360 и Xbox One, а также Sony DualShock 4, уже стандартно настроены, но при необходимости игроки могут перенастроить кнопки, — нажмите «Старт», затем выберите «Настройки контроллера». Если вам нужно перенастроить кнопки на проводном контроллере, выберите «Настроить контроллер», затем нажмите «ОК» и следуйте инструкциям на экране. Чтобы настроить контроллер Bluetooth, нажмите «Пуск», а затем «Сопряжение» Bluetooth-контроллер; переведите контроллер в режим сопряжения, а затем выберите имя контроллера, когда оно появится на экране.
2. Подключите к беспроводной сети. Если Raspberry Pi игроков подключен к маршрутизатору с помощью кабеля Ethernet, то можно пропустить этот шаг, но если игрок хочет использовать Wi-Fi, то необходимо ввести свои учетные данные. Нажмите «Пуск» и выберите «Настройки сети». Введите SSID (логин) и пароль Wi-Fi, используя клавиатуру на экране. После того, как все будет настроено, игрок сможет получить доступ к Pi через собственную сеть, напрямую с собственного компьютера, для передачи файлов и изменения основных настроек.
3. Выберите свои shaders. Старые игры могут выглядеть нечетко и растянуто на современном телевидении. Для этого эмуляторы могут использовать shaders, которые имитируют внешний вид изображения старых телевизоров на ЖК-экранах. Recalbox включает в себя два варианта для этого: «scanlines», который добавляет горизонтальные линии на экран, словно у ЭЛТ-телевизора, и «retro», ​​который автоматически выбирает другой стиль shaders, на основе консоли (например, игра NES будет иметь линии сканирования, в то время как игра GameBoy Advance имитирует пиксельную-сетку, которую вы увидите на ЖК-экране оригинальной портативной приставки). Чтобы выбрать shaders, нажмите «Пуск», затем «Настройки игр», затем «Shaders». Большинство людей могут установить его в «Retro» и оставить его состояние нетронутым. Вы можете добавить свои собственные shaders, но это в начале изучения, немного сложно.

Копирование игр для Recalbox

Recalbox включает базовый менеджер файлов и конфигураций, который вы можете получить в своей домашней сети через веб-интерфейс, в своем браузере. Используя этот веб-интерфейс, вы можете копировать РОМ’ы через свой Pi, управлять основными настройками… Чтобы показать как перенести РОМ’ы с вашего компьютера на Pi, мы будем использовать копию игры D-Pad Hero.

1. Из веб-браузера вашего компьютера перейдите в http://recalbox/ если вы находитесь на компьютере под управлением Windows; или http://recalbox.local/, если вы находитесь на компьютере Mac (Linux).
2. На странице менеджера Recalbox нажмите кнопку РОМ’ы на боковой панели.
3. Щелкните папку «Nintendo Entertaiment System». Вам нужно скопировать ваши РОМ-файлы в папку для консоли.
4. Нажмите «Загрузить РОМ», затем перетащите файл D-Pad Hero, который вы загрузили на первом шаге, в окно браузера. Когда это будет сделано, скопируйте файл, нажмите «Перезапустить ES», чтобы затем перейти к своему Pi, для его удачного воспроизведения. Игрок также может одновременно выбирать и загружать несколько РОМ’ов (игр).
5. Менеджер Recalbox имеет и другие функции. Игрок можете получить доступ к различным настройкам веб-менеджера, включая настройки беспроводной сети и shaders. Также можно нажать на кнопку, чтобы сделать снимок экрана, во время игры. Если игроку не нравится менеджер на основе браузера, то можно также можете получить доступ к своему Pi в проводнике Windows или Finder, доступном на Mac, как к сетевому устройству хранения данных.

Как сохраниться, загрузиться в Recalbox

После воспроизведения игры, игроки наверняка захотят узнать о возможности быстрые клавиши для сохранения и загрузки игры, а также возврату в основное меню Recalbox.
Эмуляторы позволяют вам сохранять прогресс игры в ре льном времени, даже в старых играх, у которых нет встроенной системы сохранения. Эта функция называются «Save states», и она сохраняет точный момент, когда игрок выполняет какие-либо действия в игре. Чтобы сохранять, загружать и выходить из игр в Recalbox, можно использовать быстрые клавиши, одновременно нажимая две кнопки на вашем джойстике.

Если у вас есть контроллер PS4, быстрая клавиша — кнопка PS. Если у вас есть классический контроллер, такой как контроллер Buffalo, быстрая клавиша — это кнопка Выбор (Селект). На контроллере Xbox главная кнопка — это быстрая клавиша. Назначения кнопок основаны на шаблоне контроллера Super Nintendo, поэтому используйте любую кнопку в этом месте на вашем, возможно отличном от представленных, джойстике. Вот некоторые полезные комбинации кнопок, чтобы начать игру:

1. Горячая клавиша + «Старт» — позволяет совершить выход из игры
2. Горячая клавиша + «Y» — быстрое сохранение состояния
3. Горячая клавиша + «X» — быстрая загрузка предыдущего состояния
4. Горячая клавиша + «A» — позволяет сбросить игру

A Raspberry Pi emulator can provide you with hundreds of hours of fun with lots of classic retro games to play. It’s a great nostalgia project and runs incredibly well once you have it set up.

This tutorial will take you through all the steps that you will need to do to have a fantastic all in one retro game emulator set up and running on a Raspberry P.

This game emulator is an excellent project if you’re an avid lover of retro games that you wish to play. It’s important to remember that the Pi might not be able to play all the classics due to its limited processing power but should be able to handle a majority of them.

There are a ton of emulators included in the default RetroPie setup. You can find a list of all the emulators that you can utilize at the bottom of this tutorial.

Equipment

You can find all the bits and pieces that you will need for the retro game emulator tutorial.

Recommended

Optional

Setting it all up

The steps below will take you through all the steps to getting the Raspberry Pi emulator setup and ready to go.

1. You will need a formatting tool. Visit the SD Association’s website and download the SD Formatter for either Windows or Mac.

2. Follow the instructions to install the formatting software.

3. Insert your SD card into the computer or laptop’s SD card reader and check the drive letter allocated to it, e.g. G:/ (If you don’t have one then you can buy a USB SD Card reader )

4. In the SD Formatter, select the drive letter for your SD card (eg. G:/) and then click format .

Download & Install the RetroPie software onto the SD Card

1. Download the latest RetroPie SD Card image from the RetroPie GitHub . Once downloaded, unzip the file so you’re left with a .img file.

2. Next we will need some software to install the image to the SD Card, for this tutorial we will use Etcher. Download Etcher from their website and install it.

3. Once installed, open Etcher and press the select image button. Browse to the .img file we downloaded in step 1 .

3. Next click the select drive button. Select the correct drive and press continue .

3. Lastly, click the Flash! button to begin the flashing process. It can take some time so be patient Once completed, remove the SD card from the computer and place into the Raspberry Pi.

Skip down to the booting up the Retro game emulator section to proceed.

Installing Raspberry RetroPie from Scratch

This section of the tutorial is for setting up RetroPie on a pre-existing operating system.

1. To get started, we need to ensure there’s a minimum of 2GB free disk space on our primary partition. We can do this by using the following command, and paying attention to /dev/root .

2. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we should also update the package list and run an upgrade on all pre-existing packages.

We can ensure that everything is up date to by issuing the following command in the terminal.

Sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

3. After that, we can install the two packages that we will need to run the RetroPie setup script, use the following command to install both Git and dialog software.

Sudo apt-get install -y git dialog

4. Now we can retrieve the latest version of the RetroPie setup script easily, enter the following commands to get it to download the latest version.

Cd git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

5. We can now cd to the Retropie setup folder and make the script executable, so we can run it. Once we have done that, we just run the script.

Cd RetroPie-Setup chmod +x retropie_setup.sh sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

6. This should now display the RetroPie setup script, this will have a variety of options, but the one we want to pay attention to is Basic Install .

Select this option by using the arrow keys to navigate to it and using the enter button to select it.

7. Next, you will be presented with a screen asking you to confirm whether you want to install the Core and Main branches of RetroPie, select Yes to this option to begin the installation.

8. When completed it will take you back to the menu, this time select Configuration/tools .

9. Within here, go to autostart and select this menu.

10. In here, select Start Emulation Station at boot , this will make the front-end boot when the Raspberry Pi powers on.

11. It is now safe to quit out of the configuration tool. You can do this quickly by pressing Ctrl + C or press escape and select the exit option .

12. Once this has completed, you will now be able to copy over roms for Raspberry Pi RetroPie.

To launch the frontend of RetroPie we need to type the following command into terminal, this command will launch the EmulationStation frontend.

Emulationstation

Booting up the Retro Game Emulator

1. Insert the SD Card into the Pi as well as connect the mouse, keyboard, Ethernet cord and power supply. If you installed RetroPie to a pre-existing Raspbian installation then reboot the Pi using the following command.

Sudo reboot

2. The Raspberry Pi will now boot and launch into RetroPie.

3. Next, press f4 so that it will take you to the command line.

4. Type ifconfig and write down the numbers and dots next to inet addr . (You may need it later)

5. If you haven’t already done it, we will now , expand the file system and overclock the Pi to achieve the best performance possible.

Type the following into the terminal to open up rasp-config.

Sudo raspi-config

6. Select Expand File system and accept until you’re back to the main screen.

7. Go to Advanced Options->SSH and enable it.

8. Next go to overclock, select Medium or Turbo if you’re feeling risky. (These options are different on newer models. For example, The Raspberry Pi 3 doesn’t support overclocking.)

9. Afterwards, select finish and then select yes to reboot. It’s now time to proceed to adding roms to your Raspberry Pi emulator.

Adding ROMS to the Raspberry Pi Emulator

ROM is short for read-only memory and is the format in which you will find pretty much all the classic games in.

ROMs can be found all over the internet, and since there are so many different sources, it’s best to simply google the game you wish to download followed by ROM. eg. (“Doom ROM”).

There are many sites around such as Emulationking, Abandonia that provide all sorts of ROMS, emulation help and much more. These are perfect if you want to take a look further into the emulator scene and add more to your Raspberry Pi emulator.

Utlizing a USB Drive

1. Before we get started, we need to make sure that the USB service is enabled on Retropie. If not, then this section of the tutorial will fail to work.

Let’s get started by going to the terminal. You can get to this from RetroPie by pressing F4 and pressing any key.

2. Now that we are in the terminal, we need to get to the RetroPie setup script. We can launch it up by typing in the following.

3. In here go to Configuration/tools , within this menu, you will want to go to near the bottom of the list and look for the option labeled usbromservice , select this option.

4. This option will now install the usbmount daemon. Before it finishes up, you will be asked whether you want to enable it, when prompted select Enable USB Rom Service .

5. Once complete, quit out of the setup tool by hitting ESC and selecting exit , or using Ctrl + C.

6. Now reboot your Raspberry Pi with the following command.

Sudo reboot

7. First, ensure that your USB drive is formatted to FAT32 . You can check this on Windows by right-clicking on the drive, clicking Properties and look at the text next to File System: .

8. On the USB, create a directory called retropie , the software will detect this folder when plugged in and set it up for copying over ROMS.

9. Now plug that USB into the Raspberry Pi, give this a few minutes as the RetroPie software will be setting it up in preparation for copying over ROMS.

If your USB has a flashing light, wait until it has stopped flashing before you pull it out. If it doesn’t have a light, then wait a few minutes for the job to complete.

10. Now take out the USB from the Raspberry Pi and plug it back into the computer.

11. Add the ROMS to their respective folders on the USB. These folders will be in the RetroPie/roms folder. (Eg. RetroPie/roms/snes )

12. Once you have finished copying your ROMs to the USB, plug it back into the Raspberry Pi. The RetroPie software will immediately start copying these files off, don’t take out your USB for some time.

13. Refresh emulationstation by pressing F4 , or choosing quit from the start menu

Copying over SFTP

For SFTP you will need to utilize a program such as WinSCP to connect to the Raspberry Pi. If you are running Mac use something like Cyberduck .

1. On Windows, go to the WinSCP website and download the latest version of WinSCP. WinSCP is the tool that will interact with the Raspberry Pi and allow us to copy over files directly to the Raspberry Pi.

2. Once downloaded, launch up WinSCP. It will immediately ask you for new login details. You will need to enter the following details into the correct fields.

File Protocol: SFTP
IP address: To find the IP address of your RetroPie, go into RetroPie options from the main menu, and select the last option “Show IP address”.
Port Number: 22 (default)
Username: pi (default)
Password: raspberry (default)

3. Once successfully connected, you should pay attention to the right-hand side screen. Locate the folder named RetroPie , double-click on that, once within that folder locate the folder named Roms and double-click again to enter that folder.

You should now be sitting in the directory where all your roms will be stored. The file directory displayed at the top should be something like /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

4. Once in the right folder, all you simply need to do is drop the files into the relevant folder for your console, such as for a SNES game you would drag and drop the file onto the folder named snes .

Note: If you would like to copy over more files instead of just roms you may first need to enable the root password by typing the following command into the terminal.

Sudo passwd root

This will allow you to set up a password for the root user.

Copying over Samba Network Shares

A clean installation of RetroPie also has Samba pre-installed and enabled. that allows Linux and Mac-based devices to connect with Microsoft’s shared network devices interface.

This allows you to access the files on your Raspberry Pi over the network without needing to connect with something like WinSCP.

1. If you are running a clean install from the RetroPie image, then you can skip ahead to step 6. Otherwise, if you have installed RetroPie to a pre-existing Raspbian installation, you will need to go through a few extra steps to setup this.

To get started, enter the following commands to launch the RetroPie setup script.

Cd RetroPie-Setup sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

2. Once the setup script is loaded, go to Configuration/tools by using the arrow keys and pressing enter .

3. Within this menu, you need to search for the option labeled samba , once you have selected this option, press enter to select it.

4. Selecting this option will install the packages required to setup samba, once that has completed, you will be met with another screen.

On this screen, select Install RetroPie Samba shares . This option will set samba up to share the RetroPie related folders and allow network access to them.

5. Once done, you can now safely quit out of the RetroPie software. There are two ways you can do this, one is to hit Ctrl + C , and the other is to hit ESC and select exit .

6. Now back on your computer. On a Windows PC, open a file explorer window, and in the address bar type in the following address.

\\192.168.1.106

Note: Make sure you swap out the IP address with your own.

7. There is a chance it may ask for your login details for your Raspberry Pi. Just enter your password and username. If you are still using the default user, that will be the following.

Username: pi
Password: raspberry

3. Once in, you can now copy any file you want over to your Raspberry Pi. For copying over roms, you will want to go into roms and copy the file into the folder of the console it belongs with.

For instance, a SNES game will go in the folder called snes .

Emulators included in RetroPie

Below are all the emulators installed with Retropie at the time of writing this tutorial.

Amiga (UAE4All)

The Amiga is a range of computers that were sold by Commodore throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. The Amiga featured lots of games but just to name a few, there is The Chaos Engine, Lemmings, Turrican and Shadow of the beast.

This Raspberry Pi Amiga emulator will let you play many of the classics games that you loved on this old school computer.

Apple II (LinApple)

The Apple II introduced in 1977 was one of the most successful personal computers of its time. The Apple II featured a lot of games throughout its lifespan such as Castle Wolfenstein, Lode Runner, Choplifter and the list goes on.

Make use of the Apple II emulator on the Raspberry Pi and relive some of those great classics.

Apple Macintosh (Basilisk II)

Play Apple Macintosh games that were built to run on the MAC OS 8.1.

Amstrad CPC (CPC4RPi)

The Amstrad CPC or short for Color Personal Computer is a series of computers released in 1984 through to 1990s. There were many great games released for this computer such as Roland in the caves, Harrier Attack, Gauntlet and much more.

Atari 800

The Atari 800 is part of the series of the 8 bit home computers that were released back in 1979. Again many games were released for the Atari 800 such as Montezuma Revenge, Jumpman, Star Raiders and much more.

The Raspberry Pi makes for a great Atari 800 emulator. Again there are just so many games that you can play.

Atari 2600 (RetroArch)

The Atari 2600 released back in September 1977 by Atari was more commonly known as the Atari VCS at the time of the release. Ikari Warriors, Pengo, Pigs in Space and Pac man just to name a few games released for the console.

If you’re looking for an Atari 2600 Emulator then this Raspberry Pi mod makes it possible.

C64 (VICE)

The C64 or the Commodore 64 released in 1982 by Commodore International. It is the highest selling computer model of all time and sales between 10-17 million units.

Using this guide, you can set up a Commodore 64 emulator using the Raspberry Pi.

Game Boy Advance (gpSP)

The Game Boy Advance is one of the highest selling handheld gaming consoles of all time. Boasting more than 81.5 million sales there we many great games for this great handheld. Some of these great games were Pokemon, Super Mario Advance, Super Mario Bros and much more.

The Raspberry Pi Game Boy Advance emulator lets you replay some of those great classics released for the handheld console.

Game Gear (Osmose)

The Sega Game Gear is a handheld console that was released back in 1990.

Intellivision (RetroArch)

Intellivision released to the public back in 1979 is a video game console that was developed by Mattel. The console sold over 3 million and a total of 125 games released for it. Games that released for the console included BurgerTime, Night Stalker, B-17 Bomber and much more.

Neo Geo (GnGeo, Genesis-GX & RetroArch)

The Neo Geo was found both in arcades and in homes and didn’t stop production up until 1997. Games that released for the system includes Rage of the Dragons, Twinkle Star Sprites and much more.

The Raspberry Pi makes for a great Neo Geo emulator making it possible for you to relive some of the great games released for this system.

Sega Master System (Osmose)

The SMS or Sega Master System was released back in 1985 in Japan. It was not until 1986, 1989 and 1989 it was brought in to North America, Europe, and Brazil. The system did alright but wasn’t able to overturn Nintendo’s dominance in the market only selling 10-13 million compared to the 62 million NES units sold.

The Sega Master System Emulator is a great way to play some of the classics released for the system such as Alien Syndrome, Asterix, Cyborg Hunter, Wonder Boy and much more.

Sega Megadrive/Genesis (DGEN, Picodrive)

The Sega Megadrive or also known as the Sega Genesis is the third console and successor to the Sega Master System. This system boasted a library of over 900 games and was popular in North America and Europe, the console, however, struggled in Europe.

The Raspberry Pi does well at being a Sega Genesis emulator so if you have one you should definitely play some of these games.

Nintendo Entertainment System – NES (RetroArch)

The Nintendo Entertainment or also known as the NES was released back in North American in 1985. It was the console that helped revitalize the US video game industry after the crash back in 1985. The NES had classics such as Mario Bros, Mega Man, Duck Hunt and much more.

RetroArch could be the best NES emulator as you can not only have the NES games you love but also games from other great consoles.

Nintendo 64 – N64 (Mupen64Plus-RPi)

The Nintendo 64 or also known as the N64 is another hugely popular video game system released by Nintendo.

There was a total of 387 games released for the console with a fair few of them exclusively sold in Japan. Some of the great games that were released for this console include Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario 64, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye and many more.

If you’re looking for an excellent n64 emulator, then the Raspberry Pi will do a pretty decent job having a few games that can run on this amazing little computer.

PlayStation 1 (RetroArch)

The PlayStation 1 or most commonly known as PS or PS1 was released back in 1995 and was the main competitor the Nintendo 64. Many of the great games released include Driver, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 2, Crash Bandicoot and much more.

This mod for the Raspberry Pi is an excellent PlayStation 1 emulator and will allow you to play some of the great games you remember.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (RetroArch, PiSNES, SNES-Rpi)

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or also known as the SNES is a video game console developed and released by Nintendo back in 1990. The SNES was hugely successful and still has a great fan base for it today. The SNES had great games such as Sim City, Super Mario World, Casper, Civilization and much more.

This could be the best SNES emulator around as you can set it up to be purely a console for just your SNES collection.

Other emulators I should mention

There are a ton of other emulators that you’re able to run, here is a list of the ones I feel need a mention.

• Arcade (PiFBA, Mame4All-RPi)
• Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon
• CaveStory (NXEngine)
• Doom (RetroArch)
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Final Burn Alpha (RetroArch)
• Color (RetroArch)
• MAME (RetroArch & AdvMAME)
• Sega Mega-CD (Picodrive)
• Sega 32X (Picodrive)
• Sinclair ZX Spectrum (Fuse)
• ScummVM
• PC Engine / TurboGrafx 16 (RetroArch)
• PC / x86 (rpix86)
• Z Machine emulator (Frotz)

I hope that this guide has helped with setting up the Raspberry Pi emulator. If you come across any issues, have feedback or anything else then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

Многие пользователи мини-ПК Raspberry сталкиваются с проблемой запуска на своём гаджете написанных ранее программ или утилит, ошибкой в работе новой операционки или невозможностью настройки системы. Для того чтобы избежать этой проблемы можно воспользоваться эмуляцией Raspberry Pi в Windows и посмотреть на работу приложений ещё до перекидывания на гаджет.

Особенности эмулятора Raspberry Pi на основе Qemu

• Открытый код с регулярными обновлениями и возможностью внесения правок (для опытных пользователей);
• Эмуляция происходит в окне без необходимости внесения изменений в ПК;
• Возможность изменения модели вычислительной мощности гаджета;
• Не требует покупки платного софта;
• Поддерживает большинство версий Windows.

Кроме того, при помощи эмулятора можно запускать огромное количество других устройств и операционных систем. Теперь давайте выясним особенности установки и запуска Qemu.

Установка и настройка эмулятора Raspberry Pi для Windows

• Вводим в поисковике "Raspberry Pi emulation for Windows" и переходим по первой ссылке. Здесь уже собран весь необходимый софт для установки обычными пользователями. Если же вы любитель сделать всё своими руками — можете отдельно скачать Qemu, образ мини-ПК и настроить среду с ядром;
• Жмём "Download", ждём 5 секунд и скачиваем архив;
• Извлекаем содержимое в ранее созданную папку;
• Запускаем файл с названием run.bat и ждём загрузку системы;
• После появления конфигуратора вносим правки в соответствии с желаемыми настройками (только для профессионалов, иначе могут возникнуть проблемы с работоспособностью системы);
• Наблюдаем завершение запуска эмулятора Raspberry Pi для виртуальной машины и можем приступать к выполнению манипуляций.

Если вы выполнили всё верно и обладаете ПК со средней по мощности конфигурацией — проблем с работой эмулятора возникнуть не должно. В противном случае попробуйте запустить батник от имени администратора, провести повторную установку без внесения изменений в конфигуратор и обновить все критичные драйвера.

Кроме того, существует множество эмуляторов приставок для Raspberry Pi, работоспособность которых перед установкой можно проверить на Qemu. Поэтому рассмотрим дальше небольшой гайд о самой популярной и многофункциональной среди них.

Эмулятор RetroPie для Raspberry Pi

Главной его особенностью является возможность запуска игр с множества консолей, среди которых PlayStation, NES, Sega Genesis и прочие. Кроме того, эмулятор игровой приставки на Raspberry Pi выполнен в виде готового образа, который имеет достаточно удобный интерфейс.

Установка RetroPie

• Вводим в поисковике "RetroPie Project SD" и скачиваем образ по первой ссылке;
• Записываем скачанный файл на карту памяти через DiskImager;
• После запуска системы заходим в консоль и запускаем настройку конфигурации;
• Выбираем вкладку Filesystem (первая в списке), переходим в Advanced, далее - memory split и вписываем значение 256;
• Меняем раскладку и временную зону на UTF8;
• Закрываем настройки и перезапускаем систему.

Кроме этого, в зависимости от использования геймпада или клавиатуры, может понадобиться установка дополнительных драйверов. Также образы игр желательно скачивать через локальную сеть, чтобы избежать проблем в дальнейшем.

iButton на Raspberry

Эмулятор iButton для Raspberry способен проводить эмуляцию ключей от домофона. Он будет полезен для тех, кто хочет иметь под рукой многофункциональное устройство для считывания и имитирования ключей с возможностью подключения через USB к стационарному ПК. Скачать и ознакомится с iButton можно на официальной странице в GitHub, которая выполнена на русском языке и содержит детализированную инструкцию.

Надеемся наша статья о настройках эмуляторов, связанных с Raspberry, позволила сэкономить время на проверку приложений и дала ответы на возникшие при инсталляции вопросы. Пользуйтесь эмуляцией и наслаждайтесь возможностями Raspberry Pi.

Today, I am gonna talk about emulation of raspberry pi on windows.

This post is for specifically windows lovers 🙂

What is emulator ?

Extract the ZIP file to a folder on your PC.

2. Get kernel for raspberry pi with Qemu support

Are the steps to compile Linux kernel with qemu support.

To escape this step toy can just download the pre-compiled image from .

Move this file to the QEMU folder which is created in previous step.

3. Get any of Raspi distro image

I am using the raspian “raspbmc” image. You can download this image from raspberry pi site .

Extract the file and put it in qemu folder.

4. Finally launching the emulator

Now, its time to launch the emulator with your kernel and disc image. The below command has to be hit on dos prompt on windows.

To do that, press Window button, search cmd in search bar. You will get one application named “cmd”. Open that application to write command. This is basically Dos prompt. The below image will provide you more information about it.

So, navigate to the directory where you have extracted qemu and all downloaded binaries.

Hit the below command to start qemu-arm for raspberry pi. In my case, i have kernel-qemu (which is downloaded in step #2) is the kernel for raspberry pi and raspbmc.img (which is downloaded in step #3) is the image of file system.

qemu-system-armw.exe -M versatilepb -m 256 -cpu arm1176 -no-reboot -serial stdio -kernel kernel-qemu -hda raspbmc.img -append “root=/dev/sda2 panic=1”

The break down of the above command is:

1) qemu-system-armw: the command to emulate an arm system on windows

2) -M versatilepb: the machine we need to emulate

3) -m 256: the amount of memory set that this version of the R-Pi has (The maximum memory size you can specify is 256Mb – that’s a limitation of QEMU for this hardware emulation – it may not work if you specify more)

4) -cpu arm1176: the cpu we need to emulate

5) -no-reboot -append “root=/dev/sda2 panic1” : we mount our root filesystem to /dev/sda in the emulated R-Pi

What are Raspberry Pi emulators?

Basically, we need to talk about the emulators in general. There are two things that we can actually call the “emulators” – an application to emulate some particular video gaming console and software, which provides a set (or a bundle) of those console emulators mentioned. Nowadays, you can hardly find the separate emulators. Neither the emulation software has a great number of examples. The software projects to choose from include:

In one of our previous articles, we’ve already told you about the different ways of playing games on Raspberry Pi . So, you are supposed to know that most of these ways allow you to play only very old games. And even using such retro gaming emulators as Rertopie or Emulation Station will still cause some speed issues and retro gaming bundle limitations. As you can see, it includes only NES classic emulators, so you’ll find very old console video games in their game lists and ROMs to download. And if you would like to play more up-to-date computer games, like Might and Magic, you’ll certainly face problems…

Well, how can we play x86 PC games on ARM devices then? Luckily, there is a simple solution – ExaGear Desktop . It will work as a Raspberry Pi emulator (or like VirtualBox) and will allow you to play a much wider variety of Linux and Windows PC games. And what’s more, it has been recently integrated into Retropie as an extension and users can install it like a native emulator.

We have already posted 2 tutorials on how to use ExaGear Desktop as a gaming emulator and run some iconic games such as Arcanum, Disciples II, Fallout and Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Caesar 3 on Raspberry Pi. However, we continue testing more games and sharing our experience with you. In this post, we’ll look through the cases of running Might and Magic 6, Stronghold Crusader Extreme HD and Pharaoh and Cleopatra on Raspberry Pi as if your device was really all in one game console.

P.S.: keen gamers will probably also like to know that with ExaGear Desktop you can turn your Raspberry Pi into a TeamSpeak 3 Server

Raspberry Pi test stand configuration

EmulationStation

EmulationStation was the first attempt to gather a lot of console emulators together and give it a user-friendly interface. It is a flexible and open-source front-end for emulators and it supports Windows, Debian, and Arch versions. It has also got a Raspberry Pi version, which has recently been turned into a Retropie application (that we’re going to decribe later).

EmulationStaion’s main features are the user-friendly interface with customizable themes for any emulator, a list of pre-installed emulators (which is rather short) and the possibility of operating with controllers (no keyboard needed).

How to install EmulationStation

As we are from the ARM industry, there’s no need for Windows installation tutorial, especially since downloading the installer and launching it will be enough. Let’s jump to Debian installation process :

1. Make sure you have updated your OS:

2. Pre-install the additional libraries:

3. Download the Emulation Station:

4. Install the Emulation Station on your Debian device:

As soon as the installation is finished and you are booting the EmulationStation for the first time, you ‘ll need to configure the controllers’ buttons. You may either use the keyboard or the controllers to operate within the interface.

Also, it’s possible to do some technical configuration. This can be easily done via the GUI, including theme setup and adding the game system emulators. But if you want to do it manually, you’ll need to find the es_systems.cfg file in the emulationstation folder. There you may add the emulators’ titles by placing its title between ” … ” which are listed inside of tag (as seen in the picture):

If you’d like to install Emulation Station app on Raspberry Pi, look below on Retropie’s section, as EmultationStation has been fully replaced with Retropie for Raspberry Pi version. It’s also announced on their official website.

Retropie

Retropie is probably the most popular console emulator for Raspberry Pi devices. Actually, it’s not the emulator itself but the big opensource retro gaming and emulation project. It originates from EmulationStation and is optimized for open source operating systems in general. Due to the tendency of Raspberry Pi becoming more and more popular to make up a retro gaming machine on, Retropie offers it’s core features adapted for Raspberry Pi and concentrates on this type of devices.

In addition to Raspberry Pi device models, which include RPi Zero/1 and Raspberry Pi 2/3, there are also distributions for Odroid-C1/C2, Odroid-XU3/XU4, Debian PC and Ubuntu PC.

The main feature of Retropie is that it includes almost all the previous experience of console gaming emulation. It consists of EmulationStation with themes for emulators, Kodi media-player, RetroArch (Libretro’s frontend) and 50+ systems pre-installed.

Retropie installation

You can install Retropie on Raspberry Pi using an SD card to make an image for booting or install it on top of the existing Raspbian OS. In this post, we’re going to highlight the most spread and convenient way with an SD card. If you’d like to learn all of the ways, read our detailed Retropie guide .

You will need some side PC desktop (Windows, Linux or Mac) to make up an image. So, as soon as you’ve got the additional device, follow the steps below:

PiPlay

PiPlay (formerly PiMAME) is an operating system and an emulation system open source project made for retro gaming on Raspberry Pi. Actually, the Piplay also includes the two hardware products – the Piplay portable and the DeskCade.

The Piplay portable is a device, based on Raspberry Pi Zero and PiPLay system to play retro console games on one portable game system kit (like a Gameboy or a PSP). DeskCade is a desktop arcade gaming kit, looking like a retro gaming arcade machine. It has a classic arcade controller (a joystick) and is compatible with Retropie, so you can play any retro and modern console games arcade style.

PiPlay as an emulation system itself is a quite simple application that works ontop of Raspbian and has a user-friendly interface. It offers a limited number of retro console emulators, including MAME, CPSI/CPSII, Neo Geo, PlayStation, Genesis, NES and SNES, Gameboy, ScummVM, Atari 2600, Cavestory and Commodore64.

How to install PiPlay on RPi

1. Update and upgrade the packages before you start:

2. After the system reboots update a Raspberry Pi firmware:

3. Install additional libraries:

4. Download and install the PiPlay:

Create the “piplay-sound.slate” file:

5. Now you can configure your controller (previously connected, of course) by pressing tab and selecting the “Controller Setup”.

6. On this step, the system is actually installed and the only last thing you need to do is to start it and install MAME4ALL and AdvanceMAME by moving to the right screen and selecting “Install MAME” in the interface. As soon as this installation is finished, you are completely all set!

Now, you need to find ROMs and load them to the ~/pimame/roms folder. all the ROMs must stay “.zip” format in PiPlay. You can choose to download the ROMs via FTP or SRC as well (the methods are similar to those, described above).

ExaGear Desktop Emulator for gaming on Raspberry Pi

All of the Retropie emulators mentioned above are available for playing only console games, while ExaGear Desktop allows playing x86 PC Windows games on Raspberry Pi! Of course, the only condition is that games technical requirements should be relevant to the hardware. Raspberry Pi, even overclocked and withs 3D graphics acceleration feature enabled (supported by ExaGear), can still run old and medium age computer games. For example, such games as Fallout, Arcanum, Heroes III etc. are OK. But the latest Destiny 2 will definitly never start! 🙂

Besides the graphics acceleration support, another great feature of ExaGear Desktop is that it’s been integrated into Retropie front-end, bringing a lot of convenience to users. The mater is that, originally, ExaGear Desktop is not a narrow-purpose gaming emulator but the full functional binary translation software, which aim is (but not limited to) running any x86 applications on ARM-based devices. So, it used to work side-by-side with Retropie and on top of Raspbian. And only since the latest update in 2017, ExaGear has become integrated into Retropie and has been gained the option for running PC games directly from the Retropie’s interface. Read the details in our ExaGear extension for Retropie guide .

ExaGear Desktop for gaming is compatible with Raspberry Pi (all models) as well as with Odroid.

In addition, it’s worth noting that ExaGear may run two ways: headless as a side application and as a Retropie emulator from the EmulationStation’s interface. It is very convenient and the only thing you need is to download it, set up and start. For that, simply follow the instructions below.

How to install ExaGear emulator on Retropie

The installation of ExaGear Desktop emulator on Retropie is quite simple.

1. Open Retropie and call for the terminal inside the Retropie interface by pressing “Ctrl+Alt+F4”.

2. Download and install ExaGear Rettopie Emulator with this command (you need to be in “home” directory):

3. Assign the proper rights to the installer app and launch it:

4. The next step is to fill out a tiny pop-up form. Input your name, last name and e-mail address to activate the emulator.

5. As the final step, you’ll need to configure Wine. The configuration window will open up automatically and you’ll have to simply tick “Emulate a virtual desktop” checkbox.

As soon as you are done with all the steps and the installation is finished, perform a reboot.

Now, you can proceed to installing and running PC games with your new RPi emulator. Below you can find some examples.

The ExaGear emulator doesn’t work with ROM files. To install and play x86 PC games, you’ll need to get distributions (mainly “.zip” files). The easiest way to get the proper files is to use the website www.gog.com , specially targeted to distribute such games.

Below, find some examples of games we have already managed to install and launch on the Pi with ExaGear Desktop.

Emulate Might and Magic 6 on RPi

To install MaM 6 open Terminal (command line), enter the guest x86 system by running the ‘exagear’ command to activate the Raspberry Pi emulator for Windows games. After that, enter the folder with the installer (in our case it’s in folder Downloads) and run it with Wine:

The graphical interface of the game installer will show up:

After installation is finished you can run MaM 6 from your Desktop:

Wait a couple of minutes while MaM 6 is loading, and finally, you will see the start menu.

Now you can play Might and Magic 6 on Raspberry Pi:

For more detailed illustration, we’ve made a video of the whole installation process.

Emulate Pharaoh and Cleopatra on Raspberry Pi

To install Pharaoh and Cleopatra open Terminal (command line), enter the guest x86 system by running the ‘exagear’ command, enter the folder with the installer and run it with Wine:

The graphical interface of the game installer will show up and you can proceed with the installation. After installation is finished you can run Pharaoh and Cleopatra directly from the Raspbian desktop or from the start menu. You might need to wait until the game is loaded.

For your convenience, watch the video about the whole process below.

Emulate Stronghold Crusader Extreme HD on RPi

We recommend downloading Stronghold Crusader Extreme HD from GOG .

To install the game on our Raspberry Pi console emulator, just enter the guest x86 system by entering the ‘exagear’ command in the Terminal, enter the folder with the installer and run it with Wine:

After installation you can run the game from the Raspbian desktop:

The Most Popular Emulators for Raspberry Pi

We’ve already listed a number of emulators to be actively used within the emulation systems, like Retropie or Recalbox. So, there are the most popular among them. In fact, it’s not optimal to load all the existing emulators to Retropie, for example, as it can influence on your hardware performance. And it’s really smart to get only the best emulators which are used by hundreds of thousands of retro gamers around the globe. For you to learn them and compare, we’ve prepared a special listing below.

Gameboy

Gameboy was the first handheld portable gaming console, released by Nintendo in 1989 and started the whole industry of handhelds. The great Gameboy features which made it the world popular were the multiple players (via the cable, up to 4 players), extended battery life and affordable price. Not mentioning the portability for gamers to play anywhere and on-the-go. Emulators : lr-gambatte, lr-tgbdual ROM files extensions : .7z, .gb and .zip. ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gb . The controls configurations : customize the file, located in /opt/retropie/configs/gb/retroarch.cfg

The main feature for using the emulators is that lr-gambatte is good for single playing, while lr-gambatte emulator supports two players connected through the cable over network or parallel on the same system.

Gameboy Advance or GBA

GBA was the next generation handheld console, released by Nintendo in 2001. It featured 32-bit updated graphics and performance. Emulators :gpSP, lr-gpSP, lr-vba-next, lr-mgba ROM files extensions : .7z, .gba and .zip. ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gba . The controls : files to configure are situated in /opt/retropie/emulators/gpsp/gpsp.cfg for gpSP emulator and in /opt/retropie/configs/gba/retroarch.cfg for other emulators.

Note that The Game Boy Advance requires a BIOS file “gba_bios.bin”, which should be placed in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS

NES

NES stands for “The Nintendo Entertainment System”. It is an 8-bit gaming console, firstly released in 1985. Programm emulators (LibRetro) : lr-nestopia, lr-fceumm and lr-quicknes. ROM files extensions : .7z, .fds, .fig, .mgd, .nes, .sfc, .smc, .swc, and .zip. NES ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes .

Also note, that games with the .fds files extension will require the “disksys.rom” file, which must be placed in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS directory. Concerning the controllers, you can set up and configure them using the Retroarch configurations. Add custom controls to the “retroarch.cfg” file in /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg directory.

SNES

SNES (or “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”) was later released in 1991 and was the 4th generation video game consoles produced by Nintendo. Emulators (RetroArch) : lr-snes9x-2010, lr-snes9x, lr-snes9x2002, PiSNES, lr-snes9x2005, lr-armsnes, snes9x-rpi. Each of them accepts the ROMs: .7z, .bin, .fig, .mgd, .sfc, .smc, .swc and .zip. The controls configurations : through the custom “retroarch.cfg” file which you can find in /opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg Controller configurations : are kept in “snes9x.cfg” file that is located in /opt/retropie/emulators/pisnes .

Also note, that the games with more than 2 players are supported only for lr-snes9x2010 emulator. To activate the feature, switch on the multi-tap option by adding this line to the “retroarch.cfg” file (using the leafpad command):

Nintendo 64 or N64

Nintendo 64 (or N64) was released by Nintendo in 1996 and that started the era of the 5th generation gaming consoles. Emulators : Mupen64plus, lr-Mupen64plus, lr-GLupeN64. (The recommended one is the Mupen64plus as it has better performance.) ROM files : .z64, .n64, and .v64 files. ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/n64 folder. Controls regulation : for lr-Mupen64plus and lr-GLupeN64 the controls are regulated via the “retroarch.cfg”. For Mupen64plus (starting from Retropie 3.3) they are configured automatically. So, the files to modify in this case are located at: /opt/retropie/configs/n64/mupen64plus.cfg and /opt/retropie/configs/n64/InputAutoCfg.ini .

Note, that at least Raspberry Pi 2 needed for a good N64 performance. Also beware, that the performance gets worse with the HD screen resolution. For the best experience don’t mind using low resolution. For example, for RetroPie 4.0 the best resolution would be 320×240 px.

Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS (where the “DS” is “dual screen”) is a handheld portable video gaming console released by Nintendo in 2004. The main feature of this console was the two LCD screens, one of which was a touchscreen. Also, it had a built-in microphone and a wireless connection. It is a unique application with a bunch of frontends to provide users with a simple interface. Emulators : lr-desmume and DraStic. The ROMs extensions : .nds and .zip format. The ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nds . The controls directories : for lr-desmume – opt/retropie/configs/nds/retroarch.cfg and for DraStic – /opt/retropie/configs/nds/drastic/system .

Note, that the DraStic is a beta software, though it runs very good, unlike lr-desmume, which is very laggy even when used on an overclocked RPi 2/3.

PlayStation or PS1 or PSX

Sony PlayStation came to the market as the 5th generation CD-based game console and was released by Sony in 1994. Besides playing games, PS also could playback audio CDs and some models even could play Video CDs. Was one of the best selling computer entertainment platforms. Special emulators : lr-pcsx-rearmed, lr-beetle-psx and pcsx-rearmed. ROMs : .cue, .cbn, .img, .iso, .m3u, .mdf, .pbp, .toc, .z and .znx The ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nds . Controllers configuration : for lr-desmume – /opt/retropie/configs/psx/pcsx.cfg and for other two – /opt/retropie/configs/psx/retroarch.cfg .

The BIOS file “SCPH1001.BIN” is needed. You should place it in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS directory.

PlayStation 2 or PS2

PS2 was a successor of PSX (PS1) and the 7th generation gaming console. It was released in 2000 and was the best selling entertainment system of all time with over 155 million units sold worldwide. Besides gaming, it also played the audio and video CDs, DVDs, and had the Internet connection. Emulator : only PCSX2. ROMs : .iso, .img, .bin, .mdf, .z, .z2, .bz2, .dump, .cso, .ima and .gz. The ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ps2 . Controllers configuration : can be done via Retropie GUI on the first run.

Plasystation 2 BIOS file is needed for the emulator to function. Load it to /home/pi/.config/PCSX2/bios/ .

Wii

Wii was released by Nintendo in 2006. The most modern console available in Retropie. Was the 7th generation gaming console to compete with Xbox 360 and PS3. Was the first device with a pointing remote controller that could detect movement in 3D. Emulator : dolphin. ROMs extension : only .iso. ROMs directory : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/wii . Controllers configuration : //opt/retropie/configs/wii/Config .

NOTE! Can’t be ported to Raspberry Pi (or other ARM) and although the ARM community discusses the opportunities on forums, the solution is still unreachable due to hardware performance limitations. (Introduced only for familiarization)

MAME Arcade emulators

MAME or Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is the app to emulate arcade machine games. It doesn’t emulate a console, but different arcade machines. Consequently, MAME represents thousands of retro games, rather very old, released by different manufacturers, which used to deliver them with their own unique arcade machines. Emulators list : mame4all-pi, lr-mame2000, lr-mame2003, lr-mame2010, lr-mame2014, lr-mame2016, AdvanceMAME 0.94, AdvanceMAME 1.4, AdvanceMAME 3. The ROMs : all use .zip format.

ROMs locations : The ROMs are stored in the shared folders, which means they are used by more than one emulator. You can find these folders by names, which have the RetroPie/roms/ in the beginning of the directory and finishes with: /arcade , /mame-libretro , /fba and /neogeo (for example, RetroPie/roms/neogeo ). Thus, you need to specify the arcade emulator version which matches your ROMs.

The things are a more complicated with MAME emulators contorls. Different emulators belong to different directories where you can find the controls configuration files to modify:

• for mame4all-pi the path is /opt/retropie/configs/mame-mame4all/cfg/default.cfg
• for lr-mame2000 – /opt/retropie/configs/lr-mame2000/retroarch.cfg
• for lr-mame2003, lr-mame2010, lr-mame2014 and lr-mame2016 – /opt/retropie/configs/mame-libretro/retroarch.cfg
• for AdvanceMAME 0.94, AdvanceMAME 1.4 and AdvanceMAME 3 – /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame

FBA Arcade emulators

FBA stands for FinalBurn Alpha that is a Multiple Arcade Emulator just like MAME is, but supports only Konami, NeoGeo, Cave and Capcom games. Emulators : lr-fbalpha, lr-fbalpha2012 and PiFBA ROM files : .7z .zip, .zip ROMs directories : like MAME, FBA uses 5 shared folders – /arcade , /mame-libretro , /fba and /neogeo (with RetroPie/roms/ as the start of the path, e.g. RetroPie/roms/neogeo ). Specification of the emulator is needed!

Different emulators have different controls configuration files directories:

• for lr-fbalpha and lr-fbalpha2012: /opt/retropie/configs/fba/retroarch.cfg
• for PiFBA: /opt/retropie/emulators/pifba/fba2x.cfg

Neo Geo

Neo Geo is a cartridge-based arcade emulator, which brought the arcade machine fun at users homes. Released by SNK in 1990. So, it is emulated with one unique emulator. Also, the NeoGeo games can be played via FBA emulators. Emulators list : GnGeo-Pi, lr-fbalpha, lr-fbalpha2012 and PiFBA. The ROMs : .7z.zip and .zip. ROMs locations : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/neogeo

The controllers can be configured in /opt/retropie/configs/neogeo/gngeorc directory for GnGeo-Pi emulator. For FBA emulators controls configuration, see the FBA emulator part.

Gamecube

Gamecube is a 6th generation gaming console, released by Nintendo in 2001 to compete with PlayStation and XBOX. It was the first Nintendo’s console which used the optical disks, supported online gaming and could connect to GBA to use it as a second screen and controller. Emulator : dolphin. The ROMs : .iso ROMs location : /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gc

As the Gamecube can be played only via the Dolphin emulator, unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to run it on Raspberry Pi or any other ARM. It will launch but will be unbearably slow.

Dolphin

Dolphin is an emulator for just two consoles: GameCube and Wii. It’s a special emulator to talk about. The matter is that it is included in Retropie, but the Linux version only. Also, it’s possible to install this emulator on Raspberry Pi, but its performance is close to unplayable. There are quite a lot of people who have tried to do that and discussing their experience on forums and social media. And all of those who have ever tried to launch the Dolphin emulator on Raspbian say, that it’s extremely laggy and slow. Of course, the reason for it is in the low performance of the Raspberry Pi (as well as many other ARM) hardware. And even if you overclock your RPi, or will use the hardware graphics acceleration (which is supported by ExaGear) you won’t receive the desirable quality.

The ROMs extensions : the ISO disk images are used. The ISO ripping is carried out by the user and may require additional apps (like Rawdump, Friidump or CleanRip). Also, due to file formats sizes the GameCube and Wii disks have, splitting some games into several ISO files and reassembling them inside the emulator is a widely used practice.

DOSBox

DOSBox is an emulator of DOS operating system for retro gamers to enjoy very old DOS PC games. DOSBox uses SDL-library and emulates CPU 286/386; FileSystem, such as XMS and EMS; graphics: VESA, CGA, EGA, VGA, Tandy and Hercules; Gravis and SoundBlaster Ultra Sound. Officially released in 2010, it had been unofficially being used since 2002. Operating systems : compatibility with Raspberry Pi is provided with RISC OS, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo Linux and Debian operating system packages. Currently, it’s also integrated into Retropie. The ROMs extensions : use specific image files that can be downloaded from a special GOG website. The ROMs directory : need to be placed in a specific directory, different from the “dosbox” folder. So, if you created “dosbox” folder in home/Pi/Retropie directory, so the ROMs should be kept in the same directory, but in a different folder, for instance, “DOS-GAMES” folder.

So, every time you install and start a game, you should download it in that folder and use the “mount c ~*your game folder path ” command to connect the game ROM to the DOSBox emulator.

In general, this kind of an emulator is very simple and user-friendly. Easy to install and easy to set up and configure the controllers. All the process are guided by the clear prompts.

ExaGear

I have already mentioned the ExaGear Desktop software is a retro gaming emulation system to play old and medium age x86 PC games on ARM devices. Here, I’d like to uncover one more feature od ExagEar – it can be loaded to Retropie as an additional emulator. The main convenience is that it becomes possible to run PC games right from the Retropie GUI. So, we can truthfully say, that Retopie is extended to PC playing in addition to consoles. The feature was released in 2017.

Emulator : ExaGear

The ROMs : .exe and specific files from the GOG website.

ROMs location : No specific folders needed. You can download everything right into /home/pi/RetroPie

Raspberry Pi Gaming emulator

A detailed guide on how to make your Raspberry Pi a powerful gaming emulator and run any iconic and nostalgic PC games on Raspbian (or any other ARM).

ExaGear is registered trademark of Eltechs, Inc. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.