Introduction: Turn Your Raspberry Pi Into a Retro Arcade
The Raspberry Pi is an amazing miniature computer that is perfect for experimenting with personal projects, but sometimes the biggest challenge is choosing a project. With this easy to follow guide I will show you how to turn this little mini-computer into a retro arcade. You can relive the joys of early gaming (or experience them for the first time if you never have)! Your Pi will be able to play games from systems such as the Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis, and many more.
Estimated Time: 30-45 minutes
Supplies Needed:
- Raspberry Pi
- TV/Monitor (With HDMI or AV cables)
- SD card (minimum 4 GB)
- SD card slot on your computer
- USB keyboard and mouse (for setup)
- USB Game Controller
- Router
- And a few programs I will be showing you how to get
Step 1: Install Cyberduck
1. Go to cyberduck.io
2. Select the download for your system
3. When it is done downloading, run it to install
Step 2: Download Retro Pie
1. Go to blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/
2. In the top left corner click RetroPie Project with the little down arrow
3. Select Downloads from the drop menu
4. Choose your preferred download method (I recommend the torrent)
Step 3: Install Retro Pie to SD Card
1. Insert your SD card into your computer
2. Format the SD card
3. Extract Retro Pie to the SD card
- For Windows use Win32 Disk Imager
- For Mac use RPi-SD Card Builder
Step 4: Boot Into Retro Pie
1. Insert your SD card (that you set up with Retro Pie) into your Raspberry Pi
2. Make sure the following is connected
- Controller or Keyboard
- HDMI cable to monitor
3. Plug in the power cable to boot the Pi
4. On your first boot it will ask you to set up controls for moving through the menu
- Just follow the instructions on screen
- Note: This is only for the menu, we will have to set up controls for the emulators in the next step
Step 5: Turn on SSH
1. Press menu (you selected this during setup)
2. Select exit from the list
3. Type sudo raspi-config into console
4. Select Advanced Options
5. Scroll down and select A4 SSH
6. Enable SSH
7. Select Finish to return to command line
Step 6: Connect to Network
1. Now that you are in command line type "startx" and press enter
- This will load the GUI environment
2. In the bottom-left corner click to open the menu
3. Go to Internet->WPA GUI
4. Click scan to scan for your network
5. Select your network and click connect
6. Once you are connected click the x in the bottom-right corner to log-out back to command line
Step 7: Configure Controller
1. Type exactly what is inside the quotes into console
- "cd RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/installerdir/bin"
- Press Enter
- "./retroarch-joyconfig >> ~/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"
- Press Enter
2. Follow the on-screen prompts for which button to press
- If you get to a button that you do not have just press any button (we'll fix it in the next step)
Step 8: Fix the Missing Buttons
1. Type "ifconfig" and press Enter
2. Look for the line that starts with "inet addr:" write that address down
3. Open Cyberduck
4. Select open connection
5. From the drop-down select SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)
6. In server type the address you wrote down from step 2
- By default the Username is "pi" and the Password is "raspberry"
7. Once connect navigate to Retropie -> Configs -> all
8. Right-click select edit with default
9. At the end of the file locate "input_player1_l2_btn = " and erase everything from that to the end
10. Save and exit
Step 9: Transfer Roms
1. Open cyberduck
2. Connect to your pi (same as last step)
3. Navigate to RetroPie -> roms
4. You can now transfer any roms you have over to their corresponding folder
5. Repeat these steps for adding any roms in the future
Step 10: Enjoy Your Arcade!
Congratulations! You should now have a working arcade on your Raspberry Pi. Now all you have to do is plug your Pi into a TV/Monitor with your controller connected and it will boot into RetroPie. From there scroll left or right through the emulators and select the games you have uploaded.
