The Raspberry Pi has become a device with which we can do anything that comes to mind, from organizing our home automation, to using it as a movie server, to turning it into a retro console with which to enjoy old games. If you want to turn a Raspberry into a retro console, the best solution today is to use RetroPie.
However, depending on whether we want to use the Raspberry Pi for something else or just to enjoy games through emulators, we have two options when installing it: as an application or as an operating system.
If we install it as an application, we can continue to use the Raspberry Pi however we want. However, if we install it as an operating system, we will not be able to give this device another use. Regardless of which method you want to use, here’s how to install RetroPie on a Raspberry.
What do we need
In addition to the Raspberry Pi, we are also going to need a microSD memory card with at least 8 GB of space, a power supply, an HDMI cable to connect it to the television or a monitor, an ethernet cable if we want the connection to be more keyboard, a joystick, and a keyboard and mouse.
Install RetroPie as operating system
Although RetroPie isn’t exactly an operating system, it is a stripped-down version of Raspberry Pi OS (previously known as Rasbian) that includes everything you need to play old games. If we want to use the Raspberry Pi only as a retro console, the first thing we have to do is visit the official Retropie website and download the version that adapts to the model where we want to use it.
RetroPie is available for
- Raspberry Pi 1/Zero
- Raspberry Pi 2/3/Zero 2W
- Raspberry Pi 4/400
Next, we must unzip the file in .gz format to access the image that allows us to enjoy RetroPie as an operating system and that includes everything necessary to enjoy the roms of our favorite games.
To decompress this file, from Windows we can use Winrar. Once we have unzipped the file, we are going to use the Rufus application, an application that allows us to convert an image into a bootable drive . We can download Rufus from its website or use any application that allows us to unzip an image to a memory card or USB.
In this case, we are going to use Rufus, for one of the best-known applications of this type and that offers the best results. First of all, we open the application with administrator permissions. We insert the microSD card into the device so that the application automatically recognizes it and selects it as the installation destination. This must be at least 8 GB. We must bear in mind that the card will be formatted to create a boot partition for RetroPie, so we will lose all the content stored inside it.
In Boot Choice, we select Disk or ISO image and then click Select to select the .img image that includes the version of RetroPie that we have downloaded and unzipped.
Finally, click on Start and wait for the process to finish. Once it has finished, we extract the SD card from the equipment and insert it into the Raspberry Pi. From this moment on, every time we use that memory card, the Raspberry can only be used as a retro console . If we take into account the current price of memory cards, we can use different memory cards so as not to limit the operation of the Raspberry Pi to a retro console and expand its use as a multimedia center, a device for making backup copies, controlling the home automation and more.
If we don’t want to limit the use of the Raspberry Pi, we can install RetroPie only as an application on the Raspberry Pi OS. In this way, we will be able to expand the use of this small and versatile device for other purposes.
Use RetroPie as an application on a Raspberry
As I mentioned above, although RetroPie is not an operating system as such, it is an image that contains both the operating system (a very light version of Raspberry Pi OS) and all the necessary applications to enjoy it through emulators, which by the way are included, from old games, both video consoles and PC . In addition, it includes support for controllers, which will allow us to enjoy these games just as we did in arcades and on consoles years ago.
To install RetroPie as a standalone application on a Raspberry Pi, the first thing we need to do is check if the Raspberry Pi OS has any pending updates, and if so, have it installed automatically using the command
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Next, we install the necessary packages to install RetroPie using the command
sudo apt install git lsb-release
In the next step, we are going to download the latest available version of the Retropie script using this command
cd git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/Retropie-Setup.git
To run the latest version of the RetroPie script we will type the following on separate command lines.
cd RetroPie-Setup chmod +x retropie_setup.sh sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Next, a wizard will open where it will ask us what we want to do and where we are going to select Basic Install . The basic installation installs the core and core packages which are the same as found in the RetroPie image that we can use to use the Raspberry Pi solely as a game console.
Once the installation is finished, we select the Perform reboot option to restart the Raspberry. Once restarted, it’s time to copy the ROMs with which we want to play. The main directory where they are stored is ~/RetroPie/roms. If it’s not in that location, it will be in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms.
In the roms directory, we find, in turn, other directories with the name of the systems that are emulated: snes, megadrive, nes and others. In each of these directories we must copy the roms that correspond to each console.
If we want to run roms from a drive connected via USB or transfer roms from a USB drive, we must first install usbromservice from the command line.
Once we have copied the roms in the directory corresponding to each one, we run RetroPie with the emulationstation command from terminal.
Are emulators legal?
Video game emulators are applications that, as their name describes, emulate the operation of machines without using the original code , since otherwise they would be incurring a crime against intellectual property, so there is no legal problem to the time to emulate the operation of an arcade machine from yesteryear or a console on a PC. Another thing is the ROMS.
The download of the ROMs are not legal, however, depending on the developer of the game, in many cases the blood does not reach the river, especially when it comes to video games so old that there is no way to get them legally. Also, many of the studios behind the video games went out of business years ago without selling the intellectual property of their games to any company.
