RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4! Setup Guide to Get You Retro Gaming On Pretty Much Every Console Ever!

The number 1 request I KEEP getting is content on the Raspberry Pi! "Show a setup". "Do a Review". "Compare it to MiSTer FPGA"....well I heard you all...and this is the start of that. Because there is more than one way to get your retro gaming fix! Video game emulation on Raspberry Pi incoming!

Patreon Thanks : Seth Peterson, Tim Hugall, John Thompson, Paul Daniel, Porch, Jon Anderson, RayceARoni, Tyler Ohlew, Kuranghi, Jason Hixon, Sam Matthews, Alex Tessler, Jonathan Leung, Martin Donlon, Tom Van Deusen, Bob Maladroit, Steve Randall, Bagofsunchips, shotgunl, Andrew Bunch, K-2, Crassus0, Eric Walklet, J Z, Ivan Wennerholm, Mark and Adrien Sebbane!

I asked, you answered...and I try to listen :) Of all the requests for new content on the channel one of the most frequently asked for videos content on the Raspberry Pi. Well here you go...Raspberry Pi 4 content!

On this episode I will show the entire setup process to get your Raspberry Pi running RetroPie; all the hardware you need, all the software you need to get it running, how to add games, how to configure controls and most importantly...how to start enjoying retrogaming on it! Let's see what type of video game emulation this thing is capable of! Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, PC Engine, NES, etc etc etc!

Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!

VGE

[wizdude]

I can highly recommend the FLIRC case for the raspberry pi. It’s a passive aluminium heatsink case. No fan - totally silent. It’s awesome.

[wizdude]

I loaded up my Pi with Recalbox. I love the themes and layout. It fixes up some of the scaling issues as well by default. It’s very similar but adds a lot of nice things like a web console to edit files and check performance and temperature of the Pi. As mentioned previously, I have mine in a FLIRC case which I absolutely love. As I already have a MiSTer I use the Pi primarily for N64 and some Dreamcast as everything else in my opinion runs cleaner on the Pi. Recalbox allows you to overclock very easily in the menu. The Pi 4 even when overclocked is just a little too underpowered for N64 with some games showing small issues, but for most titles it works well enough. I plan to eventually setup an HP mini PC with recalbox to get some additional speed and performance. Thanks for the video and I look forward to the Pi vs MiSTer comparison videos 😊

[Myako]

Great video, and thanks for starting this series. 👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻💪🏻

I very much look forward to the rest. Particularly, I'd like to know how Mesen, and DraSTic perform here, which I don't think anyone else has done yet. So if you can, that works be awesome.

[matthewr]

Looking forward to seeing the comparison! I don't have a mister or a RetroPie. The Mister is obviously cooler and more exciting but also way more expensive. I bet if I did a blind challenge between the two I'd never be able to tell the difference. Still, I'm leaning towards getting a mister...

[VAsHachiRoku]

Just setup mine up last week and tested a few games. Looking for your next round of videos guides related to video settings and options. I noticed a few NES games on my 4K TV looked awful compared to the NES Mini I have.

[ArcadeCabNBud]

retropie is so fricken awesome, dont tell me bout no mister

[BenGarcia]

When someone in the community told you to "just get a raspberry pi" didn't mean you had to.

[bhzd]

Thanks for the video, and the quick game demos! Did you happen to try running any PS1 or N64 roms on the Pi 4? Curious to know how they run. Thanks!

[markderidder]

Loving my MiSTer which is powering my DIY arcade cabinet which houses a consumer CRT. And while I know great games are on the horizon for the MiSTer I am getting impatient :) So I am considering a Pi for things like MK, TMNT and KI. Now if I can house both the MiSTer and a Pi in my arcade and hook them up to my CRT with simple switching that would be killer. I feel like I saw Daniel Spies launch the MiSTer from a Pi front end. Is that possible? I need to go back and look.

[rkmartinez]

Can't wait for the Pi vs MiSTer comparison. Love RetroPie but feel it's underpowered for some games/systems. Can you do the same multicore setup with MiSTer or is it one system at a time?

[SiincereARC]

After the MiSTer improved the way it did the past two years, my RP4 has been collecting dust. If I can get a Hat for it that connects directly to my CRT using Component or S-Video, then you'll have my attention but that's assuming that N64 is a lot more optimized then it has been lately. For now I have a small desktop going to my CRT strictly for N64 and Arcade games that MiSTer doesn't have a core for yet (I have a Fenrir for my Saturn).

[vodkagobalsky]

By the way, HDMI audio only comes out of 1 of the ports of the 2 HDMI outs. I know this has tripped me up in the past thinking something is wrong with the audio when in reality, it was just plugged into the HDMI port that didn't contain audio.

[Sam-Lawry]

Now, if a img plug n play to use it on rasp4 with gpio jamma adaptor..
(Except if that’s easy to change the resolution setting on config.ex, I need 640x480p 60 hertz to use on Blast city arcade with Naomi..dreamcast..cave deathsmiles..cotton 2..maybe Terrordrome if possible..
Now I use a big pc hyperspin, but it’s big..I need a jammasd or usb connectors, with a rasp3 pi2 jamma crt 15khz evo (fine with old 2D mame) and a rasp4 31khz to play more ’modern’ games it will be perfect.
Now, I just use my rasp 4 with android img as tv mame box.

[sixtyfps]

Is this what you're using for arcade cores that aren't on MiSTer?

[bhzd]

Can using the power switch to turn the Pi on/off cause any data corruption to the USB/SD card?

[anthonyr.]

How does MAME on the RPi compare to MiSTer? Does the setup follow the same process?

[markh]

Are you going to use the Pi's onboard composite for the head-to-head with MiSTer on crt?

[NirnBootMod]

I need one for MT32-Pi but I am also considering one for MAME on CRT if possible.

[anthonyoliva]

My fan has a blue wire? Is that needed?

[gustos]

Who’s asking for raspberry pi!? Put’em up!