Holyshit, RetroPie is one awesome Raspbian based distro. Regardless what people think of emulation, RetroPie is every retro gamers wet dream. I purchased Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and a Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad just for the sole purpose of installing and using RetroPie.
The install process was dead simple, practically just a matter of downloading the correct SD-card image for my Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, and dd the image onto the SD-card device. It simply can’t get any easier than this to get RetroPie up and running on your Raspberry Pie. I did however, had to do a few manual tweaks. First, I reset the default user name and password. Then, I had to manually expand the SD-card storage using
sudo raspi-config
Thirdly, my TV was not outputting any sound, so I had to comment the following line in /boot/config.txt
hdmi_drive=2.
Additionally, since I also purchased a wireless USB dongle, I had manually connect it to my wifi network. Luckily, RetroPie includes a GUI interface for connecting to your wifi network, instead of manually using wpa_supplicant.
Configuring my Raspberry Pi 2 Case Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad was also fairly straight forward process. Basically as you connect the Gamepad for the first time, EmulationStation will detect the device, spawn the initially game pad configuration. Which is just of matter of mapping the matching button types respectively. After the initial configuration, the game pad is all set and ready to use.
The EmulationStation interface, although not the prettiest. It is absolutely simple and straight forward to use. Their is practically no need to have a keyboard connected to the Raspberry Pi because the interface can be completely managed using the game pad controller. Uploading roms to RetroPie is just a matter of copying over files onto a specific directory, and restart EmulationStation. RetroPie even ships with pre-configured samba shares, so it’s easier for Windows users to upload rooms onto RetroPie.
Cons:
With the stock RetroPie install, you’re limited to just single player mode. If you want to have multiplayer support, you’ll have to purchase and configure an additional GPIO adapter.
Also, regarding the Raspberry Pi 2 itself, it’s network interface only being 100/mbs. My wifi usb drive has better throughput than having the Raspberry Pie wired.
Pros:
I don’t want to endorse piracy, but you can literally find entire NES/SNES, Game Boy (Color and Advance), and Sega game libraries on the interwebs, and have them all playable within your $30 Raspberry Pi2.
Setup:
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
Raspberry Pi 2 Case
Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad
Edimax EW-7811Un 150Mbps 11n Wi-Fi USB Adapter