This is perfectly normal and will take a few minutes. The Raspberry Pi will go through a couple of reboots as it installs itself and reconfigures the file system. The next step is to install the SD Card into the Raspberry Pi, plug in the HDMI and power and boot it up. This is required for the software to have access to format a file system. To run Win32 Disk Imager, right-click the executable (after you unzip it) and select Run As Administrator. Grab a copy from their website and install it on your Windows PC. My favorite tool for imaging any Raspberry Pi image on Windows is Win32 Disk Imager. Grab a copy from their website and install it on your Mac. My favorite tool for imaging any Raspberry Pi image using MacOS (OSX) is Apple Pi Baker. Using a MacOS (OSX) to Create a RetroPie Image Install the Image onto the SD Cardĭepending on your OS, you’ll need to use a different imager to image the card, I’ll talk about the two most common. Do not format the card using Windows! The SD Formatter was created specifically for memory cards using the SD/SDHC/SDXC standards and will give you higher performance from your card that the OS format utility will. Install it on your system and use it to format the SD card. Next, grab a copy of the SD Card Formatter for Mac or Windows, depending on your platform. Format the SD Card with SD Card Formatter Drop a copy on your PC and unzip the file somewhere. Head over to the RetroPie website and grab a copy of the latest image. Just follow along and we’ll make this as easy as possible. There are a few steps required to get RetroPie onto your Rasbperry Pi. If you don’t already have the items for this project, here’s a handy list! I’ve even considered the possibility of lighting the case on the inside to make it glow. It’s awesome to see the circuitry of the Pi through the case. I really like the clear case as shown in the photo to the right. You can also buy the CanaKits on They qualify for Prime Same Day delivery in many areas for the same price as CanaKit’s site, which is a bonus for some of us. Regardless, it is the simplest solution available for most gamers. In other cases a little tinkering may be required. In many builds, you’ll just load Retropie on your SD Card and be playing games in a few minutes. There is little to no configuration needed, depending on how complex of a system you are looking to build. In addition RetroPie comes completely configured on an SD Card image that you simply download from the RetroPie website. RetroPie has built in emulators for MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), Commodore 64, NES, Atari, Amiga, Apple II, PlayStation and many, many, more. RetroPie along with Emulation Station are the front ends that connect all of the emulators for each system into one clean finished product. If something goes wrong, just pop the original back in and you’re back in business. A big pro is that you can change images in the Pi and test new configurations by simply putting in a new card, or a copy of a card, without making any changes to your normal card. With an arcade cabinet it shouldn’t be an issue since we’re not doing much writing to the card. SD Cards can be slow, and prone to corrupting under heavy usage. You can certainly plug in a USB hard drive if you needed one, but the system is designed to operate without one. The entire computer is based on an SD card. The Raspberry Pi does not use a hard drive. Again, not necessary, but opens neat possibilities that would require additional hardware with a PC. If your character dies it could flash the marquee lights. If you were emulating a race-car game, the GPIO could fire the shaker motor in the seat. The GPIO could control a coin mech for example. ![]() They’re not required for arcade machines, but that can be used in certain situations. You can connect, relays, motors, switched, LEDs, and all kinds of other sensors to these pins. These pins allow the Raspberry Pi to control the physical world and take input from it. The Raspberry Pi has very cool 32 pin header on it called GPIO. The combination of RetroPie with the Raspberry Pi is a dream for many retro gamers. The last thing, the gooey filling so to speak, is RetroPie, the emulation system that runs the arcade. It has wired and wireless networking, 4 USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, speaker port, SD Card slot, camera connector, touch screen connector, and lastly, GPIO! It runs on a variant of Debian Linux called Raspbian. The Pi is a full blown computer, running on an ARM chip similar two what modern smart phones and devices use. It’s an incredible device that is incredibly affordable. The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer that was created for the education community. Download the Arcade Cabinet Plans Here! Retropie and the Raspberry Pi
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