Back in the 1980s and 1990s console games were king. Not so much for the graphic quality, but because there was no competition. There was no mobile phones and Internet had limited use in scientists lab and military ships.
If you want to know what if felt like when your dad used to play these old goodies, try this awesome emulator OS for the Raspberry Pi 2: RetroPie.
Setting it up
You need your standard Pi setup which includes adapter, HDMI monitor cable, Ethernet cable to the net connect to get updates and upgrades, a keyboard and a mouse. Depending on what you have, you can also install game controllers such as XBOX360 or SNES gamepad. These goodies can be connected via a receiver, or use a USB converter.
Two ways you can have RetroPie installed: Use the Pre-built image or Install on existing Rasbpian.
Option 1: Pre-built Image
Prepare a blank Micro SD card, download the RetroPie image, and copy it across from the official project web site:
http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/retropie-downloads/retropie-sd-card-image-for-raspberry-pi-2/
Once you got the image extracted in the SD card, insert the card into your Pi, boot it up, and then run the following commands from the command line:
sudo raspi-config
Do all your basic Raspberry Pi setup, and reboot.
Option 2: Install on existing Raspbian
Update and install git:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git dialog
Clone the git:
git clone git://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup.git
Set up and install:
cd RetroPie-Setup
chmod +x retropie_setup.sh
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
From the screen, select: Binary-based installation. This may take a while, because it needs to download all the required libraries, and install it on your OS.
Adding Game ROMS
The easiest way to copy a game ROM is to download them to your PC and then copy it directly to its respective console.
For example, if you happened to find Super Mario Bros for SNES, you should copy the file to the following folder:
~/RetroPie/roms/SNES
Another way is to use a USB stick, copy the files into USB stick, load them into the Pi and then run a file manager to copy files across.
Supported file formats for the SNES are .smc .sfc .fig .swc
Using XBOX360 controllers
There are many controllers that are supported by the system, however the dying XBOX360 is still quite recent for many gamers these days. Rather than throwing the controllers in the bin, you could give them a fresh life for RetroPie. For wireless controllers, you need to obtain a signal receiver specific for XBOX360 controllers.
Follow the following instruction to set up: www.handmadepixels.co.uk/blog/raspberrypi/using-an-xbox-360-controller-on-retropie/
Once all the controllers are set. Boot into RetroPie, it will ask you to configure the controllers. Just follow the screen instruction to map out the buttons.
GAME ON!
Once everything works, you can select a console emulator like SNES where Super Mario Bros is waiting for you to be played.
Reference
http://emulationstation.org/gettingstarted.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Installing-RetroPieEmulationStation-onto-Raspberry/
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