Tuesday, April 18, 2017

How To Build A Raspberry Retro Pie Gaming Set

By Walter Hall


Since the invention of the computer, tech entrepreneurs from all over the world have designed and sold tons of models. While most computers in the market are widely used in commercial and corporate circles, there is only one model that has managed to hit the mark for computer hobbyists. The Raspberry Pi computer gives you the power to learn more by tweaking it to perform in whichever manner you desire. If you have always desired to relive the good old days of computer arcade games, here is a guide to turning your device into a Raspberry Retro Pie gaming set.

First and foremost, you must have every required piece of hardware. The most obvious one is a Raspberry Pi. New ones go for about thirty five bucks. With your computer ready, activate its network interface so you can link it to the internet when necessary.

Old models come without preconfigured wireless network interfaces. You must purchase the network adapter and install it personally. In a way, this will help you build on your hardware skills besides enhancing your knowledge on computers. In addition, buy a plastic case to cover the integrated circuit with. 50 dollars should be sufficient to cover the cost of all the aforementioned hardware.

Once through with assembling the hardware, start working on the software. Using a separate Windows computer, download Retro Pie as a software image. All Raspberry Pi machines lack in built hard drives.

For the image to run on your new machine, a micro SD card will be necessary. The downloaded image has many preinstalled packages that will help you run all the vintage games you like. Before clicking the download button, choose a version that has been tested to work with your computer model.

Next, you ought to set your SD card format to function on your computer. In this case, the best option is the FAT32 formatting option. The easiest way to do this is on a Windows computer. Once formatted, do not unplug the card from the Windows machine.

This is because you will still use it to do the image installation. With the SD card still plugged in, download a disk imager from the web to enable you make the SD card bootable. Once downloaded, follow the installation prompts and select the SD card as the destination on which to place the image you had downloaded earlier.

With the installation over, remove the card from its port and slot it into your Pi. Get all the peripherals required for gaming and plug them in their respective ports. Upon restarting the machine, a Retro Pie interface will pop up from where you can select the games you want. Just follow the instructions that appear for easy usage.

Do not forget that many vintage games are guarded by copyright laws. However, the image has got preinstalled games for users to try. During the set up, choose the controls that you will use. It could be a keyboard or gamepad.




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