As a child of the 80’s I have been a gamer since – well forever. That makes Retro Gaming a part of my very core!
I started off on a Commodore +4, then moved to a Commodore 64, then an Amiga 1200, in 1992 I got my first Windows based PC, a Pentium III – DX2 66MHz (with about 500Mb of HDD space) if I remember rightly.
From there I started building PCs and then I moved to Mac and I am still here. As the same time I was also playing with consoles. Of course I had a Gameboy, but I was more of a Sega fanboy, Mega Drive, Saturn, then I moved to Playstation, 1 -> 2 -> 3 and now 4.
Playstation was my system of choice but I still have had xBox, xBox 360, and currently xBox One.
The amount of games I had for each system was criminal, however what is more criminal is the fact that the majority of them got traded in. If only I was wise then I’d still have every one of them displayed in my games room, insetead I imagine they are long since in a land fill somewhere. Devastating!
Along the way I have also picked up a NES, SNES, N64, 2DS, Neo-Geo Pocket, a Master System, a Game Gear and an Atari Lynx along with a really nice Atari 2600 and a few other random systems I have picked up along the way.
I love how gaming has progressed – I love gaming. I’m still at on the PS4, and I have the XB1 for Microsoft exclusives – and Fifa, but I love retro gaming. So I have finally decided to try out some old skool memories using a Raspberry Pi.
After a few hardcore days of research I have taken the first actual step today and placed my order for the hardware. There are a few packs you can buy that have everything you need to get things started for about £55 – I however have become impatient. I blame Amazon Prime, I want it next day so when the pack I was considering didn’t have the Next Day option for Northern Ireland I decided to go and order bit by bit, a self build if you will.
So as I am effectivelywriting this live time I apologise for any mistakes – which I will correct as the Raspberry Pi rig comes to life but at this stage I have ordered :
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model 3
- Raspberry Pi Power Adapeter
- HDMI Cable
- 64Gb Micro SD Card (for retropie image)
- 128GB Micro SD Card (for retropie image 2)
- Raspberry Pi Heat Sink Set
- Official Raspberry Pi Case
One big item you will notice missing for a gaming rig is missing : a controller.
After reading an awful load of reviews on Amazon and the like it seems a bit hit and miss if you will get a decent controller or not. One company does seem to offer a quality product – 8bitdo – however I have opted to try things out with a PS4 controller – simply because I have a few so just saving a few pound coins. If I do decide to go for a ‘retro’ styled controller the 8bitdo will be the one I choose :
As far as setup goes that will be the next stage, hopefully tomorrow!
I have no intention of building my own retropie images, there are just so many options and I am coming to this party a little late, I have a lot to learn. I have found these two amazing resources though :
https://www.youtube.com/user/madlittlepixel
I will be opting for setups from Mad Little Pixel – so fingers crossed it all works as it should! Hopefully we will see tomorrow!
