The Retro Foot/Pie Retro is fairly straightforward to use, but these instruction may help if any
problems are encountered.
Wiring:
This order matters. When the Retro Foot is supplied power it attempts to determine where to
send the video signal. If the HDMI cable is not plugged in with TV on it may assume it is
supposed to be working in ‘headless’ (no display) mode.
Plug in the HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the Retro Foot/Pie Retro, and connect the
other end to an HDMI port on your TV.
Plug the USB AC adapter into a wall outlet.
Turn on the TV, tuned to the HDMI input you plugged the HDMI cable into and plug in
the micro USB (small, trapezoidal) end of the USB cord into the micro USB port on the
Retro Foot/Pie Retro.
o If nothing happens, toggle the switch on the power cord.
o When plugged in you can see a couple LEDs shining through the vent on the side.
When it is working right the red and green will both be illuminated or flickering;
when it isn't working the red may be on but not green.
Before Games are Loaded:
If things are going correctly, when powered on four raspberries will be displayed in the
upper left corner of the screen, followed by some computer script, a 'Retropie' splash
screen, a bit more script, an 'EmulationStation' splash screen, and finally the RetroPie
main interface.
o Press the P3 button on the controller. The lights will flash for a few seconds, then
the first light will illuminate for the first controller synced, the second if another
controller has already been synced.
o If the controllers do not sync, connect the mini USB cord between the controller
and Retro Foot/Pie Retro. After a moment the controller will vibrate continuously
to indicate that it has interfaced with the Retro Foot/Pie Retro and can now sync
with it.
o You may be prompted to configure the controller. Follow on-screen prompts to
configure the buttons.
Pixel desktop environment, Minecraft and Kodi are listed under the ‘Ports’ heading.
o Kodi can be controlled by the gamepad or a USB mouse.
o Minecraft and Pixel require USB keyboard and mouse.
Loading Games:
You will need a USB thumb drive formatted in FAT 32 file system.
Create a folder named retropie at the highest directory level of the thumb drive (i.e. if
you are using a windows computer the folder will be x:\retropie where ‘x’ is whichever
drive letter the thumb drive is assigned). It doesn’t matter if there are other files on the
thumb drive; the loading script is only looking for a folder name retropie and will ignore
anything else
Insert the thumb drive into any free USB port on the Retro Foot/Pie Retro, then power it
on and wait until the main RetroPie interface screen is displayed.
Wait a moment (many thumb drives have a light that blinks while file transfers are active,
other thumb drives have a light the pulses when it is inserted, but blinks rapidly while
actively transferring files; if equipped, wait until the light is no longer blinking) while the
Retro Foot/Pie Retro creates folders within the retropie folder for roms, configs and
BIOS. The roms folder has subfolders for each game system emulator.
Legally procure ROMs (game files are called ROMs) for the games you want to play.
o If the legally obtained ROMs are in .zip, .rar or any other compressed form for
some reason, extract the ROM files using your favorite file compression
application
o As example, ROMs for the Nintendo Entertainment System have file extension
.nes
Copy the ROMs into the subfolder for the system they are played with (i.e. games played
on the Nintendo Entertainment System go in the folder retropie\roms\nes on the thumb
drive. Visit https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Supported-Systems for info
on the file extension and folder names for other systems.
Once legally obtained ROMs are loaded on the thumb drive, plug the thumb drive back
into the Retro Foot/Pie Retro while it is powered on and the main RetroPie interface is
displayed.
Wait a little while for the files to transfer. Again, if there is a light on the thumb drive
that indicates file transfers are active you are waiting for the indication to stop. This
process takes a couple minutes, the time it takes depends on how many files you are
transferring.
Reboot the Retro Foot/Pie Retro. To minimize chance of corrupting the SD card image,
when rebooting/shutting down:
o From the main interface open the menu by pressing start
o Select quit
o Select shutdown the system
o Confirm that you want to reboot/shutdown
o If shutting down, you may now unplug the micro USB cable, or toggle the power
switch.
Upon returning to the RetroPie main interface screen you will now see the systems that
have ROMs loaded as additional options besides ‘Ports’ and when scrolling left or right
from the ‘RetroPie’ option.
Once ROMs are loaded:
On the main interface you can use either USB controller to select the emulator for
whichever system you want to use by pressing left or right on the controller 'D' pad, and
pushing the ◯ button.
You will find a list of games you had on the thumb drive. Select the game you want to
play by pressing the ◯ button.
If you get tired of one game while playing you can press start and select at the same time
to exit from that game.
If you would like to download box art and game summaries you can try using one of the
scrapers from the options menu. You will need to configure wifi or plug in a LAN
connection. The scraping process is imperfect and can be tedious.
Instructions for enabling additional functionality (wifi, for example) are available at
https://github.com/retropie/
Remedial Troubleshooting:
Have you tried turning it off and back on?
If only the red LED illuminates when powering on the system, make sure the SD card is
well seated and that the HDMI cable is plugged in as far as it will go.
If subfolders don’t appear in the retropie folder or ROMs don’t load: Check that the
thumb drive is formatted in FAT32 file structure. Instructions for checking can be found
at https://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/support-info.pl?info_id=779. IF YOU NEED TO
REFORMAT, AND THERE ARE FILES ON THE DRIVE YOU DON'T WANT TO
LOSE, SAVE THEM ELSEWHERE BEFORE FORMATTING!
If not all ROMs loaded: You may have rebooted before all ROMs were transferred, or
you may be out of storage space.
If the controller won’t pair and the lights don’t flash when the cord is removed the
controller needs to charge.
Advanced Troubleshooting:
A separate computer able to read and write to a micro SD card (whether with an SD card adapter
or USB adapter doesn’t matter) and a USB keyboard are needed for advanced troubleshooting
steps. The Retro Foot needs to have an internet connection (whether via Ethernet or wifi doesn’t
matter).
Read and understand https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/First-Installation, but
don’t follow the steps until you’ve read the step below.
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU NEED TO REIMAGE YOUR SD CARD, PLEASE
CONTACT ME FIRST. I can provide a preconfigured image rather than the base image
found at retropie.org.uk referenced in the link, which will spare the effort of
reconfiguring controller drivers, and reloading the extras (Kodi, etc). Follow the
instructions in the First-Installation page above, substituting the image provided for the
one they refer to.
If you’ve gone ahead and reimaged your SD card using the base image downloaded from
retropie.org.uk (or updated from the retropie setup menu), you’ll find your controllers no
longer pair. To reload the driver perform the following:
o Configure a wired controller or keyboard so that you can navigate in the main
interface. For the keyboard, at minimum you need direction arrows and A, B and
Start buttons configured. Suggested configuration is mapping spacebar to Start,
Enter to A, Esc to B, and direction arrows to their respective directions.
o Select the Retropie option from the main interface and press whatever you’ve
mapped to the A button
o Select the Retropie Config option and press whatever you’ve mapped to the A
button
o A screen with blue background appears. Use the keyboard up/down arrows for the
following:
Select Manage Packages and press Enter
Select Manage Driver Packages and press Enter
Select PS3 Controller and press Enter
Select Install from Binary and press Enter
Wait for installation to complete
Select Configuration Options and press Enter
Select Install Clone Support Shanwan and press Enter
Wait for the installation to complete. A lot of computer script will scroll by
and the menu with the blue background will reappear when finished.
(The option Pair Clone Support Shanwan appears but need not be
selected, as it only provides instructions for pairing)
o Use the left/right directions arrows to alternatively select options back or cancel,
pressing Enter for each until you have returned to the first blue background
screen. Select Perform Reboot and press Enter, then select yes and press Enter
o When the device has booted, plug in the first controller you want to pair.
It will start vibrating, unplug it and it will attempt to pair.
If it doesn’t pair on the first try, repeat.
If it doesn’t pair after several tries,
Return to the Configuration Options screen in Retropie Setup
Select Uninstall Driver and press Enter
When uninstallation is complete, select Install Driver, press Enter
Wait for installation to complete.
Again select Install Clone Support Shanwan and press Enter. Exit
and reboot as before and try pairing as before.
It will work eventually.
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