The RetroPie is fairly straightforward to use, but these instruction may help if any problems
are encountered.
Wiring:
Plug in the HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the RetroPie, and connect the other end
to an HDMI port on your TV.
Plug in the controllers to the Left Top and Bottom USB ports on the RetroPie
Plug the USB AC adapter into a wall outlet, plug the USB cord Type A (rectangular)
end into the AC adapter.
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 RetroPie.
o If nothing happens, toggle the button 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; when
it isn't working the red may be on but not green.
Before Games are Loaded:
If things are going correctly, when the micro USB cord is plugged in 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 'Emulation Station' splash
screen, and finally the RetroPie main interface.
o Make sure to press the analog button on the controller to enable the analog
joysticks
o You may be prompted to configure the controller. Follow on-screen prompts to
configure the buttons.
Minecraft and Kodi are listed under the ‘Ports’ heading.
o Kodi can be controlled by the gamepad or a USB mouse.
o Minecraft requires 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)
Insert the thumb drive into any free USB port on the RetroPie while the RetroPie is
powered on and 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 RetroPie creates folders within the ‘retropie’ folder for roms,
configs and BIOS. The ‘roms’ folder has subfolders for each game system emulator.
This process takes a couple minutes.
Procure ROMs (game files are called ROMs) for the games you want to play.
o If the games are in .zip, .rar or any other compressed form, 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
Once ROMs are loaded on the thumb drive, plug the thumb drive back into the
RetroPie 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. The
time this takes depends on how many files you are transferring.
Reboot the RetroPie. 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 ‘reboot’/’shutdown the system’
o Confirm that you want to reboot/shutdown
o If shutting down, you may now unplug the micro USB cable. Plug it back in
when you want to start up again.
Upon returning to the RetroPie main interface screen you will now see additional
options besides ‘Ports’ 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 'A' button.
You will find a list of games you had on the thumb drive. Select the game you want
to play by pressing the ‘A’ 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 are 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.
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.
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