I was a passionate gamer during my teenage years, and I still play games from time to time. Sometimes I remember some random game from my childhood, and I immediately want to play it, but it can be pretty hard for the following reasons:
- It’s not always easy to find and install an emulator.
- Console games don’t work very well with keyboard and a mouse, and I don’t even have an always available mouse.
Game console manufacturers started to recognize all that nostalgic demand, and now it’s possible to buy a retro console from a company such as Nintendo, and it will arrive bundled with a few cool games from the past. The problem is: you have to buy a retro version of every console that you want to play and those consoles might be ancient, but they aren’t cheap. Personally, I just don’t want more electronics nearby my TV and I don’t like the friction of switching between different game consoles.
It turns out, it’s easy to convert your Raspberry Pi into a meta-console that can emulate dozens of retro consoles, including NES, Sega Mega Drive, Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast. You can grab an SD card, download an image from the RetroPie website and you’re good to go. It also understands many modern game controllers, and I had no issues using it with my PS4 DualShock gear.