The following are a few common issues that you might face and how to resolve them:

EmulationStation, as well as other games, might require dependencies that have not been loaded during installation. libsdl1.2-dev, libboost-filesystem-dev, libfreeimage-dev, libfreetype6-dev, libsdl-mixer1.2-dev, and ttf-dejavu are common libraries that are used in a number of games that might not have been installed, or need to be updated.

Most of the reasons a Raspberry Pi will fail to boot or experience problems during use are because of an inadequate power supply. Many Micro-USB chargers are manufactured with minimal quality assurance, so if you do experience issues, the first thing to do would be to try a different brand of charger. Most branded cell phone chargers will properly power a Raspberry Pi.

If that doesn't fix the issue, the next step is to test out the SD card. A properly formatted SD card will have a small boot drive that is readable by Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. If you cannot see the boot drive or any files inside it, most likely your SD card hasn't been properly imaged.

The boot drive contains a text file named config.txt. This file stores all the configuration parameters and is read each time your Raspberry Pi powers on. Editing this file allows you to fine-tune your Raspberry Pi and can also help in resolving various issues that can crop up during use.

The Raspberry Pi, by default, runs at 700 MHz, but has the capability to be overclocked to a higher speed. Most Raspberry Pis have been noted as to be working fine at 900 MHz and some even higher than 1 GHz. Overclocking the CPU with raspi-config automatically throttles the speed as needed, so when not in use, it reduces power down to 700 MHz. Even with the throttle, overclocking can make your system unstable and can corrupt the SD card. If your system fails to boot after overclocking, holding down Shift will try to turn off the overclocking in software. If that does not work, you can edit the config.txt file and set arm_freq=700 to disable overclocking. If all else fails, you can re-image your SD card. All overclocking information is stored in config.txt, and re-imaging your card will reset it.

If you have trouble getting an image to appear on your TV through HDMI, the most common fix is to edit config.txt and set hdmi_safe=1. This changes and boosts the HDMI signal, so that it is more likely to sync with your TV. Another simple change is to make sure that the TV is on and connected before you power on the Raspberry Pi.

A few useful reference links: