There are numerous emulators available for the Raspberry Pi. Some of these are available through the App Store, others you need to download from a website and manually install, and then there are some which can be installed via Raspbian's package manager.
Emulators recreate how a game console works, but they don't emulate the games themselves. That requires the game data. When we refer to game files in this book, we are referring to the Read-Only Memory (ROM) that a video game's data is stored on. These can be cartridges, CDs and DVDs, floppy disks, and other types of media. Many are available as files you can download. Please be aware that copyright may still exist on these files and that not all are freely available.
Mednafen is a program that consists of multiple system emulators. It can emulate the Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan, Game Boy Color, and the TurboGrafx-16 with great performance.
Installing Mednafen from the terminal is easy. We will use apt-get
, which is the default package manager for Raspbian. The apt-get
command makes it easy to install and update common Linux utilities and programs.
Let's see how to use the apt-get
command:
sudo apt-get install mednafen
and press Enter.apt-get
command will now search the repositories for the application, download the package, and install it on your system. When it is completed, type mednafen
and press Enter. You will be greeted with text that explains how to use the program.startx
in the command prompt, and press Enter.mednafen /path/to/gamename
and press Enter, for example, mednafen /home/pi/homebrew.zip
.You are now ready to play games using Mednafen.
FCEUX is an emulator designed to run games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES is arguably the most popular and well known gaming system in video game history. Released in 1984, the NES introduced such popular titles as Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, MegaMan, and Metroid. Hundreds of games were produced for this 8-bit system, many of which can be played on the Raspberry Pi. The following steps will show you how to use FCEUX for running the game:
wget http://raspberrypigaming.com/files/fceux.zip
into your terminal.unzip fceux.zip
and press Enter. If you get the error saying unzip not found, type sudo apt-get -y install unzip
to install the unzip program.fceux
should now be in your directory. Run the emulator by typing ./fceux /path/to/game/rom
, for example, ./fceux /home/pi/smb.nes
.PiSNES is a port of the SNES9x project and is an emulator designed to run games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The SNES was released in 1991, and featured 16-bit graphics, which was incredible for its time. The games released on the SNES are still highly sought after; collectors and players all around the world still enjoy games such as Final Fantasy, Star Fox, MegaMan X, F-Zero, Super Mario World, and hundreds of other great games. What makes this emulation possible, is the fact that PiSNES takes advantage of the Raspberry Pi's graphics chip, and offloads much of the processing to that.
PiSNES is not available in the Pi Store or the repositories, so we must download it from the project home page. We will be using wget
to download the project files as follows:
mkdir pisnes
in a terminal.pisnes
directory with cd pisnes
.wget http://raspberrypigaming.com/files/pisnes.zip
. If that doesn't work, go to https://code.google.com/p/pisnes/ for the latest download.unzip pisnes.zip
.roms
directory../snes9x.gui
.MAME4ALL is a port of the MAME project for the Raspberry Pi. MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and as its name implies, it is capable of running a large number of arcade games.
MAME4ALL is not available in the Pi Store or the repositories, so we must download it from the project home page. We will be using wget
to download the project files as follows:
mkdir mame4all
in a terminal.mame4all
directory with cd mame4all
.wget http://raspberrypigaming.com/files/mame4all_pi.zip
. If that doesn't work, go to https://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/ for the latest download.unzip mame4all_pi.zip
.roms
directory../mame
.FinalBurn Alpha is a project designed to emulate many arcade games, most notably those that run on the Neo Geo, Capcom CPS-1, and CPS-2 platforms.
FinalBurn Alpha is not available in the Pi Store or the repositories, so we must download it from the project home page. We will be using wget
to download the project files.
mkdir fba
in a terminal.fba
directory with cd fba
.wget http://raspberrypigaming.com/files/fba.zip
. If that doesn't work, go to https://code.google.com/p/pifba/ for the latest download.unzip fba.zip
.roms
directory../fbacapex
.PCSX_ReARMed is a PlayStation emulator for the Raspberry Pi. As crazy as this seems, the Raspberry Pi can play PlayStation games! The reason for this is that the Raspberry Pi has a very powerful graphics chip that runs OpenGL ES code. PCSX_ReARMed has been written to take advantage of OpenGL ES, which gives us a great emulator.
PCSX_ReARMed is available for free on the Pi Store. Make use of the following steps to download it:
PCSX_Rearmed
.PicoDrive is an emulator that runs games made for the Sega Genesis (also known as the Mega Drive in Japan and Europe). The Genesis is a 16-bit gaming console that came out in 1989. It was known for its many great arcade ports, such as Altered Beast and Mortal Kombat, as well as a series that has spanned numerous releases and consoles, Sonic The Hedgehog. To download PicoDrive go through the following steps:
wget http://raspberrypigaming.com/files/picodrive.tgz
in your terminal.tar zxfv picrodrive.tgz
and press Enter. A long list of files will stream across the screen.picodrive
. Enter the directory by typing cd picodrive
../PicoDrive
. The PicoDrive menu should appear on your screen:Now, for the granddaddy of all gaming systems, the Atari 2600. It was released in 1977 and ushered in the video game craze. For the first time, popular arcade games could be brought home, new properties could be created, and a whole new market opened up. From arcade ports such as Pac Man and Donkey Kong to the original games such as Pitfall, and even infamous games such as E.T., the Atari 2600 has a very rich history of gaming. Stella is an emulator that aims to bring this console to the Raspberry Pi using the following steps:
sudo apt-get install stella
to install Stella on the console and press Enter.apt-get
should finish, and Stella will be installed.stella
and press Enter.Now that you have installed some emulators, you will want to know how to control the games. Here is a cheat sheet for the default keys in PiSNES:
PiSNES controls |
Keyboard |
---|---|
Up |
Up arrow |
Down |
Down arrow |
Left |
Left arrow |
Right |
Right arrow |
A |
D |
B |
C |
X |
S |
Y |
X |
Left Bumper |
A |
Right Bumper |
F |
Start |
Enter |
Select |
Tab |
Esc |
The following table is a cheat sheet for the default keys in FinalBurn Alpha:
FinalBurn Alpha controls |
Keyboard |
---|---|
Up |
Up arrow |
Down |
Down arrow |
Left |
Left arrow |
Right |
Right arrow |
Button 1 |
Ctrl |
Button 2 |
Alt |
Button 3 |
Space |
Button 4 |
Shift |
Button 5 |
Z |
Button 6 |
X |
Start |
Enter |
Coin |
Tab |
To quit |
Esc |
Because PiSNES and FinalBurn Alpha were ported to the Raspberry Pi by the same person, they share similar configuration files. Within their respective directories, you will find a configuration file that allows you to change the control scheme. PiSNES is called snes9x.cfg
, and FinalBurn Alpha is called fba2x.cfg
. The keyboard section uses numbers to represent each key. You can find them by reading the output of /usr/include/SDL/SDL_keysym.h
.
The following table is a cheat sheet for the default keys in MAME4ALL:
MAME4ALL Controls |
Keyboard |
---|---|
Up |
Up arrow |
Down |
Down arrow |
Left |
Left arrow |
Right |
Right arrow |
Button 1 |
Ctrl |
Button 2 |
Alt |
Button 3 |
Space |
Button 4 |
Shift |
Button 5 |
Z |
Button 6 |
X |
Start |
1 |
Coin |
5 |
To quit |
Esc |
To change the controls in MAME4ALL, press the Tab key to bring up the configuration menu. This will allow you to globally map the controls to your gamepad, keyboard, joystick, or individual games.
The PCSX_ReARMed controls can be seen and edited within the controls on the main screen.
PicoDrive controls can be edited from within the main menu.
The following table is a cheat sheet for the default keys in Stella:
Stella |
Keyboard |
---|---|
Up |
Up arrow |
Down |
Down arrow |
Left |
Left arrow |
Right |
Right arrow |
Reset |
F2 |
Select game type |
F1 |
Fire/Action |
Space or Ctrl |
Select game |
Enter |
To quit |
Esc |
To edit Stella's controls, highlight and select Options, and then click on Input Settings.
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