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RetroPie welcome screen on Raspberry Pi 3

6 months ago Computers, Development, Technology, Youtube

At WDS Camp 2016, Brad Williams brought his Raspberry Pi 3. Installed on it was a copy of RetroPie. I had heard about Raspberry Pi before. I wasn’t completely sold on the idea. Once, I almost won a Pi during a WordCamp event. After playing the original Super Mario Bros for hours on end, I decided to order one of my own. It took me a few months to fully break down and order a Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit by Canakit, through Amazon. I did a lot of research. Countless numbers of Google Searches and Youtube videos later, I pressed the purchased button. No Affiliate Links are present on this page. After I purchased the Raspberry Pi 3, I had to decide what I would install on it. That’s where RetroPie comes into play.

There are tons of awesome Raspberry Pi Projects on the internet. After seeing some of the things people were doing, I decided to order a few more. I plan on making a smart mirror next.

What You Will Need

Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit with Nintendo USB Controllers

Exactly what I bought from Amazon to get RetroPie installed on my Raspberry Pi 3

Before we get into the process of installing RetroPie on your Raspberry Pi 3, I thought it would be helpful to know all the parts you will need. Don’t worry, it’s just a few things. I wished I had a list like this before I clicked the purchase order button on Amazon. However, I did buy a set of Old School Nintendo USB Controllers for my RetroPie setup. If you don’t want to spend the extra money, you can use any controller with a USB attachment cable.

Your Playstation / Xbox controller will be just fine. In my opinion, I suggest using your PS3 Controller if you plan on playing games with many options in them. Mario Kart on Nintendo 64 needs to have more buttons. My Old School NES controllers work just fine. However, I can’t do some of the special moves. Like throwing Banana peels and jumping into turns.

Here’s all the stuff you need to get going:

See. I told you it’s a small list. However, I assumed the Micro SD Card came with the Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit. Sadly, it does not. It’s not a deal-breaker, though. You don’t have to get a 128gb card. I’m sure an 8GB will be just fine. I bought the 128gb Micro SD Card at my local BestBuy while it was on sale.

Tip: It’s always a good idea to find the best deal possible. Save that money son!

A few things to know before

After I spent hours searching Youtube and Google, I watched a number of Raspberry Pi 3 & RetroPie tutorials. After they all let me down, I finally figured out what I needed to do. Hence why, this article was written. I want to save you the time and headache I went through. Those videos were not a total let down, they did help me peice this tutorial together.

I should note that this tutorial is for Mac computers only. If you want something for Windows, I suggest finding another article.

This process is pretty simple and should take less than 20 minutes. Your mileage may vary. Your internet connection and processor speeds will determine the amount of time it will take you. Here’s my current Macbook Pro Setup at the time of this Raspberry Pi 3 tutorial.

Macbook Pro Details

My Current Macbook Pro Setup.

Installing RetroPie on Raspberry Pi 3 on a Mac

We’re going to start by assuming you already took your Raspberry Pi 3 out of the box and have it in the case. It’s pretty easy to set up. Put the heatsink’s on after the Raspberry Pi 3 is in the case. It will save you headaches down the road.

  1. Place Micro SD Card into the Card Reader
  2. Insert Card Reader into your Macbook Pro.
  3. Your Macbook Pro will now see the card. If not, try reinstalling the card in the slot.
  4. Click On Apple Icon in the top Task bar. Click on About This Mac.
  5. Open up the Systen Report. Take note of the BSD Name, under the Tanscend List. This is important. system report screenshot
  6. Format your SD Card to Fat-32. I used Apple Pie Baker. It’s free.
  7. Fire up Apple Pi Baker & select the Disk. /dev/disk2/ is the same as /dev/disk2s1/. Click Prep for NOOBS. Even though we’re not installing NOOBS, this will format the SD card to the right formatting. Apple Pie Baker For Raspberry Pi 3
  8. While Apple Pi Baker finishes, Download RetroPie for Raspberry Pie 3. Download should come in the .zip.gz file extenstion.
  9. Unzip RetroPie .zip.gz file to your Desktop. Or any other folder on your computer. This actually matters later on. I suggest keeping it on your Desktop for this tutorial. The finished unzipped file should end in the .img extenstion.
  10. Rename your .img file to something easy. Like retropie.img
  11. Start Disk Utility and Unmount SD Card. Do Not Eject. Just Unmount. Unmount Micro SD Card

    12. Using the command line on Mac

    Up to this point, we’ve just downloaded a file and unzipped it to our Deskotp. We’ve formatted the SD Card to Fat-32. Now, this is the most technical part of this tutorial. We’re going to open up the command line and execute a command to write the .img to the SD Card. Some of the Following Details are important to note down, and this is Case Sensitive.

  12. Open the Command Line Tool. I used Alfred to open up the application. You can do the same with the spotlight finder tool. I use iTerm for my command line work. Mac Terminal Tool
  13. Once the command line is open, copy the following command and paste it into the command line tool.
    sudo dd if=/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/retropie.img of=/dev/rYOURDISKNUMBER bs=1m

    14. Replace YourUserName with the name of the user you are logged into currently. The spelling of your Username is important. If you have a capital letter in the name, make sure it’s a capital when you place it in the command line tool.

    Mac User Folder View

    Replace YOURDISKNUMBER with the name of the BSD Name we took note of earlier. Again, the spelling is case sensitive.

    system report screenshot

    This is what my final command line code looks like.

    sudo dd if=/Users/RussellAaron/Desktop/retropie.img of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m

  14. Press Enter and let the computer do the work.
  15. Once Command line is done, you can go ahead and eject the Micro SD Card Reader. Fully Eject the card reader.

Congratulations

via GIPHY

You have just successfully written the RetroPie .img to the SD Card. We’re ready to now put the Micro SD Card into the Raspberry Pi 3 and turn it on. Connect a USB Keyboard and Controller to the Raspberry Pie 3 before you connect the power cord. Let the Setup Run. If you see a screen asking you to set up your connected controller, things went well. If you don’t. I’d start all over again. Leave a comment below if you were confused by any of this. I’m here to help.

I will be doing a follow-up post. The post will be something like “configuring RetroPie on your Raspberry Pie 3”. I’ll Update the post with a link soon.

Hopefully, you’re set up with RetroPie. There are many Youtube tutorials you can watch for now. Fast Forward to 18:00 minutes. You can see how this person configures the controllers.

Have fun and enjoy your RetroPie on Raspberry Pi 3. I know I have enjoyed it so far.

2 years ago Life, Technology, Youtube

SEACREST IN!

This is my youtube video with the most hits. Figure skating. Seriously. It’s not Nascar, Sleeping with Sirens, Pierce the Veil, A Day To Remember or Drag Racing. It’s Figure Skating. Don’t get me wrong. I love figure skating. I used to watch Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton take the ice during the Olympics and the stars on ice tour. I used to have posters of Kristi Yamaguchi on my wall as a young boy. I was just surprised to learn that Charlie White Meryl Davis Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto skating in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center would be my most viewed youtube video. Why am I surprised? It’s because I have videos of The Queen of England, Nascar’s Most Popular Driver For The Last 10 Years Dale Earnhardt JR, 6 Time Nascar Champ Jimmy Johnson and 4 Time Champ of Supercross Ryan Villopoto. I’ve got up close and personal video’ with these people. And Figure skating leads the charge as mostly viewed youtube video? Man I cant catch a break.

I go to several Nascar Races a year. I’m in the presence of more than 28,000 people gathered at the same time with at least one common interest. So you’d think that I’d have more hits with Nascar vs. Figure Skating. NOPE!

So how did this happen? Mostly because, by default, the Youtube settings on my mobile device were set to add videos to the wrong category. See, when you upload a video on Youtube, through your computer, you can edit and update almost every little thing possible that directly relates to the video. On a mobile phone / tablet, there are less and less options for you to edit on your Youtube video. So after discovering that I had uploaded all my nascar videos to the category of People/Blogs, I decided that I was going to correct this whole mess and get things going. I want to have videos on Youtube mostly because I come up with some funny ideas sometimes. I know how to blog and build blogs. SO I’ve got that covered. I just need a Youtube Following.

If you don’t know about The Cerrone Show, let me educate you a bit. I know this guy. Seriously. We used to work together. He’s a guy’s guy. He had 0 youtube followers and 0 blog subscriptions. He turned that into ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS! No Joke. He interviews entrepreneurs and people just like myself. So if he can do it, I can do it.

So I’ll make sure to keep you updated on when I upload new video’s.

SEACREST OUT!

Holler Box