Raspberry Pi is a retro gaming emulator. Turning a crimson microcomputer into a universal retro console Software emulator on raspberry pi

Today, I am gonna talk about emulation of raspberry pi on windows.

This post is for specifically windows lovers :)

What is emulator?

Extract the ZIP file to a folder on your PC.

2. Get kernel for raspberry pi with Qemu support

Are the steps to compile Linux kernel with qemu support.

To escape this step toy can just download the pre-compiled image from .

Move this file to the QEMU folder which is created in previous step.

3. Get any of Raspi distro image

I am using the raspian “raspbmc” image. You can download this image from raspberry pi site.

Extract the file and put it in qemu folder.

4.Finally launching the emulator

Now, its time to launch the emulator with your kernel and disc image. The below command has to be hit on dos prompt on windows.

To do that, press Window button, search cmd in search bar. You will get one application named “cmd”. Open that application to write command. This is basically Dos prompt. The below image will provide you more information about it.

So, navigate to the directory where you have extracted qemu and all downloaded binaries.

Hit the below command to start qemu-arm for raspberry pi. In my case, i have kernel-qemu (which is downloaded in step #2) is the kernel for raspberry pi and raspbmc.img (which is downloaded in step #3) is the image of file system.

qemu-system-armw.exe -M versatilepb -m 256 -cpu arm1176 -no-reboot -serial stdio -kernel kernel-qemu -hda raspbmc.img -append “root=/dev/sda2 panic=1”

The break down of the above command is:

1) qemu-system-armw: the command to emulate an arm system on windows

2) -M versatilepb: the machine we need to emulate

3) -m 256: the amount of memory set that this version of the R-Pi has (The maximum memory size you can specify is 256Mb – that’s a limitation of QEMU for this hardware emulation – it may not work if you specify more)

4) -cpu arm1176: the cpu we need to emulate

5) -no-reboot -append “root=/dev/sda2 panic1” : we mount our root filesystem to /dev/sda in the emulated R-Pi

Would like to have Raspberry Pi experience before you own one of the boards? This article show you how to use VirtualBox as an emulator of Raspberry Pi

Download

Installation
The ova file (RaspberryPi.ova) that you downloaded is a virtual machine file, it cannot open directly from VirtualBox. You must import the ova to VirtualBox before you can use it.

• Run VirtualBox
• Select File >Import Appliance as shown in figure below

• Click on Choose button
• Choose the RaspberryPi.ova file
• Click on Next button and you will see a list of the import settings
• Click on Import button to start importing, it takes about one or two minutes to complete the importing.
• A RaspberryPi VM is created as shown in figure below

• Double click the RaspberryPi icon to star the VM
• Enter rpi for login user
• Enter password for login password. You will see the Linux Ubuntu screen as shown in figure below

• Open the LXTerminal
• Enter the following command

• Enter password for the password
• You should see this

Many Raspberry mini-PC users are faced with the problem of launching previously written programs or utilities on their gadget, an error in the operation of a new operating system, or the inability to configure the system. In order to avoid this problem, you can use Raspberry Pi emulation in Windows and see how applications work before transferring them to the gadget.

Features of the Raspberry Pi emulator based on Qemu

• Open source with regular updates and the ability to make changes (for experienced users);
• Emulation occurs in a window without the need to make changes to the PC;
• Ability to change the computing power model of the gadget;
• Does not require the purchase of paid software;
• Supports most versions of Windows.

In addition, using the emulator you can run a huge number of other devices and operating systems. Now let's find out the features of installing and running Qemu.

Installing and configuring the Raspberry Pi emulator for Windows

• Enter “Raspberry Pi emulation for Windows” in the search engine and follow the first link. All the necessary software for installation by ordinary users is already collected here. If you are a do-it-yourself fan, you can separately download Qemu, a mini-PC image and set up an environment with the kernel;
• Click "Download", wait 5 seconds and download the archive;
• Extract the contents to the previously created folder;
• We launch the file called run.bat and wait for the system to load;
• After the configurator appears, we make changes in accordance with the desired settings (only for professionals, otherwise problems with the performance of the system may arise);
• We observe the completion of the launch of the Raspberry Pi emulator for the virtual machine and can begin performing manipulations.

If you did everything correctly and have a PC with a medium-power configuration, there should be no problems with the operation of the emulator. Otherwise, try running the batch file as an administrator, re-installing without making changes to the configurator and updating all critical drivers.

In addition, there are many set-top box emulators for Raspberry Pi, the functionality of which can be tested on Qemu before installation. Therefore, let’s look further at a short guide about the most popular and multifunctional among them.

RetroPie emulator for Raspberry Pi

Its main feature is the ability to launch games from many consoles, including PlayStation, NES, Sega Genesis and others. In addition, the game console emulator on Raspberry Pi is made in the form of a ready-made image that has a fairly user-friendly interface.

Installing RetroPie

• Enter “RetroPie Project SD” in the search engine and download the image from the first link;
• We write the downloaded file to the memory card via DiskImager;
• After starting the system, go to the console and start setting up the configuration;
• Select the Filesystem tab (first in the list), go to Advanced, then memory split and enter the value 256;
• Change the layout and time zone to UTF8;
• Close settings and restart the system.

In addition, depending on the use of a gamepad or keyboard, you may need to install additional drivers. It is also advisable to download game images via a local network to avoid problems in the future.

iButton on Raspberry

The iButton emulator for Raspberry is capable of emulating intercom keys. It will be useful for those who want to have at hand a multifunctional device for reading and simulating keys with the ability to connect via USB to a desktop PC. You can download and get acquainted with iButton on the official page on GitHub, which is written in Russian and contains detailed instructions.

We hope our article about the settings of emulators associated with Raspberry allowed us to save time on checking applications and provided answers to questions that arose during installation. Use emulation and enjoy the capabilities of Raspberry Pi.

There are many different emulators for the Raspberry Pi with each of them having their own unique pros and cons.

On this page, we highlight some of the best emulator packages that you can install. It includes RetroPie, Lakka, and RecalBox.

If we’re missing any be sure to let us know and we will look at including the emulator package.

We plan on adding more and more Raspberry Pi emulators to this list, so be sure to check back later.

Game Emulator Packages

RetroPie is currently one of the most popular retro game emulator packages available. It’s easy to set up and is a great way to play hundreds of classic games such as the original Doom.

Retropie runs emulationstation as the frontend which provides a friendly user interface and an easy way to configure controls and other settings.

The Lakka Raspberry Pi emulator package is a serious contender to RetroPie. It can run hundreds of classic games and is relatively stable. It's super easy to get installed and running.

Lakka runs RetroArch, which is a front end for a whole range of different emulators. RetroArch helps with shaders, multiplayer, saves, netplay, controllers, and so much more.

Raspberry Pi RecalBox

Recalbox is one of the main competitors of RetroPie. Like the rest of the Raspberry Pi emulator packages, it is open source, and you can follow the work over on their GitLab.

Like RetroPie, it uses emulationstation for the frontend. It features over 40 emulators and also has the Kodi media center installed. It’s a must try if you’re looking for an all in one package.

Game Emulators

Raspberry Pi x86 Emulator

As you may already know the Raspberry Pi uses an ARM processor which makes it incapable of running x86 programs. Luckily, x86 Raspberry Pi emulators that will help remove this drawback.

Unfortunately, not all programs will run using this emulator, but it will gain you the ability to run applications such as notepad plus-plus, or Skype.

Now, when games have become incredibly realistic, and computers are many times more powerful, interest in the good old game consoles, such as Dendy and Sega, does not subside among many young people whose childhood took place in the 90s. Those days are long gone, but 8-bit and 16-bit games have been resurrected and are even more valuable than before.

Over time, rare game cassettes have been magically turned into ROM files that can be downloaded on the Internet. And now you don’t need consoles at all; instead, you can use emulator programs, which are also available in a variety on the Internet, for different platforms.

For the purposes of this article, we will use our beloved Raspberry Pi to emulate retro consoles. Dedicated to connoisseurs of retro games...

To implement a multi-platform emulator, we will use the popular package - RetroArch. Which, by the way, exists for several platforms, for example for Windows, Linux, including Android.

Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to install everything at once through the repository with a deb package, but the world is not without good people. We will use a special script and build the emulator right on the spot.

First, let's install additional components to resolve dependencies:

Pi@raspberry:~$ sudo su pi@raspberry:~# apt-get install git dialog

After this, we prepare the place and download the script from the git hub:

Pi@raspberrypi:~# mkdir /usr/src/git pi@raspberrypi:~# cd /usr/src/git pi@raspberrypi:~# git clone github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup.git

Let's launch:

Pi@raspberrypi:~# ./retropie_setup.sh

After launch, you will see a simple menu with several items.

1. Installing binary (compiled) files is fast but stupid.
2. Downloading and building from source codes is very long, but the latest versions.
3. Install again if there were errors during the first installation.
4. Update installation script

I recommend not even thinking about a binary installation, there are several reasons. Alternatively, some emulators or settings may not work. I chose to install from the source codes, because after the first installation my shogi emulator did not work and I could not configure the gamepads. After the second installation, this time from the source code, things progressed, but the Shogi emulsion still did not work, but I found the reason and fixed it (more on that later).

And so, we select the second item and in the new menu we check whether we need everything? For example, I did not put “MAME”, “ZX Spectrum” and “Apple II”.

After launching, you can calmly go about your business for another 6 hours. The whole process took me about 10 hours.

And when the downloading, compilation and installation process finally ends, let’s go to the home directory /root/pi and we will see a new folder “RetroPie” there. It contains:

• configs- emulator settings. In “All” they are general, in the rest they are corresponding.
• emulatorcores- emulator components
• emulators- emulators themselves, incl. shell
• roms- a directory for games, more precisely rom-files
• supplementary- additional components. (For example, “SNESDev-Rpi" - a utility for connecting a joystick from SNES)

Now you need to place several rom files of games from different platforms in the appropriate directories. Pay attention to the file extension, they must match the configuration: /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg. In the same directory after the first launch of the shell, a file appears es_input.cfg with control key settings, it can be removed to reset.

If you have a joystick, then it's time to set it up.

Pi@raspberrypi:~# cd /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/tools pi@raspberrypi:~# ls

There should be a utility there retroarch-joyconfig- it changes the configuration file retroarch.cfg.

For general convenience, I wrote a script to work with this utility. Let's open the editor

Pi@raspberrypi:~# nano

and insert the script:

#!/bin/bash echo "Configure script of game controllers." echo "1. Please connect now your device!.." echo -e "2. Please enter the number of the player (1 or 2):" read GAMERNUMB echo -e "3. Please enter the number of the gamepad (0 - ...):" read JOYPADNUMB echo "Ok! Thanks! You are the $GAMERNUMB player. The number of the device used - $JOYPADNUMB." echo "During the configuration, you can wait 5 seconds to cancel the keys." retroarch-joyconfig -p $GAMERNUMB -j $JOYPADNUMB -t 5 -i retroarch.cfg -o retroarch.cfg echo "Done. If you need, repeat for other players... Thanks, good-bye!"

We save it in /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/all/joyconfig-shell.sh, copy the utility there retroarch-joyconfig, set execution rights and launch.

Pi@raspberrypi:~# cp /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/tools/retroarch-joyconfig /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/all/ pi@raspberrypi:~# cd /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/ all/ pi@raspberrypi:~# chmod +x joyconfig-shell.sh pi@raspberrypi:~# ./joyconfig-shell.sh

Setting up joysticks (or rather gamepads) will probably not be possible right away, don’t despair!

Well, now, finally, you can launch the shell:

Pi@raspberrypi:~$ emulationstation

If everything is in order, then you will see something like this:

If you get an error when trying to run games in the Genesis (Sega) emulator, then you are facing the same problem as me. It is quite easy to treat. Return to the console, go to the gden source directory:

Pi@raspberry:~# cd /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/dgen-sdl

And run the following commands sequentially:

Pi@raspberrypi:~# ./configure --disable-opengl pi@raspberrypi:~# make

The fact is that for some reason this emulator crashes with an error when working with OpenGL. After that, run again emulationstation, everything should work.

Everything, but not everything. For example Duke Nukem will work, but for Doom you need to add some files.

P.S.: Yes, you can buy working consoles and even find cassettes. Or play on the computer... But nothing can replace originality! My friends and I tried it and evaluated it ourselves...

P.P.S: Well maaam, just five more minutes!?... 🙂