Comparison with other systems

[rsn8887]

Compared with other systems, I looked at emulation on my Pi 1 with retropie. Here are my conclusions.

– overclocked to 950 MHz and still slower emulation than Ouya. Ouya runs SNES SuperFX perfect, costs $100 but has a case and comes with power adapter and hdmi cable and an off switch.

– overclocked and still slower than old Xbox Classic. Xbox requires a softmod to run emulators but costs about $30 used and boots emulators in just seconds and runs almost everything at full speed without sound stutters, including SNES Superfx, Amiga OCS and others.

– sound stutters without overclocking.

– the controller config is not consistent between frontend and all emulators (WIP?)

– I cannot use my usb keyboard with the Amiga emulator, a computer that had a keyboard in its days

– I have to use the command line and run alsamixer to increase sound volume all the way to the red. The red color suggests that this should not be done, but the sound is too silent otherwise.

– EmulationStation takes about 40 seconds to load when a lot of roms are present

– Every emulator seems to use a different and inconsistent key to exit back to EmulationStation

– EmulationStation does ask for non-descript buttons such as “a,” “b” instead of “b (bottom button)”, “x (top button).” Which one’s should I map where? I need a picture of a typical controller (SNES or PSX) to get an idea what I should press.

– Exiting emulator and going back to ES also takes a long time

– most of the OS is not Gamepad compatible. I find myself going back to the USB keyboard a lot. Luckily mine is wireless.

At this point I would say Retropie cannot compete with Ouya or softmodded Xbox, but it is on the path.

[herbfargus]

I don’t have much experience with other systems so I can’t speak to those, and I agree the gamepad configuration is definitely a work in progress, but as far as the gamepad configuration the bottom of this page has everything you should need for knowing what buttons to push for each controller:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/RetroArch-Configuration

They are also on each of their respective emulator pages on the wiki.

[Phiben]

I used a Xbox classic for emulation several years now. It´s hard to believe, but the old Xbox (14 years!) is still much better for emulation than the RPi2 from 2014. PSX and N64 emulation runs way better than on the RPi2.

[robertybob]

[quote=102443]I used a Xbox classic for emulation several years now. It´s hard to believe, but the old Xbox (14 years!) is still much better for emulation than the RPi2 from 2014. PSX and N64 emulation runs way better than on the RPi2.
[/quote]

Just making an assumption here, but wouldn’t that be down to the emulators themselves as opposed to RetroPie / RPi 2 itself?

[robertybob]

[quote=102420]
At this point I would say Retropie cannot compete with Ouya or softmodded Xbox, but it is on the path.
[/quote]

I get the comparrison to Ouya , but why compared it to an Xbox? Raspberry Pis weren’t specifically designed for playing video games, it just so happens that we are able to do that thanks to RetroArch. They’re low energy, small and hackable (hence why people can fit them inside Game Boys) and started out being low cost. You cannot say the same for a huge clunky original Xbox.

[Floob]

Yes, its horses for courses.
Personally I love the small footprint (and low cost) of the Pi.

As robertybob says, one swap of the SD card, and your Pi can be doing something completely different.

[petrockblog]

Wouldn’t it be better to compare against a rpi2 ?

XBox is decent for emulation – but so is RetroPie imho (and improving all the time).

[Anonymous]

You can’t compare a for that time a huuuge, noisy 499 USD machine (Xbox) against a small, pocket sized microcomputer for 35 USD (RPI2).

That would be like me scratching my balls with my hand and then fiddle with my lips in a wondering way about why my hunting rifles don’t match up to the performance of the stuff Swedish Aeroplane AB (SAAB) & Bofors produces.

In other words:
Two completely different platforms.

Myself, I prefer a portable all in one console that I can carry with me in my pocket when visiting friends for some retrogaming – and the RPI2 does that very well. ;)

[Author]

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