Datasheet

“Six buttons + joystick” option in the retrogame installer. That particular configuration is set up for our Arcade Pack

and newer (40 pin) Raspberry Pi boards. Some of the pin numbers referenced

don’t exist

on the older 26-pin

header and lead to trouble.

If this happens to you, not to worry. Power off the Pi and insert the SD card in a reader on a PC or Mac. Look for a

file called retrogame.cfg…edit this file and change the pin numbers to match your specific controller wiring.

RetroPie

Related Troubleshooting

RetroPie provides the actual emulation software and a nice user interface. As this is third-party code, the “depth” of

problems we can troubleshoot is more limited, but here are some of the common issues we’ve seen and how to

resolve them…

My controls work in the EmulationStation UI, but not in one or more specific emulators!

This can happen with certain emulators (usually older or more esoteric ones) that don’t use the

libretro

library.

Among other things, libretro allows the global controller configuration to be used everywhere. There are a couple of

workarounds that

might

help, but no guarantees…

You can rummage around in /opt/retropie/configs and look for a configuration file specific to the

problem emulator, then edit its keyboard layout to match your controls. The format of this file, if one even

exists, is likely specific to that one emulator, so you’ll need to do some research (Google search, etc.), it’s not

something we can help out with.

You can try hunting for an alternate emulator based on libretro, if there’s one available (see “Installing RetroPie

Packages” below).

The ROM files I have worked in a different emulator before, but aren’t working in RetroPie!

This can happen if the ROM file format changes between versions of an emulator, or if two emulators for the same

system use different formats.

Do some research (Google search, etc.) to see if this is the case. It’s possible there may be utilities to convert

among different ROM formats.

Try installing an alternate emulator, if there’s one available (see “Installing RetroPie Packages” below).

A few emulators may require a “BIOS file” in order to function, but it’s not included with the software for legal

reasons. This is something you’ll have to research and track down.

Installing RetroPie Packages

To add support for a system not present in RetroPie by

default, or to add an alternate emulator program for an

existing system, select “RetroPie Setup” from the

RetroPie menu. This brings up a text-menu-based

interface and will require a USB keyboard to navigate.

Select “Manage packages” and then one of the core,

main, optional or experimental selections…you’ll

probably want to navigate through each of them to see

what’s available, keeping in mind that each successive

category might be a little rougher around the edges.

Your best bet are packages whose names begin with