If the drive isn’t properly formatted, you’ll get a notification letting you know that. Regardless of what kind of drive or phone you’re using, once it’s plugged in, you should get a notification that the drive is connected. Plug your flash drive into the USB A jack, and then plug the other end of the adapter into your phone. You can grab them from Amazon for cheap-they’re great to have around. This cable has a male micro USB connector on one side and female USB A jack on the other.
Remove the flash drive from the PC and insert it in your Raspberry Pi while RetroPie runs for a few seconds. Insert a USB flash drive in your PC, create an empty folder in the USB flash drive and name it RetroPie.
In fact, you’ll have such limited choices, we think it’s best to just get a more traditional USB-A drive and an adapter.įor the adapter, you’ll need a USB OTG cable. First, download the MAME ROMs using your computer and save them in any location. Like with USB-C, you could buy a Micro USB flash drive if you’re in the market for a new one, though those aren’t nearly as common. Once you have the appropriate adapter, just throw it onto the drive and plug it into your phone. You can grab those from Amazon for just a few bucks. Should work a bit better with that in I think.If you already have a traditional USB Type-A flash drive, then you’ll need an A-to-C adapter. UPDATE: It was still getting quite warm inside, so I bought this fan on eBay and I plan to cut a hole in the back to add it. You can add more ROMs as you go through the USB ports on the side. Plug in your remote, callibrate it with the RetroPie and you’re good to go. Then to finish close it all up start playing! You might need to cut out some of the flaps on the side of the box to allow for your wires and USB ports on the side, so watch out for this when you’re closing the lid. If you can cut it precisely enough the Pi should hold itself there. Last thing you want is to close it up to find you’ve not connected it right! At this point I cut the hole in the side for the USB and network points on the RPi. At this point I carefully tilted the box up so I could check it was working and connecting OK. With the screen and controls in place it’s finally time to add the Raspberry Pi! Slot in the HDMI cable and the power wire. To finish off the display work I placed a thin layer of foam over the top. Once the screen was lined up, as above, I added the foam lining of the box, secured the graphics card, added the HDMI cable. Now, stick the USB device into your RetroPie Raspberry Pi.
You shouldn’t add any ROMs to the USB device just yet. Make sure it’s formatted to FAT, then create a folder called RetroPie with nothing in it. This worked really well as I needed to make a few adjustments as I went. To transfer games using a USB storage device, start by sticking your USB device into your computer. I used this to keep the graphics card for the screen in place. Once you see the disk you wish to use (in our case, the SD card), select it and press the Format.
If you want to install the distributions to an attached flash or USB HDD, now is the time to attach it. If you can, try using a real cutting mat instead of an old copy of Stuff magazine like it did! You might notice the Velcro on the back of mine. After you have configured the Wi-Fi or if you’re using a wired connection, you will be prompted to select a disk: The default is the SD card. Lay it out flat, cut out the hole using the craft knife, and use the tape to secure it in place. Start by carefully opening out the box you you’ve go the space to work, making sure not to tear it, and draw out where you want the screen to go. Make sure you add some heat sinks to the processors. It’s really important to look after your RPi in the box too, and it overheats really easily. It’s also a bit easier if you’re ready to go with some games first too, so try downloading some ROMs on a USB stick and installing them. This video by ETA Prime is by far the clearest and easiest to follow.
Keeping it short and sweet here though you need to get the Raspberry Pi ready for the build by adding the RetroPie software on a flash drive. I’ve covered a lot of the ‘How To’ with setting up the Raspberry Pi in my previous post, so see it in a bit more detail there.
Games remote – Xbox for windows or PiHut games controller work great.Cheap Chinese import, not need for the expensive touch screen ones in this build Self sealing cardboard box, The kind with the flap down the side to keep it tight! Amazon delivery boxes are great for this.Cheap and easy, and not the end of the world if it went wrong! So lets get started with how I did it! I took inspiration for the Google cardboard projects like VR and the AIY projects and thought I’d pop it in an old cardboard box. I really wanted to take it to a Raspberry Jam, so needed to adapt it. This worked great, but it wasn’t very portable. So if you’ve read my blog before you’ll have seen that I put a Raspberry Pi on my classroom wall to make my own arcade for the kids.