RetroPie

TIP: For those of you out there considering getting a NES Classic / SNES Classic read this blogpost first... you won't be sorry.

Since I started dabbling in Raspberry Pi SBC's, I've been testing a few emulation-distros and the like. Been playing around with this since June 2016, so a good 10 months by now I would say :P

One particular distro caught my interest while testing; namely RetroPie.
Excerpt from retropie.org.uk:

RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi, ODroid C1/C2, or PC into a retro-gaming machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many other projects to enable you to play your favourite Arcade, home-console, and classic PC games with the minimum set-up.

RetroPie lets you play virtually ALL arcade-/console-/PC-games released in the period 1980-2000. Every .rom I've got in my library (accumulated around 10.000+ since the 1990s) works out-of-the-box.

Tested a good few arcade- and console-roms, and they work flawlessly.

Only configuration it may require is a simple dialogue-based gamepad/joystick setup. And you're ready to game as you please :)

Zelda II - The Adventure of Link (NES)

Bubble Bobble (NES)

Super Mario Kart (SNES)

Super Mario World (SNES)

Super Bomber Man (SNES)

Super Street Fighter II (SNES)

Super Street Fighter II - In-game (SNES)

Turrican II (Amiga)

Turrican II - In-game (Amiga)

Giana Sisters (Amiga)

My Logitech F310 gamepad used testing RetroPie.

Street Fighter II (Arcade)

Street Fighter II - In-game (Arcade)

Sonic The Hedgehog (SEGA Genesis)

 Sonic The Hedgehog (SEGA Genesis)

Splatterhouse 2 (SEGA Genesis)

Splatterhouse 2 - In-game (SEGA Genesis)

PC-gaming is dead... (RLY?)

OK.., how and where did the proclamation of "PC-gaming is dead" come round?

People, please... what kind of platform do you think games are created on?

Seriously... that's just, a completely new level of ignorance.

Consoles? Eeeeeh, they will co-exist, and probably evolve, but they will NEVER crush, or even replace PC-gaming.

EVAH...



I would rather believe this article when it comes to the current gaming-climate: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/console-gaming-is-dead-everything-good-is-happening-on-pc-right-now-1260162

Valve - Steam > Linux

I recently logged in to my Steam-account because I wanted to check out it's status. Mostly since Valve announced they will be releasing the Steam-client for Linux. And to my surprise, all games I had bought earlier were still available in my "Library" :)

I had bought "Counter-Strike" (the original) a few years ago. Though it was the CD-ROM release copy, it included a booklet on activating the product on Steam.

I'm SO glad I actually did, because I can no longer find the original CD-ROM, nor can I find the DVD-ROM for Half-Life 2 / Counter-Strike: Source. But that didn't matter :) Steam had all the games, already activated and ready to download and install :P Woohoo!

If they are successfull at porting the client to Linux, and consequently; games. They will definitely have opened a whole new market-target for online game distribution ;)

Way to go Valve! ;D

Coincidentally, Valve recently published a press-release claiming Linux as the new de-facto open (gaming) platform. Beating both Windows and Mac OS X on the "technicalities" ;P

Linux, being an openly developed platform, gives game-developers a technical road-map of the OS' inner workings, it's limitations and structure details that give an immensely comprehensive base for advanced game programming.

Personally, I don't think they've even tapped the tip of what is possible with a Linux-system when it comes to serious gaming. I see promising development if this takes off, as we all hope it does :)

PC Games N:
http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/valve-linux-better-windows-8-gaming

Norwegian e-zine:
http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article259040.ece