Rtarroyo got in touch back at the end of Feb to share this AWESOME NESpi4 Companion Image with us, its not built on any heavy scripted base, its built on a fresh install of RetroPie and in his own words “has loads of stolen content from other images” included…. This is a fast, yet simple image, perfect for your Pi 4 and SSD set up on the NESPI case!

Rtarroyo Says:

This is a console focused image, no keyboard allowed, and it is meant to be a Nespi4 companion image, I was going for the strict console feel, Honestly, I would recommend that after you choose a theme, just switch to kiosk mode.

The image is overclocked to 1.750 (with over voltage=2) and uses a shutdown script meant to be used with the NesPi4 (script by ccerror). I was not comfortable with OC to 2.0ghz with this case, the cooling solution and heatsink are great, but the case is too closed and I don’t feel comfortable when the Pi goes over 70ºC, although the manufacturer says it can go up to 80ºC.

A lot of assets were “stolen” from other images, forum posts (wolfanoz, supreme team, youtube and google), videos, art, scripts, etc. But I started this from a fresh stock retropie image and went from there, the only major upgrade I made was with Retroarch, which I upgraded to version 1.9 for better achievement compatibility, among other things. Thank you to those who work I have used within this image.

I’ve only made two exceptions to the keyboard rule, with MSX 1 and 2, but they are very joystick friendly and I made this exception only because of the next point.

RetroAchievements: I just love the site to death (I go by the screenname rtarroyo). I love achievements on the Xbox (Rafael D Arroyo) and Playstation 4 (rtarroyo) and bringing this to emulators was a dream come true for me. So I went over every single entry on the website as of january 31st 2021 and added every single compatible rom, and tested each one, so every single entry you see on RetroAchievements.org is here (only oficial releases, there are a few hacks and prototypes but not all, i.e. FFVII for the nes – so if you are on the website, disregard the bottom entries for every console) – To turn RA on, just go to options>retropie tools>retroarch>configuration>achievements

Systems left out from Retro Achievements:
– Saturn: Achievements work, but only with beetle emulator, which has poor performance.
– Nintendo DS: while performance with Drastic is great, achievements only work with DesMume which is hit and miss and sadly runs pokemon games very poorly.
– Apple II, PC88 and Magnavox Odyssey 2: Keyboard heavy.

I’m not a fan of Prototypes, hacks, demos, unlicensed, bootleg, etc, so they are only present when I personally played it and enjoyed it myself, so don’t expect a huge library in that regard, and the ones that are present are grouped in the main console list (i.e. pokemon hacks for GB and FFVII for the famicom).

Controllers and controls: I’ve tested A LOT of controllers, so probably anything you throw at it will be pre-configured, if it isnt emulationstation will prompt you to configure. Hotkey is set to R3. To prompt the retroarch menu just press R3+L3. To quit retroarch press Hotkey+start. – My prefered setup is using a 8bitDO universal receiver paired with a XboxOne Controller or a PS4 controller. The system also supports bluetooth connection out of the box.

Bezels: Every single game here runs with a bezel, most games have their own bezel available, some might have to be manually aplied, since not every single game was tested, in that case the game will start with the stock console bezel.

Background music: It is disabled, but you only need to turn it on at the settings. Comes with a broad selection of songs.

System launch videos: They are here, but disabled, you only need to turn it on at settings (I had them on, but I’m not really happy with the ones I have, looking for new ones, most of them come from supreme team images and other places, there are more than one video for each system in the folders located at /home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens)

System launch images: It is set to “default” which are basically black images, you can also change this at the options menu, a few sets of images come installed, but none of them have a complete set for each console, so I prefer to leave it black.

Themes: All themes installed are complete, in the sense that they have all systems included in the image.

SplashScreen at boot: There are a lot of splash screens available (/home/pi/RetroPie/splashcreens), but I only use a single one that appeals more to me, you can set it to random at the options menu or choose one that better suits you.

Some might call the default config I have a little bare bones, but I find it focused and efficient and really console oriented, but you can very easily tweak it with the above options.

SYSTEMS

There are 50+ systems included, most of the cartridge consoles have “complete sets”, which means, by my very loose standards, almost every licensed game for that system excluded a few (super famicom has too many horse racing and mahjong games, so I deleted a few, NDS has too many shovelware games so I deleted a few, deleted duplicated games leaving only a single region, etc).

As for the disc systems, they are complete if feasible (Neo Geo CD, PC Engine CD, Sega CD), if not (psx, dreamcast, saturn, etc) the games where hand selected by me, Dreamcast and PSX have a lot of heart put into them, a ton of games I played back in the day, a lot of rarities and a bunch of bad games (just for kicks, who doesn’t enjoy AVGN).

Below is a rundown of a few systems worth mentioning:

Atari Jaguar: Some games run fine, some don’t, but I left them all here in case of future improvements.

PSP: Games were selected by me, all of them tested with lr-ppsspp.

PSP minis: I don’t like this system, it reminds me of early phone games, not at all enjoyable and I don’t think it runs very well, but I left it here for anyone that enjoys.

Nintendo DS: For achievements Desmume needs to be used, but performance is not great, some games run fine, it is a trial and error thing. On Drastic every game runs great. To change emulators just keep pressing A on your controller as the game loads.

Dreamcast: My all time favourite console, every game here was hand picked by me, it could be larger and I may add more in the future – 200+ games, all games tested.

MSX/2: Since the system is achievement compatible, I decided to add it, despite the keyboard, but none of the games require it, only five games have achievements, metal gear 1 and 2 included. .

Nintendo 64: Performance for most games is great, a few games run slow, but all of the blockbusters run fine. Internal resolution might have to be changed on a few games for a better frame rate, but I’m happy with the performance.

Playstation: 700+ games, a bunch of games you don’t normally see, because of RetroAchievements, also one of my favourite systems, all games tested, a lot of fan translations.

Sega Cd: Almost every game included, a few multi disc games weren’t included.

Mega Drive: Since I’m from Brazil, there is no genesis/mega drive for me, it’s all Mega Drive, so only one playlist, not every game was tested.

Sega Saturn: Achievements only work with Beetle Saturn, which is unplayable, yabasanshiro core on the other hand works great, all games tested.

Arcade/CPSI/II/III/Naomi/Atomiswave: Everything was hand tested and works, every game has its own personal bezel, this took a LONG time, in the future I intend to do that with every console, but for now I just only with these since there is a lot of emulator conflict here.

Games that relied on peripherals or gimmicks were removed in favor of those games that work better with a controller.

Scummvm: Im using Scummvm 2.3, so Residual VM/Scummvm run together now, everything launches from the menu, no need to go into the scummvm interface, it just works and is very organized, in my humble opinion this is the best ScummVm menu I’ve ever seen, everything was hand tested and works fine.

Translations: This image is PACKED with translations from japanese games, most of them are indicated by the file name, but a lot of them aren’t, everything I could get my hands on is here, every compatible Retro Achievement translation is here, as well as many others. I wanted to get more PC-FX translations, but there aren’t many.

Configs: I recommend that any changes you want to make to retroarch be done via options>retropie tools>retroarch this will replicate the changes to every system, since the config file for each system is minimal and defaults to retroarch’s config. To make this even more efficient I was thinking of locking every system into kiosk mode in retroarch, but that also locks the core options menu in the quick menu, which is separate from the general config.

If you Don’t follow this advice, it is not the end of the world. Config changes are not saved automatically upon leaving retroarch.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Nespi4 issues: There is a December firmware update that does not agree with the Nespi4 Case, if you update, just revert to the last stable eeprom (september, 3rd 2020) by using raspi imager.

The Nespi4 is poorly shielded, and using USB 3.0 for the ssd causes interference with wifi, bluetooth and controller dongles. I just plug the sata connector to the USB 2.0 port. Honestly, I don’t see any difference, I actually used a stopwatch to calculate boot time and saw NO DIFFERENCE and performance was the same as far as I’m concerned.

I ended up using a custom shutdown script, since Retroflag’s was crap and I couldn’t make my own. It is a good script, but it generates a conflct when shutting down via emulationstation and crashes, not that big of a deal since you only need to unplug it and plug it back.

So, when using with the Nespi4, shutdown via shutdown button always.

The reset button exits emulation when pressed during gameplay or restarts emulationstation.

To restart the system entirely just use emulationstation built in reset.

Dreamcast: Windows CE based games not running, they run fine on PC, probably a version issue, a matter of time until an update is implemented, but none were included, that makes up for another 20+ games at least.

Emulationstation: changing the settings to only parse gamelists will cause emulationstation not to launch (it is an easy fix, but a pain in the ass), I beleieve this is due to the way scummvm gamelist is set.

Media: There are very few games with missing media, fewer than 10 games actually, I have all of them listed and will probably fix that in the near future.

Gamelists: gamelists and media were generated using skyscraper, you can use it to rescrape if need, a few systems have gamelists that were edited by me, by hand, so using skyscraper with them will return a less than optimal gamelist, with a few broken entries (dreamcast, psx, saturn and scummvm)

Arcade: Simpsons 2 players and G.I. Joe are not running with FB Neo, but run fine on my PC (file check error) the issue here is that both games are achievement compatible and need to be played on FBNeo for cheevos, that must be an easy fix, just a matter of time.

ScreenTearing: It is a thing with Rpi4, but one that does not bother me that much, and a solution is bound to come (since to my knowledge it involves a driver), so I left the resolution at 1080p, but it can be changed at the options menu to 720p.

Other: There are bound to be a lot more errors with the image, I’m only one person and the image is huge, so many games, testing all arcade games alone was a nightmare, I would appreciate it if anything found was reported ([email protected]).

Controllers: I tested all sorts of controllers, PS4 bluetooth, Xbox One S bluetooth, Xbox One S wired, GameSir controller, 8bitDo Dongle with PS4, Xbox, WiiU controller, and everything just works. Remember, if you are using usb 3.0 port for SSD, reception is gonna be ass from a distance, don’t know how to explain it myself, but the difference is noticeable.

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I believe this is it for this image, I might have left a few points out.

Really hope the community enjoys the work I’ve put into this image, I wasn’t really thinking of sharing this, since this is a personal build a use, but I got strong feedback from friends and changed my mind.

This is not a image that is meant to be update, like they do with the Supreme Team ones, it is kinda finished, with only a few minor adjustments needed.

Since this is console oriented, there is no Kodi, pixel, etc.

PROBLEM DOWNLOADING THE TORRENT? This is a big download and some torrent clients may report unsupported torrent type, use TIXATI as your torrent download client as it will read the bigger chunks. 

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