The RetroPi

[EvilDragon]

Could this work as a stretch goal?

Well, yes, but it would be an expensive one.

So if your store stocked RPis then you could add them as a pledge too? Not that you'd likely be able to compete with the existing suppliers on price, I suppose.

No, as it would still be a finished end customer product that is available somewhere else.

I'm undecided on this project personally, by the way. I already have a Retrode, and have ripped most of my carts and put them in storage by now. I use my Pandora for most of my emulation needs, and while the only video I can get out of my old unit is SD after I broke the LCD connector, that's enough for most systems, and soon I'll have a Pyra to cover me too. I can see how people who already use a RPi for emulation would be interested in this, but I suspect only the ones that don't already have a Retrode, or have one but haven't ripped all their carts to SD already. But maybe there's a bigger market for people wanting to use the original carts for nostalgic reasons - I suppose they might well already have all the bits needed to fit this case.

If you ripped them, you still have a nice small console with a controller port where you can load them directly off the SD Card.
You're not forced to use the cards.

 

[levi]

Yes, very true. It would be the best of both worlds if I had any real interest in using my old carts these days.

Out of interest, are there instructions/software to make the system automatically emulate a cart if it's plugged in? I guess you'll never quite be able to emulate the old plug in and switch on speed of the original consoles thanks to Linux's boot time, but it'd be nice if, once you had turned it on, it automatically played anything you plugged in. Actually, I forget if the retrode even supports hot-swapping of carts.

 

[Dude]

I believe many people would "LIKE" to get one... They may have a pi or it's on their list... This would generate awareness of the Retrode ! and the ability to use old 'favorite' controllers ... very smart marketing !!!
The case is of coarse the Icing on the cake!

And of coarse once a few people do the research and find out about ... Evil Dragon ..... They will want a PYRA !! Marketing done right !! The same group that likes this product, will Love the next!

I have much hope for this Kick-start project and the PYRA !

The only thing you'll have to concern yourself with is hiring just enough quality people to keep up with orders.

 

[WizardStan]

but it'd be nice if, once you had turned it on, it automatically played anything you plugged in.

The idle power consumption of the Raspberry Pi is less than 2 watts. That's 48 watthours per day. At 10 cents per kWh, that's half a penny, or $1.75 per year.
I don't know about you, but ten seconds of my time on a regular basis is worth $1.75 per year.

 

[Inqui]

The idle power consumption of the Raspberry Pi is less than 2 watts. That's 48 watthours per day. At 10 cents per kWh, that's half a penny, or $1.75 per year.
I don't know about you, but ten seconds of my time on a regular basis is worth $1.75 per year.

Wut ? 10cents per kWh ? Where do you life ?

 

[WizardStan]

I just looked and rates have gone up a little, it's now averaging 12 cents actually. Is that a lot?

edit: keep in mind that's also Canadian cents, so like 8 cents US.

 

[comradekingu]

The pixel vision only ended 12 December, and that has a Raspberry pi in it. I fail to see how this is different?

Surely this type of product is exactly what the Raspberry Pi was intended for.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#buyingGet
https://www.raspberrypi.org/trademark-rules/

The RPi foundation actively encourage it.

Starting a business with a Raspberry Pi

• 43 Comments

We’re now reaching a point where people’s Raspberry Pi business ideas are starting to appear in the wild. The Pi’s strength for these entrepreneurial types is its price; before Pi, if you were, say, setting up a digital display business, you’d be spending a whole heap more than $35 on the device that drives each of your displays.

Here’s a really cute example of the sort of thing the Raspberry Pi makes possible for people to produce at an affordable price. It’s the Shoop!, a Pi-powered souvenir photo printer. Brian de la Cruz, the maker, calls it a photo studio in a box.

If, like Brian, you’re making a product which requires a Raspberry Pi to run, we don’t ask you to buy special permission or licences from us to use it. All we ask is that you include the words “Powered by Raspberry Pi” somewhere on your packaging. If your business is successful, we’d be very grateful if you could consider donating a small portion of your profits to the Raspberry Pi Foundation – but that’s all, and if you choose not to do that, that’s fine too.

TL;DR Free to use logo and name, but not for your actual product, or products made only from those.

Put “Powered by Raspberry Pi” on the packaging and optionally make a small donation to the RPi foundation.

Edit: couldn't be more similar.


[x] Emulation based initiative
[x] Based in Germany
[x] Supply a custom distro
[x] RPi included ( Or odroid.)
[x] Makes a case ( They make the mounting plate for the board, mini-itx cabinet stock.)

 

[Christoph.Krn]

I just looked and rates have gone up a little, it's now averaging 12 cents actually. Is that a lot?

edit: keep in mind that's also Canadian cents, so like 8 cents US.

Over here, electricity prices are as high as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing#Global_electricity_price_comparison, but for the wrong reasons.

 

[EvilDragon]

Okay, some quick information:
Gadgetoid found some time to work on the Retrode firmware, and one annoying bug (that was a bit of a showstopper for me) has now been fixed:
When using the Retrode2 on a Linux system, it only found 1 joystick port. This is now fixed, you have all four joystick ports a different joysticks available.

Which means: Now you can use all four ports on the RetroPi and play multiplayer games (i.e Bomberman with up to four players!)
Before the patch, only one joystick worked (if it worked at all, RetroPie is a bit picky about that).

With that bug fixed, I will now finally work again on the Kickstarter video

 

[levi]

Nice, so an update to my faithful Retrode 2 is coming? Not that I've even tried the joystick ports on it I guess.

 

[erico]

I´m late to this.
The video is great, but I did not get the idea that it is a case only, I thought it would contain the whole thing.
Maybe I just watched it too quickly and without required attention? On another hand, you have a full page of text info to clarify everything.

 

[levi]

I forget the details, but I rememer that ED wasn't going to ship a RPi with these units in his original plan, so you'd need to add that at least. Once he's created his KS page, that should tell you exactly what you're getting and my half-remembered factoids will become irrelevant though.

 

[Agricola]

Erm... does anybody remember this thread? Is there any news, @EvilDragon ?
I thought the Kickstarter wasn't that far away from completion when you made your last post. I even read your whole Twitter feed since January just in case I had missed something, but there was nothing about the RetroPi.

I was really excited for this thing...

 

[EvilDragon]

It was, but I had some issues with the firmware (which had been fixed by Gadgetoid in the mean time) and then ran out of plugins.
Plugins are currently in production and I'll meet someone at the GamesCom who is working on a better distribution for Retrogames on the Pi, so maybe we'll join forces.