Tell me about the Raspberry Pi

[Guspaz]

I can say that my early decision to get a Pandaboard (which was at the time vastly more powerful than the Pi) didn't end well precisely due to the poor support. These things are not like PCs, you're only ever going to load distros on them that are specifically intended for them, so the size of the community isn't just about getting help from people. If a board has a small community, it's possible that the kernel/driver/distro situation for that hardware sucks, and you're not going to get anywhere. The situation does seem to have improved quite a bit since my days with the Pandaboard, though.

The Odroid XU4's CPU is probably something like double the performance of the Pi 3, it's got double the RAM, and the GPU is probably many times faster. It's also 3x the cost and would seem to require active cooling (a large and loud fan).

In terms of the CPU, it's capable of using all 8 cores (the 4xA15 and 4xA7) at the same time, but I don't think any emulator running on these things is going to be able to get much benefit beyond two cores, so the Odroid's big advantage is going to come from being an A15 (the high-power CPU from the generation before the Pi's A53) at a higher clockspeed.

That said, there does seem to be some retro emulation support for ODroid stuff. Lakka supports the XU4, RetroPie supports some other models, and there's an "OGST" that is similar.

[Skykid]

Yeah I think Lakka is the most ready emulation interface for XU4 and some of the tests look pretty nice. The tech info is useful however, and I've heard cooling is definitely an issue.

For me I wouldn't start tinkering with a device that lacks support for the same reasons you experienced with your Pandaboard.

TBH, I'm interested in the Pi for primarily 8 - 16bit consoles, FBA and PSX. Everything else isn't really of interest to me. I assume FBA runs better than MAME.

Any performance reports regarding CAVE's PGM model stuff (Ketsui?) or PGM in general?

[Fudoh]

Here's a video of a Pi3 running with a Recalbox version of earlier this year showing mainly Arcade stuff including Demon Front (PGM).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NKBJVC9WvE

[Skykid]

Thanks Fudoh, I since discovered that one actually. Looks really good!

[neontropics]

I really love my Raspberry Pi 3 using Recalbox. Very easy installation and setup, interface looks great, the scanline shaders are good enough for me to really enjoy PSX to NES era games, you can install updates straight from the main settings screen.

Also it has Kodi built in which works perfectly with it, it's a way better solution than streaming to my old PS3.

I had Lakka for a bit but it was a hassle to set up right and Recalbox looks way better.

I would love to get OSSC or Framemeister and start collecting more old games but I really don't have much need for it since I got the Pi3 Recalbox. I guess I'd want it for Saturn and N64 games at some point though.

[Ninjatemper]

I just got a raspberry pi 3 and installed retropie. I've noticed in both of the default mame emulators included there is no option to rotate the screen to play certain shmups in their proper vertical orientation. Does recalbox allow for this screen rotation option? If not, is there a way to make it available on the retropie?