Gaming on the Raspberian Stretch Desktop

It really surprises me that there isn’t a Raspberry Pi gaming scene. I’m not talking about emulation. I’m talking about games that run native on the Pi in Raspbian. Old machines like the Atari 2600, Colecovision, ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64 have an embarrassing wealth of new games coming out all the time. The Vic 20 still gets releases for God’s sake! So where is the love when it comes to our tiny Pi friend, which is much, much more capable?

Here’s a small list of games you can run on the Stretch Desktop. There are more but these seem to be the most popular. Let me know if you have any favorites you want added to the list!

For the 3D games, a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is highly recommended!

Battleball – a 3D Tank arcade
sudo apt-get install battleball

Flare – Diablo-like RPG
sudo apt-get install flare-game

Freesweep – a console based Minesweeper
sudo apt-get install freesweep

Funny Boat – funny arcade game
sudo apt-get install funnyboat

Gnome Nibbles – a snake game
sudo apt-get install gnome-nibbles

Quake 3
-> Setup:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install quake3
game-data-packager quake3 -i

Minecraft Pi edition 

Open Arena – open source version of Quake with different maps
sudo apt-get install openarena

OpenTTD – based upon Transport Tycoon Deluxe sudo apt-get install openttd

TINT – a Tetris game
sudo apt-get install tint

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Manually Install RetroPie over Raspbian Stretch

If you are enjoying a full or lite install of Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi, you can also manually install RetroPie rather than work off of a RetroPie SD image.

It’s advisable to first tell your Pi to boot into console mode at boot. 

pi@raspberry:~$ sudo raspi-config
Choose (3) Boot Options
B1 Desktop/CLI
B2 Console Autologin (optionally, you could select B1 to log in)
<Finish>

Install RetroPie manually

Start by updating your system:

pi@raspberry:~$sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Verify your local settings for a smooth installation.

pi@raspberry:~$sudo update-locale LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"

Now we install the packages needed by the installation script:

pi@raspberry:~$ sudo apt-get install git lsb-release 

Download the RetroPie setup script using git. If you don’t have git installed:

pi@raspberry:~$sudo apt install git-all

then:

pi@raspberry:~$ cd
pi@raspberry:~$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git 

Now run the script:

pi@raspberry:~$ cd RetroPie-Setup
pi@raspberry:~$ chmod +x retropie_setup.sh
pi@raspberry:~$ sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

The installation dialog appears:

Choose the basic install and then optional packages, settings and drivers. Once you are done, reboot and launch with:

pi@raspberry:~$ emulationstation

Raspberry Pi as a Spotify Connect source

This is verified to work with a Raspberry Pi model 3 B+ with Raspbian Stretch on 01/20/19. It really should work with any Pi using Jessie too.

The program we will use to stream music from any device to our Pi is called “raspotify“, which makes our Pi into a Spotify connect source. We will install the program and then make changes to the configuration file to customize the bit rate and Spotify Connect name which can be anything you choose.

Install raspotify from console:
https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/

From script:

curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh

Or manually:
# Install curl and https apt transport
sudo apt-get -y install curl apt-transport-https

# Add repo and its GPG key
curl -sSL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/key.asc | sudo apt-key add -v –
echo ‘deb https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify jessie main’ | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspotify.list

# Install package
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install raspotify

Restart raspotify:
sudo systemctl restart raspotify

If raspotify does not appear after boot, here are some options.

——————
Now you can send Spotify to your Pi using Spotify Connect from any device!

If you want to make changes to the Pi as a Spotify Connect source:
sudo pico /etc/default/raspotify

You will need to comment out the “#” for each option.

Change the device name:
DEVICE_NAME=”Spotify on the Pi”

If you want to change the bitrate:
BITRATE=”320″

Change the audio output, first the :
–device hw:0,5
(Note: you will need to type “lsusb” to find the Bus and Device Number)

Save the file and restart the service:
sudo systemctl restart raspotify

Final comments: I found this to work beautify.  Regarding the option to change the audio out hardware, my USB device was spotty. If you leave this option alone and simply use the audio out jack or HDMI you will find it is very reliable.

Emulating the Sony Playstation 2 (PS2) with Windows

To run a PS2 emulator in Windows 10, you will first need:

The emulator itself: PCSX2.
BIOS files.
Properly configured emulator.

Once you install the PCSX2 emulator, you must tell it where to find the BIOS files.
From the menu:
>Config>Plugin/BIOS Selector
Select BIOS from the left pane. Browse to your BIOS directory and select the BIOS file. Select OK

You will need to configure your gamepad so it works with PCSX2.
Menu – Config > Plugin/BIOS Selector
PAD – Configure (button on right)

Highlight each button in the area within the green boxes, then press the button on your controller/gamepad. Select OK when you are done.

Now that your emulator is in working condition, it’s time to configure it to optimum settings. Visit this video to find the right settings. The most important setting from my experience is the MTVU box in the Emulation Settings under Speedhacks.

After this is done, your emulator should be working great! To run a game:
Menu – CDVD > ISO Selector > Browse
Pick an ISO or BIN file
Menu – System > Boot CDVD full

To get games (ISOs) for this emulator, you will first need to rip your PS2 discs into ISO images. I found a great guide to do this here.

Happy retro gaming!

*With Windows 10, you may need to run PCSX2 in Administrator mode.