Retro Emulator

[Atari2600geek]

Hi Guys.

I really want a Atari 2600, but I can't find any affordable ones in my pocket money range. Then I had an Idea. I had heard of this raspberry pi computer, so i thought "It runs Linux, right, so why not compile a version of Stella or z26 for that Linux and the arm processor.Then you could make it so it has keyboard support and for a true Atari experience, why not support for one of these: http://www.legacyengineer.com/.....ucts_id=85 When I order a Pi, I think I will have a go compiling z26 (my favorite Atari emulator), and running some games on it. This might work with other emulators with source code as well.

[hackiv]

Sounds good.

I am also interested in using my Rpi for a emulator product.

But I am not sure if the system will be able to process what I would like to run, a Super Nintendo emulator like (snes9x or zsnes) on a pi and the for computer only to be used for this purpose. Ideally it would have a front-end for the start up and two usb or bluetooth controllers. Just for playing the game Tecmo Super Bowl II.

Keep us updated on your Atari project.

[jaakkos]

Personally I'd really like to see how well the thing runs DosBox.

[Atari2600geek]

Dosbox may be too advanced. Dosbox might not run so well on non-Intel hardware where it has to emulate. My Wii runs homebrew dosbox and that is slow on some games. But maybe the Ram specs might speed it up. As for the snes, the CPU on that thing is about 3.5 MHz, which will run fine probably. I also had another Idea; a Vintage Mac emulator! If you could compile this: maconlinux then it would work.

I haven't even ordered a Pi yet; I gotta do it soon.

[dom]

Stella ran fine for me.

[bluescrn]

Yeah, the Pi could be fun for a bit of 8bit/16bit retro gaming.

It could be a fun project to fit a Pi inside a suitably large arcade joystick case (such as an X-Arcade, or maybe something a little smaller and more retro, like a Quickshot Maverick 2) and set it up as an all-in-one retro-gaming system

[mrjr]

Atari2600geek said:


Dosbox may be too advanced. Dosbox might not run so well on non-Intel hardware where it has to emulate.


I've messed around a lot with emulation on iOS and knowing that the RasPi is very simlar in hardware (CPU/RAM) to an iPhone 3GS, there's definitely some hope. The short-lived, much-loved DOSBox iOS port, iDOS (and it's sister, DOSPad), ran on the 3GS, although it definitely struggled with later DOS games (but then, so did the iPhone 4). So, for some of the earlier games, it'll go just fine.

And it will have way more than enough horsepower for SNES and Atari titles. And, I'm pretty sure 3GS era hardware ran an N64 emulator just fine, iirc, so even stuff as late as that might be feasible.

If you haven't seen it, you might take a look at retrode.org. I'm planning on pairing Retrode 2 hardware with a Pi for a dedicated retro gaming virtual console hooked up to my TV.

[chris_hu_cheng]

The stella 2600 emulator that is available as a Debian package works with sound after very minor fiddling on the Debian squeeze image.

I posted the details here: http://raspberry-fool.com/2012/07/atari-2600-emulation/

perfect little 2600 emulator