How to Build an NES Emulator

In this video my son Luke and I build a Retropie Nintendo Emulator with a raspberry pi 4. This is a great project to do with kids over the Holiday Season! I’m not huge into retro gaming, but this certainly takes me back to my childhood.

This NESPi 4 case looks like the original Nintendo Entertainment System that I grew up with in my childhood. Unfortunately my NES console died in my childhood when the electrical contacts no longer made a good connection with the game cartridges. So this project is my way of enjoying the games of my childhood again with my son.

PRODUCTS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO

NESPi 4 - COMPLETE KIT assembled by GeeekPi

GeeekPi RETROFLAG NESPi 4 Case Kit With RPi 4 4GB

Get it on Amazon
This kit includes everything you need to build this project EXCEPT a USB thumb drive for copying game ROM files from a computer to the retropie. If you don't have any components lying around, this is a great way to get started! Just add a USB flash drive linked below.

NESPi 4 - KIT (no Raspberry Pi) assembled by GeeekPi

RETROFLAG NESPi 4 Case Kit - no Raspberry Pi

Get it on Amazon
If you already have a raspberry pi 4, this kit has NES style case, controllers and other supplies you need aside from the raspberry pi 4. Again, you'll need a USB flash drive to copy ROM files from a computer to your retropie build.

NESPi 4 - Case, Power Supply and Heat Sink assembled by GeeekPi

GeeekPi RETROFLAG NESPi 4 Case

Get it on Amazon
If you already have a rasperry pi 4 and either already have controllers or want to buy some better controllers (perhaps wireless) than those included in the geeekpi kits above, then this kit is just the bare bones NES style case and heat sink.

SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Card

SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Card

Get it on Amazon
A few of the reviews of the GeeekPi kit reported issues with the cheaper off-brand SD-card included in the kit. It's always a great idea to have a spare brand-name SD card on hand! Especially if you want to ensure success when building this with kids who may not have patience for an Amazon return of a faulty item.

Premium USB Flash Drive

Premium Flash Drive: Kingston 64GB

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This USB flash drive has the blinking LED indicator light on it that lets you know when its busy (and when its done). It's also just a premium thumb drive. It's made of metal instead of plastic and is fairly high speed.

SanDisk 32GB Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive

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If you are looking for a low cost (but still brand name) flash drive, then this is the one. Its quite inexpensive - but does not have an LED activity light on it. So you don't always know when a system is done copying files to it unless you have another way to check.

Raspberry Pi 4 - 8gb Version

8GB Raspberry Pi 4 Single Board Computer

Get it on Amazon
If you are buying the nespi4 case alone and not a full kit, you can buy the raspberry pi on its own. One benefit of this is that you could go for the slightly higher end 8gb version of the raspberry pi 4 which has twice the memory of the one included in the GeeekPi full kit linked above. This is not necessary for really old games on the NES, but could be helpful for newer console emulators. And retropie does support a bunch of newer console emulators as well.

Raspberry Pi 4 - 4gb Version

4gb Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Get it on Amazon
Similar as mentioned above for the 8gb raspberry pi, you can of course buy the 4gb raspberry pi on its own too. In my case not all the GeeekPi kits were available on Amazon Prime (free shipping) in Canada. So it turned out to be a better deal to the partial kit with prime, and then get my raspberry pi separately also with free shipping. This 4gb rpi4 is the same as what is included in the GeeekPi full kit linked above.

DISCLOSURE: This description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you which helps support the channel.

TIMESTAMPS

  • 00:00 - Intro with Luke
  • 00:22 - Everything you need to build a RetroPie
  • 01:28 - NESPi Instruction Manual
  • 02:08 - Opening the NESPi 4 Case
  • 02:44 - Preparing the Raspberry Pi 4
  • 03:33 - Install Raspberry Pi in NESPi Case
  • 04:36 - Connect Raspberry Pi I/O
  • 05:39 - Install Raspberry Pi Heatsink
  • 07:59 - Hookup Rpi Cooling Fan
  • 08:40 - Attach Top of Case
  • 09:34 - Storing SSD Screws
  • 10:18 - Flashing SD Card with Raspberry Pi Imager Software
  • 12:19 - RetroPie First Boot Start-up
  • 12:40 - RetroPie Gamepad Configuration
  • 13:39 - Are RetroPie ROMS Legal?
  • 14:24 - How to Copy ROMS to RetroPie
  • 17:27 - Restart RetroPie before Playing
  • 18:12 - Super Mario Brothers 3 on RetroPie
  • 19:01 - Closing
  • 19:18 - Bonus: Outtakes

#benstechlab #raspberrypi #retropie