I grew up when retro gaming wasn’t retro. It was just … well, gaming. My first computer was a first-release Commodore 64, which sounded like it was thinking very hard all the time. Games took ages to load. If something didn’t work, you didn’t assume the system was broken. You assumed you’d done something wrong. That mindset has stuck with me, and is probably one of the reasons I flirt so much with Linux.
I’ve installed RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 3B more times than I should ever admit. Sometimes because I wanted to, and sometimes because I had to, after breaking it in a completely avoidable way. I’ve flashed the wrong image. I’ve used a power supply that was “close enough.” I’ve yanked the cable instead of shutting down properly. Every time I thought, “RetroPie is unstable,” but turns out it’s just me that’s unstable.
The Pi 3B is one of the most dependable little machines you can build. But it’s dependable in the same way old hardware was dependable. Treat it right and it behaves. Cut corners, and it quietly punishes you later. So let’s not cut corners.
What you need (and why the Pi 3B is still a sweet spot)
The hardware decisions that quietly decide your future mood
The Raspberry Pi 3B sits in a strangely perfect place. It’s not the newest board. It’s not the fastest; it’s just enough. Enough for 8-bit, enough for 16-bit, and enough for PlayStation 1 without diving into settings menus that feel like flight simulators. That “enough” matters more than people think.
Here’s what you actually need:
- Raspberry Pi 3B.
- A real 2.5A power supply.
- A decent 32GB microSD card.
- A wired USB controller for setup.
- HDMI cable and whatever screen you’ve got.
Now let me confess something. I, more than once, used a random power adapter from a drawer marked “probably good” because it fit, and I didn’t feel like ordering a new one. The system booted and even ran games. And then weird things started happening. Audio would crackle, and the input felt slightly off. Nothing catastrophic, but enough to make everything feel unreliable. That’s not the software, but the voltage.
The same goes for SD cards. Cheap cards don’t explode immediately, but fail slowly. They wait and choose a moment when you care about your save file. Spend the extra few dollars, just to be a little safer.
Performance-wise, the Pi 3B is happiest when you respect its comfort zone. NES, SNES, Mega Drive, C64, ZXSpectrum, Game Boy, GBA, PlayStation 1are all smooth, predictable, and boring in the best possible way.
Installing Nintendo 64 and PSP? Yes, technically, sometimes even beautifully. Sometimes, like a slideshow. If you enjoy tweaking and chasing that extra 5% performance, you can go down that rabbit hole. If your goal is to sit down and play something without adjusting five settings first, stay in the safe zone. This machine shines when you let it.
I Made My PC the Ultimate All-in-One Gaming Console—Here’s How
Every console I love, all in one place.
How to install RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 3B
Don’t overthink it and definitely don’t improvise
Go to the official RetroPie website. Download the image labeled for Raspberry Pi 2/3. Not the Pi 4 one, not “probably compatible.” The correct one is essential.
Flash it using Raspberry Pi Imager or Balena Etcher. I use the latter but both work. The important part is this: double-check the drive you’re flashing. I have, in a moment of autopilot confidence, wiped the wrong drive before. That sure is humbling.
Once it’s flashed, put the card in the Pi. Connect the HDMI and controller. When all is connected, it’s time for power. The Pi boots instantly. There’s something deeply satisfying about that. No corporate splash screen, and no updates pending. Just movement.
On the first boot, it expands the filesystem. Let it do its thing. This is not the time to get impatient. This is the moment when patience saves you from future forum posts.
It looks broken, but it isn’t.
Then EmulationStation appears and asks you to configure your controller. Hold a button, map the inputs, and skip the ones you don’t have. It feels slightly ceremonial the first time, like you’re officially telling the system how you plan to play. When this step is done, you’ll land on an empty screen. It looks broken, but it isn’t. It’s just waiting for games.
Connecting to the network and adding games
This is where it starts feeling real
Use ROMs from games you legally own, as RetroPie doesn’t ship with any games. I’m not going to lecture you, because that’s a legal discussion I plainly don’t want or need.
The easiest way to transfer games is over your local network. Go into the RetroPie menu. Launch the Wi-Fi tool. Type your password slowly with the on-screen keyboard like it’s 1999 again.
Once connected, the Pi shows up on your network as a shared device. Open it from another computer. Find the ROMs folder. Drop files into the right system directories. Some platforms don’t show up by default due to various restrictions, but most emulators are still accessible in RetroPie. You may have to add those folders manually.
Restart EmulationStation, and then something changes, when the empty screen fills with system names: NES, SNES, C64, and PlayStation. That moment never really gets old. It stops being a project and starts being a console.
If networking annoys you, use a USB stick. Insert it once, and let RetroPie build its folder structure. Copy ROMs over from another machine, plug it back in, and you’re done.
Performance is straightforward if you don’t fight reality, and classic systems run beautifully. PlayStation 1 feels right, which is surprisingly important, and early arcade titles behave.
Push into later arcade games, N64, or PSP, and things get pretty interesting. Some games run perfectly, some need tweaking, and some remind you that this is still a small board with limits.
There’s nothing wrong with experimenting. Just know when you’re experimenting and when you’re supposed to be playing.
Final tweaks that make RetroPie stick
The boring stuff that determines whether this stays plugged in
Here’s the part most guides rush through: Enable safe shutdown. I know, it feels unnecessary, until the day you pull the plug and your SD card decides it has had enough, and corruption doesn’t announce itself politely. Go into settings and explicitly set your audio output. HDMI or headphone jack. Don’t assume it will always guess correctly after a reboot. If your screen cuts off the edges, adjust overscan. You can live with slightly cropped menus, but why would you?
None of these steps are exciting. They won’t make you feel like you’re optimizing anything. But they are the difference between “I tried RetroPie once” and “this thing has lived under my TV for three years.” The Raspberry Pi 3B isn’t trying to replace modern consoles. It’s not pretending to be something it isn’t. It’s a small, quiet board that can turn into a machine you switch on and immediately start playing.
Which, if I’m honest, is still all I ever wanted from gaming in the first place.
