Adding ROMS to mintyPi Lite without wifi

[Retrobob]

Good day! I am new to a lot of this, but I did successfully assemble my mintyPi lite using the guides provided. I very much enjoyed the project, but I seem to have hit a snag.

When I had been ordering my parts, I had read somewhere to use the Raspberry Zero, and that the Raspberry Pi Zero W was not recommended. Now I seem to be unable to add ROM since the guides I found seem to only list wireless transfers.

Is it necessary for me to purchase a Raspberry Pi Zero W, and switch it with the Pi I already have soldered, or is there an alternative way to do this?

Thanks for the assistance!

[Retrobob]

I think I have solved my problem from reading older guides.

"USB ROM Service (easier and faster)
Before you put it in the tin and while you still have access to the USB port (and BEFORE you solder the USB data wires from the sound card to the bottom of the Pi) you can use the USB rom service built-in to RetroPie. I have this enabled by default on the pre-made RetroPie image. To use this, format a USB thumb drive to FAT32, add an empty folder named ‘retropie’, plug it into your Pi and boot it up. After it’s done booting, remove the USB drive, and put it back in your computer. You should now have a bunch of subfolders within that retropie folder, for various game systems. Now you can put whatever games you want into the correct system folder (so a super nintendo game would go in the ‘snes’ folder), and the next time you stick it in the pi, it will automatically copy over the games. Be aware that there is no progress indicator and it can take a while depending on how many games you put on it. Also be aware that the games won’t show up until the next time you reboot, or if you select “restart emulationstation” from the start menu."

With this info, I am hoping that a USB-C to USB adapter will allow me attach a USB jump drive to the USB-C. The only other option I can see is a micro USB to USB adapter, and either using the jump drive there, or attaching a wifi dongle. I will document my results here when and if these solutions work. Hopefully this info helps someone whom finds their self in the same predicament as me .

[Xythatoneguyyx]

I may be wrong here since I too have just dove into the world of retro gaming with raspberry pi but.... you could probably take out the microsd card, plug it into your comp and throw the roms into it from there? Just make sure to go into the correct console folder. For example snes folder for snes roms or gba folder for gba roms. Hope I pointed you in the right direction.

[Retrobob]

I had hoped for something similar, but I was unable to find a folder like that, and since it wasn’t that straight forward with the Freeplay CM3, I quickly gave up searching for such a folder. I will take a deeper look through it later though, just in case!

Thanks for the input!

[Helder]

Without wifi you either need a Linux driver for Windows PCs or use a Linux OS to see the other partitions on the SD card. Personally I use the Driver from Paragon called: ExtFS for Windows

[Retrobob]

I can confirm that while using the USB-C to USB adapter, and attempting the USB ROM service, failed for me.

Thank you Helder for the advice on the Driver from Paragon called: ExtFS for Windows; it worked in the sense that I was able to explore the Linux portion of the SD card, and that is excellent to know about! I managed to find the ROMS folder, and the list of systems were all there. New issue: when I add ROMS, and then put the SD card back into the mintyPi, there is no sign that the ROMS are there, and when I checked the SD card after, all the ROMS I added had been deleted.

[Retrobob]

Update: I now have games on the mintypi Lite! What ended up working for my Raspberry Pi Zero (without wireless), was attaching a micro-USB to USB, and attaching a USB Wifi dongle, and then following the guide I have seen most often: https://www.sudomod.com/wiki/index.php/ ... rring_ROMs

This info will likely be redundant for anyone with the Raspberry Pi wireless, but hopefully the information will be useful to someone.

Good luck, and thanks for the fun project!