Which is BEST for a home arcade? Retro Pie vs MiSTer

Putting the Raspberry Pi and MiSTer head-to-head in my home-made arcade cabinet to see which I prefer, customising the MiSTer's theme and look at the Pros and Cons of each.
NEW RETRO ADVENTURES | The games, toys and technology from the 💾 80s, 💿 90's and 🚀 beyond. If it looks like retro and smells like retro, we're doing it!
00:00 Intro
00:41 Overview
01:53 Current Retro Pie Setup
02:34 Preparing the MiSTer
02:56 Custom MiSTer Background
03:06 Custom MiSTer Font
03:22 How it looks now
03:38 Notable differences
04:35 Pros and Cons
06:26 Summary
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⭐️LINKS⭐️
Overview of the MiSTer
• MiSTer - Unbeatable Re...
MiSTer case assembly
• MiSTer - Assembly, Acr...
Streaming Live Radio with MiSTer • Stream Live Radio with...
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Useful links:
www.misterfpga.co.uk - Acrylic cases, MiSTer add-ons and more!
misterfpga.org - Goldmine of information and help
mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs... - Complete documentation resource
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#mister #retropie #arcade #gaming #rpi #misterfpga # 80s #90s #retro #retrogaming #fpga #emulation #emulator #tutorial

[@marcroulleau9510]

Your video is interesting and well made. The comments here are great too. Thank you

[@merman1974]

Very interesting video, love the Aliens cab and the customisations you have there. Seems like it was easy to get the MiSTer into your setup.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Thank you. Yeah it was fairly trivial, testament to the hard work the MiSTer team have put in over the years.

[@w4lsh]

Usually I think home built coinops look a bit crap but yours looks authentic, you have my approval.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Haha thanks mate. TBF if it turned out really bad I wouldn’t want it in the house 😆

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

I ❤️ my MiSTer! Poor Raspberry Pi doesn’t see much use now! It’s that boot time, the controller support, ease of having fun with cheats, the way it glitches and changes screen modes like real hardware, the sound and on Mega Drive real PAL borders and CRAM dots!

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Same. It’s so nice playing things and getting those little visual clues that it’s the real deal.

[@kennethd4958]

I see comparisons of these devices all the time and you did a great break down. I don’t like to compare them that much because one is definitely an enthusiasts product (Mister) while the other is for more casual gaming though I consider myself an enthusiast and I use my RPi 4 all the time. I think people don’t realize that the Mister can only plan certain consoles and the PS1 and Saturn cores currently being developed are pretty much the top of the performance level it will go.. and some bigger consoles (N64) aren’t even able to run on it. With the cost of the Mister being so high now.. people really need to research it before they buy. I don’t see the point in owning one right now as I have consoles and a PC and my RPi 4’s… it makes no sense to me to have a Mister when I’d have to switch to my RPi if I want to play say N64 or Dreamcast.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Great comment. I tried to highlight the benefits of both as they’re great solutions. I do find myself using MiSTer more than original hardware due to the convenience and accuracy. PS1 is really up there now and all eyes are on Saturn but you’re right that is the limit for now. It will take a revision of the DE-10 with a larger FPGA to see further improvements but it will happen (at further cost). All that said it’s hard to beat RPi on a cost to performance basis, about 8 years ago I put a Pi into a Mega Drive shell and wired up the controller ports to the GPIO… to use original controllers. that was a fun project and a great example of the flexibility of the Pi as a platform.

[@MikkyTee]

I agree, i have almost exactly the same setup as you. Mister, which i use on a 25in trinitron with a dell 4:3 for vertical arcades, and a home built arcade upright cabient with a pi 3b+ running retropie. I've had the cabinet for a few years now, and in all honesty dont use it all that much, but the mister has had plenty of use, more so since i found that sony crt in a skip nearby. The range of games for mister is improving almost daily, and it cant be beaten for accuracy. It's so versatile, i can boot into any 8 or 16bit console/computer and its all there. The cabinet has its own place though with proper controls and a coin slot for that true arcade experience we all wish we could go back to ;) Nice work fella :)

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Haha yeah exact same. I think I’ve probably spent more time building and messing around with the cab than actually playing but it’s all good fun. MiSTer I use almost daily. Can’t get enough.

[@MikkyTee]

@@NewRetroAdventures ps, I tried your video mode line for the dell monitor. On mine, I get a picture ok, but it flashes on and off randomly. It’s a 2007fpb, 1600x1200. Connected using hdmi to vga cable. Any ideas?

[@NewRetroAdventures]

@@MikkyTee hmm I’m not sure. I just found it from a Google search, I have no real idea what most of the numbers mean 😆 I guess I got lucky.

[@PepeBarbera]

There's a perfect balance between education and entertainment.

[@intergalacticproctologist]

Best answer, is going hybrid. Which is exactly what i am doing in my current arcade build. Love your channel btw!!!!

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Thank you 🙏 That’s a great idea! There’s definitely benefits to both, for cores that are available MiSTer is perfect, but the PI puts up a good fight.

[@Lallander]

The MiSTer and especially the new MiSTercade really shine in original hardware. Slap one of those into a JAMMA compatible arcade cabinet and take your gaming to the next level. I'm waiting on a Japanese style candy cabinet to arrive for that very purpose.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Great suggestion. If I had the space I’d do this in a snap. It’s definitely one for the future…

[@Lallander]

The amount of space required to fit a candy cab is surprisingly small. With some effort I think I might even be able to make room for two and set them up in Versus mode.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

@@Lallander show off 😝👍

[@tecteam]

Quality over quantity is key with mister, also the amount of controllers that are supported even originals via snac adapters. Updates are also better and frequent. Overall I say it’s down to soft or hardware emulation, when you consider real hardware costs vs mister then the costs are amazing value.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

💯🙌 this is precisely it… there’s benefits to both but if you want the best, most accurate experience it’s MiSTer every time

[@misterretrowolf1464]

I agree - I have a modded Arcade1Up cab with a Pi in it. I also have a MiSTer setup, but the amount of games in the Pi is excellent. Just have both, like you have. Pretty much the same as me.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Yeah, best of both worlds. Can’t beat it

[@SaviorGabriel]

The biggest pro for me with MiSTer is how easy it is to work with. Running the update_all script regularly does most of the work for me. Everytime I try to tinker with emulation, something ends up not working right for me.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Absolutely. I’ve spent days in the past configuring systems for emulation, but MiSTer enables you to get right into it and always stays up to date.

[@rvkasper]

The mister menu core coupled with that font and wallpaper is straight money! Looks like what one might see on a monitor on the Nostromo itself. Great videa

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Oh yeah! Lots of people change the background but I don’t think it’s widely know that you can customise the font.

[@rvkasper]

@@NewRetroAdventures just got my de10-nano last night - I will be doing all the customizations! I love tinkering. Love the channel

[@NewRetroAdventures]

@@rvkasper thanks Ryan. It’s an amazing machine. Have fun!

[@10p6]

Great cabinet and interesting review. One should remember though, that is Mister is still emulation, just hardware emulation, and many cores are not as accurate as you think they are. Also, Mister has two Arm cores on the board which could, should be developed into allowing one to use software emulation on Mister too, like on the pie.

[@odinsbeard4775]

One thing I love about the Retro Pie is getting Arcade games working is super easy compared to other systems. At least in my experience. It seems like MAME on the PC is more picky. If you don't have a specific revision of a MAME ROMs pack, you can't even get the ROMs to fire up.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

It can be a bit of a headache managing MAME romsets. I think the Retro Pie team do a great job in this regard and failing that you can always grab pre-built images, some are really well constructed.

[@marccaselle8108]

With RetroPie specifically on a Pi3B+ or pi4. You have a few options for mame roms. Lr-mame 2003, lr-mame 2010 I think, and there was another mame version number. You just need the exact and mean exact, corresponding ROM sets. You also have an option of lr-fbneo. Like lr-mame2003, you need the exact romset to use with lr-fbneo. Once you got that all sorted out, your good. 🙂

[@crtified1001]

The MiSTer gets the most out of the games. When you want to settle down to an "ok this is the best this game gets" experience, it's hard to beat. But it also reinvents the wheel a lot, by virtue of it's unique architecture. There are games and features (like Save States, for about half of the systems) that software emulation already achieved 10-20 years ago, which may never make it to the MiSTer.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

💯 agree, it’s about picking the right tool for the job! I’m just happy we live in a world with so many options for retro gaming.

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

Software emulation has faults since 3 decades which dont get fixed bc its not possible to fix them bc its sw emulation. Thats the truth many pifans ignore to have a not accurate experience. ;)

[@thalamay]

@@ninetendopesaitama2107 Maybe people don’t ignore it but decide to live with it as part of a cost-benefit analysis. SW-emulation has come a long way, the tiny differences in the way things are rendered really don’t bother anyone but the most hardcore of hardcore purists. What is true however is that there will probably always be either a tiny input-lag or skipped frames. Vanilla players will likely never realise it though. But if you want to practice for competitive gaming on the real machines for example, the MISTER is a great way of doing so without having to buy the original boards. At the end of the day, the question is: - Is the reduction in input lag worth paying hundreds of dollars for while getting a less convenient solution which will require more tinkering, give you less machines to emulate and a worse UI/UX? The answer will vary from person to person. Real enthusiasts will only want to play on the original hardware anyway. Casual players who like to go back in time to experience the games of their youth will probably be happy with SW-emulation. If you’re in-between, the MISTER could be a great alternative though.

[@justz00t48]

Got a MiSTer in my Sega Blast City and it feels exactly like owning the original boards. It's really a must have for getting a authentic classic arcade experience without owning original boards.

[@slerched]

I wonder if some of the cons you have on the Pi 3B could be alleviated moving to the Pi4? Won't fix input lag but could possibly give a more stable FPS. I had the Pi 3B setup on my TV, but ended up with Mister for the console accuracy. Doesn't mean I couldn't have just lived with the Pi of course as it is a nice solution.

[@bogarvus]

Great vid Gabbo! What's the shmup featured in this? Looked excellent ! X

[@NewRetroAdventures]

It’s DoDonPachi… it’s excellent! Not super difficult to get into, should be able to fly through first 3 or 4 levels without too much of an issue once you get the hang of it.

[@KoncadeGaming]

Your aliens themeing is fire 🔥

[@eodninja6]

I love your Aliens theme, please tell me more

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Thank you. My wife is a big fan so I offered to make it Aliens theme so she would allow me to have a cab in the house. I designed the graphics and got them printed to fit precisely to my plans.

[@RetroGamingBoards]

Great video, I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with a similar setup, but have found differences when playing a game on original hardware compared to the pi - latency, fps. Hopefully the Mister will improve in features and lower costs to become a real competitor to the latest pi, unless the pi releases a new improved board.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

I think both are compelling ways to play. I don’t regret buying MiSTer as it enables me to play many systems and games the way they were intended

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

The MiSTer is a competitor to real hardware not to the emulation box called raspi. Thats the mistake all emulation fans make. Try again. :)

[@RetroGamingBoards]

I meant a real competitor in terms of convincing buyers to invest in the Mister system, instead of raspberry pi’s. I agree they are very different, Mister is hardware emulation compared to the pi’s software emulation, but to newbies both appear to be just a means of playing retro games.

[@AlexRoseGames]

it will never get cheaper, only more expensive. but it will keep increasing in cores

[@arcadeinsertcoin4391]

Hi ty you for the compare but to have the same quality back in the 80' 90' you need a CRT Monitor if you can a Sony BVM CRT

[@mirabilis]

You could try vsync_adjust=2 and see if that gives you a smoother frame rate. Cheers.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Great tip, I’ll give it a shot. Thank you

[@markspencer9165]

Thanks , Where did you get the cabinet from

[@NewRetroAdventures]

I had to make it myself so it would fit in the house, so isn’t as tall or deep as a proper cab.

[@James-fo8rf]

Fair assessment. Considering the mister FPGA is the price of ps5 it’s not for everyone.

[@AlexRoseGames]

while this is true, 2 things: 1. I play mister about 100 times as much as ps5, as the ps5 lacks games 2. consider the price of what mister replaces, e.g.: 2.i. let's say you want to use a real SNES with all the games. an everdrive will put you down $200. let's say you want hdmi out, now you need e.g. a tink to get low latency to your hdtv. now you are paying more than the cost of mister just for a snes, and on mister you can use any controller, bluetooth etc. 2ii. let's say you want to play your real game of pokemon with an n64 transfer pak on your n64 and plug into a hdtv. again, you need a tink for low latency. $325 2iii. let's say you want to fiddle around on an accurate amiga. okay now you're paying $250 for the hardware when you buy a mister you get everything for one price. if faffing about with emulators and losing dozens of hours all the time in settings menus and still getting an imperfect experience is acceptable then emulation is a much cheaper and better solution for you, but if you want a streamlined accurate experience then you're getting a huge number of things in one package

[@mattsebastian97]

Curious what USB encoder you are using for your joysticks/buttons?

[@NewRetroAdventures]

It was something similar to this. SJJX 2 Player Zero Delay Generic Game Controller USB Encoder Board to Joystick for MAME & Raspberry Pi 1/2/3 RetroPie DIY Projects Support for SANWA Parts amzn.eu/d/6mbSWRE There’s often an issue whereby both register as player one, but I’ve always been able to solve it with some fanangling. I didn’t get that far with the MiSTer, but I’m sure it can be solved

[@overdriver99]

you need to put PC in it.. with Coinops. It will be best of both world... or just an upgrade from retropie. for Arcade input lag or accuracy I would search for GroovyMame. It does support CRT with great accuracy. I have both 3 raspberry PI and 2 Mister FPGA and PC. I use all of them. I am more toward 90's arcade game fanatics.. so I play PC & Raspberry pi if Mister does not support specific arcade game. BTW, I am so impressed by your Alien inspired theme. It looks fantastic!!

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Thanks for watching. I think PC would be a fine solution. I’ve not tried CoinOps before, but I’ve seen plenty of videos from ETAPrime and others that sing it’s praises. It would certainly be nice to play Naomi games and later releases. I’d also be keen to get a Sinden gun at some point… so many things to try 🤩

[@intergalacticproctologist]

Also, love the font! How can one set it up like yours?

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Check in the font folder on MiSTer you should have them installed, then you need to just alter the line in mister.ini list here: github.com/MiSTer-devel/Fonts_MiSTer

[@intergalacticproctologist]

@@NewRetroAdventures perfect, thank you very much!

[@CSIG1001]

Final Burn Neo emulation is practically on par with mister

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Would a Raspberry Pi 4 offer better frame rates for the RetroPi option? Possibly expanding the games you can emulate too. With faster processing, could input latency be reduced too? I haven't tried so I don't know.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

I haven’t tried either, sounds like a new project 👍

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

Nope. Faster processing cant fix latency or audio issues. If that was the case we had accurate emulation 20 years ago on PC. Which we still not have. On current PCs.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

@@ninetendopesaitama2107 from Retropie's website: "The Raspberry Pi 4 has a significant bump in CPU horsepower, leaving some headroom for more aggressive input lag tweaks across many of the 2D cores in RetroPie. It can also be worth experimenting with Run Ahead,"

[@pgtmr2713]

@@AFourEyedGeek I don't know what this Ninetendope is talking about. You can enjoy thousands of games on a Pi4, timing indistinguishable from the real deal. Pi3B+ is like 90's internet compared to a Pi4 today's internet. Overclock overclock overclock!!! All 4 of my Pi4Bs are overclocked have been since purchase. My 2 Rev 1.3 overclock higher, than my 2 Rev 1.1. PSP, PS1 flawlessly and some Dreamcast, N64. If there's an issue try the settings in the menu, or the particular overclock. Aluminum heatsink, fan, USB boot with faster flash, use an official power supply for the extra volts for overclocking. I use Twister OS. Retropie comes on the desktop.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

@@pgtmr2713 Good to know

[@bazza5699]

I opted for the clear case for the mister but the more i see the smoky grey case the more i like it.. do you thnk the experience would have been even better with a crt? i've just managed to get hold of a 25" crt tv, arriving this week. so i'm eager to see if the games are more like how i remember them being.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Oh it’s definitely better on CRT. But MiSTer has so little latency it’s a great option for modern displays as well IMO. My carpentry skills weren’t up to supporting a CRT in the cab 😆 I had mine hooked up to a 25” Pano for a while but the set recently had to go 😞 I’m on the hunt for a Trinitron or B&O now.

[@bazza5699]

@@NewRetroAdventures hah yeah the one I found on eBay is a 25" Panasonic.. I'm in Hull, so without travelling absolutely miles there's very slim pickings for retro tech. I did have an old 14" Philips colour TV I bought in the early 90's for my Amiga, I'd kept it, but last year it went POP and since then I've been looking for a replacement. It's gutting when I think back to when I was a kid and everyone was flogging different systems so cheap.. no one put any real value on them.

[@NewRetroAdventures]

@@bazza5699 LMAO yeah it's crazy. I mainly check FB marketplace where a lot of people just want to get rid of them. eBay is mostly a joke now. 5 or 6 years ago you could walk into British Heart Foundation and take your pick of dozens of decent CRTs but they're long gone.

[@bazza5699]

@@NewRetroAdventures yeah i'm my own worst enemy really since i dont have and never have had a facebook account.. it's a hill i'm prepared to die on.. (and one i'll end up paying over the odds for on ebay because of)

[@bazza5699]

@@NewRetroAdventures got the crt this afternoon.. can't seem to get the backgrounds to come up anymore, stuck in static background.. F1 doesn't do anything when pressed. arghh..

[@RetroGamingBoards]

Can you play with wireless controllers with the mister???

[@NewRetroAdventures]

Yeah there’s a bunch of ways to use wireless controllers. Check the Misterfpga forums for specifics

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

Of course. Every wireless controller i have worked.

[@Vulto166]

I really don't care about cosmetics and fancy menus. Mister menu is perfect imo.

[@robertl8069]

Use a Pi 4

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Neither of the 2: RetroPie runs on a junk platform that is near dead: The Raspberry Pi has no commercial value in 2024, and setting up Debian and managing the system over SSH and such is a nightmare. Its 22nm processor is obsolete, overpriced and very hard to get. Any for free or near free Haswell system or better has better performance per watt and is way easier to manage. Alone for audio-output the Pi is worthless, as it has no DAC built in, so you only have audio over HDMI, or via expensive external DAC modules on the USB bus. And who has a HDMI TV with proper sound? Do those exist uberhaupt? The Mister is not your ideal partner either, it is even more than the Pi scalper territory, and way overpriced. 400€ is easily spend on one nowadays. My advice to the novice that wants to play to multi-console games is get the cheapest Core2Duo/i3 system you can find, 25€ max, and load it with Retroarch. Forget about a frontend for now, as no really good one exists, so the Retroarch half-baked user interface will be acceptable considering the low price of the system. Nope, the frontend stack of retroPie is not good. Stacking Retropie ontop of Emulationstation on top of Retroarch on top of various emulators is no good idea.

[@retroman--]

In 2022 why anyone would be using retropie and not Batocera is beyond me. Batocera is the best. I stopped using Retorpie, BigBox, RetroBat because Batocera is far better