About to buy Raspberry Pi 3 for emulation, quick question

[misticknight1]

So im thinking of getting an RPi 3 for retropie, been reading up on installation seems easy enough, but i was wandering if there are slightly more expensive alternatives that will give me better compatibility? Something like this for example (though i cant find anything on it online that has retroarch running on it, im sure its possible)

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini...ebook&utm_medium=WebsiteC&utm_campaign=FB1508

ive heard the ouya can but i dont think you can plug USB controllers in, which id want to do with my SNES usb controller. is RPi the best option specially for its price?

 

[avinashlego]

The raspberry pi has an amazing community. Any other micro computer may not have such strong support. The raspberry pi forums will almost immediately have an answer for your questions. The RPi 3 is really powerful too, capable of PSP and Dreamcast at best. I definitely recommend it not only for the price to power ratio, but also for the community support you'll get.

 

[Harsky]

What type of consoles do you plan on playing? I loaded up every USA library of NES/SNES/Mega Drive/PC Engine games on my RPi2 and they run perfectly and I've not run into any real problems but I haven't tried out PSX/N64 yet ad they're not exactly 100%. The community support is fantastic so any problems, you can hop into a RPi forum and you'll find your answers or guides.

Expensive doesn't necessarily mean better. The box you linked is filled with bells and whistles but I bought a RPi2 and a 64gb micro SD card and it's still good value for money. Minor downsides is that I had to buy additional wifi adapters AND bluetooth adapters to get my PS3 controller working on it but since the RPi3 has them included on the circuit board, I'm a little sad I didn't wait for it.

 

[avinashlego]

Harsky is correct. What consoles do you expect to emulate?
Anything pre-2000 should be fine, with the exception of Dreamcast and PSP which do work quite well.

 

[misticknight1]

thanks for the replies guys, ended up getting a RPi 3 anyways. Just gotta wait for shipping now, i ordered from RS Components and only after ordering heard they have bad shipping times and some of the worse customer service (which ive already experienced) so idk if ill even get it lol. anyone have experience with them?

Edit: never mind just received it today don't know why they get such bad reviews outside the customer service, arrived way earlier than the ETA just 3 working days after being shipped from UK (I'm in Australia). Very happy.

 

[avinashlego]

Have fun!