For around 50 bucks, you can build your very own vintage gaming rig that will hook up to any HDMI-enabled TV or monitor. This guide will show you everything you need to do to get playing.

For this build, we're going to use RetroPie, an awesome software package that handles all your emulation needs.

What is RetroPie?

RetroPie is a software library used to emulate retro video games on the Raspberry Pi computer. It's one of the most popular Raspberry Pi projects out there and the most popular emulation system for the Raspberry Pi. RetroPie features a user-friendly interface and an even friendlier setup process.

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RetroPie runs Emulation Station and supports all major retro video game emulators, allowing you to play games from the NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari, and more on your Pi, thus becoming your own Raspberry Pi emulator. I always wondered why the developers called it RetroPie instead of RetroPi... but I digress.

Which Raspberry Pi should I use for RetroPie?

Any Raspberry Pi model can run RetroPie, but I recommend using the Raspberry Pi 4 since its more powerful GPU, CPU, and RAM capabilities will maximize the range of games you can play. I recommend the 2GB version of the Raspberry Pi 4; RAM doesn't matter too much beyond a certain point for emulating retro games. In other words, at a certain point, the limitation is on CPU and GPU, not RAM.