3inch5 RPi LCD F G Retropie

Retropie System

Note: This system is not supported on Pi5.

Download System

1. Connect the TF card to the PC, download and use Raspberry Pi Imager to flash the corresponding system image.

2. After the image flashing is completed, open the config.txt file in the root directory of the TF card, add the following code at the end of the config.txt, save and safely eject the TF card.

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

3. After the flashing is completed, connect the HDMI display to the Raspberry Pi, start the Raspberry Pi, enter the system and press F4 on the keyboard to enter the terminal. (You can also log in to the terminal control interface via the network)

Configure WiFi

Enter raspi-config in the terminal to open the system configuration interface, and select System Options -> Wireless LAN


Select a country, here I selected CN China.


Enter the WIFI name.

Enter the WIFI password and restart to save.

Install Driver Module

Download and Install st7796 Driver Module

# Download and enter the Retropie_st7796s driver folder
https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/common/Retropie_st7796s.zip
cd Retropie_st7796s

# Run the driver
sudo make

# Copy the driver module into the kernel
sudo cp ./st7796s.ko  /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/staging/fbtft/

# Generate module dependency information
sudo depmod -a

Configure Driver Device Tree

cd
wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/common/Waveshare35f.dtbo
sudo cp Waveshare35f.dtbo /boot/overlays/

Download and Run Driver

Open the Raspberry Pi terminal and execute:

sudo apt install libraspberrypi-dev -y
sudo apt-get install unzip -y
sudo apt-get install cmake -y
sudo wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/common/Rpi-fbcp.zip
sudo unzip ./Rpi-fbcp.zip
cd rpi-fbcp/
sudo rm -rf build
sudo mkdir -m 777 ./build
cd ./build
sudo cmake ..
sudo make -j4
sudo install fbcp /usr/local/bin/fbcp
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/fbcp

Add Auto-start fbcp Configuration

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add the following statement before exit 0:

sleep 12
sudo fbcp &

Note that you must add "&" to run in the background. Otherwise, the system may not be able to start.

Edit config.txt Configuration File

Open config.txt file

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Add the following configuration at the end of [all]

gpu_mem_256 = 128
gpu_mem_512 = 256
gpu_mem_1024 = 256

overscan_scale=1 
dtparam=spi=on 
dtoverlay=Waveshare35f,fps=60,speed=48000000,rotate=90,ts_rotate_90
extra_transpose_buffer=2
max_usb_current=1
hdmi_force_hotplug=1 
hdmi_group=2 
hdmi_mode=87 
hdmi_cvt 480 320 60 6 0 0 0 
hdmi_drive=2 
display_hdmi_rotate=0

Set Full Screen Display

Edit the retroarch.cfg file

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

Add the following configuration at the end

aspect_ratio_index = 7

Restart to take effect

sudo reboot

Add Game

• Since most games have a large capacity, we do file system expansion before adding games.

Select RASPI-CONFIG in the Retropie menu interface

Select 7 Advanced Options -> A1 Expand Filesystem, then Enter -》Finish. (This process requires connecting a USB keyboard for operation)

Select OK to restart the system. After restarting, file system expansion is complete.

• Prepare the corresponding game ROMs.

Here is a very cool website recommended: http://coolrom.com/

You can download various game ROMs on a PC. For example, if we want to play Sony PlayStation games, we can choose it as below

Find the game you want to play inside and download it. For example: http://coolrom.com/roms/psx/39719/Tekken_3.php

Click here to download.

Unzip the downloaded file to get the following ROMs

• Update ROMs

Connect the network cable to the Raspberry Pi (the Raspberry Pi needs to be on the same local network as your PC). Find the SHOW IP under the RetroPie list and press "A" to find the current Raspberry Pi IP. As shown below:

On your PC, open the corresponding IP, as shown below:

Copy the ROMs to the relevant directories, as shown in the figure below:

Then in the simulator selection interface, press "Start"->QUIT->RESTART EMULATIONSTATION, press "A" to confirm. Restart the emulator and you'll see the newly added games.

So start your journey to retro consoles!