4-23 Image for FPZ - Slowdowns in Games?

[RxBrad]

First off, I'm really digging my Freeplay Zero. Sat down and got it all put together in one sitting Friday night after work.

Maybe I messed something up, but I have yet to find a SNES game that doesn't get bogged down while trying to play it. Wondering if anyone has any tips to make things a little peppier.

I've played SNES games on a Pi0 before and they've run perfectly, though my video was coming straight off the TV-out pad.

[Flavor]

I wonder if there's any changes in the latest RetroPie that would slow things down. The latest image has been updated to RetroPie v4.4. Otherwise, I can't think of anything.

As just a test, you should be able to use the same PiZero SD card you used before if you have it running off of HDMI and USB controller (power directly to the Pi). You can choose which emulator is used for each game. Maybe you had a different SNES emulator set up before?

[RxBrad]

I wonder if there's any changes in the latest RetroPie that would slow things down.  The latest image has been updated to RetroPie v4.4.  Otherwise, I can't think of anything.  

As just a test, you should be able to use the same PiZero SD card you used before if you have it running off of HDMI and USB controller (power directly to the Pi).  You can choose which emulator is used for each game.  Maybe you had a different SNES emulator set up before?

Thanks, I'll try a few other emulators and see if they improve the situation.  Go resurrect my DMG Pi0 Gameboy and see which emulators I was using on it.

I'd already tried changing the display resolution from 1024x768 to 640x480 in raspi-config, and tweaking the Retroarch cores to render at 1x native resolutions instead of 640x480.  Not much help.

Is the 4.4 Freeplay image from a fresh 4.4 Retropie image, or is it updated from a previous version?  I'd heard rumors that upgrading to 4.4 hasn't gone terribly smoothly for a lot of people, and the jump from Jessie to Stretch borked a few things sometimes.  Probably all a moot point if other people aren't having problems with the FPZ image... maybe I just lost the silicon lottery on my Pi.

[Flavor]

The latest Freeplay images are from the “stock” RetroPie 4.4 image. Then I just added our drivers/tweaks. Our tweaks don’t change any emulation settings except aspect ratio, IIRC.

[RxBrad]

The latest Freeplay images are from the “stock” RetroPie 4.4 image. Then I just added our drivers/tweaks. Our tweaks don’t change any emulation settings except aspect ratio, IIRC.

I'm actually doubting the integrity of the Pi Zero I used in my FPZ, as the USB plug on the Pi now appears to have quit working also. Given that it's an older non-W Pi, that makes it hard to do much of anything but play the few games I'd already transferred over. (no SSH, no scraping ROM info, no transferring ROMs or themes, and no keyboard even).

So, I have a Pi Zero W ordered and showing up tomorrow (I sure do wish I lived near a Microcenter). Maybe that one will run more smoothly.

[Flavor]

I'm actually doubting the integrity of the Pi Zero I used in my FPZ, as the USB plug on the Pi now appears to have quit working also. Given that it's an older non-W Pi, that makes it hard to do much of anything but play the few games I'd already transferred over. (no SSH, no scraping ROM info, no transferring ROMs or themes, and no keyboard even).

So, I have a Pi Zero W ordered and showing up tomorrow (I sure do wish I lived near a Microcenter). Maybe that one will run more smoothly.

Oh, wow.  I wonder what went wrong there.

[RxBrad]

I'm actually doubting the integrity of the Pi Zero I used in my FPZ, as the USB plug on the Pi now appears to have quit working also. Given that it's an older non-W Pi, that makes it hard to do much of anything but play the few games I'd already transferred over. (no SSH, no scraping ROM info, no transferring ROMs or themes, and no keyboard even).

So, I have a Pi Zero W ordered and showing up tomorrow (I sure do wish I lived near a Microcenter). Maybe that one will run more smoothly.

Oh, wow.  I wonder what went wrong there.

Jeez, I am having rotten luck getting my Freeplay up and running smoothly. 

The Pi Zero W I got is apparently from some faulty batch that got programmed in the factory as a Revision 000f 2012 Model B Raspberry Pi.

Now I get to see how receptive Amazon sellers are to taking back a Pi Zero W with a GPIO header and an SD reader extension soldered into it 

[Flavor]

What SD extension did you use? Can you post a photo?

[RxBrad]

What SD extension did you use?  Can you post a photo?

Heh.. it's totally from scratch using the SD adapter that came with the microSD card, soldered onto the SD card reader pins and the 3.3V pin on the Pi. Based on these directions.

It works, and is also basically what I did for my old DMG Pi. But, to rule out any problems with it, I'm doing all of my troubleshooting with the card directly in the Pi's SD card slot.

[Rob.c]

I think it may be retro arch. I swapped to non liberato emulators and snes/gba seems to run better. But then aspect ratios change. Gpsp (not lr-gpsp) has black borders top/bottom