This Game HAT turns your Raspberry Pi into a classic game console. Relive all your handheld gaming nostalgia. 3.5inch IPS screen, 480x320 resolution; 60 frame experience, smoothly display, no more frame loss; Compatible with Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2B/3B/3B+ (Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W/Zero WH requires another HDMI cable).

1. Waveshare Game Hat Instructions

1. Game HAT User Manual 1) Download and unzip it to get.img file 2) Write the.img file to TF card by Win32DiskImager.exe 3) After writing, copy Game HAT driver you download to root directory of the TF card. 4) Open the config.txt file which is also on root directory, append these statements to config file hdmiforcehotplug=1 hdmigroup=2.
2. 13.3inch e-Paper e-Ink Display HAT For Raspberry Pi, 1600×1200, Black / White, 16 Grey Scales, USB / SPI / I80 Add to Cart Add to Compare $42.29 - $43.99.

Waveshare Game Hat review

If IKEA made game consoles, it would be Waveshare Game Hat. Some assembly required, but you can get it working in 10 minutes without any special skills. And no soldering!

After that, you've got all possibilities of standard Raspberry Pi (which are endless) in the portable factor. Besides playing games, you could easily install Kodi, and watch videos and Youtube. And the list of compatible games goes far beyond console emulators. Personally, I recommend:

• Retro City Rampage (DOS version is in Steam folder)
• Alladin (Sega Genesis)
• Lost Vikings (Sega Genesis)
• Sokoban/Shove it (Sega Genesis)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX)
• Exprore world of awesome new Games

This is standard Raspberry Pi running Linux, not custom chip. As you probably know Raspberry Pi 3 can handle 1080 movies and PSX games without any issues.

Awesome.

Pros & Cons

• Pros
  • It is Raspberry Pi!
  • Good display
  • Really simple to assemble and setup
  • Cheaper and has better compatibility than alternative products
• Cons
  • Buttons are bit loud
  • Joystick throw is too big. 3D printed limiter solves this (see Elegant case ↓).
  • Due to technical specifics, if you unplug the device from the charger, it reboots. Don't forget to save! (plugging in works fine)
  • For PlayStation fans, note that there are only two shoulder buttons instead of 4

Case

The device is pretty solid even without a case. You can 3d print one if you want. Currently, there are multiple options:

• Simple case
  • Looks a bit bulky
  • The author also suggests to solder on DPad instead of Joystick, but you can put it without any modifications
• Elegant case
  • Your console will look like factory made and user-friendly product
  • The download of model costs 7 bucks (in addition to the price of 3d printing)
  • [Optional] Author says you will need to get Adafruit silicone buttons or (cheap alternative from Ebay) and solder them in instead of existing ones, but I've used 3d printed case without any modifications and it fitted ok
  • The model also contains limiter for joystick, which makes handling better
  • You will also need two M3x16mm flat head screws and two M1x5mm screws.
  • Note that USB port will be not accessible, even if you drill a hole in the case

Gamehat 3D printed case

Battery

I bought Keeppower 18650 Protected Battery, with 3.7v, 15A, 3000mAh for 10€. Works good, lasts around 3 hours. You can buy more expensive battery with higher mAh. Or if you feel adventurous try cheaper battery with the risk of explosion.

Configuration

If you are using default Waveshare GameHat image almost everything will work out the box.

Some additional useful keybindings:

• Volume control on Select +↓/↑
• Saving game state on Select + TL (Left shoulder)
• Loading game state on Select + TR (Right shoulder)
  • Will also handy to skip all these loading screens/cutscenes on PlayStation

Edit /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/GPIO Controller 1.cfg. Append:

DOSBox

To play DOS games on Waveshare Gamehat, you will need to download config that maps joystick and buttons to the keyboard.

Alternatives

Note that Waveshare also has smaller GamePi15 (for Pi Zero) and larger GamePi43.

This fills void left after Dingoo A320. Raspberry Pi is standard de facto,and has much better compatibility/support than any other alternatives:

• PXP - Sega only
• Joystick for iPhone/Android - requires smartphone
• RS-97 - lots of compatibility issues
• Retrostone
  • No wifi/bluetooth
  • Custom made PCB, based Orange Pi not Raspberry Pi
  • The screen is connected via the analog port, more blurry that GameHat which uses HDMI
• PiGRRL Zero - Pi zero is slow for PSX games
• PiGRRL - more expensive, require soldering
• NewGameberry more expensive

Follow

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• 3User Gudies
• 4Setup WIFI
• 7Resources
• 8Support

Note

Please focus on the direction of battery, if you reversely connecting the battery, the charging circuit will be damaged, so please pay attention to it when you mounting the battery.

Features

• 3.5inch IPS screen, 480×320 resolution
• 60 frame experience, smoothly display, no more frame loss
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2B/3B/3B+/4B (Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W/Zero WH requires another HDMI cable)
• Integrates battery charge circuitry, powered from a 18650 lithium battery (NOT included), plays anywhere anytime
• Battery capacity indicator
• Onboard speaker and earphone jack, listen to the familiar BGM from the old days

User Gudies

Hardware Connection

• Insert Raspberry Pi to Game HAT (GPIO pins header)
• Connect HDMI. Insert the HDMI connector to screen and Raspberry Pi

  If you use Raspberry Pi Zero/Raspberry Pi Zero W, you need to use HDMI cable

• Toggle the Battery switch of Game HAT to OFF, and mount 18650 battery to it.

Method 1, Use Pre-build Image

• Unzip the ZIP and write the image file to TF card
• Inset the ready TF card to your Raspberry Pi, toggle Battery switch to ON.

  If the battery is low, Raspberry Pi cannot startup. In this case, you can connect a 5V/2A power supply to the Power interface of Game HAT for charging. The charge indicator will flicker when charging. You can play during charging but note that Raspberry Pi will reboot automatically if you disconnect the power supply.

  If the battery is full Raspberry Pi will start up normally.

• After entering OS, you can choose emulators by joystick. For example, choose the Nintendo emulator and press “A” to confirm.
• You can see there are some games. Choose one and press “A” to enter. After the cutscene, you can press the “A” or “Start” key to start the game.
• If you want to exit from the current game, you can press buttons “Start” and ”Select” at the same times
• You can press the 4 buttons on the right side of Game HAT to adjust volume and brightness of LCD, Press Menu to open the OSD menu, and press Up/Left or Down/Right to choose options, then press Menu to confirm option and adjust it. Finally, press Exit to exit the OSD menu.

Method 2. Install Driver Manually (Retropie)

The driver cannot support Retropie-v4.7, please wait for updating

• Please download the Retropie image on the Retropie website according to the type of your Raspberry Pi.

• Download and unzip it to get .img file
• Write the .img file to TF card by Win32DiskImager.exe
• After writing, copy the Game HAT driver you download to the root directory of the TF card.
• Open the config.txt file which is also on the root directory, append these statements to the config file

• Inset the TF card and a USB keyboard to Raspberry Pi, open Battery switch to power on Raspberry Pi. After booting, press F4 to open Terminal.
• Execute commands as blow. (Make sure you have copy driver to Raspberry Pi)

• Reboot Raspberry Pi. Long press the “A” button (other keys are OK as well) to enter the buttons configuration page. Configure keys as below. You can also long-press “A” or other buttons to pass the configuration.

• After configuring:

  Press the “A” button to save configurations and exit.

  Or press the “B” button to cancel configurations and exit without saving.

• The configuration is finished and you can try to play games now.

Add New Game

Maybe the default games in the test image are not those you want, you can also add games as you like.

• Size of most games are always large, so we need to expand the filesystem fist. Choose RASPI-CONFIG on configure page and press enter

• Choose 7 Advanced Options -> A1 Expand Filesystem, Enter->Finish, (physical keyboard is required)

• Choose OK, and reboot.
• Download ROMS of games you like

• Connect your Raspberry Pi to the network (Make sure the network you connect is in the same LAN as your PC). Find SHOW IP in Retropie list, press “A” to query the current IP address of your Raspberry Pi.

• Open it with the IP address on your PC

• Then on the emulator choose the page, you can press “Start”->QUIT->RESTART EMULATIONSTAION, press “A” to confirm. Then restart the emulator, you can find the game added.

For more operations, you can read Retropie Instructions

Method 2. Install Driver Manually (Recalbox)

• Download the newest Recalbox image

• Write the image to your TF card and modify config.txt file

Add lines to config.txt file:

• Access Recalbox by SSH (network is required)

User：root Passwird：recalboxroot

Modify recalbox file

Change the line 'controllers.gpio.enabled=0' to 'controllers.gpio.enabled=1'

Change the line 'controller.gpio.args=map=1,2' to 'controllers.gpio.args=map=4 gpio=5,6,13,19,21,4,26,12,23,20,16,18,-1'

• Modify recalbox-config.sh file

After the following lines
mode='$2'
extra1='$3'
extra2='$4'
Add a line extra3='$5'
Find the following part
Change map='$extra2' to map='$extra2 $extra3'

• Save and reboot Raspberry Pi. After booting, long-press any buttons of Game HAT to configure the keys.

Setup WIFI

Setup WIFI in Retropie or Raspberry Pi OS

• Download the archive below and unzip it to get the wpa_supplicant.conf file, open and modify the SSID and password, then save it.

• Copy the modified wpa_supplicant.conf file to the root directory of Raspberry Pi OS/Retropie and reboot.

Setup WIFI in Recalbox OS

• Press START to enter the MENU按
• Choose NETWORK SETTING
• Set the ENABLE WIFI to ON
• Choose 'WIFI SSID' and enter the SSID
• Choose 'WIFI KEY' and enter the password

• After connecting, RecalBox will check updating.

Interfaces

NC: Not connected

FAQ

Resources

Images

Driver

3D Drawing

Support

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Waveshare Game Hat Instructions