Cupcade — being based on RetroPie — does not come with games installed. However it’s easy to install all manner of game system ROMs over the network.

Freely-distributable “homebrew” games have been developed for most gaming consoles, and even a few that could work with arcade hardware. In a few rare cases, such as the Vectrex system, the games were legitimately released into the public domain before the company folded. Try a Google search for a game system that appeals to you, such as “NES homebrew ROM” or “Atari homebrew ROM” and see what you can uncover.

Some Free MAME (Arcade) ROMs

When testing Cupcade, you'll want to have a game to play! There are a few free non-commercial ROMs available for testing your setup available. Visit the page at http://mamedev.org/roms/ and download the Robby Roto (horizontal video) or Super Tank (vertical video) ROMs.

Neither runs quite perfectly on the Cupcade (they use different screen resolutions) but are sufficient for testing the sound, buttons and joystick.

When testing Cupcade, you'll want to have a game to play! There are a few free non-commercial ROMs available for testing your setup available. Visit the page at http://mamedev.org/roms/ and download the Robby Roto (horizontal video) or Super Tank (vertical video) ROMs.

Neither runs quite perfectly on the Cupcade (they use different screen resolutions) but are sufficient for testing the sound, buttons and joystick.

Don't decompress the ZIP files! Keep the ROM files in the ZIP!

Moving ROMs Over the Network

The Pi system should appear on your network as retropie.local, where it appears as a SMB file server.

If using a Windows system and it doesn’t recognize the “retropie.local” system on the network, you may need to install the Zeroconf software as explained in this guide.

Here’s how one typically connects from a Mac, using the Finder’s Go→Connect to Server… option. Windows, Linux will have their own equivalent functions.

When prompted, connect as a guest rather than a registered user. This should then present a list of volumes to mount. Pick “roms,” then “OK.”

(If this doesn’t work for you, try connecting as a registered user, with “pi” and “raspberry” as the username and password, respectively.)

You’ll be greeted with a collection of folders, one for each type of system that RetroPie can emulate.

MAME ROMs should go in the “mame-libretro” folder, NES ROMs in the “nes” folder, and so forth.

Eject the “roms” volume when you’re finished.

RetroPie doesn’t pick up on the fact you’ve installed new ROMs for a system…one extra step is needed…

Navigate to RetroPie’s main menu and select the “Quit” option. In the resulting menu, select “Restart EmulationStation.”

When the main RetroPie screen starts up again, you can cycle through the newly-enabled systems when moving the joystick right or left.

This guide was first published on Apr 04, 2014. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Installing ROMs) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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