Tricky Christmas situation, is it possible to..

[nomte]

Hi all!

I will find myself in a trick Christmas situation. I will receive a brand new RaspberryPi B+ (as a present), I will have no access to a computer and huge wishes to play RetroPie right away with my brothers :D So my question is:

Is it possible to save roms in a USB pendrive BEFORE I plug it for first time? My idea is to do this:

1) Create a folder called “retropie” in the pendrive. Inside that folder create a folder called “roms”. Inside that folder create the folders of the emulators roms “amiga”, “amstradcpc”, etc..
2) Save the roms inside their respective folders.
3) Plug it to the RaspberryPi B+ for first time so it can automaticaly create the rest of directories (“configs” and subfolders)
4) Unplug it, and plug it again to “sincronize” the roms.

Will it work? In case it won’t, any idea on how to?

Thank you for your help!!

Best,
Nomte

[lilbud]

Which Raspberry Pi does your brother have?

Also, what do you mean by no access to a computer?

[nomte]

Thanks for answering!

I am sorry I didn’t explained better, excuse my english. No one have a RaspberryPi so far. I will receive a RaspberryPi B+ as a present on Christmas. We’ll be in a country house, no internet, no computers or laptops around. Just the TV. So my question is how can I install the ROMs in a brand new RPi without using a computer?. I will carry with me a SD card with the System already preinstalled, a usb pendrive with the ROMs already copied in their respective folders and a couple of usb-SNES controllers.

Following the steps I posted before, do you think I will be able to copy the ROMs into the RPi?

Thanks again!
Nomte

[lilbud]

As far as i know, you need a computer to move roms to usb drive, flash sd card, etc.
Or you need linux command line knowledge to move roms to usb drive. So wait, is that a temporary situation with no internet or permanent, you need internet access to do alot most thing on the pi. once again this is all to my knowledge, there might be a better way.

[nomte]

Yes, I hope so too. Basically I think I can resume my “problem” into this:

I need to plug a pendrive with an empty “retropie” folder on it in order to create the folders structure. What happens if the pendrive already have a “roms” folder, with subfolders and ROMs already saved there. Will RPi delete the existing roms? Will that stop the process of creating the folders due to a folder name conflict? Or will simply ignore it?

To be on the safe side I think my best choice is asking someone to bring a laptop. It will spoil the surprise, but will work for sure ;)

Thanks for the efforts!
Nomte

[Anonymous]

I thought there was a way to load roms from a USB drive, but I don’t know how since I have never done it. It seems like maybe that was an added feature of one of the more recent updates. search around the forum and you might find something.

[highdeck]

Maybe could you just bring a keyboard in order to manually move roms from your usb key to the appropriate retropie folder, i mean with the help of some command line ?

I always used internet installation to install retropie, but with the correct image and configuration of your sd card for your Pi B+, I think it could be possible to access to the terminal and copy files from your usb key at the first use. If you have the display, you might just need a keyboard.

Just a suggestion/question by the way :)

[Anonymous]

This will help, very easy, make sure you have a keyboard

[Anonymous]

Also in the retropie menu, theres an option called file manager, you can go in there and copy things from the usb to the emulator folders

[nomte]

Great! Thats sounds like like exactly what I need :D

Yes, I can take a keyboard with me and follow the tutorial to run the roms directly from the USB or use the file manager inside RPi to copy them (I didn’t knew it have a file manager.. :( ).

Thank you very much guys! You helped to make a very retro Christmas day this year :D

Have a nice Xmas!
Nomte

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