Because the NES mini is hard to find and/or too expensive, I decided to build a RetroPie computer at roughly the same cost as the SRP of the NES mini. At the time of writing, you can buy an Nes mini for 5,500PHP (110USD) …if you can find one, while a RetroPie will cost around 5,150PHP (103USD) for the bare essentials.
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model B 2,350PHP (47USD)
- 16gb class 10 Micro SD card 300OHO (6USD)
- 8bitdo NES30 Pro Bluetooth controller 2,500PHP (50USD)
The Bluetooth controller is optional, you can opt to use any USB controller you may already have to save money. You can also use any 2.1A cellphone charger as a power supply.
In the long run, the RetroPie will cost more if you want to personalize it like I did but you get a lot more functionality out of it, like a media player, bitcoin server etc. I use mine as a media center and an emulator for consoles from my childhood such as:
- PlayStation 1 (PSX)
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
- Sega Megadrive
- Nintendo 64 (N64)
- Family Computer (FamiCom)
I’m happy on how it turned out, it’s a fair system. The functionality you get is equal to the effort you put in to it. The readily available parts and price isn’t bad as well considering what you can get out of it. Yes it doesn’t have the Nintendo look, or the “plug and play” feature like the NES mini, but I find that building the RetroPie was more of a nostalgic trip for me than owning an NES mini …which I actually did then sold in less than 24 hours.