The Raspberry Pi ships by itself, without a case. I recommend you buy a case to avoid damaging your Pi. Using a screwdriver, place your Raspberry Pi into its case. Some cases do not require the use of a screwdriver — however, I prefer cases that use screws to secure the Pi for extra stability.

If you’re using the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, I recommend choosing a case with a built-in heatsink. I highly recommend this FLIRC case since it provides passive cooling for the Raspberry Pi 4. Basically, the entire case is a giant heatsink, keeping your Pi cool. There’s also a version for the Raspberry Pi 3.

Used here

See all

Raspberry Pi 3 Flirc case

Check Price on Amazon

Raspberry Pi 4 Flirc case

Check Price on Amazon

If you don’t use a passive cooling case, you’ll want to pick up a case that comes with heatsinks. If you’re using a Raspberry Pi Zero, you can also use an NES cartridge as a case for your RetroPie gaming rig.

RetroPie is a software package for the Raspberry Pi that is based on the Raspberry Pi OS, a Linux distribution. It combines a full suite of tools and utilities that will allow you to quickly and easily run retro game ROMs for various vintage gaming emulators.

We’re going to perform our RetroPie setup using an SD card image — essentially a snapshot of an entire working installation of RetroPie rather than doing a manual RetroPie install.

Because the Raspberry Pi doesn’t have an internal hard drive, it uses a microSD card for storage of the entire operating system and all files contained therein.

To set up RetroPie, Download and unzip the latest RetroPie SD-Card Image. There are two versions of the RetroPie SD-Card Image:

• One for the Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, A, B, A+ and B+
• One for the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
• One for the Raspberry Pi 4

Select the appropriate image for your Pi.

First, you’ll need to format the SD card as FAT. Insert the SD card into your SD card reader. Your SD card will now show up as a mounted drive on your computer.

Format Type

If your SD card is 32GB or smaller, we’ll format it as MS-DOS (FAT). If your SD card is 64GB or larger, we’ll format it as ExFAT.

Formatting on Windows

Open up Explorer, locate the SD card, right-click it, and select Format from the context menu. Select the desired format and click the Start button.

Formatting on Mac

Open Disk Utility by navigating to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Select your SD card in the left pane. Click the Erase button, select the desired format, give it a name, and click the Erase button. For OS X Yosemite and older, you’ll need to navigate to the Erase tab first.

To install RetroPie, we’ll use a third-party utility called Etcher. Etcher works on both Windows and Mac.

Download and install Etcher, open it, and select your SD card drive and downloaded image to “flash” the image to your SD card.

Safely eject the SD card and slide it into your Raspberry Pi.

Next, connect your USB game controller and connect the HDMI cable to a monitor or TV. Finally, connect the MicroUSB power supply. Always connect the power supply after connecting your other peripherals so that your Pi will detect all of the peripherals properly on boot.

Your Pi will now boot!

I recommend connecting your Pi to the Internet to more easily add game ROMs and access additional features such as game rating and description scraping. Also, connecting the Pi to your network will allow you to access it remotely via SSH to perform remaining configuration without needing a keyboard.

If you have a Raspberry Pi Zero W, 3, or 4, you have built-in Wi-Fi!

To connect, simply select the RetroPie menu icon and then select WIFI.

Then, connect to your Pi remotely via SSH by opening Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and then running:

ssh pi@retropie # default password: raspberry

Note: If you’re using an older Pi or one without built-in Wi-Fi, you can still transfer ROMs via USB. But if you still want to add Internet functionality to one of these older Pis, simply connect an Ethernet cable or USB Wi-Fi dongle.

If your SD card is larger than 4GB, you must expand it before your Pi can use the remaining space. To do this, you’ll need to launch the Raspberry Pi configuration tool (raspi-config).

You can use the Retropie interface to do this. On the main screen, select the RetroPie menu icon and then select RASPI-CONFIG.

Then, choose either Expand Filesystem or expand_rootfs from the menu (this option will vary based on your Raspberry Pi model). You now need to restart your Pi. You may have noticed there’s no reset button (unless you’ve added one).

We now need to connect to your Raspberry Pi from your computer so that we can copy over game ROMs and easily edit configuration files.

Again, this step is optional as you can also transfer ROMs via USB and accessing your configuration and other additional features isn’t strictly required.

There are numerous ways to do this; my favorite method is via SSH/SFTP using an FTP client. As far as free FTP clients go, I recommend FileZilla since it’s very well documented and supported and is available for both Mac and Windows.

Download FileZilla from their downloads page and install it. I recommend you uncheck all the “additional components” that FileZilla will ask you to install, such as the Yahoo search page and toolbar crap.

**Note: As of the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, SSH is disabled by default for security purposes; you will need to enable SSH on your Pi before proceeding. Thankfully, this process is super easy and painless.

Use the following credentials to connect to your Pi. The default Pi username and password are pi and raspberry, respectively.

Host:  (see below) Username: pi Password: raspberry Port: 22

For security purposes, I highly recommend you change the default Raspberry Pi password to something else. It only takes a minute.

To find your Pi’s IP, open Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and enter the following command to ping your Pi and return its network IP:

ping retropie

or, for older versions of RetroPie, use:

ping raspberrypi

It may take a few tries to get a response. If you see a “Request timeout” response when you run the ping command, then the command has failed. If you have a USB keyboard handy, you can boot up your Pi, press F4 to get to the shell, and run the following command:

 ifconfig

This alternate method will list your Pi’s IP immediately after inet addr: under eth0.

You’ll now want to configure your USB gamepad to work with your Pi. I recommend the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad since it’s inexpensive, highly compatible with the Pi, and comes in sweet Japanese packaging. You can find an Amazon link to that USB controller at the top of this guide.

You can use any type of USB controller — including a USB NES controller, though your games are more limited since it has fewer buttons than most newer games use.

Be sure to check out our guide to the best RetroPie controllers!

To configure your controller to work with the menu system and games, boot up your Pi. Your Pi will automatically launch the RetroPie UI where you will be prompted to configure the controller. If you mess up, don’t worry — you can access this configuration menu again later by pressing Start in the RetroPie UI.

A ROM is an entire port of a particular video game. RetroPie contains a copy of EmulationStation, which both provides the user interface for your new retro gaming rig and interprets these ROM files appropriately. RetroPie comes with a few games preinstalled — such as Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and Cave Story. These games are best played using a keyboard, however, since the gamepad doesn’t have enough keys to map the controls for some PC-ported games. You can emulate just about any console using the built-in RetroPie emulators.

A Legal Note

Most retro games are owned by a company (yes, even the very old ones!) and are protected by copyright laws. Thus, unfortunately, downloading ROMs for those games constitutes piracy.

While you can find tons of RetroPie ROMs on any Torrent site, keep in mind that you should not download any copyrighted titles.

Free ROMs

Luckily, there are some free ROMs out there that we can use for now! MAMEdev.org has a nice list of these free, legal ROMs. We’ll use these as examples and you can find more ROMs on your own.

Our list of the best of the video games from the year you were born contains links to some old arcade ROMs.

Let’s use Gridlee and Super Tank as examples. Download each ROM.

ROMs can be installed via SSH/SFTP (over your network) or by plugging a USB flash drive into your USB port. Additional methods for copying ROMs to RetroPie can be found on the RetroPie Wiki.

I wrote a separate guide on installing RetroPie ROMs using a USB drive. Or, if your Pi is connected to the internet, you can use the instructions below.

Reconnect FileZilla and browse to the following directory:

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms

Unzip each game ROM and upload each game folder into its respective game system folder. For example, if you had a Super Mario Bros 3 ROM, you would upload the game’s folder into the “nes” directory.

Gridlee and Super Tank go in the “mame” directory since MAME handles the arcade emulation for most vintage arcade-style games that don’t belong to a specific home video game system such as the NES, SNES or Atari.

After you’ve copied these directories over, restart your Pi.

Your Pi will boot into RetroPie automatically. Bask in the glory of simple graphics, bolstered by highly addictive gameplay. Whether you’re playing on your couch or building a RetroPie arcade cabinet or bartop arcade, I hope this guide was helpful to you!

Looking for that perfect controller?

Want a great classic or contemporary controller to play those new RetroPie games? Check out our list of the best PC gaming controllers that will work with your new setup.

To exit a game, press the START and SELECT buttons at the same time. This will bring you back to the RetroPie UI.

Check out my other guide on saving games in RetroPie to learn how to save and load saved games!

Now that everything is configured and working splendidly, I recommend you back up your Raspberry Pi’s SD card image. This way, if you’re feeling adventurous and want to attempt some further Retropie customizations, you have a safe restore point.

I’ve written a short guide on how to back up your Raspberry Pi.

Post in the comments section below and I’ll be sure to help you out. Also, stay tuned for more guides on customizing your RetroPie installation.

Did you know you can play games on RetroPie with your friends? Check out our guide to learn how to set up multiplayer on RetroPie.

• Areas Traveled: World

Kold does totally incredible high-caliber travel videography, presenting the world in an action-packed cinematographic format that’s frequently out of this world. Combined with a huge range of incredible stunts, this makes for a channel brimming with uniquely styled content.

Sam Kolder is a high-end videographer in his day job, so his travel videos don’t come frequently, but when they do arrive they always brim with intense action, vibrant shifting visuals, and an emphasis on style. According to his biographical video “Hey Tim”, Sam’s proclivity toward cinematography found a whole new outlet through his passion for travel, but sadly only after the death of his brother prompted him to grow.

His story is powerful, visually stunning, and moving enough to help anyone who watches his videos think about their own desire for life with a bit more clarity.

• Areas Traveled: Europe

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkzXuOitvis]

Phil Good Travel highlights the growing trend of African-American tourism. Produced by the Matador Network, this vlog series features Phil as he travels Europe, showing solidarity with black travelers and acting as a powerful proponent for positivity and patience.

Phil offers a fun and funny, as well as sincere and powerful travel experience that everyone will enjoy — but which will hopefully make even more African-Americans feel excited about the prospect of traveling the world.

• Areas Traveled: World; Iceland

Sorelle Amore has become a millionaire sensation through her savvy business sense and stunning style. She first claimed fame through her noted international travels, getting paid to experience the sights and sounds of the world. Since then, she also branched into teaching others how to improve their online presence through better photography via her “Advanced Selfie University.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, she turned her sights to other pastures than those abroad, settling down to concentrate on an ethically-minded business called Abundantia that she hopes will help the world become a better place.

• Areas Traveled: Washington, USA

The Cottage Fairy mindfulness, nature walks, and a pinch of ASMR-esque introspective conversation all blend into a cottagecore sensibility that is totally transportative. You’ll feel as if your whole being has absconded to the woodland after just a couple of Paola Merrill’s videos, which feature her daily wilderness lifestyle and her musings on human society.

In a highly energetic tech-centered world, it can be a wonderful balm to center oneself within a natural aesthetic. Paola’s proximity to pure nature allows her to immerse herself in the wilderness, but her artistic videos are a reminded that all of us, no matter where we live, can find a wealth of value in encouraging a more natural and wild environment in our surroundings.

• Areas Traveled: Phillipines, World

OurSignedWorld is a whole-life vlog for the mixed hearing and deaf couple Courtney and Zach (and their daughter Madison, who is also hearing). Zach is deaf and fluent in ASL and Courtney is a professional ASL translator, so their videos feature a wonderful mixture of ASL and spoken material from Courtney (and Madison), with great subtitles as well for anyone who isn’t yet fluent in ASL.

Their videos are not primarily travel related, but their travels have taken them on long road trips within the United States and a few journeys beyond its boarders as well; the couple also plans to make new travel vlogs in 2022 with feedback from their substantial (nearly 70k) YouTube audience.

• Areas Traveled: World

A travel vlog dedicated to seeking out experiences both intense and frightening, Fearless and Far frequently goes too far for my taste, but oftentimes covers aspects of life in parts of the world that other travel vloggers avoid altogether.

Not for the faint of heart, Mike Corey undertakes experiences that will alarm many, but in doing so he opens the eyes of his viewers to possibilities beyond belief. His point, he reiterates, is not that he seeks out intense experiences because he is fearless — quite the reverse; he seeks out what he fears because he fears it, leaning into what scares him in order to broaden his life’s horizon.

• Areas Traveled: World

Minority Nomad is the name of Erick Prince’s travel vlog, which features him traveling the world in search of new experience and new friends. His goal in life is to be the first African American to visit every single country on Earth and with over 90 down, he’s already making great headway.

Prince’s videos are informative and entertaining, and he frequently hangs out with different crowds than many of the other travel vloggers I’ve seen. His experiences feel very real because he’s hanging out with very real people: one of my favorite videos is of a family barbecue in Romania for Name Day, which opens a really cool window into the lives of the people he’s visiting (and provides a nifty trick for getting a good fire started).

Prince doesn’t confine himself just to travel, either: he does other videos that explore the differences between the United States and the countries he visits, and in one he even recounted how his experience outside the U.S. turned him (a retired soldier and ostensibly pro-gun citizen) into a far more skeptical gun owner. That’s the sort of change I love seeing, and I think it’s exceptionally cool to see a travel vlogger showcase such large transitions in their own life that the experience of seeing other countires has brought about.

• Areas Traveled: Sichuan Province, China

Li ZiQi holds a Guinness World Record for “The most subscribers for a Chinese language channel on YouTube” with over 16 million subscribers and over 2.4 billion views.

Her softly pastoral videos feature Li’s life living and working on her grandmother’s rural farm, as well as her explorations of other elements of rural Chinese life. She visits local businesses that create traditional foods, shows her followers how to make peach blossom flower crowns, and offers a startlingly gorgeous view of rural Sichuan life.

None of her videos feature interviews, or even talking — the only conventions is that between Li and her grandmother, overheard in the background, with the sounds of nature and gently flowing ambient music blending to create the primary soundscape.

Truly enchanting, with many of her videos taking on a fictionalized fantasy theme that reminds me of playing Skyrim: pastoral meditation at its best.

• Areas Traveled: Scotland, Czech Republic, Japan

Kakibot’s Edinburgh Adventures! features awesome travel videos mostly centering on Scotland and Edinbrugh where Kat and her partner Simon live and explore. Their videos sometimes range farther afield, however, with forrays to Kat’s country of origin (Czech Republic), and locations in Asia.

Simon and Kat create really lovely, heartfelt, content including fun and informative reviews of businesses they visit (in which they showcase incredible amounts of tasty food). Kat dives into some of the geeky elements of her life (something I wish far more travel vloggers would do!) and she creates neat Scotland-themed art (such as the awesome Edinburgh pin that my fiancée bought me as a present).

Their blog is one of my favorite discoveries so-far!

• Areas Traveled: World

Deaf Wanderer is the work of Chris Haulmark, a deaf man traveling the world with the goal of inspiring others without hearing to do the same. “A lot of people thought I couldn’t solo travel as a deaf person,” Chris said. “I showed them that I could.”

But Chris didn’t stop with travels. In 2018, he ran for a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives, and since then has continued to campaign actively for progressive issues and deaf-friendly legislation around the country. He might not be actively creating travel vlogs anymore, but his incredible store of travel videos from years prior makes his channel a font of wealth for anyone interested in the deaf experience abroad.

• Areas Traveled: World

(Kellee Edwards)[https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBlogAbroadChannel] has been called “The Most Interesting Woman in the World” by Outside magazine… and for good reason! Kellee is a travel expert, a licensed pilot, and the host of Travel Channel’s Mysterious Islands — making her the first black woman to host her own travel series on a major network.

Kellee has devoted most of her time to her main pursuits and her Travel Channel series, but she still puts up new content on YouTube from time to time, and it’s always spectacular. Her signature style is pure Indiana Jones: she flies herself to her destinations, she climbs mountains, she dives into deep ocean waves — Kellee’s experiences in the world are certain to inspire everyone to take their life into their own hands and forge their own path through the world.

• Areas Traveled: World

CupofTJ is the “Cutest Travel & Food Show” that invites people to see new places through the lens of food! TJ Lee started out with a passion for exploration and nummy cuisine, and has built her channel into an incredible world-romping experience as geeky and silly as it is profound. From Indonesia, to Peru, to the Czech Republic, TJ has been all over, and her journey continues weekly!

“If you have a lifestyle you want to create for yourself, whether that incorporates travel or not, you have to dive in head first and just commit to it,” Lee said. “It’s going to be super rocky, it’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s going to be so worth it.”

And her channel makes this abundantly clear. If you’ve ever needed a little lift to get you through your week, or maybe even out of your old life and into a life you’re excited to live, TJ’s channel just might be the thing that helps you get there.

• Areas Traveled: World

The Bucket List Family decided to give up everything considered “normal” and instead live their dream which just happened to be traveling the entire planet with their three very young children, experiencing life in its rawest, most vibrant form. They journey from country to country on a never-ending adventure, exploring the world and inspiring millions of people in their wake.

Their adventures allow their viewers a unique perspective into life as a family — their high-functioning communication skills, passion for exploration, and earnest love and care for one another always shines through, and their kids are frankly adorable. This is the sort of thing that might just change your life if you let it sink in.

• Areas Traveled: World

The Endless Adventure is the vlog of Eric and Allison, a young couple who traded in the dream of steady paychecks at normal jobs for the far more preferable dream of experiencing life the world over in all its myriad intricacies and joys.

They’ve been traveling for over six years, now, and their COVID-19 project has been the conversion of an older camper RV into a delightful tiny home which will launch them on their next grand tour.

Their videos are sweet, earnest, fun, and highly relatable. As they figure out life on the road together, their viewers get the chance to see a different experience of living, and might just be inspired to follow suit.

• Areas Traveled: World

Ashley Smith is a flight attendant who travels all over the world, which makes her the perfect person to host a travel vlog! Not only is her experience of travel pretty unique from others on this list, with a fascinating look into elements of her professional life, but she is constantly on the move through the air, living a “high life” like no other.

Her channel also features a number of “travel adjacent” videos that concentrate on everything from the “real life” of a flight attendant, to hair and beauty tips for travelers, to packing hacks for people constantly on the move. That content alone, from a professional traveler like Ashley, is worth a good binge.

• Areas Traveled:

Dream Big, Travel Far is the traveling couple Cazzy & Bradley. They’ve been running their excellent little travel vlog for five years, but it wasn’t until the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that they decided to spend lockdown converting a van into a camper so they could travel the world.

Cazzy and Bradley have landed in a number of cool places, and their experiences traveling are sweet and simple, with a relaxed, personal style that is easy to appreciate.

Converting a van into a living space and then responsibly traveling during the middle of a pandemic is no easy feat, but these two go at it with passion, managing to have incredible experiences and showcase their ingenuity in the process.

First, go to your home screen. Find the Phone app and give it a click. Alternatively, you can open the Contacts app, if it is readily available to you on your iPhone’s home screen.

Click “contacts” at the bottom of the screen.

Select the contact you want to change the ringtone for.

Click “edit” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Click “ringtone default.” It may not say “default” if you have changed the ringtone before. In that case it will say “ringtone” followed by the ringtone name.

This is where you can also choose “text tone default,” if you want to change that contact’s text tone versus its ringtone. The process is virtually the same.

Select the ringtone you would like to use for that contact.

Of course, if you want to get fancy you can buy a ringtone to use with your contact. Maybe you want it to be that contact’s favorite song or favorite TV show theme song. Either way, this process is super simple while adding just a few additional steps.

To learn how to buy a ringtone to use for that specific contact, or many others if you choose, check out my guide on how to buy a ringtone for an iPhone contact.

Once you have selected your contact, click “done.”

Make sure the correct ringtone is selected. You’ll be able to see on that contact’s contact page after clicking “done” in step eight.

And… you’re done! you’ve successfully changed the ringtone for your contact of choice and can now move on to the other contacts you want to edit!

Before you can download and install a shader pack, you’ll need to find where in CurseForge your game is!

1. Open CurseForge and navigate to the modpack you’re using.
2. Click the ... button to the left of the Play button.
3. In the drop-down menu, click Open Folder.
4. This is where you’ll install your shaders!

Usually, the file path looks like this: C:UsersUSER_NAMETwitchMinecraftInstancesMODPACK_NAME.

Unfortunately, Minecraft doesn’t automatically create a folder to place shaders into. Inside the Minecraft folder you found in the last step, create a new folder called shaderpacks. Make sure to spell it exactly or else the game won’t recognize where you’ve placed your shaders.

There are plenty of websites out there for finding shaders, but some are safer than most. We recommend CurseForge or Shaders Mods. Alternatively, you can download directly from a developer’s website as well!

Just make sure it’s compatible with your Minecraft game version and then move on to the next step!

Download the correct game version of the shader you’ve chosen and place it within the shaders folder you made in step 2. Make sure you don’t unzip the downloaded file!

Now it’s time to run Minecraft and activate your shaders!

1. Once the game has launched, follow these steps:
2. Click Options then Video Settings.
3. Click Shaders… as shown in the image above.
   

   

   
   
4. In the Shaders menu, choose the shader you want to activate. A loading screen will appear and return you back to the Shaders menu when its finished rendering.

From this menu you can either click the Shader Options button on the bottom right to customize the shader pack or click Done and return to the main menu!