Selecting a random ROM

[myrmecophaga]

My friends and I like to just randomly select games to play. The roulette wheel of getting some garbage game, a good game, or just something we’d never try otherwise is pretty fun. I’d like to see a system that facilitates this in the RetroPie project.

For instance, a menu item at the top of every system ROM list to “Play a random game” or just hitting a key combination as you scroll through the systems that lets you “PLay a random game for this system.”

[robertybob]

A nice, original, idea! I hate having to choose from the hundreds of games I have, so for something else to choose for me would be a nice!

[ronoh55]

I’d love to see this implemented as well! It does sound like something that would be in emulationstation though. Have you tried asking for a solution over on their forums yet?

[myrmecophaga]

Ah, good idea. Sometimes I forget the two are different projects. I’ll check it out on their forums and post here if I get any new news.

[skyrunner65]

I support this, because I downloaded about 500 Atari 2600 games and stuck them on my Retropie.

Could there also be a random select for all systems and one system?

[denus]

This is a bit like the idea I proposed a while ago, but I was referring to a cycling display (or demo) mode starting by inactivity of the user.
(some setup parameters should be implemented such as which systems are included/excluded, time setup between each cycle etc…)

This is a great way to make a cabinet more attractive since you’ll see randomly games you’ve never tried before. Much better than the ES static main screen imo.

[smithers]

Perhaps a Linux script incorporating the RANDOM command would do it? save it as a random.sh file in your rom folder for each system, add ‘.sh .SH’ as a file extension type to your ES_Systems.cfg file and reference it accordingly in gamelist.xml.

I don’t think I would be able to create such a script mind you! I’m only thinking its possible after finding this script to set a random wallpaper:

#!/bin/bash
# get images
files=(/nas/download/share/fun/images/wallpapers/*.png)
# find out random one
n=${#files[@]}
wallpaper=”${files[RANDOM % n]}”

[tipoto]

I created a random game section in my system which works pretty well I think, but I changed so many things in the Retropie/ES installation that I can’t really share it because it’s part of a bigger system of rom launcher which allows me a lot of things, but uses custom bash scripts (connected from each other), new type of config files, also some files have to be modified in ES and the whole thing is in work in progress.
But if I have time, I’ll do a short video to show how it works, it can maybe give some ideas… I can run a random game through the whole library or only on a specific section. I don’t have an auto demo mode though, but it’s probably doable with some work and using a USB monitoring to check if there is any activity on the buttons or controls.

[ronoh55]

Tipoto please share when you have a chance to. Maybe even make a backup image of your system and share it so we can see the other customizations you allude to? There may be some stuff there a lot of us want and don’t even realize we want it yet lol.

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