[herbfargus]

I use FTP (WinSCP) but you can also do it in the terminal.

see Floob’s videos on setting up controllers (he has the same model of controller that you do) They might be useful.

There is also an example config file here:

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/RetroArch-Configuration

[herbfargus]

The wiki is open for the community to contribute and develop so if you have some ideas to make it better then by all means go for it!

Some simple guidelines:

I feel it would be best to keep the getting started section at the beginning as short and concise as possible just so its easy for beginners to see what they need to do first.

Then it is followed by the list of emulators.

Each emulator page is laid out like this:

-Console logo

-Short description of console

-Emulators for that console

ROMs
-accepted file extensions
-where to place the ROMs

BIOS (if applicable)
-file name of bios (but not a link to it as that can’t be provided)
-where to place the bios
Controls
-retroarch controls first with a link to the main retroarch page (if it is a libretrocore emulator)
-then non-retroarch emulator specific controls

-Followed by videos and or advanced configurations/troubleshooting for that specific emulator.

I’ll try to keep on top of new emulators that are added and with each official SD image i’ll probably create a page with all the new changes and updates.

Any and all help is appreciated :)

[herbfargus]

There are a few emulators that show up by default but it is configured so that when you add a rom to its respective folder, that emulator will then show up in emulationstation (you’ll have to exit out of emulationstation and go back in or reboot in order for changes to make effect if you add the roms through winscp while emulationstation is running.)

See this playlist for details on setting up retropie 2.6.

see the updated Wiki as well if you have any emulator specific issues:

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki

[herbfargus]

I’m not sure how helpful this will be but I had two controllers with the same file name but different button configurations so I had to delete one of the files in this folder:

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/configs

might be worth looking into

[herbfargus]

Ok- I got it working Buzz, thanks so much!! You’re a genius.

To document my steps for others:

cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Update Setup script
Reboot

cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh runcommand install
sudo reboot

add in etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg:

<system>
    <name>zmachine</name>
    <fullname>zmachine</fullname>
    <path>~/RetroPie/roms/zmachine</path>
    <extension>.z3 .Z3 .dat .DAT</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 "/usr/games/frotz %ROM%" "frotz"</command>
    <platform>c64</platform>
    <theme>zmachine</theme>
  </system>

save and reboot into emulationstation and you should be good to go

You really only need the .DAT file to play the game so you can move them all from

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/zmachine/zork1/DATA/ZORK1.DAT

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/zmachine/zork2/DATA/ZORK2.DAT

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/zmachine/zork3/DATA/ZORK3.DAT
 
to

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/zmachine/

You can delete the other files if you don’t want them to clutter up your system.

Also random question Buzz- how come Frotz is located in /usr/games instead of opt/retropie/emulators/frotz like all the other emulators?/ not part of the setup script

Is there a chance we could add frotz to be a part of the group/ setup script so it’s not so lonely?

[herbfargus]

I can confirm the wiki option. I just barely finished redoing it all so every emulator is on there with types of ROMs, controls etc.

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki

This is the page on configuring controls for most emulators:

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/RetroArch-Configuration

Each emulator that has separate controller configurations are listed in their respective emulator page.

Techtipsta, floob, and I (herb Fargus) all have sets of videos on YouTube showing how to set up retropie if you’re more inclined to that method of learning.

[herbfargus]

I’m probably doing it wrong, but anytime I put </dev/tty anywhere emulationstation throws a parsing error and wont load back up until i revert my change.

<system>
    <name>zmachine</name>
    <fullname>zmachine</fullname>
    <path>~/RetroPie/roms/zmachine</path>
    <extension>.z3 .Z3 .dat .DAT</extension>
    <command>/usr/games/frotz %ROM% </dev/tty</command>
    <platform>arcade</platform>
    <theme>zmachine</theme>
  </system>

[herbfargus]

Hey Buzz thanks, it worked. I ran the runcommand install, updated my setup script and reinstalled from binary and it seemed to have fixed it. Thanks!

[herbfargus]

I just updated the wiki (at least for the atari800) perhaps that will give you some ideas. I’ll also see if I can test a few of my controllers at some point and maybe update the controls section for a step by step if I’m able to get it working.

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Atari-800-and-5200

[herbfargus]

some people have said that .138 might work, I just found it easiest to rebuild my romset with clrmamepro using the .dat files provided in the /opt/retropie/emulators/pifba folder

see this video to get an idea of which roms are for what:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuWl2GdEfDA

[herbfargus]

When you say raspbian perhaps you mean the lxde desktop- command to install that:
sudo apt-get install lxde
Then once you get it installed you need to go into sudo raspi-config and change the boot sequence to boot into a terminal- that way on boot it will still go straight into emulationstation. Then when you want to use the desktop you press F4 to get into the terminal from emulationstation and type startx.

see this video for a step by step:

[herbfargus]

I followed Gizmo’s solution but I selected to use ALT- so I just hold down alt and press escape and it exits fine. I’m still stumped as to why the nul bind no longer works though like it used to.

[herbfargus]

I think because retropie has yet to have an official logo they’ve left it pretty generic/ up to individuals. I’m partial to the mushberry but some may feel that is too nintendo-centric. a few svg files should do the trick though.

[herbfargus]

The lack of a background in emulation station is usually related to a lack of processing power/too many ROMs: see this post on memory splits:

Memory Split on Raspberry Pie 2

For configuring a WiFi dongle see this video:

[herbfargus]

It might be worth looking into a different SNES emulator as well. I had issues with 2 player on the default pocketsnes emulator so I updated my setup script and installed the lr-snes9x-next emulator and I didn’t have any issues after that. See this video for a step by step:

[herbfargus]

I just did this today from a fresh image and it worked for me. To change the default emulator, you don’t do it in the setup script, you do it in the menu right before a rom loads by pressing x or m. It’s the same menu you use to change the video settings before the rom loads.

UPDATE SETUP SCRIPT:
cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
update setup script
reboot

BINARY INSTALL:

cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Binary Installation
reboot

See this video for a step by step: (go to ~7:00 to see how to change emulators)

[herbfargus]

I just did this today:

UPDATE SETUP SCRIPT:

cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
update setup script
reboot

INSTALL INDIVIDUAL EMULATOR:

cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Choose option 5: Install individual Emulators
Select the emulator you wish to install
Then either choose binary or source (binary is really fast to install, source takes longer but is more up to date) 
then reboot

see this video:

[herbfargus]

Thanks for the quick response, it worked fine for me.

What about the nul bind though? as far as I understood it the nul value means you don’t have to press a key to enable the hotkey rather you can just press one key to process your function- does that no longer work?

for example

input_enable_hotkey = nul
input_exit_emulator = escape

[herbfargus]

I am having the same issue, I’ve tested it a bit and it seems to be a problem with all of the libretro cores. The non libretro emulators seem to work fine to use escape to exit. Is it the same thing for you?

[herbfargus]

I have a 32gb and a 64 GB sandisk ultra microsd card. They have both served me well. I got them both off of amazon. As long as your clone isn’t larger than your new microsd card it should work just fine. See this site for a list of compatible cards:
http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards

[herbfargus]

Great news Buzz! Thanks for all the hard work!

[herbfargus]

See this video for some ideas:

I think for mine I ended up just choosing a different video option at the video settings screen (when you press x or m before a game starts) i can’t remember which one it was but it was one of the lower video options that is meant for a computer screen but it worked fine on my television. Just test a bunch out and see if any work.

[herbfargus]

If you already have retropie installed just plug it in and it will work.
Then use
sudo raspi-config
to expand your filesystem to utilise all of the space on your card.
If you are on windows and it only shows your SD card as 50mb that is because the rest of the card is formatted as exfat which windows can’t read so to windows the rest of your SD card is essentially invisible. Exfat is a format used by linux. (As opposed to fat32 used by windows)
If your card by default has 50mb without you doing anything to it with win32diskimager likelihood is that its corrupted and its time for a new SD card (that is what happened to me once)
See this set of YouTube videos to get yourself on your feet from a fresh install:

[herbfargus]

Its an issue specific to emulationstation and it is currently in the works:

ES: Systems with multiple emulators show up on a merged list

The image buzz is testing right now mostly rectifies the issue in that you specify which emulator you want to use with each ROM rather than specifying separate folders for each emulator.

[herbfargus]

My controller is a cheap knockoff from china, cost all of £3. I’ll have to keep mucking about with the controls but they worked just fine with the libretro cores in the 2.6 image.

I think it would be interesting if aloshi were able to link retroarch-joyconfig with his controller configuration set up in emulationstation- that would minimise the amount of new users wondering why their controllers don’t work in games after they went through their controller configuration in emulationstation. Then for emulator specific controls (retroarch and non retroarch) another option could be added for controller configs in the “press x or m” menu.

As far as the megadrive/genesis thing- one folder with both names or a symlink between the two folders should suffice. I have no preference for one of the other.

I wish I knew more about programming so I could be more useful in the development process. But perhaps my ignorance may be useful as it gives me a noob’s perspective in testing things :p

[herbfargus]

I was just looking at this today- for GB, GBC, and NES, you’ll add your controls to the retroarch.cfg file in opt/retropie/configs/GB and opt/retropie/configs/GBC
opt/retropie/configs/nes

This video can give you an idea of what to do:

You can also check out floobs videos as he has a lot more experience than I do
http://youtube.com/channel/UCdSu9Y0xAyY8V77vj6mQ-0g

[herbfargus]

First impressions- I really like this idea much better than having separate rom folders for each emulator.

from my preliminary testing on my raspberry pi B+- this is the list of emulators I tested.:

MEGADRIVE
DGEN: functions
LR_Genesis_plus_gx: functions
LR_Picodrive: functions

C64
VICE: functions

GBA
gpsp: functions

GameGear:
Osmose: functions
lr_Genesis-plus-gx functions

FBA
pifba: functions
lr_fba: functions

SNES:
pisnes: functions
snes9x: functions
lr_pocketsnes: BROKEN!
threw an error:

dylib_load dylib_load() failed: opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-pocketsnes/libpocketsnes.so: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory".
load_symbols:: failed to open dynamic library; "opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-pocketsnes/lrpocketsnes.so 
rarch_main_init :: fatal error received in: "load_dynamic()"

NES:
lr-fceu-next: functions

GB:
lr-gambatte: functions

GBC:
lr-gambatte: functions

Positives:
-I really liked that all of the libretro core emulators were preceded by “lr” to indicate their integration with the retroarch configs
-All but one emulator I tested worked (granted some were laggy due to my B+ lack of processing power)

Some Suggestions/Issues:

-As noted above, pocketsnes threw an error and didn’t run.
-My dpad wasn’t working on the libretro core emulators (but it works in emulationstation and non libretro emulators)
-perhaps this is the wrong place to suggest this, but is it possible to add another option along with the emulators to link directly into their controller configurations? (or at the very least have one option for each of the libretro core emulators to run something like retroarch-joyconfig specific to that emulator?)
-could the megadrive rom folder be possibly renamed to megadrive/genesis as many newcomers from the United States get confused on where to place their genesis games

[herbfargus]

sounds like a really good idea to me! It will definitely help eliminate a lot of confusion for newer users. I’ll give the image a go when I can find some time.

Thanks for all the hard work Buzz!

[herbfargus]

I’m fine without LXDE, but I suppose it wouldn’t be too inconvenient for me to just uninstall it. BTW a quick perusal of this forum has solutions for many of the most commonly encountered problems including configuring WiFi. I created a video showing how to set up your WiFi dongle through the command line:

[herbfargus]

There are a few devices that allow you to “dump” your cartridge to create a ROM but the video game companies will cry foul for dumping even if you own your own games as they cite it a violation of copyright to use a game copying device- that being said you can peruse Google for ROM dumping devices or some other variant.

[herbfargus]

A couple things to check-

-WiFi dongle compatibility:
http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters
– case sensitivity: make sure that everything is the right lower and uppercase values
– did you reboot? Changes won’t take effect until you either restart network services or reboot your pi.

See this video for a step by step setup:

[herbfargus]

If you are using mupen64plus it has its own set of controls for exiting (I.e doesn’t support hotkeys rather you choose one unused key to be your exit button.) See this video:

[herbfargus]

See this video:

[herbfargus]

Really you shouldn’t need lxde just to configure wifi. If I were you i would probably just reimage your SD with a fresh install and follow this video to set up your WiFi:

I don’t know too much about how lxde affects the boot sequence. You could always try going into the set up script and re-enabling emulationstation to start on boot but its probably easiest to just reimage without using lxde (it takes up a fair amount of space on the pi).

[herbfargus]

Swanky. I’m glad my obsession of psuedo-retro arcade games was useful to at least one person. (When I first looked for that game I had no idea it wasn’t actually a real video game from the 80’s, rather it was a clever marketing ploy/ plot development tool for Disney. Disney done fooled me good…)

[Author]

Posts