[Raygan Kelly]

Thanks. I’ll give this a try tonight.

[Raygan Kelly]

All the RetroPie script does is install, compile, and configure open source emulators. You should be able to do this yourself on any Linux device.

If your ARM device will run Raspbian (like the Cubieboard, for example) the RetroPie script may even work out of the box. I’ve been considering picking up a Cubieboard for just that reason.

[Raygan Kelly]

I’ve used alsamixer. Just open a terminal window and type “alsamixer” and you’ll get a fairly nice little gui for adjusting volume.

[Raygan Kelly]

Oops. Messed up my tags there.

lvl0: Error initializing SDL!
Unable to open mouse!
Are you in the ‘video, audio, and input groups? Is X closed? Is your firmware
up to data? Are you using at least the 192/64 memory split?
Error initializing rendererer!

[Raygan Kelly]

Ok, here ‘ya go. A copy of my theme file without the SNES controller images, which I think should be good for general usage.

[Raygan Kelly]

Or feel free to use my image of course. It’s just a “happy Mac” icon with a gradient added, plus a couple of Pixelated SNES controllers, which is kind of a logo I created for my PiMac project.

I’m thinking if you are going to include it in the script, it might be better if I make a version of the theme image without the controllers and just the happy mac. I’ll upload it here this evening.

[Raygan Kelly]

I linked to the ES theme part III of my setup guide.

It’s basically a copy paste of the AppleII theme but with a custom image I created for the purpose. Feel free to set up your own image.

[Raygan Kelly]

I found it worked well at either Medium or High overclock from the raspi-config script. Don’t remember what the actual values I settled on were.

[Raygan Kelly]

Well… as suddenly as it started, it’s gone back to normal. No idea what was causing it, but it’s fine again. Nevermind!

[Raygan Kelly]

Can I ask why you don’t just clone the RetroPie-Setup script github in the standard Raspbian berry boot image and run an install? I’m sure you could also remove most of the existing packages like Scratch etc…

[Raygan Kelly]

I downloaded and compiled the SDL dispmanx library as instructed:

mkdir /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/dispmanx
cd /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/dispmanx
git clone –depth=0 git://github.com/vanfanel/SDL12-kms-dispmanx.git
cd SDL12-kms-dispmanx
nano Makefile
////////////////

// Now we need to edit the Makefile – there is a better way to do this I think but it works…
// Append this to CFLAGS -I/opt/vc/include/interface/vmcs_host/linux
// Save and exit

// Run configure
./configure

// Run make – DO NOT install – will break emulationstation and overwirtes some of your sdl library files
make

Then I skipped the stuff about recompiling EmulationStation. I’m not sure why it was reccomended and when I tried it it broke EmulationStation, so I just reinstalled EmulationStation from sources and skipped on to changing the es_systems.cfg file to use the Dispmanx library instead of standard SDL when using DGEN.

Edit your es-systems.cfg file to use this for DGEN:

COMMAND=export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=”/home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/dispmanx/SDL12-kms-dispmanx/build/.libs”; /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/dgen-sdl/dgen %ROM%

Worked for me anyway. I still can’t get it to fill the composite screen or exit from the controller but it’s totally playable.

[Raygan Kelly]

Does anybody know an alternative for iOS?

[Raygan Kelly]

I tried what what was being discussed in that github issue thread, and it did in fact work for me. I am now able to get a picture over composite.

I haven’t been able to get the image to scale to full screen, though. It doesn’t seem to be respecting my scaling settings in the dgenrc file, and is only filling about 3/4 of the screen. A definite improvement, but I’m still tinkering.

[Raygan Kelly]

This is what I’m waiting on too. I am using a pair of USB SNES controllers.

In the end I may finally learn to work with GPIO so I can add a few simple buttons for exiting the emulator, saving states, etc.

[Raygan Kelly]

I’m going to try switching to this emulator tonight. Did you find the installation fairly straightforward? And would you mind posting the command entry you put in to es_systems.cfg?

[Raygan Kelly]

I’m not sure what’s the hold up there. I would recommend trying what I did; delete or rename the existing gpsp folder and clone from scratch. (Go into the RetroPie/emulators folder and type “git clone https://github.com/Aloshi/gpsp.git”, then try “make” again.)

Here’s a copy of my gpsp_input.cfg file:

joyIndex = 0
axis_up = -1
axis_down = +1
axis_left = -0
axis_right = +0
btn_a = 1
btn_b = 2
btn_l = 4
btn_r = 5
btn_start = 9
btn_select = 8
btn_quit = 0

key_up = up
key_down = down
key_left = left
key_right = right
key_a = z
key_b = x
key_l = a
key_r = s
key_start = return
key_select = right_shift

[Raygan Kelly]

I just added the following to gpsp_input.cfg:

btn_quit = 0

I used the X button on my SNES controller. Since the GBA only had two buttons, the X and Y buttons are unused. No need to use your Select button (which is used more often than you might think in GBA games.)

I haven’t yet figured out if there is a hotkey I can add for save or load states, but SRAM saves work fine.

[Raygan Kelly]

I was able to sort things out by completely tossing out gpsp and reinstalling it manually by cloning from GitHub and compiling it.

I used this port.

I’m not sure which fork of gpsp RetroPie-Setup is installing, but Aloshi just updated his/her port today(!!!), and it now includes the ability to map keys with a config file as well as set hotkeys for things like exiting the emulator. It’s now a good RetroPie citizen. I’ve been able to launch games from the menu, play at full speed, and quit back to the menu when done.

Just clone the repo, cd into the raspberrypi directory, and run “make”. Then create the gpsp_input.cfg file according to the instructions in INPUT.md, and customize with your gamepad’s keys, and edit .emulationstation/es_systems.cfg to point to the newly compiled gpsp.

I haven’t figured out if there’s a way to map multiple-button hotkeys like you can do with RetroArch, or if I can map a hotkeys for savestates, but it’s definitely playable.

[Raygan Kelly]

I installed this, and I was able to download the latest script and run the install from sources, but I don’t think it compiled properly. When I try to launch games, it crashes back to EmulationStation. I see this in the logs:

`lvl2: /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 2 “/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/gpsp/raspberrypi/gpsp /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gba/Astro\ Boy\ -\ Omega\ Factor.gba”
lvl1: …launch terminated with nonzero exit code 32512!`

I think it may not have compiled gpsp correctly, but I’m not sure where to look for the logs. For instance, it seems to be looking for /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/gpsp/raspberrypi/gpsp but there is no “gpsp” file in that directory. I’m not at a level yet where I can troubleshoot what went wrong compiling from sources. :-(

[Raygan Kelly]

The solution presented there (changing the 1s to 2s in the emulationstation config file) fixed composite video for me for all the emulators I have tried, except for dgen. So far I can’t figure out what I need to change there to get a picture. When I launch it I can hear sound but see a black screen.

[Raygan Kelly]

I’ve sorted out my issues, and perhaps my experience will help you as well.

You need to edit your /boot/config.txt file to adjust the overscan.

First, make sure that disable_overscan=1 is commented out (has a # sign in front of it.) You want overscan to be enabled.

Second, uncomment (remove the # sign from) the overscan adjustments. They look like overscan_left=16, overscan_right=16, etc…

You can adjust these to whatever amount you need to overscan by. With my composite TV, I just needed small changes. 8 at the left and right and 4 at the top and bottom. Your settings may vary. Try the default of 16 to start with.

If that works, then you’re golden. But for me, on a CRT composite video screen, I had a couple of other things I had to do.

I needed to add the line “overscan_scale=1” to the file. This is an experimental feature in the newer firmware that makes sure that everything, not just the console and X server, obey the overscan setting. Without this, My pi would boot to the console and look properly scaled, but wouldn’t display anything at all for EmulationStation or RetroArch. Source here.

Also, PetRockBlog recently added a feature for changing the HDMI resolution when starting Retro-Arch based systems. This seems to interfere with video working properly on composite screens. To disable it, you need to edit the ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg file. Change the line:

COMMAND=$rootdir/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 1 “retroarch -…

to:

COMMAND=$rootdir/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 2 “retroarch -…

Source here.

Now my little RetroPie is looking and working great with the old $3 TV I picked up at Goodwill. Playing these old classics on a CRT TV is really the way to go; they just look right!

[Raygan Kelly]

I have been looking into this same issue. I use my Pi with a SD CRT TV over composite, and I am getting a little bit of overscan on both sides. I tried adjusting the overscan setting in the /boot/config.txt file, but that causes emulationstation to fail to start for some reason. I get the RetroPie startup screen, and then nothing.

I’d love to hear if there’s a way to adjust the overscan or scaling within RetroArch itself.

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