Gamestarter: Retrogaming add-ons (RPi/Generic)

    I poked around a little bit with the Atari 800 emulation. I found the core (atari800.so) and the info. According to what I could find, this core does indeed need a BIOS. It looks like a combination core that encorporates both computers and the Atari 5200 console. I found reference materials for this core over in the RetroPie wiki: Atari 800 and 5200 · RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup Wiki · GitHub. I've gotten close, but nowhere. I can get the core to load, but nothing displays. If I press (on my Xbox360 controller) the B button, it will eventually bring up an in-emulator menu for controlling various aspects of it. If I go in and tell it to load a program, then point to the ROM, it will come up to a screen that says I need a real OS to make it run. This is noted in the wiki reference above, but that is all the farther I got. Apparently I need to do so more work as far as configuring where it finds the BIOS files, as the core doesn't associate directly with RetroArch's default settings (and the preset path for BIOS). I'll keep messing with this when I can.

    hey guys

    Been trying to get IARL working via GS... Didnt think it should be that hard with a fresh build of LE 7.0.2. :)

    All I did was install the latest fresh LE 7.0.2 on rpi3, installed gamestarter 2.5, then tried IARL and its not installing. Complains of missing dependencies which prob should be part of the build. Am I missing something obvious here? Didn't think I was doing anything out the ordinary? Seems to be talk of LE8 now maybe I should try that?
    Have also posted on Zach m's git see if he can help..

    thanks

    Quote from hansolo77


    I poked around a little bit with the Atari 800 emulation. I found the core (atari800.so) and the info. According to what I could find, this core does indeed need a BIOS. It looks like a combination core that encorporates both computers and the Atari 5200 console. I found reference materials for this core over in the RetroPie wiki: Atari 800 and 5200 · RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup Wiki · GitHub. I've gotten close, but nowhere. I can get the core to load, but nothing displays. If I press (on my Xbox360 controller) the B button, it will eventually bring up an in-emulator menu for controlling various aspects of it. If I go in and tell it to load a program, then point to the ROM, it will come up to a screen that says I need a real OS to make it run. This is noted in the wiki reference above, but that is all the farther I got. Apparently I need to do so more work as far as configuring where it finds the BIOS files, as the core doesn't associate directly with RetroArch's default settings (and the preset path for BIOS). I'll keep messing with this when I can.


    did you get any advance on this?


    Quote from trevevs


    hey guys

    Been trying to get IARL working via GS... Didnt think it should be that hard with a fresh build of LE 7.0.2. :)

    All I did was install the latest fresh LE 7.0.2 on rpi3, installed gamestarter 2.5, then tried IARL and its not installing. Complains of missing dependencies which prob should be part of the build. Am I missing something obvious here? Didn't think I was doing anything out the ordinary? Seems to be talk of LE8 now maybe I should try that?
    Have also posted on Zach m's git see if he can help..

    thanks

    Just install LE, install Gamestarter and go to addon settings -> "download iarl & repo". It will download 2 zip files into /storage folder (addon and creators repo). Install both and update addon if an update is available. Until here, it can not be any problem, if something is wrong in this point, please check your internet connection and try to install iarl addon from zip again. Note that iarl addon installs a lot of dependencies and needed addons, so you must let it install everything until you see the "addon installed" notification.

    After iarl is installed, these are the steps I follow to get it working with gamestarter:

    addon settings:
    -external launcher -> My system type: openelec RPi (Gamestarter addon)
    -> RetroArch System folder (leave blank)

    System list - context menu:
    - update launcher: external
    - update EXternal Launch command : select system -> YES

    Enter system then launch game.


    Quote from digitaljun


    Gamestarter v2.5 does not start RetroArch Frontend on Libreelec v7.9.
    Do I have to install something else?
    EmulaterStation was started.However, ROM does not work

    what raspberry model do you have? are you downloading/installing correct addon version for your OS? what is the output in gamestarter.log?


    ----


    By the way, some days ago I released latest v2.5 with some structural changes and some new features, you can take a look:
    Release Gamestarter v2.5 · bite-your-idols/Gamestarter-Pi · GitHub

    Quote from hansolo77


    I poked around a little bit with the Atari 800 emulation. I found the core (atari800.so) and the info. According to what I could find, this core does indeed need a BIOS. It looks like a combination core that encorporates both computers and the Atari 5200 console. I found reference materials for this core over in the RetroPie wiki: Atari 800 and 5200 · RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup Wiki · GitHub. I've gotten close, but nowhere. I can get the core to load, but nothing displays. If I press (on my Xbox360 controller) the B button, it will eventually bring up an in-emulator menu for controlling various aspects of it. If I go in and tell it to load a program, then point to the ROM, it will come up to a screen that says I need a real OS to make it run. This is noted in the wiki reference above, but that is all the farther I got. Apparently I need to do so more work as far as configuring where it finds the BIOS files, as the core doesn't associate directly with RetroArch's default settings (and the preset path for BIOS). I'll keep messing with this when I can.

    I found this:

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    I don't have an USB keyboard that it seem to be used in order to launch games so by now I can test it, but I can get to some of the video emu screen...

    bite_your_idols:
    This maybe an odd question but are you compiling retroarch cores yourself? If not, where are you getting them from?

    I am currently using the community build from escalade that includes retroarch. On my Pi 2, mgba is too slow for GBA. So, I downloaded gpsp from the retroarch nightly cores but it crashes retroarch when I try to load a rom. So, then I tried to compile it myself but I am having issues with that too. At some point, I got the idea to extract the gpsp core from your addon and....IT WORKED! I am glad that I got it working, but was curious where your core is coming from so I can keep it up to date and/or fix how I am compiling.

    One thing I noticed is that your core is >12MB while the nightly from libretro is <1MB, I figure this must be due to how its compiled.

    For the next timeyou can grab my cores from github:
    Gamestarter-Pi/packages/libretro-cores at master · bite-your-idols/Gamestarter-Pi · GitHub
    Gamestarter-Pi/packages/libretro-cores-ex at master · bite-your-idols/Gamestarter-Pi · GitHub

    Also, there you can see where some of them come from, at least the ones picked up from escalade's build. Another cores are compiled by myself, but just a few of them as you can see here:
    gamestarter

    Finally, most of the cores are extracted from Lakka build, because lakka is based on openelec (cominng soon libreelec version) so they work fine in libreelec not like the ones in retroarch that are compiled for raspbian.

    Anyways, it is strange that escalade's core is slowlier... maybe it is a newest commit that is not optimized...

    Quote from bite_your_idols


    For the next timeyou can grab my cores from github:
    Gamestarter-Pi/packages/libretro-cores at master · bite-your-idols/Gamestarter-Pi · GitHub
    Gamestarter-Pi/packages/libretro-cores-ex at master · bite-your-idols/Gamestarter-Pi · GitHub


    Yeah, this is where I grabbed it from yesterday.

    Quote


    Finally, most of the cores are extracted from Lakka build...


    Cool, this answers my question...most are from Lakka.

    Quote


    ...because lakka is based on openelec (cominng soon libreelec version) so they work fine in libreelec not like the ones in retroarch that are compiled for raspbian.


    The weird thing though is that some cores download from retroarch nightlies work fine while others (in this case gpsp) do not.

    Quote


    Anyways, it is strange that escalade's core is slowlier... maybe it is a newest commit that is not optimized...


    It is not necessarily that escalade's is slower. It is the difference between mgba (cross platform) vs gpsp which is written for ARM.

    At any rate, thank you for your help!

    Quote from bite_your_idols


    New addon "Pre-release"... any missing feature?

    Hi bite_your_idols! I love your addon so far but I am a little confused about the changelogs:

    You mentioned advanced emulator launcher and I just downloaded your newest zip after manually cleaning out my libreelec installation of previous addons from the .kodi and .config directories/subdirectories.

    Now after a fresh install and a reboot I still find advanced launcher installed and not advanced emulator launcher from wintermute0110. Am I missing something or are you only including advanced emulator launcher into the LE8 builds? (I am running 7.0.2 still because of a PVR addon which is currently still in early beta on LE8 due to imputstream.mpd implementation and stuff, so I am stuck with 7.0.2 for the moment, otherwise my wife would kill me if our TV wouldn't work ^^)

    Edited once, last by Arokhaerr (November 13, 2016 at 4:12 PM).

    Quote from Arokhaerr

    Hi bite_your_idols! I love your addon so far but I am a little confused about the changelogs:

    You mentioned advanced emulator launcher and I just downloaded your newest zip after manually cleaning out my libreelec installation of previous addons from the .kodi and .config directories/subdirectories.

    Now after a fresh install and a reboot I still find advanced launcher installed and not advanced emulator launcher from wintermute0110. Am I missing something or are you only including advanced emulator launcher into the LE8 builds? (I am running 7.0.2 still because of a PVR addon which is currently still in early beta on LE8 due to imputstream.mpd implementation and stuff, so I am stuck with 7.0.2 for the moment, otherwise my wife would kill me if our TV wouldn't work ^^)

    yes, you are right:
    LibreELEC8 -> Advanced Emulator Launcher
    Open/LibreELEC 7/6 -> Advanced Launcher

    you can install AEL manually with this zip, then unzip the content of this package and place into /storage/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.advanced.emulator.launcher/ and you will have the default gamestarter emulator list in AEL

    Everything works fine with LE8 and AEL. Only the NES Emulator is not working. When i load the rom, then LE shut down. Is it possible to change the NES emulator by hand?

    Is it also possible to change the screen in 16:9?

    Sorry for my bad english... :D

    Quote from Korni


    Everything works fine with LE8 and AEL. Only the NES Emulator is not working. When i load the rom, then LE shut down. Is it possible to change the NES emulator by hand?

    Is it also possible to change the screen in 16:9?

    Sorry for my bad english... :D

    It is an error I miss when I rename some cores. You can edit with context menu and change advance settings, then look for arguments or something similar.
    Find "fceu %ROM%" and replace with "fceumm %ROM%" . Just add "mm" at the end of the core name.

    In the upcoming new version this will be fixed and a lot of another things will be included...

    About 16:9 browse in retroarch video settings.

    Quote from bite_your_idols

    It is an error I miss when I rename some cores. You can edit with context menu and change advance settings, then look for arguments or something similar.
    Find "fceu %ROM%" and replace with "fceumm %ROM%" . Just add "mm" at the end of the core name.

    In the upcoming new version this will be fixed and a lot of another things will be included...

    About 16:9 browse in retroarch video settings.

    Ok, thank you for your fast reply. How can i open the retroarch settings?

    when in a game press PS button if using a dualshock. If not, try making a combo with select or start + another keys...

    Another option is launching gamestarter into retroarch directly.

    EDIT: in retroarch>settings>input you can select a key-combo for entering retroarch when in a game. Another thing I will include in next release ;)

    Quote from bite_your_idols


    when in a game press PS button if using a dualshock. If not, try making a combo with select or start + another keys...

    Another option is launching gamestarter into retroarch directly.

    EDIT: in retroarch>settings>input you can select a key-combo for entering retroarch when in a game. Another thing I will include in next release ;)

    Ok. The NES Problem is fixed. Is it possible to use 8bitdo Controller with the RPi3 Bluetooth? When yes, how?