Master list of emulator instructions and controls?

[LuciferRising]

Hey all! Just a suggestion..


I see a lot of people having trouble setting up emulators, figuring out controls, key combos etc. Being a new pandora user myself I can understand some of their frustration. I have used many emulators on many different systems over the years and I'd have to say I had a little more trouble than usual getting some of these set up on the pandora. Some of the emulators do not have documentation. Also some say they do, but aurora comes up with "failed to load". I hope that's not an error on my part.


I do realize there is a lot of info around here, on the wiki, on the forums. Sometimes it is just hard to find what your looking for. If I hit a snag I would go right to the wiki. If that didn't help I would start searching the forums hoping to find someone that had the same problem as me (and wasting a lot of time doing it). I think it would be helpful to many if there was just one place you could go that listed all the emulators and gave you all info you would need to get started, such as:


-Where to put bios files? Should they be zipped or unzipped?


-Where to put roms/images? Should they be zipped or unzipped?


-What key (or keys) to get back to game list?


-What key (or keys) to exit emulator?


-Hot keys for save/load states etc?


For many emulators this stuff is pretty straight forward. For others, not so much. I didn't have much trouble figuring out where to put files (though many do), but figuring out some of the keys was a real pain. I am not trying to rehash the whole Standard Interfaces topic, though I do like the idea. I am sure there are many key controls that I still haven't figured out.


So what do you all think? Could there be something like that on the wiki or maybe a sticky in the support forum? While the Pandora is so much more than just a gaming machine, emulators will be the major draw for many users. It should be as easy as it can for people to just pop in their SD card and start playing.


Anyway, thanks for reading. I am just trying to be helpful.

 

[cosam]

I think ideally all of this would be part of the PND package itself. The system provides a decent method for including and displaying documentation, but it's of course up to the packager to provide it. It's also pretty easy to ask the user for files and such (e.g. bit of Zenity in the start-up script) but likewise the packager may or may not bother to do so.


My use of the term packager is deliberate in that it needn't always be the developer of the software. Personally, I don't mind writing docs but some developers hate it with a vengeance. I can also imagine some developers don't want others packaging their stuff, but there's nothing to stop someone else from submitting documentation or scripts to the developer which could be quite easily included in the package (I for one would whole-heartedly welcome such contributions). I also thought it was great that ED repackaged my VBA executable to include the Pickle Launcher and Notaz's SDL with hardware scaling.


IMHO the trouble with setting up a central source for all this stuff is that you'd need to keep it updated. If it's all in the PND it can't get out of sync (unless the packager screws it up, of course) and it's always available on the device itself.

 

[Blue Protoman]

The fact that Arora is more broken than a shattered window doesn't help, either.

 

[MNDN]

I would really like this!!!


I received my Pandora yesterday, put some emulators on the sd-card with some roms but nothing seems to work. I thought i was pretty handy with computers but yesterday i felt pretty stupid. I bought the Pandora mainly for NES, N64 and PS1 and for mail and web when i'm travelling for work.

 

[xXJippedXx]

Splendid and tremendous...


It would be nice to have some form of centralised hub of info/instructions for emulators. Sega/Nintendo/PSX are pretty straightforward but Neo Geo/Amiga etc are a minefield.

 

[MNDN]

did you read the manual about /pandora/menu and /pandora/desktop folders, PNDs must be there

Yes, i have made the list apps, appdate, menu, desktop put in the PND's opened them once, looked in the appdata files....


and then i find nowhere were to put the roms. I checked the forums all night but i found no info about this. I managed


to have Mario on in GPFCE-GP2X but with no controls and no sound. The same goes for N64. Probably just some small things,


what would make this master list of emulator instructions and controls very handy to go through step by step, for a newbi


like me.

 

[hakmanplayer]

Hey all! Just a suggestion..


I see a lot of people having trouble setting up emulators, figuring out controls, key combos etc. Being a new pandora user myself I can understand some of their frustration. I have used many emulators on many different systems over the years and I'd have to say I had a little more trouble than usual getting some of these set up on the pandora. Some of the emulators do not have documentation. Also some say they do, but aurora comes up with "failed to load". I hope that's not an error on my part.


I do realize there is a lot of info around here, on the wiki, on the forums. Sometimes it is just hard to find what your looking for. If I hit a snag I would go right to the wiki. If that didn't help I would start searching the forums hoping to find someone that had the same problem as me (and wasting a lot of time doing it). I think it would be helpful to many if there was just one place you could go that listed all the emulators and gave you all info you would need to get started, such as:


-Where to put bios files? Should they be zipped or unzipped?


-Where to put roms/images? Should they be zipped or unzipped?


-What key (or keys) to get back to game list?


-What key (or keys) to exit emulator?


-Hot keys for save/load states etc?


For many emulators this stuff is pretty straight forward. For others, not so much. I didn't have much trouble figuring out where to put files (though many do), but figuring out some of the keys was a real pain. I am not trying to rehash the whole Standard Interfaces topic, though I do like the idea. I am sure there are many key controls that I still haven't figured out.


So what do you all think? Could there be something like that on the wiki or maybe a sticky in the support forum? While the Pandora is so much more than just a gaming machine, emulators will be the major draw for many users. It should be as easy as it can for people to just pop in their SD card and start playing.


Anyway, thanks for reading. I am just trying to be helpful.

 

[hakmanplayer]

I think this would be a great idea.


Maybe various step by step videos for various emulators??


As long as the are not prolix or too technical :blink:

 

[MNDN]

usually ROMS can be stored wherever you like, a few emulators require them to be in the self generated subfolder in appdata

Thank you i have done that.


Does anyone wants to inform me what to ajust in GPFCE-GP2X to make roms work? So i can start there to learn.

 

[juliano]

A few PNDs doesn´t come with a proper documentation. I think a master list would be a good idea.

 

[FaeMinx]

+ 1

 

[vadsamoht]

I think this is a good idea, but deserves to be in the wiki rather than on the forums. Ideally (for me at least) each of the emulators concerned would have its own page that outlines its features and eccentricities, but others may have different ideas.

 

[LuciferRising]

Yes, i have made the list apps, appdate, menu, desktop put in the PND's opened them once, looked in the appdata files....


and then i find nowhere were to put the roms. I checked the forums all night but i found no info about this. I managed


to have Mario on in GPFCE-GP2X but with no controls and no sound.

gpFCE-GP2X won't create a roms folder for you. But you can certainly create one in pandora\appdata\gpfcegp2x and put all your nes games there. That way when you 'Load new ROM' you will see your roms folder right there with little navigation. If it doesn't see your new roms folder there, try rebooting pandora. That worked for me.


As far as no sound/no controls, I haven't encountered that. I haven't changed any options. Everything just seems to run fine. Maybe try asking in 'support'.


Mods: sorry, didn't intend for this to be a support thread..

 

[Nintendo]

Awesome! I also recommend http://pandorawiki.org/Main_Page