Release RetroArch (NES, SNES, Genesis+SCD, GBC, GBA, and more) now on repo

[lifning]

RetroArch (on the Pandora repo) is a nice modular multi-system emulator. It supports quite a number of emulated systems, see the additional info on the repo page for a list. The main app uses PickleLauncher, which should be able to guess which core to use based on file extension (or you can tap the 'edit' button on the right). The RetroArch-Phoenix GUI is available for more in-depth settings.

The most performant cores on my 256MB unit have been FCEU, PocketSNES, Gambatte, and NXEngine. I imagine 1GHz units might do better with Snes9x-Next, VBA-Next, and Genesis Plus, since those are just a little choppy on mine.

 

[antheus123]

I can only seem to select sfc snes roms and not the usual smc ones,


anyway to change it?

 

[lifning]

Wow, I didn't even think of that. Guess I'm so used to having clean headerless SNES ROMs out of necessity from using bsnes, and because that's what my Retrode produces anyway. It seems RetroArch can handle ignoring the header though, so I'll go ahead and add *.smc to the allowed extensions. Though in general I'd encourage people to get rid of ancient Super Magicom headers in their ROM collections unless they actually have such a device Pushed an update to the repo, it should show *.smc in the file chooser for SNES now.

 

[ShleeDragon]

PCSX seems to fail..


The phoenix is only the setup utility? You'll need to refactor the gui into a series of slides. Seems to be cutting most of the screen off.

 

[lifning]

Hmm... PCSX works (slowly) on my Pandora. I guess I should make it easier to get at the logs if it crashes.


RA-Phoenix is mostly included as a convenience for people who don't want to edit the config file by hand. Think of it like how the mupen64plus 1.5 PND has separate apps for "configure" and "launch" I suppose.


Actually, come to think of it, if you launch from RA-Phoenix I think you can view the output log from the menu.

 

[dsleaf67]

Hmm... PCSX works (slowly) on my Pandora. I guess I should make it easier to get at the logs if it crashes.


RA-Phoenix is mostly included as a convenience for people who don't want to edit the config file by hand. Think of it like how the mupen64plus 1.5 PND has separate apps for "configure" and "launch" I suppose.


Actually, come to think of it, if you launch from RA-Phoenix I think you can view the output log from the menu.

I don't mind editing the config. I tried though and don't seem to have much luck. Wanted to adjust video size for example and saves they dont work (in gamebattle at least) Just says failed to save to ".


Where can the config be saved and modified from? In the nand I see 2 copies but could get video size adjusted. One was read only (probably in mounted pnd?) Tried copying to appdata but no luck. Does it affect all emulators etc? Checking around it seems alot still save to nand. Is that on your todo list as well.


Edit: I can confirm, pcsx doesn't doesn't run for me either and I've had very little luck running anything through phoenix as well. I can fill in fields and most of the time I click to start and it flashes quickly to want looks like a button screen and right back to phoenix.

 

[SNESFAN]

All my psx roms are in phb format so I'm getting similar to above.


Unzip works but leaves the uncompressed file in the directory after use. Maybe uncompress to working directory temp folder and clear on next rom load?

 

[lifning]

Where in the NAND is it going for you? If it's /mnt/utmp/retroarch/ then that's just the mounted PND. If it's in your /home, though, that shouldn't be happening... The launcher script sets XDG_CONFIG_HOME to /mnt/utmp/retroarch, so the config file should be copied to appdata/retroarch/retroarch/retroarch.cfg upon modification, unless there's something I'm missing about the whole magical PND system.


The config file affects all the emulator cores.


I've only tested PCSX on *.bin/*.img images, this is the first I've actually heard of phb format.

 

[dsleaf67]

Thanks for the info I'll try some more testing. As for the PCSX, its PSP eboot.pbp that he's refering to. Most of mine are in that format and pcsx_rearmed does support that format, but like the smc for snes your list filter doesn't allow it to show up. What version of pcsx rearmed are you using.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

The launcher script sets XDG_CONFIG_HOME to /mnt/utmp/retroarch, so the config file should be copied to appdata/retroarch/retroarch/retroarch.cfg upon modification

This should require a closer look, though... For example, the functions provided by the GLib to get the HOME directory (g_get_home_dir()) in a somewhat OS-independent way will NOT try to read it out of things like the HOME variables, it will directly extract it from the passwd file - which simply can't be modified like it is done with all the environment variables.

 

[lifning]

I get the feeling I should make "All files (*)" available as a fallback option so I can stop oppressing people with my mistakes So is that *.pbp and *.phb I should add to the list for PSX?


I was doing some testing with regard to the config file, and it seems it's not being copied to appdata automatically upon being written. Temporary solution:


cp /mnt/utmp/retroarch/retroarch/retroarch.cfg /media/mmcblk0p1/pandora/appdata/retroarch/retroarch/


Then it becomes writeable.


I checked out my home folder, and it seems Phoenix itself (the GUI toolkit RA-Phoenix uses) writes a small config file ~/.config/phoenix/gtk.cfg, but that's all I've seen written to NAND. Hopefully I can get that gone too.

 

[SNESFAN]

just pbp, my memory sucks


for the uncompression of .zip can you set it to go into the the /pandora/appadata/retroarch or something like that?


It currently uncompresses the .zip file into the same directory the .zip file is in.


for savestates & srm data either the appdata or the origin folder would be good for those IMO

 

[dsleaf67]

I'm sorry android, but I don't see where it unzips the rom into the same folder, in the v0.9.7.3. Is this through phoenix gui part (I don't use it) or straight retroarch ver..

 

[SNESFAN]

It is in phoenix but I spoke too soon, looks like it clears the rom on switching Roms... so no real issue I guess

 

[lifning]

While I'm fiddling with the filter options, should I make "Compressed archives (*.zip; *.rar; *.7z)" be on a separate entry? Something like this:





Or is it fine being mashed in with the normal ROM types?

 

[SNESFAN]

Same would reduce confusion

 

[dsleaf67]

I personally, think the zip,rar,7z thing is fine now in current version.


@andriod - I had thunar open looking for my smc file while I was running the game from zip but couldn't find it. Is it hidden or something?


@lifning - thanks for the info above on the retroarch.cfg location and modification. The changes seem to work, however I can't seem to get it to go full screen. Can you give me some ideas on that or a preconfigured cfg that will do it.


edit:android what format are your zip? Are they zips you refer to or rar,7z

 

[SNESFAN]

Zip


Open program, opened a .zip with a .nes inside, run emulator, fn q to quit, reopen app, see .nes alongside .zip

 

[dsleaf67]

@android - thanks for info I'll try nes (which emulator bnes or fcue). I've mostly use for GBC (gamebattle) and couldn't see the gbc files show up anywhere.


@lifning, thanks, lifning! Only 2 issues I see left. I've changed my pnd to use fullscreen instead of pixel perfect and copied retroarch.cfg to appdata/retroarch/retroarch as you suggested and that works.


Here's what I put in the script env-vars.sh


# integral scaling


if test -e iwantfullscreen.txt; then


export SDL_OMAP_LAYER_SIZE=fullscreen


else


export SDL_OMAP_LAYER_SIZE="pixelperfect"


fi


1) I modified paths to get saves etc to go to different locations other than with rom. The states will go there but are named wrong (they are all tmp.state1...9 etc) instead of using the rom name like the PC version of retroarch. other saves still go with the rom (sgm).


2) minor issue (less used), but snapshots don't seem to go anywhere (or where they go I'm not sure). It shows on screen that its taking snapshot but can't find it. Also, can't find where to change the path in retro arch cfg for these.


Can you add the other gameboy extensions to vba filter (ie. gbc, gb, etc) for completeness even though gamebattle seems to better for gameboy.

 

[dsleaf67]

Zip


Open program, opened a .zip with a .nes inside, run emulator, fn q to quit, reopen app, see .nes alongside .zip

Ahhh, for clarification thats when you use the retroarch-phoenix gui that the zip is put there. I run the straight retroarch app and it doesn't unzip it.


And your right it does delete it after exit though. I had thunar open the whole time and watched it disappear after I exit phoenix gui.


Edit: This is how the gui works on PC too!