RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login

    PC Engine build

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Projects and Themes
    pc enginetg16pcebuildturbografx
    59 Posts 15 Posters 20.0k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • FlyingTomahawkF
      FlyingTomahawk
      last edited by FlyingTomahawk

      Funny you show this game. Just saw it yesterday at Hard Off for 12000 yen. So you just saved yourself a big amount of money.

      A guy that I used to have contact in Yokohama owns the complete Shmups collection for PCEngine and some were REALLY expensive he said.

      Still I don't understand how you gonna run these games without ES. Is there a different software you gonna use? Can you explain more details?

      lilbudL ruckageR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • lilbudL
        lilbud @FlyingTomahawk
        last edited by

        @flyingtomahawk Kinda going off memory here from the NESPI project. But what would happen is he would insert the "HuCard" into the slot and underneath would be the NFC reader. When he presses a button or toggle, the reader will read the rom on the NFC sticker, pass the rom along to RA which would load it in the proper emulator.

        Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

        Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • ruckageR
          ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
          last edited by ruckage

          @flyingtomahawk said in PC Engine build:

          Funny you show this game. Just saw it yesterday at Hard Off for 12000 yen. So you just saved your self a big amount of money.

          A guy that I used to have contact in Yokohama owns the complete Shmups collection for PCEngine and some were REALLY expensive he said.

          Still I don't understand how you gonna run these games without ES. Is there a different software you gonna use? Can you explain more details?

          Yeah some of the games for PC engine are stupidly expensive, i'd never be able to afford most of the genuine hucards so It will be cool to have a collection with all those rare games (even if they are just pretend :D )

          @lilbud is very close with how it works, mine is bit different to the nespi as everything happens automatically when the console is switched on.
          I've modified autostart.sh and have removed emulationstation from it (this means that ES isn't launched) and in it's place I call a python script. The python script reads the nfc (using nfcpy library) which contains the rom name and launches the game using 'Runcommand' which is exactly the same way ES launches the games as well.

          SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

          If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • FlyingTomahawkF
            FlyingTomahawk
            last edited by FlyingTomahawk

            ~~So how do you get those games/roms into the hucards? Where did you get the python script from to let it read that game data and then run them?

            I am not familiar with the NESPI build. So forgive me the questions.~~

            Never mind. I'll just keep watching this build and see how it goes. I probably will never build anything close to it so no need to know everything behind it.

            DarksaviorD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DarksaviorD
              Darksavior @FlyingTomahawk
              last edited by Darksavior

              @flyingtomahawk Me too. PC Engine's that look like they were used as a doorstop are way too expensive and the nearmint ones are even more. I wanted to solder a microsd usb reader to a hucard's pins but that also might've been near impossible.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • mituM
                mitu Global Moderator
                last edited by mitu

                @flyingtomahawk said in PC Engine build:

                ~~So how do you get those games/roms into the hucards? Where did you get the python script from to let it read that game data and then run them?

                There's a NES mini build with NFC support explained at http://www.daftmike.com/p/nespi-software-install-guide_30.html. The concept I think is the same - read the NFC card label and then execute a command on the Pi. Note that the game is not on the card, it's just the name of the game. The script reads the NFC label (name of the game), searches for the ROM file (on the Pi) and then executes runcommand with the proper parameters to start the emulator for the ROM name found on the NFC card.
                The code used is published at https://github.com/imdaftmike/NESPi.git .

                FlyingTomahawkF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • FlyingTomahawkF
                  FlyingTomahawk @mitu
                  last edited by

                  @mitu
                  Now that makes sense.
                  So the the card is just a trigger to load the rom which is on the SD card. Cool stuff!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • FlyingTomahawkF
                    FlyingTomahawk
                    last edited by FlyingTomahawk

                    @ruckage
                    Sorry to go again off-topic with the following question.

                    I was looking at SD cards on amazon and they offer 2 types of SanDisk Ultras.
                    One is red/grey and says Class10 / A1 Sandisk microSDHC 98mb/S GB Ultra SD
                    They other is white/grey and says Class10 Sandisk microSDHC Ultra 80MB/s GB
                    Can the Pi read either one?

                    ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • ruckageR
                      ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
                      last edited by ruckage

                      @flyingtomahawk

                      Hi. Yes, both should work. A1 should technically be better I think (it's a new rating that I believe signifies good 4KB read/write performance which from my reading is important when it comes to the pi). My current card is A1 and works perfectly. Just make sure to buy directly from Amazon themselves as there are a lot of fake SD cards around.

                      Regarding your previous question, @mitu description is correct. Mine is slightly different to daftmikes as I don't have an arduino as a middleman reading the tags, instead I have it connected directly to the gpio and I'm using a python library to read the tags ndef data. To write the tags I'm just using my tablet and an app which i think is called nfctool. Daftmikes software is much more advanced than mine as it handles multiple systems and can also write the tags, I didn't need that so mine is quite simple.

                      I'd post a link to the tutorial I followed but the site doesn't seem to be working, there is a google cache of it though https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fPoZv3oSw_kJ:blog.digitaloctave.com/posts/hardware/nfc-module-v3-raspberry-pi/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

                      My code is based on the sample from that tutorial, I'll post my code below though I'll probably tweak it some more before I'm finished, it could be simplified (particularly where it joins the strings to create the command) but I'm trying to keep it easily readable.

                      import subprocess
                      import nfc
                      import ndef
                      from nfc.tag import tt1
                      from nfc.tag import tt2
                      from nfc.tag import tt3
                      from nfc.tag import tt4
                      
                      
                      tagtypes = (
                          ('uid', nfc.tag.tt1.Type1Tag),
                          ('uid', nfc.tag.tt2.Type2Tag),
                          ('idm', nfc.tag.tt3.Type3Tag),
                          ('uid', nfc.tag.tt4.Type4Tag)
                      )
                      
                      
                      with nfc.ContactlessFrontend('tty:S0:pn532') as clf:
                      
                          tag = clf.connect(rdwr={'on-connect': lambda tag: False})
                          record = tag.ndef.message[0]
                          rom = nfc.ndef.TextRecord(record).text
                          rom = rom + ".zip"
                          path = "\"/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pcengine/"
                          command = "sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ pcengine "
                          command=command+path+rom+"\""
                          subprocess.call(command, shell=True)
                      

                      Edit: Forgot to say, daftmike is a really nice helpful guy. I've sent him a few emails and he kindly pointed me in the right direction to buy an NFC reader after my fake one didn't work as expected.

                      SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                      If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                      FlyingTomahawkF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                      • FlyingTomahawkF
                        FlyingTomahawk @ruckage
                        last edited by FlyingTomahawk

                        @ruckage

                        Thanks a lot for explaining. Now things start to make sense.

                        Regarding my boot time, not sure why but I had a 16GB Class 4 SD card inside my Pi3. That might explain why I had slow loading times. I have a 32GB SanDisk Ultra Class 10 A1 coming my way now that should hopefully speed things up a bit.

                        ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • ruckageR
                          ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
                          last edited by

                          @flyingtomahawk
                          You should definitely notice a difference going from a class 4 to class 10 SD card, will be interesting to see your boot times with the new card.

                          The cable you're looking for is just called a 'micro sd extension cable'
                          I think this is the one I bought but they should be fairly easy to find on ebay/amazon as well.
                          https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/microsd-extension-cable

                          SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                          If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                          FlyingTomahawkF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • FlyingTomahawkF
                            FlyingTomahawk @ruckage
                            last edited by

                            @ruckage

                            Thank you.
                            I found the cable info in your SNES build right after I wrote here that is why I removed it.
                            Will order it now and see where to put it inside my Famicom.

                            ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • ruckageR
                              ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
                              last edited by ruckage

                              @flyingtomahawk
                              :D I hadn't even noticed you removed that from your message.
                              I can't think of anywhere obvious you could put the extension cable apart from maybe in the cartridge slot. I'll have to have a look at my famicom as I can't remember what ports it has and I'll likely use an extension cable as well when I do my famicom mod.

                              SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                              If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • FlyingTomahawkF
                                FlyingTomahawk
                                last edited by

                                Got my SanDisk Ultra Class10 A1 SD card today and slapped on my backup image file.
                                I did 10 boot ups and I get 9 seconds to boot video and 15 seconds to menu consistent. No ups or downs in boot time, always 9 and 15.
                                Maybe if I remove the splash video I can get the time lower but then all the fun is gone and I really like the splash video.

                                ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • ruckageR
                                  ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
                                  last edited by

                                  @flyingtomahawk
                                  That's a nice improvement. You might find that ES is already loaded a bit before that and the splash video is playing over the top of it. Could you try without the splash video to get an accurate boot time?

                                  What splash video are you using by the way?

                                  SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                                  If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                                  FlyingTomahawkF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • FlyingTomahawkF
                                    FlyingTomahawk @ruckage
                                    last edited by FlyingTomahawk

                                    @ruckage

                                    Your splash video of course. :-D
                                    Definitely an improvement. Thanks to you and this thread here I went from 23 boot video 29 menu to 9 boot video 15 menu.
                                    If I disable the splash video I cut the time by 1 second. I rather wait 1 second and enjoy a nice splash video.

                                    And here an old video of mine. Look at that long boot time, terrible.

                                    ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • ruckageR
                                      ruckage @FlyingTomahawk
                                      last edited by ruckage

                                      @flyingtomahawk

                                      Yep, that's definitely a speed improvement.
                                      Nice to see my splash videos being used. I was going to offer to shorten the splash video to match your boot time but to be honest that looks nice and seamless, pretty much identical to the boot on my super famicom which isn't surprising as it's using the same SD card and I designed the length of the video with that in mind.

                                      It's a shame that there is such a delay before splash videos start playing in Retropie, it would be nice to be able reduce that but I guess they play as early as is possible.

                                      @herb_fargus A quick question, with plymouth boot screens do they start earlier in the boot process or is it comparable to splashvideos?

                                      SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                                      If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                                      herb_fargusH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • herb_fargusH
                                        herb_fargus administrators @ruckage
                                        last edited by

                                        @ruckage said in PC Engine build:

                                        do they start earlier in the boot process or is it comparable to splashvideos?

                                        It's a little earlier but essentially negligible. You'd see a bit more of a difference on the pi 1. But even then it's just a matter of seconds.

                                        If you read the documentation it will answer 99% of your questions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

                                        Also if you want a solution to your problems read this first: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

                                        ruckageR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • ruckageR
                                          ruckage @herb_fargus
                                          last edited by

                                          @herb_fargus
                                          Thanks.

                                          SNES mini/Nes mini/Famicom mini theme developer.

                                          If you'd like to support my work you can donate here: Donate

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • Stuart2773S
                                            Stuart2773 @ruckage
                                            last edited by

                                            @ruckage said in PC Engine build:

                                            @stuart2773 said in PC Engine build:

                                            @ruckage Can't wait to see what "theme" you come up with for this build

                                            I'm sorry to disappoint you but this build won't be using ES at all so it won't have a theme, all games will be launched by inserting my fake Hucards (I have enough plastic blanks to make 100 at least which will easily cover all the PC Engine games I'm interested in.

                                            Sorry to hear that you wont be making a theme for this build :(

                                            however, if its not too much trouble to kindly ask if you would consider modifying your neogeo theme as i would love to use that theme for my PC Engine build to support "CD front covers", i had a look at the xml files but im not sure what the position and alignments would be, if it is at all possible that you could modify the xml files i can easily make my own background images for my own personal use.

                                            Ive included a pic (see pic below) of what i done, i just extended the game selection & controls screen and reduced the boxart/screenshot section, obviously the aes-controls.png would need to centered in its new position and the game selection names would need to be extended.

                                            0_1518991220120_test.png

                                            many thanks

                                            stuart.

                                            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                            • First post
                                              Last post

                                            Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                            Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.