Enhanced game emulators

[deepthaw]

I seem to recall seeing emulators out there that would let you drop in new graphics packs that exceed the capabilities of the original hardware - similar to texture packs for N64/PSX games, but for 8-Bit titles.

Is this something that RetroPie can do out of the box, or is there documentation on how to configure it to do so?

[caver01]

@tonytoon I have never seen anything like you are describing for 8-bit titles. Maybe there are some ROM hacks out there that leverage updated images etc, but I think you need to be a lot more specific about titles and emulators. If enhancements exist, they would be ROM-specific and possibly emulator-specific.

[mitu]

As @caver01 said, it's game specific and available as a hack/homebrew. There are a few HD packs like the ones for Ninja Gaiden 2 [1] and I think Castlevania [2]. There may be others, but for the 2 mentioned only the Mesen emulator is targeted and works. Mesen it's not available in RetroPie. I doubt it will run reasonably on a Pi.

[1] http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=26164.0
[2] https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=26114.0

[deepthaw]

The castlevania hack is the one I was thinking of specifically, I was hoping whichever emulator supported it could easily be installed on RetroPie. I'll just give it a try on my PC though. Here's the Castlevania one that spurred this thought in action:

[Capeman]

I know what you're talking about. That's the MESEN emulator. It's supposed to be cycle accurate which means it's likely too processor intensive to run on the pi. There is a libretro port for it, but it doesnt seem to appear in the retropie selections. Maybe look in the experimental cores.