[Emulator] Play games made with the Godot game engine

[hiulit]

First of all, if you don't know what I'm talking about, Godot is a 2D and 3D cross-platform game engine released as open-source software under the MIT license.

There are plenty of games made with Godot, most of them hosted on https://itch.io/.
You can find Godot games using the following links:

• https://itch.io/games/made-with-godot
• https://itch.io/games/tag-godot

So, to play Godot games on RetroPie, I've created this scriptmodule :D https://github.com/hiulit/RetroPie-Godot-Game-Engine-Emulator

RetroPie Godot Game Engine "Emulator" (v1.2.0)

A scriptmodule to install a Godot "emulator" for RetroPie.

Thanks to @efornara (for creating FRT - A Godot "platform" targeting single board computers) you can now play* games made with Godot on your Raspberry Pi (and other single board computers) using RetroPie.

If you are running RetroPie on an x86 PC, the Godot "emulator" uses the Linux/X11-32bits export template instead of FRT, so most games should work fine.

There are plenty of games made with Godot, most of them hosted on https://itch.io/.
You can find Godot games using the following links:

• https://itch.io/games/made-with-godot
• https://itch.io/games/tag-godot

*Games that (would) work on a Raspberry Pi must have been created with Godot 3.1.x using GLES2 (or maybe Godot 2.x.x) and not using any 'fancy VFX' like particles and other CPU/GPU demanding stuff.

Install the setup script

cd /home/pi/
git clone https://github.com/hiulit/RetroPie-Godot-Game-Engine-Emulator.git
cd RetroPie-Godot-Game-Engine-Emulator/
sudo chmod +x setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh

Update the setup script

cd RetroPie-Godot-Game-Engine-Emulator/
git pull

Usage

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh [OPTIONS]

If no options are passed, you will be prompted with a usage example:

USAGE: ./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh [OPTIONS]

Use '--help' to see all the options.

The script assumes that you are running it on a Raspberry Pi with the RetroPie-Setup folder being stored in /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup. If your setup differs, you can pass the path where your RetroPie-Setup folder is stored as a parameter, like this:

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh [OPTION] "/path/to/your/RetroPie-Setup"

Options

• --help: Print the help message and exit.
• --install: Install the scriptmodule.
• --uninstall: Uninstall the scriptmodule.
• --update: Update the scriptmodule.
• --version: Show script version.

Examples

--help

Print the help message and exit.

Example

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh --help

--install

Install the scriptmodule.

Example

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh --install

--uninstall

Uninstall the scriptmodule.

Example

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh --uninstall

--update

Update the scriptmodule.

Example

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh --update

--version

Show script version.

Example

./setup-godot-engine-scriptmodule.sh --version

Install the Godot "emulator" from RetroPie-Setup

Once you've successfully installed the scriptmodule, run:

sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and then go to:

• Manage packages
• Manage optional packages
• godot-engine
• Install from source

A new godot-engine folder will be created in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/, where you can put your games using .pck and zip extensions.

For example, if you download a game from https://itch.io/, the downloaded .zip usually contains 2 files: the executable and the game. The later is, most the times, a .pck file and that's the one we want. Just copy it to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/godot-engine.

The script installs different versions of the "emulator" for maximum compatibility:

• 2.1.6
• 3.0.6
• 3.1.0
• 3.1.1

If the game you are trying to play doesn't work, try changing the "emulator" in the runcommand.

If you are using an x86 PC, the "emulators" used are Godot's export templates downloaded from https://godotengine.org/download/.

For the Raspberry Pi, the script will auto-detect if you are using a 0/1 or a 2/3 version and it will install the proper FRT "emulators". Same for any arm64 single computer board.

In case none of the "emulators" work... Sorry.

Uninstall the Godot "emulator" from RetroPie-Setup

Run:

sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and then go to:

• Manage packages
• Manage optional packages
• godot-engine
• Remove

Update the Godot "emulator" from RetroPie-Setup

Run:

sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and then go to:

• Manage packages
• Manage optional packages
• godot-engine
• Update from source

Using a GPIO/Virtual keyboard

Warning! When using a GPIO/Virtual keyboard, the actual keyboard won't work anymore. But you can always remove the GPIO/Virtual keyboard (see below).

As of v1.2.0, when using the FRT emulator, you can use a GPIO/Virtual keyboard, such as GPIOnext or Adafruit's Retrogame.

Add a GPIO/Virtual keyboard

Run:

sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and then go to:

• Configuration/tools
• godot-engine

You will be prompted with a menu showing all the results from the command cat /proc/bus/input/devices. Select the GPIO/Virtual keyboard that you want.

Remove the GPIO/Virtual keyboard

If you don't want to use the GPIO/Virtual keyboard anymore, run:

sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and then go to:

• Configuration/tools
• godot-engine

Select No when asked if you want to use a GPIO/Virtual keyboard.

How to create a new Godot system for an EmulationStation theme

As there is no way to create a script to automate this, because themes don't have the same structure, the best way is to manually create a new system in your preferred theme.

• Download the Godot system.svg.
• Download the Godot controller.svg.
• Copy any system folder in your theme (e.g. /etc/emulationstation/themes/[THEME]/nes).
• Rename it as godot-engine.
• Move the Godot system.svg and controller.svg to the godot-engine/art folder.

Note

The folder structure in the theme you are using might differ. Take a look at how this particular theme works to create the godot-engine folder accordingly. You might need to delete extra icons that are not needed.

Premade Godot systems

I've created Godot systems for the default EmulationStation theme that comes in RetroPie, Carbon theme, and for my personal favourite theme, Pixel theme.

Copy the theme/[THEME]/godot-engine folder from this repository to /etc/emulationstation/themes/[THEME].

Carbon theme

Pixel theme

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.

Authors

Me 😛 @hiulit.

Credits

Thanks to:

• Emanuele Fornara @efornara - For creating FRT - A Godot "platform" targeting single board computers.
• Andrea Calabró - For creating the Godot logo. Changes made to it:
  • Created an outline version.
• Alícia Folgarona Ribot (Alfórium Studios) @alforiumstudios - For creating the Pixel Godot logo. Changes made to it:
  • New colors.
  • Added white outline.

LICENSE

• Source code: MIT License.
• Godot logo: CC BY.
• Pixel Godot logo: CC BY-NC-SA.

[hiulit]

@BuZz @herb_fargus Any chance this could be integrated in the official RetroPie repository? I would be responsible for its maintenance and possible issues and of course I'll make the proper documentation on the Wiki, etc.

Godot it's licensed under MIT as well as FRT, the binaries included in the scriptmodule. And of course, my code is also licensed under MIT. Some of the the art used is licensed under CC, so I think it there should be no problem there.

Thank you for your time! :)

[ellohir]

Love2D is a similar engine and is included on Retropie so I see no problem with this being included. I love my retro machine but one of the reasons I chose Retropie and not other closed systems was to be able to tinker and add or develop new games :)

You should ask for the Godot engine to be officially accepted into the Carbon repository, I know the guys from Solarus did and it was so easy to install. No messing with folders, pictures and xml. You could ask @hhromic for help with that.

There seem to be some limitations to the games you can play based on their VFX, and many games do not support gamepads... What games would you recommend us to try?

[backstander]

@ellohir
What games would you recommend us to try?

@hiulit
I'm wondering the same thing. What are some of the games you liked that you got working?

[celly]

@backstander I thought the exact same thing too. Went digging into some of the games listed and Ikki’s Dungeon looks like a game I would be into.

[hiulit]

@ellohir @backstander @celly Thanks for your interest in Godot :)

First and foremost, if you are using a Raspberry Pi up to the 3 B+, most likely almost no games will work :(
We'll see how the new Raspberry Pi 4 works, because it brings GLES3 and that's what most Godot games are built upon.

That said. if you have an x86 machine running RetroPie most games will work :D

I would suggest you to try some of Securas games https://securas.itch.io/ for starters.

[hiulit]

I've released v1.2.0 of the Godot "emulator" scriptmodule!

Changelog

• Support for GPIO/Virtual keyboards (GPIOnext or Adafruit's Retrogame, among others) for single board computers, such as the Raspberry Pi.

Here's a little video* of a game I'm workin on using Godot for the Raspberry Pi.

*Click on the thumbnail to go to the video.

[teethree89]

Hello, had a quick question, what is the best way to execute an OS command with this emulator? I have the following but it falls short of executing:

	OS.execute("bash", ["~/RetroPie/scripts/killgodot.sh"], true, output)

the script contents are:

ps -ef | awk '/godot-engine/ {print $2}' | xargs kill

it simple looks for the emulator in the process list and kills it, so I can switch games with it being a custom launcher.
Figuring this out would also help in launching games :)

Thank you,