Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation

Brigane

It's my understanding that if I want the roms to show video snaps, wheel images etc. in Robospin. The filename has to be the same as both the images and the roms. Does there by any chance exist a program that can rename the files so they match each other. I ask because I'm not interested in changing over 1000 roms manually. Thanks :)

senkun

@Brigane well unless you've renamed your roms all the video snaps/flyers/etc. from all the usual places are named the same as the roms.

Brigane

@senkun I thought I had to get those files from places like emumovies.com and then rename them. I tried the scraper in AM but there are many files that can not be found.

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@senkun I thought I had to get those files from places like emumovies.com and then rename them. I tried the scraper in AM but there are many files that can not be found.

I was able to find 95% of my files from Here only had to rename maybe 3 as my ROM set didn't have the right names on a few.

senkun

@Finhead said:

I was able to find 95% of my files from Here only had to rename maybe 3 as my ROM set didn't have the right names on a few.

haha ditto. Oh and weed out and replace a couple which are like huge walkthroughs with insane +20MB filesizes.

Brigane

@Finhead Thanks a lot, I'll check that one out. I cross my fingers that I have the matching romset :)

Floob

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

It's my understanding that if I want the roms to show video snaps, wheel images etc. in Robospin. The filename has to be the same as both the images and the roms. Does there by any chance exist a program that can rename the files so they match each other. I ask because I'm not interested in changing over 1000 roms manually. Thanks :)

For MAME its usually easy as there is a naming standard for roms, so they usually match. Also emumovies will dowload artwork and match your filenames. If you have a very different set of names for your roms and artwork, e.g. perhaps for a console, you can use something like FatMatch to rename the artwork.
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/files/file/7401-fat-match-media-renamer/

AceGrace

Hi,

I must have missed something.

If I write the image to SD card, boot it and expand file system, when I go into Attract mode I get "press TAB to configure attract mode" as well as options to load Kodi etc....

At no point do I get the wheel or animation of games despite the fact that I have added roms (using the USB service).

What am I missing/doing wrong?

I only ever get the first menu as above.

Finhead

@AceGrace said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Hi,

I must have missed something.

If I write the image to SD card, boot it and expand file system, when I go into Attract mode I get "press TAB to configure attract mode" as well as options to load Kodi etc....

At no point do I get the wheel or animation of games despite the fact that I have added roms (using the USB service).

What am I missing/doing wrong?

I only ever get the first menu as above.

You need to do exactly as it says, press TAB and configure all your emultors you have ROMS for.
You need to generate your ROMS list as well as place your artwork(snaps,wheel,marquee art et) in he proper directories. Or scrape your artwork.
You'll then configure your Displays you have emultors configured for, you need to tell it which layout you want to use etc.
Floob goes through all this in the first video, it's super easy to do.

AceGrace

Hi, OK.

I will go back through the video. I just assumed that the USB ROM service would handle it and that the IMG already had it all set up with a default theme.

Thanks for letting me know.

Cheers

Brigane

@Floob Thank you so much for the advice regarding Fatmatch. It works like a charm :)

Brigane

Does anybody know how to setup more Pointers?
I know I can change the pointers in Layout options for each system (although the choice is only two different layouts).

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Does anybody know how to setup more Pointers?
I know I can change the pointers in Layout options for each system (although the choice is only two different layouts).

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

To add more pointer options to the Robospin theme this is what I did, might be a easier way though.

Add whatever .png pointer image you want to use to the pointers directory in the robospin-betanew layout , name it "pointer*" where asterisk is the number.

Open the layout.nut file in the robospin-betanew directory
Add a name for your new pointer to line #21 where you see rocket,hand,none

Scroll down in the layout.nut and duplicate (copy/paster below line #365) from line #335-365

Change "rocket" to whatever you named your new pointer in line #21
Change "pointers/pointer.png" to the number you gave your new pointer "pointers/pointer*.png"

Save it off, hit TAB, Displays, "Your emulator", Layout Options, Select pointer, pick the pointer you want to use.

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Are you overclocked or have large video files loaded? I know the only time AM has ever kicked out was when I tried to overclock to high. And when it goes into screen saver mod and uses the grid saver with higher res videos, doen't like that.

Brigane

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Are you overclocked or have large video files loaded? I know the only time AM has ever kicked out was when I tried to overclock to high. And when it goes into screen saver mod and uses the grid saver with higher res videos, doen't like that.

Yes I have an overclocked Pi and the crash does happen when AM is trying to show a ps1 game preview. the video files are about 10mb so should that really be the problem?
I tried again with overclock off but with no luck.

Floob

@Brigane As Finhead suggests, it could well be the video size. That does sound quite large compared to the snaps I tend to find. It seems that most, say from emumovies or progetto are closer to 1MB to 2MB. Perhaps thats it.
Where did you get your snaps?

Here is a related thread:
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=707.0

Brigane

@Floob I got most of my video snaps from here. But I will sure try to get them from emumovies in the future if the filesizes differs that much. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

Floob

@Brigane They all look like they are 480p, emumovies has access to 240p quality as well.

Finhead

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Brigane

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Haven't had time to look at that just yet, but when I do I'll let you know. A smarter solution would be nice though. You could easily screw up the Layout.nut file :)