Add Emulators to raspberry pi 3

sirhenrythe5th

@Gryphon simple answer: you dont.

You can choose between the existing MAME-Ports for the Pi, but not simply install your favourite PC-Version (MAME32, MAME64, MAME for X86 in general) on the pi.

It is the other way arround: choose one of the MAME-Ports that are available and then collect/manage/reorganize the roms you need/have.

mitu

@Gryphon said in Add Emulators to raspberry pi 3:

Those threads explain how to add a system for Emulationstation but does not cover for how to add my own personal version for example my Mame .193 into retropie from what I can find. So how does one do this? Thank you.

If the emulator you want to add is not one of the emulators supported/installed by RetroPie, you'll have to compile your own version of mame and configure runcommand to run it for your custom system. How you compile it and install it, that's up to the emulator's documentation and it's not a standard method for all of them.
mame (latest version) is available in RetroPie if you wish to use a more recent version.

Gryphon

@mitu Ok, thank you for that info. Also wondering, if I go through that process to add my own Mame, (compile it and everything) do you know the steps I need to take after that? I mean after I compile it how to I get the compile into the system? The run command I can figure out I think from the other info on the Retropie page. Thank you.

mitu

@Gryphon Not sure I understand the question - if you're compiling and installing the MAME version you want, you do it on the target system (the Pi3), so it's already installed 'into the system'. After that, you can just configure runcommand for one of the arcade systems (arcade would be easier) by modifying emulators.cfg for that system (/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/emulators.cfg) and adding the new emulator there. The new emulator (MAME version) would then be available in the Runcommand launch menu to be used for running games.

Gryphon

@mitu ahhh ok so i need to compile it in the pie itself. ok so how does one go about doing that, like you said i mean, how do i compile it on the target system which would be the pie3? well pie4 actually but running as a pie3 or hey if i get this to work i might go to pie4 flash. aye i get the part of configuring the runcommand but where im stuck is what you said and how to do it, to compile on the pie, no idea where to start on that.

mitu

@Gryphon As I said, each emulator has its own build/installation documentation. For MAME, you can find the documentation at https://docs.mamedev.org/initialsetup/compilingmame.html.

Gryphon

@mitu ok so i got to thinking after my last post on asking how to compile it on the target system like you said, i got to thinking is there a list out there somewhere i can look at to see if it has the version of mame i want to add? i mean a list that would give the link i need so i could add the mame i want by typing it into a sudo get command?

mitu

@Gryphon The list of supported MAME versions in RetroPie - which you can install easily from RetroPie - is here. The closest to your desired version is lr-mame2016.
As for using the 'sudo' command to add it, I doubt the version of MAME you want is available from the available packages, the one distributed by Raspbian is 0.206.

Gryphon

aye, ok, so how do i compile my version of mame directly into rpie? i mean what command do i use in the command line if thats how its done? i tried 2016 version, did not like that, i have the compiler and mame ready to go, i just dont know how to compile it right into rpie

mitu

@Gryphon RetroPie already installs a compiler, you need to install the dependencies, as described in https://docs.mamedev.org/initialsetup/compilingmame.html#debian-and-ubuntu-including-raspberry-pi-and-odroid-devices, download the source archive, unpack it and then run make from the sources folder - with the options outlined in the docs.
Here an outline of the process (you can skip any SDL installation commands, they're not needed on a RetroPie installation).