How can I add a game to Emulationstation?

[sleve_mcdichael]

@TCM I couldn't say for sure as I've never used a Berry Boot, but probably.

What I can say is that RetroPie is not an OS; RetroPie is [1]merely a collection of shell scripts to assist with downloading, installing, and configuring various different emulator and front-end softwares on Linux computers running a Debian-based distro and, [2]more generally, the collection of softwares installed by those shell scripts when considered as a whole.

RetroPie on Raspberry Pi already is "Raspbian OS," so if you have one thing that says "Raspbian" and another one that's "RetroPie," what you really have is just two "Raspbians," just one has RetroPie[2] and the other one doesn't.

There is very little benefit to this and it almost certainly just makes things more complicated than they need to be. (I suppose there may be some use for it after all, if you're after a different version of Raspbian than the 32-bit Buster what RP is built on.) If your goal though is simply to sometimes use EmulationStation, the front-end menu and launcher for retro gaming applications, and other times use PIXEL/LXDE, the front-end graphical user environment for desktop applications, and still other times just use the console, the text-based environment for command-line applications, you can do all of that from a single-boot configuration, there's no need to duplicate or triplicate your whole system just for that.

[TCM]

@sleve_mcdichael If they are the same, then why can't I download the same game in Retropie? I downloaded it just fine in Rasbian/Raspberry OS (PC), but it says it can't be downloaded through Raspbian/Raspberry (Retropie F4/Shift+F4).

[mitu]

@TCM said in How can I add a game to Emulationstation?:

@sleve_mcdichael If they are the same, then why can't I download the same game in Retropie? I downloaded it just fine in Rasbian/Raspberry OS (PC), but it says it can't be downloaded through Raspbian/Raspberry (Retropie F4/Shift+F4).

These are different architectures and systems - PC (Intel x86 CPU) != Pi (ARM CPU). It could be that for ARM there's no available package to be installed or for the RPI OS version RetroPIe uses (Buster) that 'flatpak' package is not available.

[TCM]

@mitu By ''PC'' I meant the Raspbian OS with a Desktop Interface. I have installed the game on Pi Rasbian OS.

[mitu]

@TCM In this case or may be the latter reason:

or for the RPI OS version RetroPIe uses (Buster) that 'flatpak' package is not available.

[TCM]

@mitu Is there anything I can do then?

[mitu]

@TCM If that flatpak package doesn't install on the Raspberry Pi OS version used by RetroPie, then no.

[TCM]

@mitu these are the steps to install flatpak:

https://flatpak.org/setup/Raspberry Pi OS

I have done these steps, but the problem shows up in this command:

flatpak install flathub io.github.santiagocezar.maniatic-launcher

(from this site: https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.santiagocezar.maniatic-launcher)

[mitu]

@TCM said in How can I add a game to Emulationstation?:

I have done these steps, but the problem shows up in this command:

What is the actual error you get when you're trying to install the package ?

[TCM]

@mitu After having done the first two steps and then restarting, when I type this command: flatpak install flathub io.github.santiagocezar.maniatic-launcher

I get this :

error: Nothing matches io.github.santiagocezar.maniatic-launcher in remote flathub

[mitu]

What version of RetroPie are you using ?

[TCM]

@mitu I think 4.8 (on Raspberry Pi 4). How can I check to be sure?

P.S. If I write ''sudo apt install'' it says ''0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 84 not upgraded''. Should I upgrade anything?

[mitu]

@TCM said in How can I add a game to Emulationstation?:

I think 4.8 (on Raspberry Pi 4). How can I check to be sure?

The version is shown in the RetroPie-Setup starting screen - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/.

[TCM]

@mitu 4.8.2 64 Raspbian OS/linux buster

[mitu]

@TCM Did you update the flatpak package list after adding the Flathub repo and before trying to install the package ?

flatpak update

EDIT: just to check - your RaspiOS installation is 64bit or 32bit ?

[TCM]

@mitu i'm pretty sure it is 64 bit

edit: aarch64

[mitu]

@TCM This is another difference between the 2 installations - looking at forum posts on the Flathub repo, 32 bit ARM packages are no longer published, so that's why the package cannot be installed on RetroPie's image, since it's 32 bit ARM, while your Raspi OS (Desktop) installation is 64 bit.

Ref:

• https://gitlab.com/freedesktop-sdk/freedesktop-sdk/-/issues/1105
• https://discourse.flathub.org/t/flashprint-on-raspbian-arm-master-not-installed/1406/4

[TCM]

@mitu Since it is (from what I've seen) 64bit, I don't have that problem, right?

[mitu]

@TCM RetroPie image is 32 bit, there was no 64bit official RaspiOS Buster available when 4.8 was released.

[TCM]

@mitu Oh that sux. So I can only play the game from Raspbian/Raspberry OS and not through Retropie OS?