Adding a second NES to the Retropie Menu

MarcB

Hi,

Everything works fine with my RetroPie on a pi3. I copied a LOT of roms of almost every console then, I added Kodi and I created a custom Kodi system menu for the main Retopie menu using this tutorial:

Then, I started to dig into retropie and emulationstation to see how it all works. Everything is fine! But I tried something and it fail a little bit, most of the time but not all the time.

I tried to have 2 NES system. 1 for regular ROMs and the other for the HACK/tanslated ROMs so I could browser the official ROMs or the HACK ROMs.

To do so, I added a nes2 directory everywhere.: ROMS, Gamelist, download-image...
I created a nes2 "theme".
I edited the es_systems.cfg file to add a new NES system but with "nes2" everywhere.

<system>
<name>nes2</name>
<fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System HACK</fullname>
<path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes2</path>
<extension>.nes .zip .NES .ZIP</extension>
<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS nes %ROM%</command>
<platform>nes</platform>
<theme>nes2</theme>
</system>

And... it kind of work! I see my second NES. I see the HACK ROMs in it... Eveything work fine! I can load/exit ROMs in both NES.

BUT. Most of the time, I get graphical error on the Retropie menu (not in any emulator). If I press START, the menu kind of show up but the graphic is missing. Sometime it's there but if I go to QUIT, the YES/NO is not visible.

If I WinCP on the pi and remove the nes2 system I added, all goes back to normal.

I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. What did I miss? Am I allowed to add a second NES system in the es_systems.cfg file?

Shakz

Sounds like the additional system is filling up your Pi ram. I assume (just guessing here) you are using an emulationstation theme other than Carbon...which is very light weight. Try switching back to carbon...if this is not the case then how many systems do you have on your pi?

edmaul69

@Shakz i agree with you. My guess is the theme as well. I have an nes homebrew and snes and genesis as well. I have 40+ systems with no issues. I use a very light theme. Even carbon can be a little heavy if you have too many systems. @MarcB I would try it out with the pixel theme.

synack

@MarcB Try editing your es_systems.cfg again and on the <theme> line, replace "nes2" with "nes".

<theme>nes</theme>

That way emulationstation will re-use the nes theme folder instead of looking for a different one.

MarcB

Only Retropie on the system. I used the IMG download from the site.

I use SIMPLE, not carbon. I will try CARBON and report the result. The lack of ram seems very possible.

New question, does retropie load ALL the downloaded images from all games in RAM?

@synack Hi, I tried at first to reuse the same theme. Same problem.

edmaul69

@MarcB all your photos are loaded in the ram. But the simple theme is a terrible theme to use. Its way too big.

MarcB

Well, I change from the theme SIMPLE to CARBON. No more problem. I made my new NES thems for the ROMs Hack and it works fine!

Thanks you all!