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    How To Create Favorites System in Retropie (yes system, not folder!)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Ideas and Development
    favoritessystememulationstaion
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    • lilbudL
      lilbud @TMNTturtlguy
      last edited by

      @TMNTturtlguy Here is the script I tried to write

      #!/usr/bin/env bash
      
      for file in /tmp/*; do
      if echo "$file" | grep -q '.gb$'; then
      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-
      gambatte/gambatte_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/mario/retroarch.cfg "$file"
      elif echo "$file" | grep -q '.nes$'; then
      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-
      fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/mario/retroarch.cfg "$file"
      elif echo "$file" | grep -q '.sfc$'; then
      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-
      snes9x2010/snes9x2010_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg 
      "$file"
      fi
      done
      

      If anyone is good with bash, tell me what i did wrong.

      Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

      Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

      TMNTturtlguyT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • TMNTturtlguyT
        TMNTturtlguy @lilbud
        last edited by

        @lilbud I think i might have it for you, right now you are telling the script to write the launch for the .gb files to emulator list, that list does not actually run/startup the emulator. The emulator set as default is what will launch unless the rom itself has directions save to /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg

        What we could do is create the script to add the following output for each rom in your mario folder. Here is what the required output is:

        mario_romname = "emulator"
        for example my turtles system - TMNT
        TMNT_tmnt22p = "mame4all"

        So all the script needs to do is look in your mario folder for file types .nes and then output mario_supermario = "lr-fceumm" to /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg

        I am not good with scripts, but maybe you can test writing this and report back?

        lilbudL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • meleuM
          meleu
          last edited by meleu

          Hey guys, I didn't read all the thread, sorry. But as far as I understood the OP is about creating a theme for favourites, not implementing a way to manage its contents.

          If the user is supposed to manage files/gamelist.xml manually I would suggest to use symbolic links (or full path in gamelist.xml).

          But why don't we test the branch of this PR?: https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation/pull/131

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          lilbudL TMNTturtlguyT 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • lilbudL
            lilbud @TMNTturtlguy
            last edited by

            @TMNTturtlguy said in How To Create Favorites System in Retropie (yes system, not folder!):

            mario_supermario = "lr-fceumm

            Shouldn't that say:

            mario_nes = "lr-fceumm" ?

            Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

            Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

            TMNTturtlguyT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • lilbudL
              lilbud @meleu
              last edited by lilbud

              @meleu yeah, but we get sidetracked easily. Could you look at the code above and see what's wrong?

              Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

              Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

              meleuM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • meleuM
                meleu @lilbud
                last edited by

                @lilbud sure. Will do as soon as I get home.

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                • TMNTturtlguyT
                  TMNTturtlguy @lilbud
                  last edited by

                  @lilbud said in How To Create Favorites System in Retropie (yes system, not folder!):

                  Shouldn't that say:
                  mario_nes = "lr-fceumm" ?

                  no, it should say the name of your system folder: mario then then name of the rom: supermario = emulator

                  I am just using supermario as the name of your rom

                  lilbudL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • lilbudL
                    lilbud @TMNTturtlguy
                    last edited by

                    @TMNTturtlguy So, like this:

                    mario_supermariorpg="lr-snes9x-2010"

                    Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

                    Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

                    TMNTturtlguyT 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • TMNTturtlguyT
                      TMNTturtlguy @meleu
                      last edited by

                      @meleu i just read the PR branch, not sure it is doing the same thing?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • TMNTturtlguyT
                        TMNTturtlguy @lilbud
                        last edited by TMNTturtlguy

                        @lilbud yes, but you need a spaces between (either side of the =)

                        mario_supermariorpg = "lr-snes9x-2010"

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                        • TMNTturtlguyT
                          TMNTturtlguy
                          last edited by

                          SO i am still working on the runcommand.sh file from above.....i am making progress with the default idea, but now it reads both defaults as launch. I need a way to tell the runcommand which defualt to use. Can someone tell me what "$type" is signalling? Here is what i am trying to do:

                          function default_emulator() {
                              local mode="$1"
                              local type="$2"
                              local value="$3"
                          
                             local key
                             local config="$EMU_SYS_CONF"
                          
                           case "$type" in
                              emu_sys)
                                  key="default"
                                  ;;
                              emu_cmd)
                                  key="$EMULATOR"
                                  ;;
                              emu_rom_old)
                                  key="$SYS_SAVE_ROM_OLD"
                                  config="$EMU_CONF"
                                  ;;
                              emu_rom)
                                  key="$SYS_SAVE_ROM"
                                  config="$EMU_CONF"
                                  ;;
                          esac
                          default_process "$config" "$mode" "$key" "$value"
                          
                          case "$type" in
                              emu_sys)
                                  key="default NES"
                                  ;;
                              emu_cmd)
                                  key="$EMULATOR"
                                  ;;
                              emu_rom_old)
                                  key="$SYS_SAVE_ROM_OLD"
                                  config="$EMU_CONF"
                                  ;;
                              emu_rom)
                                  key="$SYS_SAVE_ROM"
                                  config="$EMU_CONF"
                                  ;;
                          esac
                          default_process "$config" "$mode" "$key" "$value"
                          

                          }

                          I added the second case and when i launch it is picking it up. But now it says it is launching from both emulators. So i need to tell it to launch default NES for only .nes files. Thanks for any help or thoughts you might have.

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                          • TMNTturtlguyT
                            TMNTturtlguy @lilbud
                            last edited by

                            @lilbud @meleu I think the issue with having to run a script is that you will have to do this each time you create a new "favorites" or "Mario" or any system. You would also need to run the script any time you add a new game to the "Mario" system.

                            If we can find a way to get the runcommand.sh to do this for us, it will work all the time. What i have done is created a copy of the runcommand.sh file and named it runcommandfav.sh. In my es_systems.cfg, i have just changed the runcommand file to the fav.sh file and left all the normal systems running off of the standard runcommand.sh file. This way we don't effect anything we already have set up.

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                            • TMNTturtlguyT
                              TMNTturtlguy
                              last edited by

                              Just an FYI for anyone reading through this thread. The directions at the top in the very first post do work without any issues. I have now implemented this on 2 separate builds with 2 different branches of ES running (main branch and screensaver branch).

                              The long line of posts are simply @lilbud and myself trying to find a away to avoid having to set the emulator for each rom in your folder. You can follow the directions in the first post and create any system you want, like "Fighters". You can put any roms from any systems in there, you just have to manually set the emulator the very first time you launch the rom by pressing "A" button and setting the emulator for that rom.

                              lilbudL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • lilbudL
                                lilbud @TMNTturtlguy
                                last edited by

                                @TMNTturtlguy Does anyone know Recalbox manages favorites? Cause watching the videos, it seems like they got this figured out.

                                Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

                                Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

                                TMNTturtlguyT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                • TMNTturtlguyT
                                  TMNTturtlguy @lilbud
                                  last edited by

                                  @lilbud Recall box vidoes is what inspired me last night! I saw @fernbuilds videos that had Batman and Mario and Sonic systems, and thought it would be so cool if we could do that. I can build a bartop machine and put cool TMNT graphics and marquee on it and run all the TMNT games ever made! I probably need to grow up some day!?!

                                  So like @lilbud has asked, any recall box experts out there? @fernbuilds, any thoughts?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • meleuM
                                    meleu
                                    last edited by meleu

                                    OK guys, here is my contribution to the messy creative favorites makeshift method you're trying to implement.

                                    Premises

                                    • It uses symbolic links only. I did this way intentionally. I think that duplicating files is a bad practice. Imagine someone with various PlayStation games as favorites...
                                      That being said, the step 2 of the OP needs to be adapted. Here is the command to create the symbolic link:
                                    ln -s ~/RetroPie/roms/nes/MyFavoriteNesGame.nes ~/RetroPie/roms/favorites/MyFavoriteNesGame.nes
                                    
                                    • There's no need to create the /opt/retropie/configs/favorites directory. Then the step 4 of the OP is completely unnecessary.

                                    es_systems.cfg

                                    Here is my version:

                                     <system>
                                         <name>Favorites</name>
                                         <fullname>Favorites</fullname>
                                         <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/favorites</path>
                                         <extension>.zip .ZIP .smd .SMD .smc .SMC .sfc .SFC .nes .NES .bin .BIN .pbp .PBP</extension>
                                         <command>/home/pi/bin/runfavorites.sh %ROM%</command>
                                         <platform>all</platform>
                                         <theme>favorites</theme>
                                      </system>
                                    

                                    /home/pi/bin/runfavorites.sh

                                    And here is the little script that makes the magic (thanks to sed and regular expressions sorcery):

                                    #!/usr/bin/env bash
                                    
                                    # testing if it's a symbolic link
                                    if [[ ! -L "$1" ]]; then
                                        dialog --msgbox "ERROR: \"$1\" is not a symbolic link." 0 0
                                        exit 1
                                    fi
                                    
                                    # getting the name of the file that the symbolic link points to
                                    rom="$(ls -l "$1" | sed 's|.*-> ||')"
                                    
                                    # getting the system based on the folder the rom is stored
                                    system="$(echo "$rom" | sed 's|\(.*/RetroPie/roms/[^/]*\).*|\1|' | xargs basename)"
                                    
                                    # now launch runcommand normally
                                    /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ "$system" "$rom"
                                    
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                                    • TMNTturtlguyT
                                      TMNTturtlguy
                                      last edited by

                                      @meleu It looks like you are requiring that the games be placed into a subfolder for each system? The symbolic link is linking an entire folder. This seems to defeat the purpose of what I am doing. I am not trying to create a favorites folder, I am creating a new system, just like the arcade system in which you can put several different platforms into one system. I don't want to have to have a folder in each of my systems, and i don't necessarily intend for people to have duplicates off all of their roms either, unless they choose to do so. The intent is that we can have a favorites, or a Mario, TMNT, Batman, Fighters or Street Fighter system. We can create a system background and system logo for each of these. I can then place all of the TMNT games from all of the systems into one spot. here is a link to a video by @fernbuilds, i am not sure if he is on attract mode or recal box.

                                      I think your script and idea is very good as well! Thanks for your help and time. This may be what @lilbud is looking for so he doesn't have to manually select his emulator for each rom.

                                      meleuM fernbuildsF 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • SanoS
                                        Sano
                                        last edited by

                                        @meleu I like the way you presented it :)
                                        This is interesting and plenty of fun to do, but at most a not-so-pretty workaround.
                                        BTW all my roms stay zipped when the emulator allows it, so checking for suffix wouldn't work for me :)

                                        Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I said earlier, the clean way to do this would be first to replace the gamelist.xml files by system with a common DB (sqlite ?).
                                        This would allow to detach the ES interface from the system>rom scheme.
                                        ES would then be able to sort and present games by metadata (system/editor/genre/keyword/date/favourite...), and launch them with correct emulator according to the rom folder.

                                        I know it would be a huge lot of work, but I don't see any other clean solution to do this.
                                        I also found out yesterday that aloshi worked on a sqlite branch of ES back in 2015...

                                        meleuM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • meleuM
                                          meleu @TMNTturtlguy
                                          last edited by

                                          @TMNTturtlguy said in How To Create Favorites System in Retropie (yes system, not folder!):

                                          @meleu It looks like you are requiring that the games be placed into a subfolder for each system?

                                          I think you misread my post. I'm using the same folder as you suggested in the OP: ~/RetroPie/roms/favorites/. All the links/favorites for any system will be placed in that folder.

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                                          • meleuM
                                            meleu @TMNTturtlguy
                                            last edited by

                                            @TMNTturtlguy Here is an example of the results (I used your arcade theme from ComicBook for favorites):

                                            0_1496559702720_rsz_captura_de_tela_de_2017-06-04_035813.jpg

                                            The games:

                                            • G.I. Joe (NES)
                                            • Sonic (Mega Drive)
                                            • Tekken Advance (Gameboy Advance)
                                            • Wall Jump Ninja (Atari 2600)
                                            • X-Men (SNES)
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