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

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy not a bother - this is a nice use case even for custom folders and collections...

A question around these symlinks, though: would they only work on the SD card/on a Linux partition, or if you have a USB drive formatted as FAT32 with the roms, would that still work as well?

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I haven't had a chance to test yet and won't for a few hours. Maybe @meleu can answer.

To your point, this will probably only work if the USB you are using is in use with the ad card that the script was run on. Example. I have 2 separate builds each running off an 8gb ad card. I have just one 128 USB drive with all my roms. If I run the script in build A it should work fine. When I remove my USB and place it in build b it will not work because the USB drive does not include any of the runcommand.cfg files or es_sytem files. You would have to do a duplicate setup on build b. I am not positive this is the outcome, but just projecting this thought.

Edit: I should clarify this is the case with or without the script. You would need to set up the favorites or "any system name" folders and .cfg files on both systems sd cards either way.

TMNTturtlguy

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

@TMNTturtlguy not a bother - this is a nice use case even for custom folders and collections...

@pjft - question regarding your upcoming work on the favorites, I am assuming your work will be geared towards selecting roms and have them moved or linked to the favorites folder much like the script that @meleu has written, however as he has stated, it will be handled in ES and not a "hack" to make it work. Your work will not include the creation of custom systems though, like Mario, or Batman, or Sports? Is that a fair statement.

If the above is true, i think i will spend some time to develop a few systems in my theme and then start a completely new post and change the name from "Favorites" to something on the line of "Custom Systems". In hind sight I should never have called this thread favorites, I only did that as it was a hot topic and i had a system logo created for it! Then users can choose to copy their roms into their custom system, or move them to the system so they only exist once. They will also have the ability to run @meleu script if they choose. But this won't be a tutorial on how to create favorites, I will leave that to you expert coders, this will be geared towards creating any system with the expectations is works like the Arcade folder. You place your roms and gamelist there and you set your emulator for each rom.

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Correct, only favorites.

There's no problem in calling this "Favorites" - I think it's a great use case. In fact, I might not have "Favorites" working before we actually have Favorites in ES, but the groundwork would be done.

Cheers!

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy hey bro, I liked your work here. This was a creative solution. And I'm thinking about making a menu for Mega Man games (but I'm still a bit afraid to play with those CG softwares. Will they bite me? :) ). But I can predict some problems with creating favorites as a system (like the arcade system):

it's harder to manage, if you add a favorite game for a new system, you need to edit configs/favorites/emulators.cfg
your configs/favorites/retroarch.cfg will ovewrite those you tweaked for a specific system.
if you launch a game in the favorite menu and save a state, when you launch the same game in the normal system menu you won't be able to load that state.
if you launch a game that has the feature to save (like most RPGs), then the saves will be .srm files in the roms/favorites/ folder, and, again, you won't be able to load your progress when launching the same game in the normal system menu.

That little script looks complex, due to the regular expressions part, but it's quite simple (I added the comments to make it simple to understand for those who aren't familiar with regex). And it also can work around the problems I listed above.

@pjft The symbolic link itself must be in a Linux partition, the target file can be in any partition. But if I was able to code this in ES I would implement this creating/editing a favorites/gamelist.xml files with fullpath entries, not symbolic links. Then the roms/favorites/ folder would have only one file: gamelist.xml. To launch a favorite game would be another issue to solve, a little tweak on runcommand can solve, but needs to be elegant enough to make BuZz accept it. :)

pjft

@meleu don't worry, this will be elegant. I don't want people to have to create a separate manual gamelist - I'd rather have this fully managed within EmulationStation and with the favorites system. :)

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu thanks for the kind words and all your help! I now you are in support and i appreciate it! I have a few comments for the issues you bring up, I already have thought about these and just need some time to get everything put together:

it's harder to manage, if you add a favorite game for a new system, you need to edit configs/favorites/emulators.cfg

I am going to create a folder called AllSystems in the opt/retropie/configs in that folder i will update the emulators folder to contain at minimum the main package emulators. A user can simply copy the AllSystems folder into the configs folder and they never need to add an emulator. Downside, a lot of emulators to wade through the first time you enter a new game.

I will also remove the default tag in the emulators.cfg making it required that you select an emulator the first time you run the rom.

I will also provide an es_systems code that has all the .zip or .nes etc extensions. Also, all of the different custom systems you create will be able to reference the AllSystem folder for its startup and runcommand. This way there is no need to modify any of those settings. To create a new system, just copy Mario and create MegaMan. Change the rom path from Mario to MegaMan and the theme path, and you are set. The emulators and runcommand would be identical. No user input need except creating the roms folder, theme, and editing the es_systems.cfg.

your configs/favorites/retroarch.cfg will ovewrite those you tweaked for a specific system.

Yes, if you are using your script, however if you put a new copy of the rom in the folder, ie, mario folder, then it will have its own profile. - To your point, this will either require 2 copies of the rom on your machine, or you only have the rom in your mario system and not the NES. That is why this is not really a "favorites" as we have been talking about it in other uses on the forum, this is a standalone system, we can just call it favorites, or anything else you want.

if you launch a game in the favorite menu and save a state, when you launch the same game in the normal system menu you won't be able to load that state.
if you launch a game that has the feature to save (like most RPGs), then the saves will be .srm files in the roms/favorites/ folder, and, again, you won't be able to load your progress when launching the same game in the normal system menu.

Correct, same comment as above.

As for your script, you are right, i shouldn't have used complex, it is genius and works great. What i meant is that it is involved. I need enter every rom i want to create a link to and run it. Not much difference in effort than setting up which emulator to run the rom from. What it does do is eliminate the duplicates of roms on your system. It also causes all of the other issues you have listed above, which was never the intent of this setup. Again this should run just like Arcade, with just a lot more emulators in it.

Capeman

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

I don't know when I'll have a chance to test this, but thank you for all your work putting it together, and more people need to see it.

It works, I set up a menu like this on my arcade a few weeks back just like this, works like a charm

fernbuilds

@TMNTturtlguy i am on AM running it on my Pi3

TMNTturtlguy

@fernbuilds are you running emulationstation or attract mode?

fernbuilds

@TMNTturtlguy AM robospin_V4 to be exact. on a RaspberryPi 3

TMNTturtlguy

@fernbuilds thanks! We are trying to accomplish what you are doing on emulationstation. Any insights?

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy ~~I stole your idea~~ Inspired by your idea, I've made a post with the method I'm using: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10849/create-a-custom-es-system-able-to-launch-games-for-many-systems

Thanks for sharing knowledge with us! :-)

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu you bet! Great work and glad I could inspire. I am working on an update to my method as well and will post shortly!

TMNTturtlguy

I have updated this method as well as updated the comic book theme to support custom systems. @meleu has also create a very nice linking method as well. If you are interested see the post here which provides directions and links to both methods. New Comic Book Theme!