Create a custom ES system able to launch games for many systems

meleu

@pjft perfectly doable, but the problems would be:

the users would need to edit konami/gamelist.xml manually, (less practical than ln -s target symlink).
the script to launch the game would be a little more complex (get the actual system from the xml file).
the use of gamelist.xml would be mandatory, not an option.

I'll add this question to the FAQ.

pjft

@meleu Got it, thank you.

Just wanted to check if I was missing something from the overall picture, but it was mostly curiosity and feasibility for non-Linux file tables (i.e. those who run their ROMs from a FAT32 USB drive like me).

Well done!

Hope your boy has fully recovered by now :)

cyperghost

@meleu There is a difference in creating config files like a database or to create some filepieces to call some files. But here it is ... A pity I can't call other bash files.
I think it caused while a user (pi) calls user with privleges. It can run easy bash files and other binaries but this makes no sense so far :(

It's compiled on a raspberry 1 .... but due compatibilty it can run on the pi 2/3
Make it executable via chmod +x

Usage: create any file you want (maybe testfile.test)
First line contains parameters
Second contains binary or bash

run
./lfl testfile.test

output is:
first line of testfile
second line of testfile
Execute firstline+secondline

EDIT:
Can't upload... well this small binary isn't usefull anyway :)

meleu

@pjft said in Create a custom ES system able to launch games for many systems:

feasibility for non-Linux file tables (i.e. those who run their ROMs from a FAT32 USB drive like me)

The symbolic links must be in a Linux partition, but the target file can be in any valid path. As a FAT32 partition is mounted in a valid path, I think the method works fine for those people. :-)

The boy is recovering well! :-)

pjft

@meleu said in Create a custom ES system able to launch games for many systems:

The symbolic links must be in a Linux partition, but the target file can be in any valid path. As a FAT32 partition is mounted in a valid path, I think the method works fine for those people. :-)

I think I get that, but if the whole ROM folder and subfolders are in a FAT32 partition, there's no way to add symlinks in a Linux partition for this purpose (i.e. all the roms are expected to be in that folder anyway), or am I missing something?

Or would you suggest in the es_systems.cfgfile to add a <path> pointing to a folder in the SD card? Is that what you'd be recommending?

Thanks!

cyperghost

@pjft That should work
Create a folder to /home/pi/RetroPie/symlinks and point from FAT32-ROM to that folder
Change es_systems.cfgfolder path to /home/pi/RetroPie/symlinks

meleu

@pjft yep! @cyperghost answered well.

Also, I've just updated the question 3 of the FAQ:

3. Is it possible to create symbolic links on a Windows machine and move them to my RetroPie later?

No. Symbolic links can't be created on Windows and can't be placed on a Windows partition.

But if your ROMs are stored on a Windows partition, you can use the method described here. You just have to place the symbolic links themselves on a Linux partition (target files can be in any valid path). Click here to see the conversation about it.

Howitzer99

Excellent work, thanks for posting, will give this a go over the weekend!

meleu

Changelog:

Small update in the runcustom.sh. I've just discovered the readlink command, no need to pipe ls output to sed in order to get the target file name.

cyperghost

@meleu
So work done - I created a litlle unix binary for a fav launcher in a new thread

meleu

Guess what? Yes, you're right, another script...

This time it's a script to let you use the already existent metadata. So, there's no need to scrape the games in konami folder.

The script can be found here: https://github.com/meleu/share/blob/master/custom-system-autoscraper.sh

And you can download it with this command:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meleu/share/master/custom-system-autoscraper.sh

Launch it with --help to see the usage:

$ ./custom-system-autoscraper.sh -h
This script gets all the symbolic links in a custom ES system directory and
tries to create a gamelist.xml based on already existent metadata, boxart,
marquee, and video.

More info here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/84125

Usage:
./custom-system-autoscraper.sh /path/to/custom/system/directory

Updated the OP with this info.

UDb23

@meleu said in Create a custom ES system able to launch games for many systems:

Maybe this one from title screen:

Logo done. Complete manual design.

Works best on dark background.

Available here.

meleu

OMG! I'm loving this theme tweaking stuff!!!

Howitzer99

I'm still trying to fully understand the differences between the various config directories, but following along with the OP for setting up a Konani directory, I ended up getting it to work by editing my ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg file instead of the one listed in /etc/emulationstation/ directory.

Are the files in the ~/.emulationstation intended to be only for overrides, so essentially empty except for and local changes? I started with an existing image setup a few months ago, so while it's helpful for getting started, does add some confusion later on when trying to weed-out unnecessary files.

melue, thanks for putting together this tutorial, very helpful, and thanks to UDB23 for the Mega Man vector, nice work!

meleu

removed duplicated post (due to poor internet connection)

meleu

@Howitzer99 said in Create a custom ES system able to launch games for many systems:

Are the files in the ~/.emulationstation intended to be only for overrides, so essentially empty except for and local changes?

Well, I thought it was the first place ES looks for es_systems.cfg ans, if not found, look in /etc/emulationstation. But if it's working as you're saying, one file complementing the other, it's great. I'll update the OP when I have a chance.

By the way, Did you use the script to create the custom system's gamelist.xml? I'm curious to see if it's being useful to someone else. :-)

Edit: post a screenshot of your custom ES system. ;-)

Howitzer99

meleu, I did run your "custom-system-autoscraper.sh", but when the Konami directory didn't showup in ES, I ended up running sscraper on the listed konami directory from the retropie-setup script. I'm seeing metadata listed, but probably from the sscraper.

Sure, now that I know that it's working for creating a custom system, I'll start working on some custom ES system designs this week.

meleu

@Howitzer99 I intentionally made it doesn't change any existing entry in the custom system's gamelist.xml. So, if you run it after sselph it won't do anything. (According to what you said this is not your case, I've putting this just for info ;-) ).

I'm planning to write a script to simplify the symbolic link creation. This step can be pretty tedious and a script can help. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

cyperghost

@meleu I have boosted the fav launcher a bit now we can create FAV files via runcommand :)
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10971/dev-little-favorite-launcher-second-attempt-ready-for-testers

Howitzer99

@meleu I had some time to checkout your script for creating the gamelist.xml based on existing roms, and yes, it does work, and is pretty slick! Nice that its only reading existing metadata to create the list. I've never seen 'xmlstarlet' before, more reading to do.

How is the symbolic link program going? Please let me know if you want me to run some tests.

One thing I'm discovering is that I don't have the video previews setup for ES (working fine for Attract Mode). I have a bunch of video snaps and marquees, so I don't need to scrape my games again, only point to the existing files that Attract Mode is using. Do you know if anyone has created a script to embed the video and marquee data into an existing gamelist.xml file? I went through one post with almost 600 replies (somewhat fast), and didn't see a script to add these.