Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie

BillyH

That's a cool Mega Drive collection, if I don't notice any problems with the emulator on RetroPie then I'll definitely buy that collection when it goes on a sale again.

meleu

http://www.gradualgames.com/2017/12/free-roms.html?m=1

Free NES Homebrews games from Gradual Games!

SgtJimmyRustles

Isn't the One Must Fall 2097 declared freeware now?

Clyde

@sgtjimmyrustles said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Isn't the One Must Fall 2097 declared freeware now?

It is, but I think it's for Windows only. I don't know if the open source port (also linked in my link) would run on the Raspberry Pi, though.

SgtJimmyRustles

@clyde said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

It is, but I think it's for Windows only. I don't know if the open source port (also linked in my link) would run on the Raspberry Pi, though.

Pretty sure I remember One Must Fall being on DOS.

Edit: Yeah it's MS-Dos, not windows.

Clyde

@sgtjimmyrustles You're right, my mistake. But the TO @BenMcLean doesn't include DOSBox games here:

@benmclean said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

I am categorically excluding DOS games because the library of games which DOSBOX supports and which will run just fine through RetroPie is so staggeringly huge that we have no chance to even start on it. So when it comes to DOS games, I am only including DOS games which have modern source ports that run on RetroPie.

edit: So, the question remains if OMF's open source port runs on Retropie.

Fruitybit

@markwkidd Very good list, I've been looking for a decent version of Pong for so long! However, when I download it, it has no suffix or file type. I tried calling it .int and .bin, and dropped all three into the pi but none will work with jzintv. I want to put Freeintv on but don't have the wherewithall to achieve that yet!

Hmm, I tried DK arcade and can’t get that working either, all my other Intellivision roms work fine, all bios sums are correct. Are these working on the pi for anyone else?

Clyde

Nothing for the list, but King of Fighters 2002 is available for free on gog.com until tomorrow. See here how to extract the bios and rom from the gog installer.

https://www.gog.com/game/the_king_of_fighters_2002

markwkidd

@fruitybit said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

@markwkidd Very good list, I've been looking for a decent version of Pong for so long! However, when I download it, it has no suffix or file type. I tried calling it .int and .bin, and dropped all three into the pi but none will work with jzintv. I want to put Freeintv on but don't have the wherewithall to achieve that yet!

Hmm, I tried DK arcade and can’t get that working either, all my other Intellivision roms work fine, all bios sums are correct. Are these working on the pi for anyone else?

FreeIntv is being considered for inclusion in RetroPie-Setup in the Experimental category. Hopefully the next update will streamline things for you.

Fruitybit

@markwkidd I saw this on github, good news:) as for Pong- This thread 1st April, a lot seem to think it’s a joke. Seeing as it hasn’t got a file type I fear Freeintv won’t make any difference!
Edit: at the end of that thread it mentions using .rom file type. The only one I hadn’t tried. Will update later!
Edit: you can hear “D’oh” echoing off my walls

caver01

@benmclean While moving content from my Riven CD-ROMs (that I have had packed away in a box for decades) into SCUMMVM, I noticed a bunch of free and legal titles avaiable for download here. The accompanying detail is as follows:

Game downloads currently include eight freeware games 'Beneath a Steel Sky', 'Dreamweb', 'Flight of the Amazon Queen', 'Lure of the Temptress', 'Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back', 'Soltys', 'Sfinx' and 'Mystery House'.
Also, you can find cutscene packs recommended for use when playing any of the Broken Sword games or Feeble Files under ScummVM.

This would make a good addition to the initial post.

BillyH

@billyh said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

That's a cool Mega Drive collection, if I don't notice any problems with the emulator on RetroPie then I'll definitely buy that collection when it goes on a sale again.

Well, I got a Steam mail that items on my wish list were on sale.

The Mega Drive collection is on sale now for just under €15 (otherwise known as a 75% discount) and I did manage to try the Mega Drive emulator so I guess I'm buying the collection now and putting it on my RetroPie.

mitu

@billyh Nice catch !

EDIT: Seems the Steam has a sale at the time, the MegaMan Collection is also 60% off (like 6 bucks now).

BillyH

@benmclean said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics on Steam gives you a folder called "Uncompressed ROMs" which contains DRM-free ready-to-play ROM files for many SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis titles including the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Uhm, just a quick note: I bought this and of the 59 games in the collection, only 6 are ready-to-play, the others are *.68K and *.SGD, which the emulators from RetroPie can't handle.

~~Of course, owning the collection does make it legal for me to download and use *.smd ROMs, which is exactly what I will do now, but~~ I just wanted to let people who want the collection know in advance that it's not just pay and play.

Edit: a search for a way to convert the files made me stumble over a Steam post where someone apparently just renamed the files.

Tried this myself and can confirm: all the *.68K and *.SGD files can be renamed *.smd and they'll work with RetroPie, I now see the whole list at least and the few that I tried worked fine. So there's that.

That leaves Sonic CD out in the cold then, which is the only one that doesn't have an uncompressed ROM (or a ROM at all, for that matter).

mediamogul

@billyh said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Of course, owning the collection does make it legal for me to download and use *.smd ROMs

It really only means you'd have a defense to work with if SEGA ever wanted to take you to court. It's not probable that they would go after individual users, but if they ever did, they would likely argue that the original license, or that of the Steam collection only covers expressly intended use as being acceptable.

BenMcLean

@mediamogul said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

It really only means you'd have a defense to work with if SEGA ever wanted to take you to court. It's not probable that they would go after individual users, but if they ever did, they would likely argue that the original license, or that of the Steam collection only covers expressly intended use as being acceptable.

The Steam installer creates a folder literally called "Uncompressed ROMs" for your convenience. SEGA is doing the right thing here.

mediamogul

@benmclean said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

SEGA is doing the right thing here.

It certainly does seem so. It's nice to see a game company allowing a little legal breathing room in good faith.

Alturis

I was curious so I tried out Cave in
http://www.atari2600homebrew.com/cave-in.html

But it just gets stuck on the main screen. Hitting select and start doesn't progress past there.

Edit: My bad. Looks like the game was written to just take joystick button press to start the game. No support for select and start.

SgtJimmyRustles

@billyh

Sonic CD; Is it the Taxman remake or is it the original?

BillyH

@sgtjimmyrustles said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

@billyh

Sonic CD; Is it the Taxman remake or is it the original?

Don't know but it doesn't have a ROM built in, it's a separate game from the SEGA collection room.

Can't check for you either as unfortunately I was disappointed with the non-Sonic games in the collection, so I asked for a refund. Having only played Sonic & Knuckles of this collection before, I guess I expected too much.