Play a game before loading ES

dhtsicmdnstej

Is there any way to configure a standard RetroPie installation, to boot up into a game without user interaction?

Ideally when the user quits out of the game, ES would then start and allow the user to select another game to play.

My efforts so far have been to try and find the point in the boot sequence when the menu system is started, so I can add a line before it to run the game. So far, I have not been able to find where ES is started during the boot sequence of my RetroPie install. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

If my idea of adding a command before ES starts is not going to work. Is there another approach that will give the same effect?

I want this behaviour as I have an Asteroid cabinet equipped with a Rasberry Pi 3. I want Asteroid to start playing at power on as this is the game it will spend most of its life playing, and I do not want other members of the household fiddling to much. I just like the idea of being able to switch to another game when I get bored of shooting asteroids.

I currently have a fully working RetroPie 4.2 installation on a Raspberry Pi 3, able to play all the ROM's I have. I simply cannot find a way of starting one of them before ES loads.

Many thanks

herb_fargus

Modify the autostart file to call your emulator and game:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#how-do-i-boot-to-the-desktop-or-kodi

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#how-would-i-start-from-command-line-say-the-snes-emulator-by-itself

dhtsicmdnstej

That's the solution, works a treat! Many Thanks herb_fargus for your help.

One note, the example command line in the following FAQ page is wrong if run under RetroPie:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#how-would-i-start-from-command-line-say-the-snes-emulator-by-itself

Instead to just entering retroarch at the command prompt, which returns a bash error "command not found", I needed to enter the full path of the binary, or /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch in this case.

If you are already in the /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/ directory you need to type ./retroarch to run the command.

Thanks

herb_fargus

@dhtsicmdnstej wiki is editable by anyone ;)

Glad you got it sorted