What would you like to see in future Retropie releases

Hex

@mxstar1 I dont think we have anyone working on it. I tried a simpler approach but it is a lot more complex. We have a distinct vision that is not aligned at all with Attract mode. So I dont know if this feature will be incorporated any time soon.

Used2BeRX

Hey guys. Somebody probably already requested this at some point, so apologies if I'm re-hashing something already discussed... or even something that can already be done that I'm not aware of.

I was wondering if we could have user-profiles. I'm sure there could be many useful applications for this, but the one that came to mind for me was to have multiple favorites lists.

While testing NES games I'm finding quite a few that I know my niece would love, but I doubt they'd be on my brother's favorites list if he used the feature. I thought it would be cool to make a favorites list for both of them before I get his pi back to him.

HurricaneFan

@used2berx You could build a custom collection for each person and name it whatever you wanted.

Hex

@used2berx said in What would you like to see in future Retropie releases:

Hey guys. Somebody probably already requested this at some point, so apologies if I'm re-hashing something already discussed... or even something that can already be done that I'm not aware of.

I was wondering if we could have user-profiles. I'm sure there could be many useful applications for this, but the one that came to mind for me was to have multiple favorites lists.

While testing NES games I'm finding quite a few that I know my niece would love, but I doubt they'd be on my brother's favorites list if he used the feature. I thought it would be cool to make a favorites list for both of them before I get his pi back to him.

@pjft Thoughts on this?

morrisav10

@hex J2me would be amazing!

Hex

@morrisav10 You dont say...
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11441/would-you-like-to-play-nokia-j2me-games-on-retropie

pjft

@hex @Used2BeRX

Thanks for tagging me. I had certainly thought about something to that effect in the past. I have no short term plans to look into it, though. When that was initially brought up, one of the main challenges was also separating save files (meaning, having user profiles not only in ES but actually across RetroPie). Unfortunately I didn't have the time nor an immediate idea for what could be a workable solution, so I didn't really pursue it.

If you're looking to store different favorites for different people, the current custom collections feature might help, where you can create a collection for each user to store their games. I have that for my wife and for the kids, for instance.

I'm not sure if that helps in the short term. Are you looking for save state separation as well, or was it really storing different favorites collections for different users?

Thanks for raising it though. I will certainly keep that on the backburner, but likely won't pick it up before Q1 2018 the earliest.

Used2BeRX

@pjft I hadn't actually thought much about it.

I knew there was a favorites feature, but I assumed it was just one-per-system. That's awesome to hear that the "current custom collections" feature would probably do the trick there.

I wasn't looking for anything else specifically, although when I mentioned the idea here I was thinking there could probably be quite a few different applications for it. I didn't even think of save state separation. That would be pretty great too. I guess you could also do things like have custom playlists and all sorts of other cool stuff. Glad to know that you're considering the best way to go about it. Thanks for the reply. :)

Used2BeRX

BTW... does anybody know if there is a way to do the Fast Forward feature without using a hot key? On the XBox you can FF by simply holding a button down. I'm sure some people prefer having to press select and a button to turn it on or off, but I'm so used to the other way that I'd love to see it possible to do it either way.

Also, I do a ton of game testing. I'm testing out about 400 translated NES/FDS games right now. It's just much easier to test them on the XBox because you can quickly FF past the unskipable intros a lot of the RPG type games have, and the XBox also makes it very easy to set how fast or slow the FF speed is.

MrJordaaany

@used2berx What do you mean 'on Xbox' you can fast forward? Do you mean how you can do it on the Disney Afternoon Collection for example? Because in that case the collection was built with the feature to do that.

Retropie is the same, but you need a hotkey so you don't accidentally press in-game buttons. Or if you are playing a game from a console that uses all your controllers buttons, then the hotkey button effectively gives you a second set of buttons for shortcuts and such.

Is it really hard to press one extra button when fast forwarding?

The only thing I can think of that you might like better is setting up the fast forward button for toggle, instead of hold. That way you only press it once and it just starts fast forwarding, then you press it again to stop. It's better than holding it down I suppose.

Used2BeRX

@mrjordaaany Hey man. I don't know what the Disney Afternoon Collection is, so I can't say about that.

What I mean is that on a modded XBox using Madmab Editon emulators, you can map any controller button to be the fastforward button, and you can also very easily increase or decrease the speed of the FF in the same menu. There is no hot key.

I realize that this can get in the way for some of the later consoles, but having the right trigger button mapped to FF is perfect on the NES. Usually I map black or white to it for the later emus that actually use the triggers. I have a controller that has the white and black buttons as bumpers so I can still FF the same way in that case.

I know that RetroPie uses a hot key for this. It took me a LONG time to figure out how to get that feature to work when I exited a game by manually editing the specific controller configuration file. It's nice that it's there, but I just don't like how it works. I'd rather be able to do this without a hotkey required.

Maybe most people prefer it the other way, but I'd love to see the option to do it without a hotkey. That's how I've done it for over 10 years now, so the hotkey just gets in the way, especially when I'm trying to quickly test games.

I totally get the reason why you guys use the hotkey, and I'm not dismissing that. It would be cool to have some sort of override option that allowed you to map it without one is all I'm saying.

dankcushions

you can fast forward with a hotkey, it just means everything else is without a hotkey (quit, etc).

other than that, i think retroarch aren't likely to change it. not a retropie decision.

MrJordaaany

@used2berx for the Disney Afternoon collection I meant this:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/525040/The_Disney_Afternoon_Collection/

But yeah I should have guessed you meant xbox emulators. All good!

@dankcushions said in What would you like to see in future Retropie releases:

you can fast forward with a hotkey, it just means everything else is without a hotkey (quit, etc).

other than that, i think retroarch aren't likely to change it. not a retropie decision.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest next. Have the hotkey and FF mapped to the same button. But then you lose all the other hotkeys.

Used2BeRX

@mrjordaaany Yeah... when I first read what dank said, I was excited, until I realized that once you entered a game you were stuck there. That's no good.

The XBox configuration is quite a bit more complicated than the configuration on the RetroPie, and that can definately be dangerous at times. That's why I suggested years ago that a "dummy mode" be implemented to lock down features so people couldn't poke around and screw the whole thing up after you set everything the way you wanted it. Now that Madmab entered this feature on all of the emulators, configuring things is a dream over there. There's practically no limitations on what you can do with it, so those who know what they're doing have a lot more freedom.

I do get the need to be overbearingly cautious with these things though. I'm sure that putting such strict limits on everything saves a whole lot of people a whole lot of time having to explain why their stuff is broke because they did some dumb stuff. It's just unfortunate sometimes that these safeguards were implemented in such a way that you can't circumvent them.

Bummer to hear that it can't be fixed on our end here and that it's out of our hands.

Used2BeRX

How about a way to search all of the game databases?

For example, if I wanted to have a list presented of all of the games with Mario in them, I could search for "Mario" and Every game with Mario in the game title field in all gamelist.xml files would be presented.

Even better if the system name would be displayed with each entry somehow.

Hex

@Used2BeRX It will not be a priority as the default target is Retropie and most users use gamepads and not keyboards.

Used2BeRX

@hex Right. I don't use a keyboard either, besides just when I'm testing or doing other work. This would require a virtual keyboard to be implemented. Something like how you can search for movies and TV shows with the Fire Stick remote control (which only has 4 buttons). I know I saw somebody here mention that idea as well, but I didn't see what the follow up on that idea would be.

SystemLogoffSA

My Personal 3:
Background Music Through Emulation Station Settings so it would turn off automatically when videos play/screensaver starts.
Copy/Paste in the Metadata fields
On-Screen Keyboard when you only have a controller.

I know they might never happen, but I had to throw them out there. ;)

Darksavior

I'd like to see build dates of binaries in retropie-setup. Good for those that just want to update an emulator and nothing else.

Allanbuzzy

I would like to have a built in background music option inside EmulationStation, because I find that flicking through games inside of ES is a bit boring without some music. I know, this can be achieved with a script, but the last time I used a script for music, my RetroPie couldn't update all packages.