I made an original game for RetroPie

Rincewind

I made an original-ish game specifically for RetroPie. It is a multiplayer version of Flappy Bird, called Super Flappy Birds.

Here are some screenshots:
alt text

How to Install it

Open the RetroPie Menu
Select RetroPie Setup
Select P Manage packages
Select exp Manage experimental packages
Select lr-superflappybirds
Select S Install from source

Restart EmulationStation and you should see the game under the ports menu.

After thoughts

The game is written as a libretro core and was a task I set myself to learn the libretro framework (which is the framework that most emulators use on RetroPie) so that I could start contributing to porting across games.
As a challenge to myself, I wrote my own "engine" for the game. So the game relies on no external library.
Here is the github page if you want to see it.
It would be really awesome if you could scrape your ports after installing this, I have designed my own box art for the game and would like to add it to screenscraper.fr, but I can only do that after it has been scraped at least 5 times.
I really appreciate anyone who checks it out. Even if you don't think you'll enjoy it, it might still be a fun game for a small child?

tpo1990

Nice concept and idea of recreating flappy bird on RetroPie/RPI with multiplayer support.

Now you just need to make a "Pull request" to the RetroPie project github.

Thank you for your work.

Brigane

Great work, would it be possible to try your game engine?

Rincewind

@Brigane You're very welcome to. It doesn't have its own repo, but you can see all the files here.

Just copy that folder to your own c++ project.
Add all the files to your library in you CMakeLists.txt as seen here.
Have a look at my libretro.cpp to see how to use it.
My game framework is very simple: it isn't able to run independently of a RetroArch implementation(which isn't an issue if you want to make a libretro core), it only supports wav files for sound, and only supports the PNM family + PAM extension for graphics (Gimp can export PNM, and I included a PAM converter).

I would be flattered if you used it, but you might find SDL2 easier, since it can do more and has better documentation. If you do decide to use it and make something, I'd love to see it :)

Rincewind

@tpo1990 I have done that now, thanks. It would be pretty sweet if it were accepted. The PR is here.

Brigane

@Rincewind Thank you for doing this, although I'm not sure if I will understand any of it just yet. I have no coding skills besides a few basic things I learn while studying as an IT-Supporter.

Rincewind

@Brigane. If you aren't very familiar with programming, then teach yourself Game Maker. It is really powerful, and you can build fairly complex games without programming, but there is a scripting language too for when you are ready for more in depth game creation. I think that Game Maker games can also run on RetroPie.

Game Maker is how I taught myself to program, so I can't recommend it enough.

FastBlinker

awesome i'll install as soon as i've finished my cabinet.

herb_fargus

Pretty neat, just played 10 rounds

edmaul69

@Rincewind haven’t installed it yet but i assume i can play a 1 player game? Glad you made this. The intellivision, colecovision and gameboy versions were the only ones i had to play on retropie.

BuZz

Maybe it would be a good idea to change the name - https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/13/company-claiming-rights-to-flappy-trademark-now-sending-notices-to-app-store-game-developers/?guccounter=1 (it's a while back but if they are active it could be a nuisance).

Not tried the game yet. Thanks though.

Rincewind

@edmaul69 You can play it single player, there is also the option to allow up to 8 players.

The default maximum is 4, but this can be set from 1 to 8. You can change the maximum players under the retroarch settings. I did this so that you could match the maximum player count with the number of controls on your arcade cabinet.

Rincewind

@BuZz I did a quick Google search and there isn't a news article after that 2014 one. I also did a search for "flappy" on the android and ios store and there are a plethora of Flappy X games, even some to come out after 2014. So I don't think this is an issue anymore. Also Ultimate Arcade Inc.'s trademark is dead, so they would struggle to find legal ground.

Thanks for the heads up though.

tpo1990

@Rincewind Alright now it is just time to wait and see what happens. I have also created a PR for my Hexen 2 RetroPie project, that just waits to be accepted as well. :-)

Ronoh55

@Rincewind said in I made an original game for RetroPie:

cd ~/RetroPie-Setup/

Just played a few rounds, and it's a great port!

One thought that I had was that you might want to make it so the pipes don't start appearing until an input is pressed. I had one round where I was lucky and got 4 points pushing nothing!
Just something to think about, maybe it's not worth changing

Silent

Actually, how many games like this RetroPie has already? Maybe it's time to split them into a separate category (like "games" instead of "optional") so they don't mix up with optional emulators and software like scrapers?

herb_fargus

@Rincewind I have a suggestion. Replace all the birds with poop emojis and the pipes with toilets. Then you can rename it super floppy turds.

Rincewind

@Ronoh55 I am glad you enjoyed it :D

I have actually thought about doing that, but I wasn't sure what to do in the case of a multiplayer game. Should I wait for input from at least one player, or all players before the pipes start moving? I think I might implement the former and see what that is like.

I think getting a few points in a row without flapping isn't that big of a deal, let me illustrate:

pipe opening range (R) := 120px
gap between pipes (G) := 60px
player height (H) := 12px

Let the probability of going through a pipe without moving be Z:
∴ Z = (G-H)/(R)
Z = 48 / 120 = 40%

So to get 5 points in a row without flapping it would be a 1% chance (Z^5), or 1 in 100 games.

I am fairly confident that the average player can get a score of higher than 5 without too much practice. I think it also adds a bit of excitement that you managed to get a run that gave you a few points for free.

pjft

@Rincewind Well, this is awesome - congrats and thank you for sharing! What a fun way to learn the libretro framework and develop your own game engine!

I'll install it today. It's always great to have simple party games, both for the kids as well as for the non-gamer audiences. :) And it's also a great arcade-like game for the rest of us, so thank you!

Rincewind

@herb_fargus I was thinking about making the game skin-able with texture packs. So maybe someone could make a Crappy Flappy game ;)