Assigning Emulator

mitu

@kingfrankbob That's not what @tobas was asking - but how to configure Attract-Mode (the front-end) so that NES hacks (as in ROM modifications - see http://www.romhacking.net) are shown on their own system and use the NES emulator.

tobas

yes exactly, I just want to assign the NES emulator to my hacks category.

I have created a separate category for them and they show up in the system wheel just fine.

tobas

anyone? I can't seem to find any answer about this anywhere

simpleethat

If I'm reading what you've accomplished so far is most of this and it sounds like you just need to do this part

Or at least something to that effect, it's not something I've fully played around with yet.

tobas

@simpleethat ahhh, if I'm reading this correctly, I can simply copy my existing NES folder/config file in the NES folder?

it seems like a good place to start anyway. so I'll just copy paste my NES config into my hacks folder to start with and see if it really is that simple. I'll report back later with my findings.

simpleethat

@tobas I tried looking around last night on one of my cards and in theory it should work. Definitely seems to be a start in the right the direction. That guide also specifically uses hacks and NES examples

tobas

hm. theres no config file in the NES folder. damn. back to the drawing board.

I just wish I knew what directory the executables are stored in.

tobas

I'm at my wits end. I cannot get the roms in this folder to load for the life of me. I hope someone can help. this sucks

kingfrankbob

I thought you would have to make them .nes to make the readable

spud11

@tobas I suspect I'll be able to help you when I'm back at home later today. In the meantime, what is the name of your hacks folder? Is it 'neshacks' or something like that?

tobas

I named it nesh. the roms load fine in emulation station since I edited the es.systems.cfg file, but attract mode appears to be borked.

aguilera.john@gmail.com is my email, if you can help in any way I would really appreciate it.

spud11

@tobas No problems. Probably easier to keep it on the forum so that others might benefit in due course (assuming we get it sorted of course!). If your roms are in nesh (ie /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/), then you'll need to do the following.

I'm assuming you've got a fairly standard Attract Mode setup, but just check the folders/directories I'm describing to make sure they match your's, otherwise you'll need to make a few changes to match your folders.

I am using Windows 7 for the first part of this. I use WinSCP and Putty to ssh into my Pi from Windows and also use samba and Notepad++ to edit text files like those below. With most of the guide below, I'm assuming you will be doing the same or something similar.

In /home/pi/.attract/emulators/, you'll need a file like this: Nintendo Entertainment System Hacks.cfg, the contents of which are:

# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.5.1
#
executable           /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh
args                 0 _SYS_ nesh "[romfilename]"
rompath              /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh
romext               .nes;.zip;.NES;.ZIP;.7z
system               Nintendo Entertainment System
info_source          
artwork    boxart          /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/boxart
artwork    cartart         /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/cartart
artwork    flyer           /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/flyer
artwork    marquee         /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/marquee
artwork    snap            /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/snap
artwork    wheel           /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nesh/wheel

(I usually just copy one of my pre-existing ones to create the above file.)

In your /opt/retropie/configs/ folder, you will need to create a folder called nesh (ie it should be the same name as your roms folder - at least that's the easiest way of setting up a new Display/new folder of games).

In that folder, you should create a file (or copy it from another folder) called retroarch.cfg with the contents being:

# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/nesh/"

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

In this same folder, I also have a file called emulators.cfg. Create that file if you don't already have it. For me, its contents are:

lr-fceumm = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "lr-fceumm"
lr-quicknes = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-quicknes/quicknes_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
lr-nestopia = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-nestopia/nestopia_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
lr-mess2016 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess2016/mess2016_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"

Other than the lr-mess libretro core, I imagine you'll have all of the other cores already installed. I find that they are all pretty good. I suspect most people use lr-nestopia as their default emulator, but it's up to you which you choose to use. I'd recommend installing all 3 of these libretro cores, if you haven't already (but you can safely ignore lr-mess).

Go to your Pi.

Now, while in Attract Mode on your Pi, press TAB, go to emulators, pick the Nintendo Entertainment System Hacks, generate the romlist. After doing that, exit back to the main Attract Mode wheel. On the main Attract Mode wheel, there should be a new Display for Nintendo Entertainment System Hacks. Go into that Display and you should find your games. If you click on a game, you should be able to press a button to enter the runcommand menu and choose the default emulator for all of the games. (I've disabled my runcommand menu and prefer just to change emulators.cfg using Samba/smb from Windows and Notepad++).

Just add artwork for the display/layout and so forth in the normal way to the /home/pi/.attract/menu-art/snap and /home/pi/.attract/menu-art/wheel and, for the games/roms, add the artwork to the folders listed in Nintendo Entertainment System Hacks.cfg.

I hope that helps a bit.

tobas

thank you so much for the detailed answer. I can't seem to find the .attract folder however.

spud11

@tobas Are you using a Raspberry Pi or a PC?