System Control API
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It would be a huge deal if RetroPie would support an API for controlling the system. This would allow third parties to build interfaces that allow games to be selected via a phone browser or app. It would extend selecting games to phone interface, as well as functions like changing disks. One of the thing that has always broken the illusion of emulating computers is the need to break out of the emulated environment to swap disks. Being able to do this from a phone app would be a huge deal.
Examples of how an API can improve usability for Pi based devices is with OctoPi, where Cura is able to directly link to it and monitor it's progress. This greatly improves the functionality of OctoPi. Another example would be Kodi. Apps like Yaste make using Kodi on Pi a lot nicer. Not in all use cases, but in many. Kodi on non-smart TVs is way nicer to use when you can use your phone as a remote control.
With a decent API, I could see RetroPie used in a Kiosk mode that doesn't even offer a UI to the local user of the system. I could see writing 4 RFID cards with an ID indicating "Disk 1" through "Disk 4" and then changing disks for the current title by placing the disk number on a phone that is sitting on the coffee table. Heck, RFID is cheap enough that I could see people making RetroPie cases and setting up the software so that RFID cards could be written with the specific games and with a slot in the case become "Cartridges" for loading games.
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@Scott-Skaife said in System Control API:
One of the thing that has always broken the illusion of emulating computers is the need to break out of the emulated environment to swap disks. Being able to do this from a phone app would be a huge deal.
this seems more immersion-breaking than using the retroarch GUI!
that said, retroarch itself does have various network commands, so i believe you could achieve your disk change example with a simple phone app on the same network: https://docs.libretro.com/development/retroarch/network-control-interface/
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