new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!)

cdaters

Hello @Folly, I was looking to install some of the early computer/keyboard/consoles and some of the interesting game titles that were available for them. I saw in the RetroPie documentation that MESS is typically used to emulate those systems and is subsequently assimilated into MAME. So I installed MAME and was trying to get it working, but could not get Adventure Vision working to save my life!

Then I came across @valerino's modified RetroPie-Setup script which makes all of those obscure systems available in spades when lr-mess is installed!

I was looking at the code in his script, and I see that he basically just has additional scripts in the scriptmodule dir (and some other minor updates?) I was looking at those to see how they are put together, but in the meantime, I went ahead and installed his script (after making a backup of my original RetroPie-Setup directory) and installed lr-advision from it. His script got me running right out of the box after the lr-advision install! I didn't have to do anything other than load some titles and make sure that my theme could accommodate the system.

Like you say however, I would like to stay with something that is being official/supported (like if MESS really does work inside of MAME?)

I don't yet have the know-how to modify those scriptmodules to add them to the official update script myself, otherwise, I'd take it upon myself to grab the appropriate RetroArch cores and make my own...lol.

I will definitely be taking a look at your project too!

Folly

Reading your post I had the feeling that you needed some more information.
I hope it helps you to understand it all because it can be quite confusing at start.

@cdaters said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

Hello @Folly, I was looking to install some of the early computer/keyboard/consoles and some of the interesting game titles that were available for them. I saw in the RetroPie documentation that MESS is typically used to emulate those systems and is subsequently assimilated into MAME. So I installed MAME and was trying to get it working, but for the life of me could not get Adventure Vision working to save my life!

Indeed MESS standalone has been integrated into MAME standalone so MAME does emulate ARCADE and NON-ARCADE.
However the lr-mess RetroArch core of RetroPie will only do NON-ARCADE.
My project creates module-script depending on the MAME database and create and install the created module-scripts on the fly.
Both MAME and lr-mess loaders will be installed for the specific system you choose.
Adventure Vision should work.

Then I came across @valerino's modified RetroPie-Setup script which makes all of those obscure systems available in spades when lr-mess is installed!

This was and still is very cool when he started this.
Though, making module-scripts by hand is quite time-consuming.
Keep in mind that there are 8000 NON-ARCADE systems that can be emulated with MAME/LR-MESS.
You will see that the fork only contains 80 of 8000.
So here comes in the generating part.
We just have 1 module-script and we inject all the data from a specific system and create the module-scripts and install them.
So the advantage is :

both MAME and lr-mess can be used
more that 80 systems is possible
we can install systems with extra hardware or autoboot options
both softlist and non-softlist loaders can be used
mouse is enabled by default
specific handheld and plug&play installs with downloads, cheats ,artwork and overlays
and more

I was looking at the code in his script, and I see that he basically just has additional scripts in the scriptmodule dir (and some other minor updates?) I was looking at those to see how they are put together, but in the meantime, I went ahead and installed his script (after making a backup of my original RetroPie-Setup directory) and installed lr-advision from it. His script got me running right out of the box after the lr-advision install! I didn't have to do anything other than load some titles and make sure that my theme could accommodate the system.

Yes, cool isn't it ;-)

Like you say however, I would like to stay with something that is being official/supported (like if MESS really does work inside of MAME?)

Well, I meant it a bit differently.
I mean the basic RetroPie-Setup can just be up to date and on top of that you can use unofficial module-scripts.
MAME/LR-MESS is officially implemented but the integration isn't perfect.
That's why you need these non-official scripts.

I don't yet have the know-how to modify those scriptmodules to add them to the official update script myself, otherwise, I'd take it upon myself to grab the appropriate RetroArch cores and make my own...lol.

If you want to learn how it works than try to look at how bash works.
And have a look at this :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/27127/is-there-a-guide-somewhere-to-create-install-scripts-if-you-can-get-a-game-to-compile

I will definitely be taking a look at your project too!

Good luck.
If you have any question just let me know.

cdaters

@Folly, dude, you are amazing! I haven't yet looked at your project, but based on your reply here, I am very excited to jump into it...such that I may undo what I've done already with @valerino's script, put my backup of the official RetroPie-Setup dir and scripts back in place and go your route instead. Generating module-scripts on the fly is amazing!

I'm pretty familiar with bash (but by no means an expert, lol). I will definitely check out your project and the bash script link you provided. I definitely want to learn more about this and it seems that MAME/LR_MESS has more to offer than I first thought (beyond Arcade) and I am very curious about that.

After I am done updating all of the online templates for variable-data printing (actual work stuff always gets in the way, lol) and I get a few free moments, I will be all over it.

cdaters

@Folly said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

For you it's better to install it all via this module-script :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/blob/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh
Just place this module-script in :
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary

I installed this module-script in:
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary

with:

cd ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary
wget https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/blob/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh

and when I run:

sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie-setup.sh

I get this error:

pi@retropie:~ $ sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh 
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh: line 7: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh: line 7: `<!DOCTYPE html>'
Module  is missing valid rp_module_id
Module  is missing valid rp_module_desc
pi@retropie:~ $

cdaters

Never mind...somehow the wget command HTML'ized the script and that was breaking things...

cdaters

Dang! You were not kidding about the volume of systems... I'm like a kid in a candy store, lmao!

So I backed out all of the valerino setup script stuff, got this going...had to dig through the menus to find everything and watch your animated gif a few times...

I managed to get advision installed and now when I launch it, I have many options to choose from, so now I have a little more research to do...

I haven't even looked at the other repos yet...I'm just using yours at the moment!

cdaters

When using the add-ext-repos.sh script to install repos, and then installing systems...how do we "uninstall" those systems that were installed using this script or the repos that were installed with it?

Folly

@cdaters said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

When using the add-ext-repos.sh script to install repos, and then installing systems...how do we "uninstall" those systems that were installed using this script or the repos that were installed with it?

I haven't added deletion of systems in my add-mamedev-systems.sh script.
If you want to delete a system you can just go to the regular section of experimental packages, select the package you want to de-install and select that.
Not the official approach but I just delete the specific emulators.cfg to delete old loader lines.
(Edit : When the loader names are the same the old loader names are overwritten by the new ones when installing a system again, so it's not always needed to de-install or remove the emulators.cfg)

When using the add-ext-repos.sh script all the 3dr-party module-scripts are stored in /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/ .
When they aren't needed anymore you can just dellete the sub-directories in the ext directory.
Then you are back with an original RetroPie-Setup where you began with.

Dang! You were not kidding about the volume of systems... I'm like a kid in a candy store, lmao!

LOL ;-)

Never mind...somehow the wget command HTML'ized the script and that was breaking things...

This is how you can download scripts from github.
You have to use the raw links.
This should work :

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh

cdaters

@Folly, thank you!

Folly

@cdaters

I had a few mistakes in the script.
I just updated it.

Hope it fixes everything

ChaosEffect

Hello,

This is great! I didn't even notice this thread until recently. Would it be possible to get a script for Atari 7800?

Folly

@ChaosEffect

Have you read the last posts ?

You can install it with my script and it does work.

Read from here :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/25576/new-scriptmodules-lr-vice-xvic-gsplus-proper-lr-mess-integration/512

ChaosEffect

@Folly Thanks! I just did a quick search for 7800 and missed that. I will read through it and try it out.

CARRisma

Hello @Folly I'm new to this forum having bought myself a Pi 4 Model B shortly before Christmas. I've just joined this forum to send you my gratitude.

I would just like to send you my huge thanks for the script that installs Elkulator on RetroPie. My first computer my parents bought for me one Christmas back in the mid-eighties was an Acorn Electron so being able to bring back these memories makes me very happy.

Thank you for your hard work in creating that script, I'm sure it's appreciated my many including myself.

I've managed to scrape many of the ROMs (using Skraper in Windows) and I've created a custom page for the SCV720 EmulationStation theme.

Folly

@CARRisma

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for letting me know.
Really nice to hear you enjoy it so much. ;-)

Simrose

@cdaters
how did you fix this i got same error
sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh: line 7: syntax error near unexpected token newline' /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh: line 7: <!DOCTYPE html>'
Module is missing valid rp_module_id
Module is missing valid rp_module_desc

I was following your steps.
thanks
Sim

Folly

@Simrose

Go into the web-browser :
~~https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/blob/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh~~
Right-click on raw, then select save as.
Open with a text-editor and check if you have the same file as displayed in the web-browser.

~~or use the next commands in the terminal to get the raw file with wget~~ don't use this anymore ! :

cd /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh

jamrom2

@Folly Hiya Folly.

I've been working with a new build as I prepare to finish out the Pi3 and move on to a Pi4. So I was able to start everything from a fresh build using the new 4.8 RetroPie version.

I pulled down the last script you posted and worked with it from a clean start.

I found 1 issue with the CoCo 3 OS/9 option. It doesn't load into the options list. You can select it to build from the list, but it doesn't do anything and it does not add to the option list.

Other than that, there are now an insane amount of options with/without extra ram, machine, basic... cass, disk... etc.. etc. Wow!

Best,

JamR

Folly

@jamrom2

Cool, a PI4 !!!!!

Did you use the add-ext-repos.sh (raw link) in above script ?

With that you get more than just mame/lr-mess.
And you can use it for updating the scripts.
And everything is installed separately in :
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext

I probably want to use it as a standard for installing add-mamedev-systems.sh in the future.

I will look at that coco OS/9 line.

Btw. Does classich work ?
(I had no trouble but @DTEAM did)

And have a look at this :https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/32377/memotech-512-and-apogee-bk-01

Simrose

@Folly
I run the code and it didn't return any errors but also nothing new shown.

I would love to get Atari Jaguar working with any version of mess. I've tried virtualjaguar and it has to much audio issues.

I've read lots of posts on how to do it but can't get it running. Is there an easy method for just getting jaguar working.

I'll keep trying and reading more.

Thanks Sim