[Howto] Press Play on Yape: Making the most out of C16/Plus4 Emulation

Lolonois

Motivation: Albeit the VICE team has done (and does!) decent work with the emulator xplus4 and many games run perfect on it, some games do not run at all or have sound glitches. Especially the more recent homebrew games do not run flawless with xplus4. However, these games run perfectly with YAPE and also max out what Dave Haynie and his colleagues at Commodore have baked into the TED chip. So I gave yapesdl integration a shot, and it turned out well. As a secondary goal I don't want to "bury" the C16/plus4 gems in the much larger C64 gamelist/system section, so I put the C16 ROMs into a separate system and folder.

Ready to start the journey? -- This will be your travel destination:

Zeichnung.svg.png

Outline

Install lr-vice-xplus4 and yape-sdl
Add C16/Plus4 system to es_systems and create folders
Create emulators.cfg
Create theme for C16
Xboxdrv config
Scraping game data

Before you start:

Overall complexity of setup/configuration: medium
Prerequisites: C64 system configured, Skyscraper configured, familiar with command line and Linux file editing.
The challenging "bossfights" are in Level 5 and 6.
This guide uses the carbon theme from EmulationStation but most likely can be easily adapted to other themes.
Tested on a Rpi4 but should also work on a Rpi3 without restrictions.

Level 1: Install lr-vice-xplus4 and yape-sdl

Libretro Core:

~~[old description]~~

Update: since 2020-04-24 RetroPie-Setup provides the (vice_xplus4_libretro.so) out-of-the-box.

YAPE-SDL:

cd ..
Checkout yape for SDL: git clone https://github.com/calmopyrin/yapesdl.git
cd yapesdl; make -j$(nproc)
Copy binary yapesdl, e.g to /home/pi/yapesdl/yapesdl (make folder yapesdl beforehand). Remember this location, it will be used in Level 3.

Level 2: Add to es_systems and create folders

Edit /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, add after <system> C64 XML:

  <system>
    <name>c16</name>
    <fullname>Commodore C16 and Plus/4</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/c16</path>
    <extension>.crt .d64 .g64 .prg .t64 .tap .x64 .zip .vsf .CRT .D64 .G64 .PRG .T64 .TAP .X64 .ZIP .VSF .D71 .D81 .D82 .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ c16 %ROM%</command>
    <platform>c16</platform>
    <theme>c16</theme>
  </system>

Create folder for ROMs: mkdir /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/c16

Level 3: Create emulators.cfg

These operations have to be done with elevated privileges: sudo <command_here>. Create emulators.cfg in the directory /opt/retropie/configs/c16 (make c16 folder first) and add:

yape  = "/home/pi/yapesdl/yapesdl %ROM%"
lr-vice_xplus4 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-vice/vice_xplus4_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/plus4/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "yape"

If you have put the yapesdl into a different folder than /home/pi/yapesdl adapt the path accordingly (see line 1 above).

Level 4: Create Theme for C16

Make a copy of C64 theme settings:

cd ~/.emulationstation/themes/carbon
mkdir c16
cd c16
rsync -avr ../c64/* .
rm art/system*

Copy SVG files from ~~here~~ (Update: Anonfiles is down. Use this link for the artwork instead.) and unpack to ~/.emulationstation/themes/carbon/c16/art folder.

For verification SHA256 sum: 6e43e7237dd107f7ffacbfddaf79e2b9613f439ab7584d41b250a7d282f4721d C16-EmuStation-SVG-Logos.7z

Edit theme.xml and change the <image name="logo"> <path> entries for <view> "system" and "basic, detailed, video" respectively, note the different filenames for the views. So it looks like:

<theme>
    <formatVersion>3</formatVersion>
    <include>./../carbon.xml</include>

        <view name="system">

                <image name="ControllerOverlay" extra="true">
                        <tile>false</tile>
                        <pos>0.5 0.2</pos>
                        <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
                        <size>0.3 0</size>
                        <path>./art/controller.svg</path>
                </image>

                <image name="logo">
                        <path>./art/c16--detail-view.svg</path>
                </image>
        </view>

        <view name="basic, detailed, video">

                <image name="logo">
                        <path>./art/c16--detail-view.svg</path>
                        <pos>0.266 0.074</pos>
                        <maxSize>0.460 0.126</maxSize>
                        <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
                </image>

                <image name="logo2" extra="true">
                        <path>./art/controller.svg</path>
                        <pos>0.874 0.074</pos>
                        <maxSize>0.460 0.126</maxSize>
                        <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
                        <color>bbbbbb</color>
                </image>

        </view>

        <view name="basic">
        </view>

        <view name="detailed">
        </view>

</theme>

Update: From commit c6bbd38 (ES 2.9.4+) onwards you can use the c16--detail-view.svg for system and detail view.

Bonus Level: Install Games/ROMs

Pick your ROMs and put into /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/c16/.

Note that while es_systems.cfg lists a all accepted fileformats for lr-vice and yapesdl, the latter currently accepts only these: .PRG, .P00, .T64, .TAP, .D64, .ZIP. Source

Level 5: Xboxdrv Config

Background: By default yapesdl does use a keyboard numpad digits as joystick emulation, in contrast some games provide only keyboard control (e.g. cursor keys for movement and space for fire), so the following has to be done for each game you want to use with YAPE-SDL.

Make sure to have xboxdrv installed: Check with retropie_setup.sh. Then select Configuration / tools -> xboxdrv

Additional keys (for special actions like toggle in games music aso. should also be configured to be able to run games without a physical keyboard). Yapesdl has some extra keys you want to map to one of your spare buttons (especially these) for ease of use. (The solution is left as an excerise to the reader).

The following two configs can be used as a cookbook. However, you most likely have to adapt the event-ids to your hardware controller (see line evdev = /dev/input/<your eventid here> below).
Use xboxdrv --evdev-debug --silent --evdev /dev/input/<your controller's eventid> (eventid can be found via ls -la /dev/input/by-id/<human readable device name with 'event'>) for output of the events of your connected controller.

Two main configurations have emerged during my setup. Shortly you will know where to put these configs.

First config

Directions with Numpad, Numpad 0 as fire. Config e.g useful for Pets Rescue,

#
# GPIO 2
#
[xboxdrv]
evdev = /dev/input/event1
device-name = "Plus4 - Pets Rescue - GPIO 2"
silent = true
detach-kernel-driver = true

# Evdev inputs on the left map to the xboxcontroller equivalent on the right

[axismap]
-Y1 = Y1
-Y2 = Y2

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X  = X1
ABS_Y  = Y1

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_SOUTH = B
BTN_EAST = A
BTN_WEST = Y
BTN_NORTH = X
BTN_TL = LT
BTN_TR = RT
BTN_MODE = GUIDE
BTN_START = START
BTN_SELECT = BACK

# Map xboxdrv buttons/movements to keyboard

[ui-axismap]
# joystick to numpad
x1 = KEY_KP4:KEY_KP6
y1 = KEY_KP8:KEY_KP2

[ui-buttonmap]
A = KEY_ENTER
# Fire
B = KEY_KP0
# Switch Joy Port
GUIDE+B = KEY_LEFTALT+KEY_I
# Mimic libretro HK+Start = Quit (F12 in yapesdl)
GUIDE+START = KEY_F12
# Emulator Menu (as in retroarch configs)
GUIDE+X = KEY_ESC

Second config

Directions via cursor keys, space as fire. Config e.g. for Pac-Pac

#
# GPIO 2
#
[xboxdrv]
evdev = /dev/input/event1
device-name = "Plus4 - Pac-Pac - GPIO 2"
silent = true
detach-kernel-driver = true

[axismap]
-Y1 = Y1
-Y2 = Y2

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X  = X1
ABS_Y  = Y1

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_SOUTH = B
BTN_EAST = A
BTN_WEST = Y
BTN_NORTH = X
BTN_TL=LT
BTN_TR=RT
BTN_MODE = GUIDE
BTN_START = START
BTN_SELECT = BACK

[ui-axismap]
# map to cursor keys
x1 = KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT
y1 = KEY_UP:KEY_DOWN

[ui-buttonmap]
A = KEY_ENTER
# Fire
B = KEY_SPACE
# No switch joyport since game is only controlled by keyboard
# Mimic libretro HK+Start = Quit (F12 in yapesdl)
GUIDE+START = KEY_F12
# Emulator Menu (as in retroarch configs)
GUIDE+X = KEY_ESC

Put such a config for each game to be run with yapesdl into /home/pi/xboxdrv-config/c16/<game_basename>.xboxdrv (again: make missing folders beforehand).
Example: If your rom is named Pets_Rescue.prg name the xboxdrv config file Pets_Rescue.xboxdrv. Do not change the cAsinG of the base name.

If you can reuse exactly the same config/mapping for more than one game you may use softlinks (ln -s) to avoid redundant copies.

To get this applied on a per game basis: Launch xboxdrv before start in runcommand-onstart.sh and terminate it on end runcommand-onend.sh (see also section close to page end at Retropie's wiki https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/)

Add to /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh:

#! /bin/sh
folder=$(basename "${3%/*}")
rom="${3##*/}"
base="${rom%.*}"

emu=$2

# yape: mapping
if [ "$emu" = "yape" ] && [ "$folder" = "c16" ] ; then
  echo "Found: $rom, using config: ${folder}/${base}.xboxdrv" \
    >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
  sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv \
    >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1 \
    -c "/home/pi/xboxdrv-config/$folder/${base}.xboxdrv" &
fi

The emulator name "yape" must match with the emulator name in emulators.cfg (emulator name is the left part of the = assignment in that file).

Add to /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh:

#!/bin/sh

# kill any in game xboxdrv emulation
sudo killall xboxdrv > /dev/null 2>&1

Level 6: Scraping with Skyscraper

You may be able to do automatic scraping depending on your ROMs. However, I realized many homebrew titles are not listed in the usual databases thus I took the following approach.

This procedure uses the XML import feature of Skyscraper

Create import folders for c16 as user pi: mkdir -p ~/.skyscraper/import/c16/{textual,screenshots}
Copy your ROMs from c16 folder to textual import folder: cp -r ~/RetroPie/roms/c16/* ~/.skyscraper/import/c16/textual
Change to to folder: cd ~/.skyscraper/import/c16/textual
Rename rom extension: rename 's/\..+$/.xml/' * (Note: sudo apt install rename if Perl based rename command is not present.)
Flush content: truncate -s 0 *.xml
Create default XML-Skeleton: for f in *.xml; do cat ../../definitions.dat > $f ; done

Collect scraping data from internet, do collect screenshots and put them into screenshots folder, name them like the corresponding xml file without extension and store in png or jpg format and .jpg/.png extension. E.g. Pets_Rescue.xml will have a PNG screenshot name Pets_Rescue.png.

When collected all information into files do: Skyscraper -p c16 -s import and Skyscraper -p c16.

Restart EmulationStation.

Finally: Press Play On Yape

Congrats. You made it. Revel in your success. Enjoy your new C16/C116/Plus4 system collection. (:

Changelog

2023-08-27: Moved Artwork Files to SaberCat; Manual lr-vice for xplus4 installation no longer mandatory; Scaling in ES carousel fixed, thus no longer need to have two logos for artwork.