Finalising RetroPie Questions

jay81uk

I will be using Nes, Snes, Gameboy and Sega

briankross

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

I will be using Nes, Snes, Gameboy and Sega

Each emulator may have a different way to save, if it was possible to save to begin with based on the game. What you need to do is pick an emulator for each of the systems you plan to use and go from there. Emulators that start with lr- are RetroArch, so there can be two ways to save as previously mentioned.

For example, I play The Legend of Zelda on NES, using the lr-nestopia emulator. I'm able to save in game as if on the original hardware with the gamepad. On the backend, the emulator saves a .srm file in the /roms/nes directory. This file can also be backed up and transferred. When I play The Legend of Zelda on NES again, I go to the game saves as in game I would normally if on the original hardware, the emulator reads the .srm file, and I see all of the saved games, select, load, and play.

How to save games in RetroPie / RetroArch is worth a read. (Floob is amazing!)

Generally speaking, try using in game save / load first after playing for a few min or the next checkpoint etc. then just try it and see if you can save / load. If possible, use a RetroArch emulator. Test this before spending hours expecting to save your progress, maybe the game never had saves to begin with, or maybe something isn't configured.

jay81uk

@briankross I'm just using the emulators that came with Retropie though.

Games that allow in game saving, like Mario World 2 on the Snes... when I save, will the save be there as it is on the physical console?

I guess systems like NES are different though... how would I save and load state? When I load a rom, there's no option...

briankross

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@briankross I'm just using the emulators that came with Retropie though.

Games that allow in game saving, like Mario World 2 on the Snes... when I save, will the save be there as it is on the physical console?

I guess systems like NES are different though... how would I save and load state? When I load a rom, there's no option...

Okay, try this for NES so you get the idea: (you may need a keyboard)

Select your system (NES) in Emulataion Station
Select a game and launch
Look for a small screen that comes after that and press a button on your gamepad (B or A). This takes you in to a screen where you can select the emulator for this specific game or all games. Select lr-nestopia for all games (NES).
Now select, launch
Play the game a bit, and save in-game
Exit the emulator by pressing both Select and Start (feature of RetroArch, by the way)
Re-launch the same game, ignore the grey box screen
See if you can load the previously saved game using the game menu, try Start or Select if you need to.
Did it work?

After step 5, you can FTP to your rPi and see if there is a [romname].srm file in your opt/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/ folder. If there is, you're golden.

Beretta9

This post is deleted!

jay81uk

@briankross But how do I save in game? On NES titles, you could never save...

briankross

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@briankross But how do I save in game? On NES titles, you could never save...

Edited

The Legend of Zelda, press Start, saved games are displayed.

When you die in Zelda, you have the option to Continue, Save, or Retry. Other games may work differently.

Take a moment and try the thing...

jay81uk

@briankross I just tried a NES game - Mario Bros. Couldn't find anywhere to save...

briankross

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@briankross I just tried a NES game - Mario Bros. Couldn't find anywhere to save...

Mario Bros. was never able to save. Try a game that can save, like The Legend of Zelda.

jay81uk

@briankross Oh ok, I presumed you could still save via a snapshot or something.

briankross

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@briankross Oh ok, I presumed you could still save via a snapshot or something.

I was referring to one method of saving, as if you're on the original hardware.

You may be able to use save states if using an emulator that starts with lr- (RetroArch). Go to the RGUI menu and save states by pressing Select+X on a SNES controller. Check out RetroArch Configuration and RGUI.

Give it a whirl.

bobcat987

@briankross said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@briankross Oh ok, I presumed you could still save via a snapshot or something.

I was referring to one method of saving, as if you're on the original hardware.

You may be able to use save states if using an emulator that starts with lr- (RetroArch). Go to the RGUI menu and save states by pressing Select+X on a SNES controller. Check out RetroArch Configuration and RGUI.

Give it a whirl.

More specifically, you can quick save/load with select + R and select + L, respectively, on all retroarch emulators (which is most of the default ones). You can read a bit on hotkey settings here https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/RetroArch-Configuration, it's a worthwhile read. Of course you can remap hotkeys if the defaults don't work for you.

jay81uk

@bobcat987 Are all the default emulators Retroarch then? So on my SNES controller, what would I press as I manually configured it via the setup in retropie.

jay81uk

@bobcat987 Can you help? Thanks

PetroRie

Why not using quick saves? They're much better. You can save and load anytime you want. First you need to make a directory which is going to hold all the save files, I made mine in the ROMS folder. I called it SAVE and within this folder I made two separate folders, one called SAVE_FILES and other SAVE_STATE. Open retroarch.cfg and add the path of the save folder to the following line:

savefile_directory = "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/SAVE/SAVE_FILES/"

savestate_directory = "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/SAVE/SAVE_STATE/"

Also add these following lines to your retroarch.cfg file:

input_enable_hotkey_btn = "8"
input_state_slot_decrease = "left"
input_state_slot_increase = "right"
input_load_state_btn = "6"
input_save_state_btn = "7"

The numbers in my example are linked to the corresponding buttons of my PS4 controller. I think your's will be different but it won't be hard to figure it out. You can get the button ID's from the controller file which is located at:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/

Or if you're using Windows:

\RETROPIE\configs\all\retroarch-joypads

Sometimes it's a pain in the butt but once it works it works flawless.

bobcat987

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

@bobcat987 Are all the default emulators Retroarch then? So on my SNES controller, what would I press as I manually configured it via the setup in retropie.

Most default emulators are retroarch (off the top of my head n64, dreamcast, and some of the experimental systems are not retroarch). As long as you mapped your snes controller normally, select + R should be save and select + L shoulf be load. If this isn't working for you, @PetroRie's post has lots of good info that should get you on track.

jay81uk

Totally confused...

So I pressed Select and the < on my control pad. This allowed me to scroll through save slots. I chose Select and > and that does the same.

No option to actually save your progress during your NES game? I pressed Select and a button which took me to the Retroarch menu, but again no option to save?

jay81uk

Ok, it appears it was to do with the controller config.

I had assigned the shoulder buttons of the SNES controller as top l and top r, when they should apparently be bottom l and bottom r, to then allow them to be the retroarch save options. Weird, but I got there.

PetroRie

@jay81uk said in Finalising RetroPie Questions:

Ok, it appears it was to do with the controller config.

I had assigned the shoulder buttons of the SNES controller as top l and top r, when they should apparently be bottom l and bottom r, to then allow them to be the retroarch save options. Weird, but I got there.

It sounds a bit confusing but once it works you'll understand how it works. You need to assign a button for saving and loading. In order to use them you need to push and hold the hotkey button which is SELECT in your case. So its:

HOTKEY BUTTON + BUTTON TO SAVE STATE
HOTKEY BUTTON + BUTTON TO LOAD STATE

Also make sure you copy the retroarch.cfg file to your harddisk in case you re-install everything you just copy n paste the file and save yourself a lot of time. Alsways back retroarch.cfg up.

I don't know if you have assigned a button to open up the RGUI menu? You can acces the emu settings, it's very handy, if you want to use this function just add the following to retroarch.cfg:

input_menu_toggle_btn = "12"

The number 12 is just a button ID from my PS4 controller, just add the ID like you done before. Make sure you also push and hold the HOTKEY BUTTON + MENU TOGGLE BUTTON if you want to open up the RGUI menu. From this menu you can acces so many options such as disk swaps, cheats (loading cheat files) etc.

I'm glad it worked out for you.