New to Retro Pi - have some questions

gnome73

Im a RPi noob so hence why Im posting... have done some searching and the closest thing I found to answering my questions below is something called Attract but it appears to be a full reinstall of the RPi which I've only just got going so am a bit reluctant to do this

My questions:-

Is there a nicer interface than emulation station ideal for kids? I've seen some youtube videos where there is a very graphical interface when choosing the games and the background wallpaper changes to match the game as you scroll through the list of ROMS - how do I set this up? Also I've seen a youtube clip on the attract mod which shows the ROMs as a grid with the game covers - but dont want to do a full reinstall.
Also is there a way to go straight to the ROM selection screen and have all ROMs in 1 easy to scroll through list regardless of their Emulator?
Is there a way to permanently save high scores from ROMs? I did a search and there was a suggestion to use the latest mame emulator lr-mame2003 (I am Retro Pi 4.1 on a RPi 3). Which leads me onto my next and final question..
I tried to run MAME Roms using lr-mame2003 and none would work... upon doing some digging I found that the Neo Geo emulator is used for MAME games? Once i put the MAME Roms in the NeoGeo emulator folder they worked! huh go figure? therefor if I can only run MAME via Neo Geo - will Neo Geo save games?

Thanks in advance.

dankcushions

@gnome73 said in New to Retro Pi - have some questions:

Im a RPi noob so hence why Im posting... have done some searching and the closest thing I found to answering my questions below is something called Attract but it appears to be a full reinstall of the RPi which I've only just got going so am a bit reluctant to do this

welcome! :)

My questions:-

Is there a nicer interface than emulation station ideal for kids? I've seen some youtube videos where there is a very graphical interface when choosing the games and the background wallpaper changes to match the game as you scroll through the list of ROMS - how do I set this up? Also I've seen a youtube clip on the attract mod which shows the ROMs as a grid with the game covers - but dont want to do a full reinstall.

that's attractmode. maybe someone can help you with the install, but i understand that right now it's easiest to use the full image (reinstall)

Also is there a way to go straight to the ROM selection screen and have all ROMs in 1 easy to scroll through list regardless of their Emulator?

it's possible but it would require a LOT of tweaking and file edits.

Is there a way to permanently save high scores from ROMs? I did a search and there was a suggestion to use the latest mame emulator lr-mame2003 (I am Retro Pi 4.1 on a RPi 3). Which leads me onto my next and final question..

lr-mame2003, yes: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/lr-mame2003#high-scores

I tried to run MAME Roms using lr-mame2003 and none would work... upon doing some digging I found that the Neo Geo emulator is used for MAME games? Once i put the MAME Roms in the NeoGeo emulator folder they worked! huh go figure? therefor if I can only run MAME via Neo Geo - will Neo Geo save games?

there's a lot going on here, huh? :) neogeo emulators should save games (why not try and find out?), but if you want to run mame games properly (the neogeo emulators will only run a subset of them), you should have a look at https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs