Add Emulators to raspberry pi 3

BuZz

@leafsman323 There are about 7 versions of mame.. The second link says how to install additional emulators.

You should get the right romset for the version of mame you want to use, not try and get a version of mame that works with your romset.

There is a lot of documentation on the wiki about this https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/MAME and https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

leafsman323

sorry I am still new at this whole thing. When you say Rom set how can I tell if it is the correct Rom set for the version of Mame?

BuZz

@leafsman323 You can verify it against a dat file. But you should probably just look for the specific rom set you need.

You are going to need to spend some time reading up on this first - it's more involved than setting up other emulators.

johne79

The second link covers adding emulators, but what about emulators which are not under the RetroPie-Setup menus, such as Mednafen? Is there a write-up somewhere on adding new custom emulators to menus which aren't already included in the scripts? Sometimes the authors may not want to add an emulator to the mainstream masses for whatever reason but I might want to play with it for development purposes.

Rascas

I think there is mednafen available for install on RetroPie, but I could be dreaming or it is not available anymore. But for what I am aware, at least until some time ago, it didn't have Open GLES support, so it will run much slower than the available emulators. I have to update my RPi installs to check it, since i am still running RetroPie version 3 :D
PS: Yes, they are available, with the name lr-beetle****

Gryphon

I have read these threads and it does not completely explain/tell how to add what people are talking about. I have Mame version .193 along with the complete rom set specific for Mame version .193. Now I want to use this in my rpie for the simple fact that it has more options for setting up settings and controls in this version of Mame than the versions of Mame that are available in rpie for download. Those threads explain how to add a system for Emulationstation but does not cover for how to add my own personal version for example my Mame .193 into retropie from what I can find. So how does one do this? Thank you.

sirhenrythe5th

@Gryphon simple answer: you dont.

You can choose between the existing MAME-Ports for the Pi, but not simply install your favourite PC-Version (MAME32, MAME64, MAME for X86 in general) on the pi.

It is the other way arround: choose one of the MAME-Ports that are available and then collect/manage/reorganize the roms you need/have.

mitu

@Gryphon said in Add Emulators to raspberry pi 3:

Those threads explain how to add a system for Emulationstation but does not cover for how to add my own personal version for example my Mame .193 into retropie from what I can find. So how does one do this? Thank you.

If the emulator you want to add is not one of the emulators supported/installed by RetroPie, you'll have to compile your own version of mame and configure runcommand to run it for your custom system. How you compile it and install it, that's up to the emulator's documentation and it's not a standard method for all of them.
mame (latest version) is available in RetroPie if you wish to use a more recent version.

Gryphon

@mitu Ok, thank you for that info. Also wondering, if I go through that process to add my own Mame, (compile it and everything) do you know the steps I need to take after that? I mean after I compile it how to I get the compile into the system? The run command I can figure out I think from the other info on the Retropie page. Thank you.

mitu

@Gryphon Not sure I understand the question - if you're compiling and installing the MAME version you want, you do it on the target system (the Pi3), so it's already installed 'into the system'. After that, you can just configure runcommand for one of the arcade systems (arcade would be easier) by modifying emulators.cfg for that system (/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/emulators.cfg) and adding the new emulator there. The new emulator (MAME version) would then be available in the Runcommand launch menu to be used for running games.

Gryphon

@mitu ahhh ok so i need to compile it in the pie itself. ok so how does one go about doing that, like you said i mean, how do i compile it on the target system which would be the pie3? well pie4 actually but running as a pie3 or hey if i get this to work i might go to pie4 flash. aye i get the part of configuring the runcommand but where im stuck is what you said and how to do it, to compile on the pie, no idea where to start on that.

mitu

@Gryphon As I said, each emulator has its own build/installation documentation. For MAME, you can find the documentation at https://docs.mamedev.org/initialsetup/compilingmame.html.

Gryphon

@mitu ok so i got to thinking after my last post on asking how to compile it on the target system like you said, i got to thinking is there a list out there somewhere i can look at to see if it has the version of mame i want to add? i mean a list that would give the link i need so i could add the mame i want by typing it into a sudo get command?

mitu

@Gryphon The list of supported MAME versions in RetroPie - which you can install easily from RetroPie - is here. The closest to your desired version is lr-mame2016.
As for using the 'sudo' command to add it, I doubt the version of MAME you want is available from the available packages, the one distributed by Raspbian is 0.206.

Gryphon

aye, ok, so how do i compile my version of mame directly into rpie? i mean what command do i use in the command line if thats how its done? i tried 2016 version, did not like that, i have the compiler and mame ready to go, i just dont know how to compile it right into rpie

mitu

@Gryphon RetroPie already installs a compiler, you need to install the dependencies, as described in https://docs.mamedev.org/initialsetup/compilingmame.html#debian-and-ubuntu-including-raspberry-pi-and-odroid-devices, download the source archive, unpack it and then run make from the sources folder - with the options outlined in the docs.
Here an outline of the process (you can skip any SDL installation commands, they're not needed on a RetroPie installation).