separating snes/super famicom games

groviar

I really appreciate all the help. I'll try to tackle this but I might not get to it until tomorrow. I have a nasty cold right now and today has been hectic so I'm going to try and relax for the rest of the evening. I've got Putty and Filezilla installed. I'll be connecting via ethernet since I don't have my wireless enabled currently. The Raspberry Pi is connected to my gigabit switch via ethernet cable and should be part of my network.

EDIT: Okay, I'm giving it a try now, but I'm already stumped - you said "Create a new folder and name it themes or do that through FTP (/home/pi/.emulationstation/themes)". Silly question probably but how do I create that new folder?

Also, I've never used Filezilla before. I've got it open but I'm stumped here too since I've never used it. I don't know where to put the Retropie's ip in or how to connect.

I think this is more than I had planned. I don't mind doing a bit of work but I'm totally lost here. I really wasn't planning on tinkering too much with this. I just want to play my systems and keep it simple. I was almost tempted honestly to go with Recalbox due to the ease of use I keep reading about, but the lack of ColecoVision and Intellivision support (and a couple smaller systems) was a huge drawback, and Recalbox sounds too restrictive honestly. But Retropie seems very daunting to do even seemingly simple things. Maybe it's a lot easier if you know what you're doing (like anything I guess), but right now I'm pretty lost. I really would like to keep my Japanese games separated in a different system from US games, which I would think should be simple, but it seems I'd need to find artwork, create a new theme, change config files...it's just too complicated. I know you've given me some good advice here but really I feel like I need my hand held literally 1 step at a time because even the few steps you've typed above has me lost. Which is weird because I'm pretty good with Windows stuff. Retropie seems intimidating to me.

FlyingTomahawk

Don't give up just yet.
I will write you a better tutorial with images for visual help as soon I get access to my PC. Here in Japan it is 10 am right now and I am currently working and therefore got no access to a PC at the moment.

Until I can write a better tutorial take a rest. But before you do so tell me what theme you want to use and what systems you intend to run?

backstander

@groviar
You probably need to get some rest if you've got a nasty cold and when I'm sick like that I can't think clearly. Drink plenty of fluids and maybe takes some vitamin C. After you're feeling better you can revisit this and when you get stuck, just post something about here.

groviar

Thanks guys. Yeah, I think I just need to put this to bed for the night and take it easy. It's been a trying day - my cold woke me up every 90 minutes last night, then I realized this morning I had a doctor's appointment (they didn't call and confirm) so I rushed out and then discovered they sent me to the wrong office, then they told me the doctor was out and couldn't see me anyways. So it's been a tiring day for sure. Sorry, just venting.

Anyways, I'll check back in here tomorrow after I get some rest.

@FlyingTomahawk,

I've got the basic systems all set I think, since all I really need to do is copy the games over to the respective folders. Like I said, I was using the USB method for starters so I just have the folder structure copied over to my PC currently, and I'm moving games to the directories, then I was planning to copy the structure back to the USB thumb drive and put it back in the Retropie to copy over the data.

The theme right now is the default theme for 4.1 (is that Carbon I think?) and I guess I'm pretty happy with that for now. I've installed a few additional systems from the optional systems folder, but none from the experimental folder. Here are the folders in my retropie>roms folder:

amiga
amstradcpc
apple2
arcade
atari800
atari2600
atari5200
atari7800
atarilynx
atarist
coco
coleco
dragon32
fba
fds
gameandwatch
gamegear
gb
gba
gba
intellivision
mame-libretro
mame-mame4all
mastersystem
megadrive
msx
n64
neogeo
nes
ngp
ngpc
pcengine
psp
psx
sega32x
segacd
sg-1000
snes
vectrex
videopac
virtualboy
zxspectrum

Many of those folders are already taken care of, but the amiga, amstradcpc, msx, atari800 and atarist folders need a lot of sorting so I may deal with those later. Those are headaches due to the large amount of games in various formats. Some systems look like a headache to run - the Amstrad CPC seems like it may have a lot of issues loading games. I'm not sure about the apple2 yet. I'm using the mame-libretro folder for MAME 2003 (0.78).

Basically I'd like to be able to have separate systems/locations for:

nes
famicom (not the disk system)
snes
super famicom

Even better if I can also separate:

pcengine
Turbografix-16

I'm not going to complicate things with Supergrafix since there's only a few games anyways.

herb_fargus

@groviar btw I made a FDS page just for you!

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Famicom-Disk-System/

groviar

I thought fds was a disk system and separate from the Famicom? No? Do I have that confused? Isn't the fds a disk add-on for the Famicom? I thought the Famicom base system was the Japanese version of the NES?

herb_fargus

@groviar no my apologies I had it confused. Depends on how you prefer to theme it. You are correct.

groviar

Ah, okay then. I wanted to make sure I had that part right at least. Thanks for that link!

FlyingTomahawk

@groviar

So here we go...
This is a small tutorial with images that should help you to connect to your RPi so that you can later add or edit themes, even themes that are only available on github or other sources. I will use the words ES and RPi which stand for EmulationStation and Raspberry Pi

What we need:

WiFi connection or ethernet cable
Putty
Filezilla
Notepad++ or any other text editor
Carbon theme (files from github) https://github.com/RetroPie/es-theme-carbon
If you're not British try to find an image of a UK keyboard layout might be useful later in Putty

Plug in your Ethernet cable and power on your RPi or power on your RPi and setup your WiFi through the RetroPie menu in EmulationStation.
Now find out what IP address your RPi has by going to the RetroPie menu in ES under show IP

Then install or/and open Filezilla.
Follow these 6 Steps

alt text

once you did that and could create the connection you should see this on your right side

alt text

double click on the emulationstation folder

create a directory and name it themes

alt text

Now open Putty.
Under Host Name (or IP address) enter the word retropie and hit enter.
login as: pi
pi@retropie's password: raspberry

you should see something like this

alt text

Type

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll all the way to the bottom and add the following:

[themes]
comment = themes
path = "/home/pi/.emulationstation/themes"
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = pi

Ctrl+x then y hit enter to save.
After that, you will need to restart the samba service:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba stop
sudo /etc/init.d/samba start

Access your RPi through the Network in Windows. You should be able to see these folders.

alt text

You could access the carbon theme folder that is already inside your Pi but I like to keep them separated since I customize the themes a bit to my liking.
You should have the carbon theme files already so open the themes folder and create a new folder and name it to what you like for this example we call it carbon-custom
Put the files in that new folder.

Now we need to create a new es_systems.cfg file which contains the system launch data. here you will enter the codes for all the systems that you want to use in future.
In your case you want the SNES and stuff separated so you could use something like this.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<systemList>

  <system>
    <name>megadrive</name>
    <fullname>Sega Mega Drive</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/megadrive</path>
    <extension>.smd .bin .gen .md .sg .zip .SMD .BIN .GEN .MD .SG .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ megadrive %ROM%</command>
    <platform>megadrive</platform>
    <theme>megadrive</theme>
  </system>

  <system>
    <name>nes</name>
    <fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes</path>
    <extension>.nes .zip .NES .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ nes %ROM%</command>
    <platform>nes</platform>
    <theme>nes</theme>
  </system>

  <system>
    <name>snes</name>
    <fullname>Super Nintendo</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/snes</path>
    <extension>.bin .smc .sfc .fig .swc .mgd .zip .BIN .SMC .SFC .FIG .SWC .MGD .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ snes %ROM%</command>
    <platform>snes</platform>
    <theme>snes</theme>
  </system>  
  
  <system>
    <name>snes</name>
    <fullname>Super Nintendo</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/superfamicom</path>
    <extension>.bin .smc .sfc .fig .swc .mgd .zip .BIN .SMC .SFC .FIG .SWC .MGD .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ snes %ROM%</command>
    <platform>snes</platform>
    <theme>superfamicom</theme>
  </system> 

  <system>
    <name>nes</name>
    <fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/famicom</path>
    <extension>.nes .zip .NES .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ nes %ROM%</command>
    <platform>nes</platform>
    <theme>famicom</theme>
  </system>  

  <system>
    <name>pcengine</name>
    <fullname>PC Engine</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pcengine</path>
    <extension>.pce .ccd .cue .zip .PCE .CCD .CUE .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ pcengine %ROM%</command>
    <platform>pcengine</platform>
    <theme>pcengine</theme>
  </system>
  
    <system>
    <name>pcengine</name>
    <fullname>PC Engine</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/turbo16</path>
    <extension>.pce .ccd .cue .zip .PCE .CCD .CUE .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ pcengine %ROM%</command>
    <platform>pcengine</platform>
    <theme>turbo16</theme>
  </system>
  
  <system>
    <name>retropie</name>
    <fullname>RetroPie</fullname>
    <path>~/RetroPie/retropiemenu</path>
    <extension>.rp .sh</extension>
    <command>sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh retropiemenu launch %ROM% &lt;/dev/tty &gt;/dev/tty</command>
    <platform/>
    <theme>retropie</theme>
  </system>   

</systemList>

If you want to know the definitions for other systems open the original es_systems.cfg file, but don't edit that file just copy&paste code from there into your es_systems.cfg file.
Save that file on to your desktop. Of course name it es_systems.cfg
Now back in Filezilla again access that emulationstation folder from before (/opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation) and transfer the es_systems.cfg file. This file now has priority over the other cfg file that is already inside the Pi.
In this cfg you can edit things add or remove systems as you please.

Now access your Pi through the PC Network again and go into the roms folder to create the famicom, superfamicom, turbo16 and all other roms folders that you need and are not there yet.
The last task for now would be to create the themes for those systems. So either you copy&paste an existing system and replace the logos with Famicom, Super Famicom, Turbografx16 and so on or you contact the creator of the carbon theme and ask him if he could do that for you. He is a busy guy though so don't hold your breath.
I took the freedom to create the Famicom and Super Famicom logos so if you need them just tell me any time. Other logos like Turbografx are sometimes included in varous themes as alternative logo, sometimes named as system2.svg. You can find the turbografx16 logo in my theme for example in the pcengine folder.

I hope this will help you a bit. I know it's a lot for just wanting separate systems but that is how it works with RetroPie & Co.
I didn't know more than you, I never touched Linux before 3 months ago when I first time registered here in this forum but I had certain basics regarding file transfer and access to other devices.
Within those 3 months I created a theme, converting PNG logos to SVG format and are helping out people. So hang in there. Anything is just ask in the forum there are plenty of skilled, kind people around.

herb_fargus

the following is the terminal version of the guide above

It is not recommended to make any direct edits to any themes installed from the setup script or the default /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

More details why here:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation/#editing-es-configs

If you aren't afraid of the terminal you can start here:

Theme

Create custom theme directory:

mkdir ~/. emulationstation/themes

Copy theme:

sudo cp -r /etc/emulationstation/themes/carbon ~/. emulationstation/carbon_custom

Change custom theme to owner pi:

sudo chown -r pi:pi ~/.emulationstation/themes

Then you should be able to edit your custom theme over samba from the configs folder without messing with samba share configs as I believe the theme will be editable from the /configs/all/emulationstation folder or something like that

es_systems.cfg

Copy es_systems.cfg

sudo cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg ~/. emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

Chang owner to pi:

sudo chown pi:pi ~/. emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

Again as above now it can be modified from the config folder on samba shares

More notes here:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation/#es_systemscfg-edits

There's also a guide on the docs: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Add-a-New-System-in-EmulationStation/

Formatting is a bit off and I need to fix that but basically summarises everything on this thread

Multiple ways to do things through Linux.

groviar

Okay, I just checked in and saw that you guys posted a bunch of stuff here. Thanks so much. I may not get to it until tomorrow since my cold is still dragging me down and I had another rough night of sleep and I want to give this a fresh start. So I'll post back after I give it a whirl and see what happens. I'm getting ahead of myself here but I'll definitely want those logos for the Japanese systems. Thanks again!

jdorion

@groviar - I've done this too, separated our famicom from nes, sfc from snes, etc. Following this link (like @herb_fargus said) is what you need to do:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Add-a-New-System-in-EmulationStation/

I find it nice to keep this organized. The only pain is that not all themes have the japanese systems configured by default. Pixel definitely has famicom, sfc, megadrive, pcengine, tg16, tg-cd, etc.

Basic steps:

make the copy of the default es_systems.cfg:
sudo cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
in the new copy of es_systems.cfg copy the < system > tag and change its info so you now have (for example) a nes and famicom entry
don't forget to change the 'nes' word in the < command > line of your new system entry to be 'famicom':
<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS nes %ROM%</command>
should be
<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS famicom %ROM%</command>
make a copy of the nes folder in /opt/configs/ and rename it famicom so you have /opt/configs/famicom
edit the emulators.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/famicom to change any references from /opt/retropie/configs/nes to /opt/retropie/configs/famicom
double-check the retroarch.cfg in the same folder for similar things.
done!!

One thing I do too (this is just for bonus points) is make a folder called " All" in the rom folder for a system and put all the roms in there. So, for nes all my roms are in "/home/pi/Retro-Pie/roms/nes/ All/". The space before the A in " All" is just to make sure that it would always be at the top of the list. Then I make a 'sym-link' for my favorite roms from the " All" folder back to the /home/pi/Retro-Pie/roms/nes folder. That way my favorites show up when I navigate to the NES system in emulation station, but I always have access to every rom if I need it! You use the 'ln -s' command for this, it's not too bad:

ln -s "/home/pi/Retro-Pie/roms/nes/ All/mario3.zip" "/home/pi/Retro-Pie/roms/nes/mario3.zip"

If you do this, you'll need to make sure to change the default save state folder in the /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg file - it's super-easy to do:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/3dyki2/changing_the_location_of_savefile_directory_and/

groviar

@FlyingTomahawk,

Okay, I'm following your guide since I'm more comfortable working within Windows a bit more currently. All is going well so far, but I'm stuck here:

"If you want to know the definitions for other systems open the original es_systems.cfg file, but don't edit that file just copy&paste code from there into your es_systems.cfg file."

I can't find that file anywhere. I was going to copy all that data and paste it into my new es_systems.cfg file, and just make the necessary changes for the additional systems, but I can't find the file. I searched the entire RETROPIE folder (bios, configs, roms, splashscreens, themes) and it's nowhere. Is it hidden or in a different location?

Also, I downloaded "es-theme-carbon-master.zip" from your link and extracted all the carbon folders for each system into my new "carbon-custom" themes folder. There were 84 total folders. Is it okay to copy them all in there or just the systems I plan to use? And there are 5 additional files in that zip file:

.gitattributes
.gitignore
carbon.xml
readme.txt
theme.xml

I'm guessing I should leave those out, and just copy the folders, but I wanted to make sure?

groviar

Ok, so I figured out what I was doing wrong with finding the es_systems.cfg file. I went into putty and typed:

sudo cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

which made a copy, then I copied that copy over to my desktop through Filezilla so I could edit it.

That's where I'm at now.

jdorion

@groviar - now that you've copied it to /opt/retropie/configs/all, you should be able to find it in Windows Explorer by going to

\RETROPIE\configs\all

you can edit it directly there, but I'd make a backup copy first just in case!

FlyingTomahawk

@groviar

How is your cold? Any better?
Very good. You are doing fine thus far.

If you are done editing the new es_systems.cfg file put that into the emulationstation folder via Filezilla. Folder is here /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation
Or access /home/pi/ and click on the emulationstation short cut there.

groviar

Hi,

thanks for asking about my cold. It's still hanging on. I had a 3rd rough night last night, waking up every hour. Lots of cold sweats. But right now I feel pretty good. I've been taking Sudafed (the real Sudafed, not the otc) and while it's been reducing my stuffiness/sinus pain, I think it's contributing to my poor sleep.

Anyways, I just finished up editing the es_systems.cfg on my desktop and I'm about to copy it back over to:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

using Filezilla. But I have a question about the new systems I added. I just used the exact copy of the es_systems.cfg on my desktop and copy-pasted the nes, snes and pcengine system entries to add tubo16, famicom, and superfamcom according to your example. But I'm curious - under "name" or "fullname", would I still leave those as they orignally were, like in your examples? For instance:

<name>pcengine</name>
<fullname>PC Engine</fullname>

For the turbo16 entry, I wouldn't change <fullname> to "TurboGrafix-16" and/or <name> to turbo16? Just curious - I'm trying to figure out how these lines affect the configs. Right now I have those entries exactly as you typed them. Does the <fullname> entry change what is actually displayed in Retropie when I scroll through the systems?

And what about those extra files in the carbon themes zip I downloaded:

.gitattributes
.gitignore
carbon.xml
readme.txt
theme.xml

Do I just leave those files out and just copy all the folders over, even the systems I'm not currently using?

groviar

And once I finish copying over the new es_systems.cfg, what do I do to create the new themes for turbo16, famicom and superfamicom? In the new "carbon-custom" folder I created, with all the carbon themes I extracted from the downloaded zip, I see there is a folder named "pcengine" and also one named "tg16". I'm guessing "tg16" is the Turbografix-16. Should I rename that to "turbo16" to match the roms folder and es_systems.cfg file? Or should I leave the folder named "tg16" and change the cfg entries and rom folder to "tg16" to match? Does it matter as long as the names match? There is no carbon folder for famicom and superfamicom. So do I just copy the "nes" and "snes" folders and name them "famicom" and "superfamicom"? What about the files inside? Inside the custom "nes" carbon folder I see 1 file and 1 folder. The file is named "theme.xml" and the folder is named "art" with the following files inside:

controller.svg
system.svg
system2.svg

Do I need to make any changes to those files? Where do I put the new logos? There doesn't seem to be any images or logos in the new carbon theme folders I downloaded, unless I'm missing the obvious.

If you could share your logos for the turbografix-16, famicom and superfamicom I'd be very grateful. The only thing I'm stuck on now is just how to move forward with setting up the custom themes. I guess like you said the easiest way is to copy the current themes folders and just replace the logos, but that's what I'm stuck on. Where are the current themes on my Retropie with the graphics and logos - i don't see them in Filezilla? And should my "carbon-custom" folder have all the carbon folders from that zip file or just the new systems I'm adding - famicom, superfamicom, and turbografix16?

Sorry for all the questions - it's really just the themes I'm confused with now.

FlyingTomahawk

Regarding the Fullname and name tags in the system cfg file. I left them as they are in my theme setup. But you can rename them if you want to

<name>famicom</name>
<fullname>Family Computer</fullname>

You seem to be in luck because the carbon theme comes with a TurboGrafx 16 theme already so you only need to copy&paste the PC engine system definitions and change the paths to the t16 roms folder inside the es_systems.cfg file. Also rename the name and full name to t16 and TurboGrafx16 if you like.

  <system>
    <name>tg16</name>
    <fullname>TurboGrafx16</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/t16</path>
    <extension>.bin .smc .sfc .fig .swc .mgd .zip .BIN .SMC .SFC .FIG .SWC .MGD .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ tg16 %ROM%</command>
    <platform>tg16</platform>
    <theme>tg16</theme>
  </system>

Not sure about the <platform> tag but I think that needs to stay as pcengine since that is used for scraping the roms later. Maybe I someone else can chime in and confirm that.
These two files you won't need

.gitattributes
.gitignore

delete them.

There is no carbon folder for famicom and superfamicom. So do I just copy the "nes" and "snes" folders and name them "famicom" and "superfamicom"?

Yes exactly. Copy and paste those folders, create also the rom folders, don't forget to add the systems definitions for them with the path to the correct rom folder.
Most theme creators name their logos system.svg and they sometimes add alternative logos and name them system2.svg
You can edit the theme.xml file to use either one. So if you want to use the system2.svg logo just change the image name inside the theme.xml file.
you will need the famicom and super famicom logos which I have. I am currently working on some Japanese MegaDrive logos and will offer them for download later. (Tomorrow?)

groviar

Okay, I see jdorion mentioned:

"don't forget to change the 'nes' word in the < command > line of your new system entry to be 'famicom':

<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS nes %ROM%</command>
should be
<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS famicom %ROM%</command>"

I see you hadn't done that in your examples. Did you just overlook that by accident?

How about the

carbon.xml
theme.xml

files from the carbon zip folder? Should those 2 stay in the "carbon-custom" folder?