Texmaster port?

felleg

EDIT: IT WORKS, SEE POST #9 IN THIS THREAD! Here are some links in case you're looking for them or are dead in earlier posts:
Texmaster2009-5 for Raspberry Pi: https://www.mediafire.com/file/1bwn95k6l8wcb63/Texmaster2009-5.7z
Texmaster additional themes: https://www.mediafire.com/file/py4tzg5ffdb9ydm/texmaster_themes_collection.zip

Those of you who are familiar with the Tetris Grandmaster (TGM) series probably already know about Texmaster. For those of you who don't, it's a fan-made clone that recreates the feel and rules of these games very closely. Here's a great exhibition from AGDQ 2015 if you're interested in discovering this fantastic series:

Texmaster comes with its own background music and sound effect, so it's not infringing the copyrights of TGM. What's cool is that you can swap backgrounds, sound effects and music to your liking, so you could potentially mimick TGM3 for example, if you have the correct files at hand (kind of like how cannonball asks you to provide the rom for Outrun). This is great because TGM games have been hard to emulate for a very long time, and Texmaster is designed to work on a PC.

The creator of the game was able to get it run on minibian (mini Raspbian), which seems promising enough. Here's the thread where he discusses how this was done: https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/sanwadenshi-silent-joystick.2876/#post-61520

I know nothing about how ports are handled and included in RetroPie's github repository. All I know is that this addition would be fantastic. Does anyone know how this could be made a reality?

Cheers.

herb_fargus

Don't have time to look into it right now but you may be interested in the port openblok that was just added to the experimental menu of the setup script.

felleg

@herb_fargus Hi herb, thanks for the reply! I'll definitely give openblok a try, I've never heard of it before. I know you're very busy, so I won't hold my breath for Texmaster, but please let me know if you ever give it a look. :)

mediamogul

@felleg

I was going to try installing this today, but it looks like the link is dead. Assuming that you are "marionintendo" on the tetrisconcept forums, it looks like you're having the same issue. When and if this becomes available again, information on adding additional ports to RetroPie can be found here.

herb_fargus

Quick Google fu:

https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/texmaster.2/

Dude was pointing to his local host for an install whereas the actual game data is elsewhere on the internet.

Also in regards to marionintendo on that forum post.

Retropie isn't an OS. It's just a script to install lots of different pieces of software. Raspbian is the OS.

Also retropie doesn't ship with any games we especially dont ship with any that are copyrighted.

mediamogul

@herb_fargus said in Texmaster port?:

Dude was pointing to his local host for an install whereas the actual game data is elsewhere on the internet.

I found that as well, but was apparently tunnel blind to only the first page where the new arm release (v5) isn't listed. Page 38 of that thread has the proper link though. Thanks.

herb_fargus

@mediamogul if you get it up and running I'd be interested to see your results (have to work like a boring adult) but when I get a moment I'd like to check it out.

mediamogul

@herb_fargus

if you get it up and running I'd be interested to see your results

Will do.

have to work like a boring adult

When you're done, meet us over at Billy Applebaum's place. His dad got all the nudie channels unscrambled. Bring cigarettes.

mediamogul

It seems to work pretty well. The only thing that is really required is the additional installation of libwiringPi.so.

@felleg

If you want to install it as a port, download v5 and decompress the main archive, followed by Texmaster2009.rpi1-ARMv6.tar.gz for the Rpi0-1, or Texmaster2009.rpi2-ARMv7.tar.gz for the Rpi2-3. Then, move the directory to anywhere on your Pi that you see fit. For example, I keep a folder for custom installations in my home folder (/home/pi).

Next, you can install WiringPi using these instructions. Afterwards you can begin integrating it into RetroPie as a port by doing the following from the command line:

mkdir /opt/retropie/configs/ports/texmaster2009

then

nano /opt/retropie/configs/ports/texmaster2009/emulators.cfg

The nano text editor will open, where you will now add the following to the text edit field.

texmaster2009 = "/path/to/binary/goes/here/Texmaster2009"
default="texmaster2009"

Press 'ctrl+o' to save, 'y' to confirm and 'ctrl+x' to exit out of the nano text editor.

Now, all that is left is to make a script to launch the whole thing. Continuing in the command line, type:

nano /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ports/Texmaster\ 2009.sh

The nano text editor will open again, where you will now add the following to the text edit field.

#!/bin/bash
"/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh" 0 _PORT_ "texmaster2009" ""

Press 'ctrl+o' to save, 'y' to confirm and 'ctrl+x' to exit out of the nano text editor. Finally, we'll make the script executable by typing:

chmod 0755 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ports/Texmaster\ 2009.sh

Once you restart Emulation Station, there will be a new menu listing named 'Texmaster 2009' and it should start right up.

mediamogul

This is really nice. I first thought about trying to replicate the music and images of a TGM directly, but I think I'm going to have some fun and customize the whole thing with a "Creature Feature" B-Movie theme. I've always wanted to hone my 'Tetris' skills and it looks like this is an ideal package to do that.

felleg

@mediamogul hi,
Yeah I'm marionintendo on Tetris concept. I wrote a bit too fast when I said RetroPie came with games, whoops, thanks to herb for pointing that out.

Looks like you've made good progress on running the game on the pi! I'll check it out when I get home. I was wondering, did it work over USB or only via the gpio?

Finally, If you want help replicating tgm in texmaster, pm me, I already did it on mine :)

HYPE

felleg

Just a note I forgot to add, of you want to change the music in texmaster you will need a .wav to .Adpcm converter. I found one on Tetris concept website very easily, here: https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/texmaster-sounds-or-themes.2877/

The file in Texmaster2009/data/pcm_list.txt will help know what sound and music goes to what in the game (applehouse=applause, btw)

felleg

@mediamogul last bump, I promise.
HOLY CRAP IT WORKS PERFECTLY, now all is left to do is get good at the game!
alt text

mediamogul

@felleg

I was wondering, did it work over USB or only via the gpio?

I tested keyboard input, as well as a USB controller and both worked well. Apparently Texmaster doesn't play around when it comes to 'Tetris' and the gpio is meant for the absolute lowest input lag possible, but I don't have the hardware to run a test. It is necessary however to run the software as root to allow gpio capabilities. You can of course just add sudo before the launch command in the emulators.cfg file and it'll work.

HOLY CRAP IT WORKS PERFECTLY

Nice!

now all is left to do is get good at the game!

Then the fame, fortune and free parking that comes with being a Tetris Grand Master.

felleg

So I've been able to match it as close to TGM as I could (basically copying the data I had on my linux mint machine over to the Pi), and it still works! HURRAH.

I guess I should point out a few small things I noticed:

There seems to be no way to escape the game, aside from pressing enter on the keyboard. This is good because it means no accidental button press from the controller, but it's strange that the option to remap the button is inexistant. I guess that's the dev's decision, nothing much we can do
I noticed that the game will simply not start if you booted EmulationStation from a tmux session (I use tmux all the time). Don't let that fool you into thinking the game is broken!
Make sure you read the .html file included inside the game, it contains tons of useful info. For example, the F-keys are all extremely useful. I don't remember them by heart, but my two favorites are F6 which accesses the replays (each game is automatically recorded!), and F11 which instantly ends your game.
The game modes in Texmaster are a tad cryptic. You can change these names if you want in Texmaster2009.ini. Here is their equivalence with the TGM modes: (stolen from https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/texmaster_tetris_grandmaster_clone.html)
NOVICE - Normal mode from TGM2+. Ends at level 300 and never reaches 20G speed during normal gameplay.
NORMAL - Master mode from TGM1. Ends at level 999. More or less normal Tetris gameplay, except faster. A lot faster.
ADVANCE - TGM+ mode from TGM2+. Adds some new features to Normal, most notably the "Sonic Drop", which allows you to instantly drop the piece while still retaining the normal lock delay once it lands. Also periodically adds garbage lines at the bottom of the stack.
SPECIAL - Master mode from TGM2+. The same feature set as Advance, minus the garbage lines. Speeds are even more hair-raising.
SUDDEN - TA Death mode from TGM2+, AKA 20G mode. Pieces drop instantly. Various delays become shorter as you progress.
DOUBLES - Doubles mode from TGM2+. Ends at 300. 2P co-op mode with various options.
SPECIAL TI - Master mode from TGM3. Similar to Special, but it previews three pieces instead of one and adds a "hold piece" feature. Also goes even faster.
SUDDEN TI - The notorious Shirase mode from TGM3. Ends at level 1300. Pieces drop instantly, like in Sudden, but the lock delay has been drastically shortened (and will get even shorter as you progress.) For masters and masochists only.

mediamogul

@felleg

I look forward to diving deeper into this.

herb_fargus

@mediamogul for the record openblok has theming options too ;)

felleg

I guess the final question that lies here: Will the game be added to the (experimental?) ports? What else needs to be done? If you want someone to write a small README for setup information, let me know.

mediamogul

@herb_fargus

From what I've seen, Openblok graphically makes Texmaster look pretty shabby. However, I've been looking for a way to get into the world of 'Tetris: The Grand Master' for some time and this is apparently the only/best way to really do it, as it's said that the original series of arcade titles can't be emulated properly with even the most modern versions of MAME. Openblok is a beautiful looking software package with a lot of great features in it's own right though.

herb_fargus

@felleg thats subject to a review, whether or not source is available, if we have time to implement it and/or if someone is able to submit a clean PR to the repo for inclusion. if not zero jay hosts a repo with a bunch of alternate retropie scripts