Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation

Floob

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

It's my understanding that if I want the roms to show video snaps, wheel images etc. in Robospin. The filename has to be the same as both the images and the roms. Does there by any chance exist a program that can rename the files so they match each other. I ask because I'm not interested in changing over 1000 roms manually. Thanks :)

For MAME its usually easy as there is a naming standard for roms, so they usually match. Also emumovies will dowload artwork and match your filenames. If you have a very different set of names for your roms and artwork, e.g. perhaps for a console, you can use something like FatMatch to rename the artwork.
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/files/file/7401-fat-match-media-renamer/

AceGrace

Hi,

I must have missed something.

If I write the image to SD card, boot it and expand file system, when I go into Attract mode I get "press TAB to configure attract mode" as well as options to load Kodi etc....

At no point do I get the wheel or animation of games despite the fact that I have added roms (using the USB service).

What am I missing/doing wrong?

I only ever get the first menu as above.

Finhead

@AceGrace said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Hi,

I must have missed something.

If I write the image to SD card, boot it and expand file system, when I go into Attract mode I get "press TAB to configure attract mode" as well as options to load Kodi etc....

At no point do I get the wheel or animation of games despite the fact that I have added roms (using the USB service).

What am I missing/doing wrong?

I only ever get the first menu as above.

You need to do exactly as it says, press TAB and configure all your emultors you have ROMS for.
You need to generate your ROMS list as well as place your artwork(snaps,wheel,marquee art et) in he proper directories. Or scrape your artwork.
You'll then configure your Displays you have emultors configured for, you need to tell it which layout you want to use etc.
Floob goes through all this in the first video, it's super easy to do.

AceGrace

Hi, OK.

I will go back through the video. I just assumed that the USB ROM service would handle it and that the IMG already had it all set up with a default theme.

Thanks for letting me know.

Cheers

Brigane

@Floob Thank you so much for the advice regarding Fatmatch. It works like a charm :)

Brigane

Does anybody know how to setup more Pointers?
I know I can change the pointers in Layout options for each system (although the choice is only two different layouts).

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Does anybody know how to setup more Pointers?
I know I can change the pointers in Layout options for each system (although the choice is only two different layouts).

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

To add more pointer options to the Robospin theme this is what I did, might be a easier way though.

Add whatever .png pointer image you want to use to the pointers directory in the robospin-betanew layout , name it "pointer*" where asterisk is the number.

Open the layout.nut file in the robospin-betanew directory
Add a name for your new pointer to line #21 where you see rocket,hand,none

Scroll down in the layout.nut and duplicate (copy/paster below line #365) from line #335-365

Change "rocket" to whatever you named your new pointer in line #21
Change "pointers/pointer.png" to the number you gave your new pointer "pointers/pointer*.png"

Save it off, hit TAB, Displays, "Your emulator", Layout Options, Select pointer, pick the pointer you want to use.

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Are you overclocked or have large video files loaded? I know the only time AM has ever kicked out was when I tried to overclock to high. And when it goes into screen saver mod and uses the grid saver with higher res videos, doen't like that.

Brigane

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

Edit: Another thing is that AM seems a bit unstable, sometimes it just kicks me out in the terminal because of some error.

Are you overclocked or have large video files loaded? I know the only time AM has ever kicked out was when I tried to overclock to high. And when it goes into screen saver mod and uses the grid saver with higher res videos, doen't like that.

Yes I have an overclocked Pi and the crash does happen when AM is trying to show a ps1 game preview. the video files are about 10mb so should that really be the problem?
I tried again with overclock off but with no luck.

Floob

@Brigane As Finhead suggests, it could well be the video size. That does sound quite large compared to the snaps I tend to find. It seems that most, say from emumovies or progetto are closer to 1MB to 2MB. Perhaps thats it.
Where did you get your snaps?

Here is a related thread:
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=707.0

Brigane

@Floob I got most of my video snaps from here. But I will sure try to get them from emumovies in the future if the filesizes differs that much. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

Floob

@Brigane They all look like they are 480p, emumovies has access to 240p quality as well.

Finhead

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Brigane

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Haven't had time to look at that just yet, but when I do I'll let you know. A smarter solution would be nice though. You could easily screw up the Layout.nut file :)

Finhead

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Haven't had time to look at that just yet, but when I do I'll let you know. A smarter solution would be nice though. You could easily screw up the Layout.nut file :)

LOL your welcome. You'll have to ask someone else if I'm not smart enough. ;)

senkun

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Haven't had time to look at that just yet, but when I do I'll let you know. A smarter solution would be nice though. You could easily screw up the Layout.nut file :)

Make a copy of the robospin directory or directory of whatever layout you want to tweak, rename it and in the gui select your cloned layout to use. Now you can go to town on it, make whatever changes to pointers or mess about to your hearts content. Screw up the .nut file as much as you like.

Brigane

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Brigane said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

@Finhead said in Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation:

I get all mine from here, but I'm dealing with only MAME stuff and Daphne so might not help you out.
MAME snaps

Did that help on changing the pointer to what you wanted?

Haven't had time to look at that just yet, but when I do I'll let you know. A smarter solution would be nice though. You could easily screw up the Layout.nut file :)

LOL your welcome. You'll have to ask someone else if I'm not smart enough. ;)

Thanks for your help of course, I didn't mean to offend you in any way. But of course you already knew that :)

zerojay

I attemped to get runcommand working through this, but without any luck. If I use the script raw, it sits there waiting forever (but does appear to get the right parameters). If I attempt to open the script in an xterm, it just returns right away.

Floob

@zerojay I haven't had much luck either. Its as though the inputs arent reaching it. Or at least its not accepting them.
As you say, it appears on the screen fine, and shows the correct values, but doesnt seem to listen to input.

Finhead

Curious if anyone that has tried out Attract Mode has setup AdvanceMAME yet?
I've been trying to get it running with no sucess, Emulation Station runs the ROMS for it perfectly so I know they work.
If anyone has the Executable and Command Arguments they use that would be fantastic. :)