Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation

Floob

For those of you building custom setups, or even if you just want to try something different to Emulation Station as the front end, you can check out Attract Mode here:

v0.6

This image is using RetroPie with Attract Mode installed on top.

Version History
10th April 2016 - v0.1

First Version

16th April 2016 - v0.2

RetroPie 3.7
Attract Mode 2.0.0 - 15th April 2016
Shaders configured for RetroArch emulators
AM configs pre-configured to match most RetroPie emulators
Artwork directories created in the roms directories of the systems
Extra AM layouts/themes pre-installed
Exit to from AM to ES and vice versa
Added MAME controls.ini, nplayer.ini, catver.ini to help filters in AM
Fixed keyboard hang (hacked boot delay)
Added boot script by Shakz (to flip between ES and AM)
Hide motd, rainbow splashscreen and raspberry logo appearing
Hide last login and uname output
Stop white screen with X boot info showing
Selected new version of Robospin as default theme
Setting correct aspect ratio for re-configured systems
Various small tweaks
Install intro video for AM

2nd May 2016 - v0.3

Recompiled AM with new SFML so X is no longer needed (https://github.com/mickelson/sfml-pi)
This means runcommand now works under Attract Mode, and emulators that use SDL 1.2 can now be run with attractmode outside of X with hardware scaling.
Advmame for example scaled only in software in X. Now it will use hardware scaling.
Updated configs to no longer start X
Updated Emulators to use runcommand (https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/runcommand)

7th May 2016 - v0.4

Kodi Installed
Daphne Installed
Updated some Attract Mode layouts
Added more emulator configs

8th May 2016 - v0.4 Artwork

As 0.4 but with MAME artwork
Stored under the mame-libretro roms directory
Credits to http://www.progettosnaps.net/ and omegaman on the AM forums
Full credits and author details in the readme folder

23rd August 2016 - v0.5

RetroPie 4.0.1 (22nd August)
Attract Mode 2.1.0 (22nd August)
Experimental version of Emulation Station with grid mode
Video Manager tool pre-installed, but not configured
RetroPie setup script accessible within Attract Mode
No X mode installed/configured

15th April 2022 - v0.6

For Raspberry Pi 4B/400
RetroPie 4.8.2 (https://retropie.org.uk/)
Attract Mode 2.6.2 (http://attractmode.org/)
Minor tweaks include, quiet boot, custom menu to choose AM or ES, preloading layouts and Kodi
Build is for Raspberry Pi 4B
Binaries updated as of 15th April 2022
Credits to:
Yaron - http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=3289.0
Verion - http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=252.0

To Do

Auto resize image partitions
Other Stuff

Download:
https://www.smartretro.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8277&p=8607

billsepher

@Floob This looks awesome. I'll have to give this a try. Any complaints?

Finhead

@billsepher said:

@Floob This looks awesome. I'll have to give this a try. Any complaints?

I've had mine setup for about a 12 days (didn't know Floob was going to complie a image) and it works fantastic. I like it much better than the standard ES frontend and it loads far faster. No complaints here.

gamesfan

Link to the Image? Also, what version of Attract Mode is running?

senkun

Now that's a front end worthy of it's name. Been looking to do this for a while but never got round to it, but I guess I can't procrastinate anymore. So hey @Floob , thanks!

@Finhead thanks for the vid preview, robospin looks really nice and slick. Any chance of an image?

senkun

Can we easily switch themes with Attractmode?

Twitch0815

Man just when I got my image all perfect and backedup and now I a going to spend a week getting this together.

senkun

@Twitch0815 said:

Man just when I got my image all perfect and backedup and now I a going to spend a week getting this together.

lol I know that exact feeling. But hey, that's half the fun innit?

Finhead

Didn't mean to step on Floobs toes so to speak.
But I think if you go directly to his video on youtube you get all the links your looking for.
I don't have a image small enough to post now that I have Daphne working with AM it's getting very large.

Here is a direct link to the image he made

And switching between Themes/layouts is very easy, just place the theme/lyout folder into the layouts folder in .attract. Then in the frontend you just choose what theme/layout you want to use. At 53:00 mins on Floobs video he shows how easy it is. ;)

Brigane

Does this work with Raspberry Pi 2 as well?

Finhead

@Brigane said:

Does this work with Raspberry Pi 2 as well?

Here is a a link to the Pi2 image thread

senkun

@Finhead said:

Didn't mean to step on Floobs toes so to speak.
But I think if you go directly to his video on youtube you get all the links your looking for.
I don't have a image small enough to post now that I have Daphne working with AM it's getting very large.

Here is a direct link to the image he made

And switching between Themes/layouts is very easy, just place the theme/lyout folder into the layouts folder in .attract. Then in the frontend you just choose what theme/layout you want to use. At 53:00 mins on Floobs video he shows how easy it is. ;)

@Finhead thanks for the links, and especially the time mark! I missed that part completely as I was skipping through most of it. Much as I love Floob's vids, but that one was over an hour long ;P

Floob

Hopefully its of help to you guys, to update you:

This image seems to work fine on both the Pi2 and Pi3. If I could find my Pi1 I'd try it on that.
@gamesfan The image is available here (and is running the latest, as of 10/04/2016) v2.0.0 of Attract Mode):
http://smartretro.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8277
@billsepher Please do try the image out, let me know if you have any issues.
@senkun Yes, lots of layouts/themes to choose from and very easy to switch.
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?board=6.0
@Brigane Yes, this works with the Pi2.

I'm hoping to update this soon with more config files geared to the RetroPie setup, and better instructions of how to get the images to populate the wheel and demo videos etc.. I might also pre-configure it so that the emulators run decent shaders - probably not worth me fixing the resolutions of the systems as I imagine there will be a wide variety needed.

ashmck73

Awesome stuff - going to go give this a try now. Gives it the Hyperspin look and feel.

dankcushions

you can even use hyperspin themes, apparently.

i like it, but right now i'd need some sort of way of integrating ES (my 'library' view of ALL my games) and attract-mode (what i consider better suited as a 'curated' view of favourites/classics). i guess you could launch it as an ES menu item...

senkun

Thanks @Floob and @Finhead

Yes indeed it is really simple to change themes or in AMspeak, "Layouts". Once I had the media/artwork assets in place and located, the Layouts built into AM switch easily and work perfectly.

Funny thing is, I just can't seem to get third party Layouts working. For example, this wonderful Layout based on Cools is what got me 'attracted' to AM in the first place but it just doesn't work for me;

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=473.msg3271#msg3271

Not sure if it's something I did or didn't do, and before I start tearing into my build, can anyone please give it a quick try and see if it just works out of the box?

edit: I restarted with a fresh img and everything works they way it should now. I probably messed up my initial install poking around all the files looking at the new structure around AM haha

Finhead

@senkun said:

Thanks @Floob and @Finhead

Yes indeed it is really simple to change themes or in AMspeak, "Layouts". Once I had the media/artwork assets in place and located, the Layouts built into AM switch easily and work perfectly.

Funny thing is, I just can't seem to get third party Layouts working. For example, this wonderful Layout based on Cools is what got me 'attracted' to AM in the first place but it just doesn't work for me;

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=473.msg3271#msg3271

Not sure if it's something I did or didn't do, and before I start tearing into my build, can anyone please give it a quick try and see if it just works out of the box?

It somewhat works for me, I'm running my display vertical and it doesn't seem to like that and pushes the video 1/2 off the screen. What you need to do is make sure your layout is in it's own directory name (blastcity) with the 3 files default.png, layout.nut,mask.png
Then you'll need to copy the "pan-and-scan.nut" file into the modules directory which should be just under yout layouts directory in .attract

senkun

@Finhead thanks for checking, I have all the assets in place and "pan-and-scan.nut" is in the modules directory, all the built in Layouts work fine just that blastcity isn't showing anything. I must have messed up somewhere, will check further.

One more thing, and this seems major, how do you configure a hotkey (preferably the standard select-start combo) to exit a game/emulator once you're playing?

If I set a hotkey from the AM frontend, it drops me back to the frontend but the game is still running. :(

InsecureSpike

I tried Floobs .img on my pi 2 but the dsmn thing keeps locking up on me after around 10mins, I over clocked to high and upped the memory split to 256, but still no help! any ideas? should I build if myself? would that help?

edit: ok, is Floob's for pi 3 only?

Brigane

@InsecureSpike Did you check out the link that Finhead provided us for Pi2 earlier?

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=223.0