Shannon

It would probably be simpler to modify runme.sh so it just looks at the file extension and then calls whichever retroarch or standalone emu you want. Rather than relying on the binaries to determine which core to run. Even more important if we are running cores not included with the official gamestation pro.

Wow.. well this creates A LOT of possibilities now. Might be good to create a "backup" script at some point to backup all of a persons GSP like is usually done. Luckily this stuff can be done in a non destructive way with the mirror command. Anywho.. it should now be possible to swap out the retroarch cores with better or more current ones.. as well as adding new ones for other systems. Which opens up a whole world of emu goodness. Just hop over to the buildbot site and grab some ARM cores. Should also be able to run standalone emulator compiles. Although that one may take some more work. I would also suggest considering going with just one retroarch.cfg file and just remap the retroarch folders so that the controller remap folder points to the SD card. Then remaps can be created specific to each game the proper way. Also a global emu "remap" for each emu could be made that way to accommodate the extra unassigned buttons. Now a way needs to be figured out to bypass the menu button interfering.. or possibly a way to remap that as well ( as a combo maybe? ). I'm just curious. Which stella core does it call if you pick an internal paddle game or a game in the "paddle game" directory?

Doi. Don't know how I missed that one.

If they modified their kornshell script to call a retroarch.cfg file in the SD folder based on the game selected that would be great. In fact the script could be modified to use the default ones they have setup if no such file exists on the SD card. Also they never created a retroarch.cfg specifically for the SNES. I guess an oversight on their part.

I'll leave that for the people who start hacking the IMG file to figure that one out.... That being said.. in the "game" executable which I was incorrectly referring to as the "menu" executable in the earlier post. That script file is referenced.. (three times) /data/start_local_sd.sh 0 %d "%s" "%s" Plus the first to parameters are numbers 0 and "%d" stands for decimal. The last two are strings. The first points to the retroarch config file ( based on the start_local_sd.sh" script. The 2nd points to the ROM selected itself.

start_local_sd.sh ... the script that is run for SD games has 17 values that it checks for. Well actually 18... but I wasn't really counting 0.. #!/bin/sh #FC fceumm_libretro.so #GB/GBA/GBC mgba_libretro.so/gpsp_libretro.so #MD genesisplusgx_libretro.so #SFC snes9x_libretro.so #XC_ATARI2600 stella_libretro.so #XC_ATARI7800 prosystem_libretro.so #FB Jungle_libretro.so #M3 Jungle2003_libretro.so #M16 Jungle2016_libretro.so #usr/lib/libretro export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/data export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/data GAME_PATH= GAME_LIB= export LC_ALL='zh_CN.utf8' case "$2" in 0) GAME_LIB= ;; 1) #GAME_LIB=nestopia_libretro.so GAME_LIB=fceumm_libretro.so ;; 2) GAME_LIB=genesisplusgx_libretro.so ;; 3) GAME_LIB=snes9x_libretro.so ;; 4) GAME_LIB=mgba_libretro.so ;; 5) GAME_LIB=stella2014_libretro.so ;; 6) GAME_LIB=prosystem_libretro.so ;; 7) GAME_LIB= ;; 8) GAME_LIB= ;; 9) GAME_LIB=Jungle2014_libretro.so ;; 10) GAME_LIB=Jungle2003_libretro.so ;; 11) GAME_LIB=Jungle2016_libretro.so ;; 12) GAME_LIB=a5200_libretro.so #GAME_LIB=atari800_libretro.so ;; 13) GAME_LIB=a5200_libretro_new.so #GAME_LIB=handy_libretro.so ;; 14) GAME_LIB=virtualjaguar_libretro.so ;; 15) GAME_LIB=stella ;; 16) GAME_LIB=mednafen_pce_fast_libretro.so ;; 17) GAME_LIB=vice_xpet_libretro.so ;; *) echo "Have not game resources" return ;; esac if [ "$2" == 15 ]; then #/usr/bin/stella "$3" /usr/bin/stella $3 "$4" else /usr/bin/retroarch -y "12"\ -k "$1"\ -c "$3"\ -L /usr/lib/libretro/$GAME_LIB "$4" #/usr/lib/libretro/$GAME_LIB "$3" fi As I stated in an earlier post.. not all of them are used in the database and 3 of them are actually empty ( no setting of GAME_LIB ). The thing I cannot figure out from looking at 'menu' is how it determines what values to assign games based on extensions. There are also references in 'menu' to N64 and Playstation games and some of the extensions that seem to be associated with PC-Engine don't make sense. But this is looking at it through a hex editor.

I don't have the original partition files to look at so I don't know how the "menu" executable changed between versions. But I did notice that the "menu" executable has all of the paddle games names "hard code" into it. So it is likely two things. 1) If a match is found for the hard coded name it will use the standalone stella. 2) If the game is a type 15 ( in the games.db file ) then it will use the standalone stella. I'm assuming it only looks in the games.db file when running games internal to the system.

I think the GSP uses retroarch.cfg when loading from the SD card it does have individual configs, though, for a2600, a5200, a7800, arcade, gba, md and nes. But none for SNES. Here is the file it uses. retroarch.cfg

Correction on type 1.. it actually calls retroarch FCEUmm and not Nestopia. 1) NES ( calls retroarch FCEUmm )

There is an sqlite3 database called games.db in 3.rootfs.img\usr\local\share\minigui\res\db\ that contains the game database. It also determines which emulators to run for each specified game. It looks like Atari 2600 paddle games are type "15" which calls a standalone build of stella that they have in the usr/bin folder. All other 2600 games look like they are type "5" which calls the retroarch version of stella ( Stella 2014 ). There are 17 slots for the game type. Three are empty.. but here they are.. 0) nothing 1) NES ( calls retroarch nestopia ) 2) Genesis/SMS/GG ( calls retroarch genesisplusgx ) 3) SNES ( calls retroarch Snes9x [current] ) 4) GB/GBC/GBA ( calls retroarch MGBA ) 5) Atari 2600 ( calls retroarch stella2014 ) 6) Atari 7800 ( calls retroarch prosystem ) 7) nothing 8 ) nothing 9) Arcade ( calls retroarch jungle2014 [ mame 2014? ] ) Quantum is the only game that uses this. 10) Arcade ( calls retroarch jungle2003 [ mame 2003? ] ) 11) Arcade ( calls retroarch jungle2016 [ mame 2016? ] ) 12) Atari 5200 ( calls retroarch A5200 ). I noticed they have the Atari BIOS files on there in addition to the 5200 bios ( not sure if it is 2-port or 4-port version ). I don't know if they added that or they put it in but never figured out how to get A5200 to find the BIOS files. I will add a link later to an A5200 source file that shows the CRC's of all the ROMS that it has in it's internal database. Should make it easier to get the right images that it knows how to deal with. They are definitely using the old A5200 cause in addition to my changes I significantly updated the internal database. 13) Atari 5200 ( calls a5200_libretro_new ). Looks like meebzork is the only one that uses this. 14) Jaguar ( calls retroarch virtualjaguar ). However that core is NOT present on the images provided. 15) Atari 2600 ( calls standalone stella ). They seem to use this only for paddle games. 16) NEC PC-Engine/TG-16 ( calls retroarch Mednafen PCE Fast ) which should also be able to do CD games. Just a matter of figuring out how to activate it. 17) Calls ( retroarch Vice Xpet ). A Commodore Pet emulator. I have no clue why they have this in there. Definitely a candidate for swapping out with another core. As for keyboard mappings.... I suspect they are using full retroarch configs with the keys setup a certain way. Stored in.. 3.rootfs.img\usr\lib\libretro\retroarch\ They have standard config, 4:3 configs and 16:9 configs for each core. More information as I find it...

Yeah I'm sure they figured out REAL quick that Jaguar emulation is nigh unlikely. If the guy who did bigPemu made a retroarch version I bet they could get some decent speed.

Just did a cursory glance over the IMG files in the update. I think most everything that will be needed to figure out everything is in there. I would not be surprised to see someone come up with something where things can be done more "customized" without affecting the underlying setup. Looks to me like they use an SQL database file to determine which retroarch cores to call depending on the game selected and what parameters to pass to it... etc. It looks like at one point they were testing for lynx, jaguar and Atari 800 games. There is code in there but it is commented out. They also have code to call stella current. But I'm not sure what the deciding factor is. Likely something in the included SQL databse.

Oh.. I didn't think about that. I'm not using any *nix variants. Just plain vanilla windows 10.

What tools can I use to extract the files out of the update they provided? I might be able to look at the retroarch structure to get a better idea of how they are utilizing it.

Well that is interesting. They have two A5200 cores. I wonder if the a5200_libretro_new.so core is the one with the many changes I made about 4 months ago. Never heard of Jungle2003, 2014 and 2016. But I reckon those are the MAME cores. They also have two snes9x cores. Snes9x2002 is an older core based on 2002 code ( basically performs better on lesser processors ). Snes9x should be snes9x current which would be based on the latest Snes9x code. Which in theory should be the more accurate but potentially slower core. Also may have more features and support more things. Also interesting to see they have both Stella cores. 2014 is based on older code. Stella_libretro is the current core and should be able to handle all the current DPC games as well as read the .pro files. I've yet to check to see if Stella 2014 recognizes and reads .pro files. Vice_xpet... that is an odd choice. Why would they have Commodore Pet emulation on there? No pico cores which is odd cause I assumed there was one since they have pico games included with the gamestation pro? Or at least I thought they did. GenesisplusGX only supports genesis/mega drive... sms, game gear and sega CD. No 32x support. No pico support. Now I guess the question is.. what extensions determine which emulators are called. In particular the mame, stella and snes9x cores. Also it should be possible to determine what extensions are used by looking at the ".info" files for each core.

For a decent idea of SNES performance. Try the following chip based games. Super Matio World 2 - Yoshi's Island. One of the later chip based games and usually takes a performance hit on lesser consoles. Star Fox - Almost the same as SMW2. Super Mario RPG - An earlier chip game. Likely will see occasional slow down but should be playable I think someone already tried FF4. It has been know to have slowdown on lesser systems. As for Nintendo DS. Forget it. 😛 Even an xbox series X sometimes needs frameskip of 1 to get full speed. And with no touch screen ability a lot of games will be unplayable.

The update takes place of the previous update. So most likely it is only 2gb plus whatever was in the initial uodate.

Here is the game release list. Mostly 2600. 2 Homebrew. 2 Prototypes. 1 Lynx game. (2600) Adventure II (HB) Return To Haunted House (HB) Aquaventure (Proto) Save Mary (Proto) Bowling Circus Atari Double Dunk Maze Craze Miniature Golf Moto Rodea Super Football (Lynx) Warbirds

Shouldn't it be possible to copy the left and right sides of the Mr Do's old artwork files over top the left/right images you created here.. just to at least have the bezels on the sides with the game art and instructions?

The version of Retroarch you use does not matter. You just need to make sure you download the MAME 2003 core and use that to run any arcade ROM images you have. If it exits out saying "failed to load content" then it is likely the ROM image you have has the wrong sets. 2003 is based on the MAME .078 core sets which are pretty old. You can enable logging if you really want to and you can view the log to verify what it is looking for. If need be. I think with MAME 2003 they have the right trigger assigned to bring up the MAME internal menu. From there you can go to "input ( this game )" to change things. You might be able to hit tab on your keyboard as well to bring up the MAME internal menu.

Well once it was determined that retroarch was the main emulator used on the Gamestation Pro it was a little easier to come up with these ideas. I've been using retroarch pretty consistently the last couple years on my Firestick Pro, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Nintendo Wii-U, etc. So I'm pretty familiar with how it works. Once it was determined that MAME was being used for arcade games and that the normal MAME folders were looked for in the same folder as the ROM it was just a matter of determining which version of MAME was being used. Retroarch has several versions that are used on older less capable processors. Anywho... I know that the retroarch and MAME cfg setups are pretty consistent from console to console. So I loaded the games on the same version of MAME on my xbox one and then I went into the MAME menu and configured the controls to match what was requested of me. I would then FTP the files from the xbox to my PC and upload here. In theory one could also set up retroarch on a PC and do the same. If you do set up on a PC I would recommend connecting an xbox controller when doing it for more consistency. It may also be possible to plug a GSP controller in the PC.. but I don't know if it will be recognized. As for Stella I know from tinkering with retroarch, Stella current and DPC games that it will read .PRO file if it finds it in the same folder as the requested ROM. Most likely, though, they are using Stella 2013. Which I'm not sure about. One way to find out is to try the Mappy DPC demo game. I know for a fact that it does not work on Stella 2013. If I had a GSP I'd probably be able to figure out more. But I told my sister to pass up on it for a Christmas gift. I might grab one later when they are on clearance. But I'm still a little undecided. I have all of the minis ( NES, SNES, Genesis, Playstation and a C64 mini ).. and I don't really use them.. I think once someone figures out how to dump the contents of the gamestation pro then it will easier to determine how they have things configured and how to take advantage of more customized setups.

Apparently there is going to be an update on December 6th that adds 12 games. Two are rumored to be 2600 Basketball and steeplechase ( the horse racing game ). Any speculation on what the other games will be? I'm thinking the m-network games. But who knows.

Now that I think sbout it I could have made a joke about the dragon's always having a square meal each day.

Ignore... I wasn't thinking when I made up this one..

There is a hack someone made of Gorf that forces the stick into digital mode. It's worth tracking down. I'd also recommend all of the Atari 800 conversions.. although they may be hit or miss on the Gamestation Pro.