EmulationStation - an emulator front-end

Hey Aloshi, I have a question/request.
Would you be willing to add bindings for page up / page down in the list of roms? I could make folders of course, but one big list is so much nicer to flip through.

Related, would it be possible to preserve your rom selection when switching between emulators? Accidentally pressing left or right and then having to scroll back down is pretty frustrating.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

I definitely agree that ES is pretty unusable with large collections. A while back, Xevin suggested adding a "fast select by letter" thing. My idea was, if you hold down the menu key for a second, a "fast select" box pops up, and you can press up/down to change the letter. Release the menu key to be dropped to the start of that section. I think this would solve the problem.

[abishur]

Two questions, is there a theme repository where one who was... shall we say less than artistically inclined, could download some pre-made themes? Also is there a way to change the key that exits the program to a combination of buttons on a joystick (or even a specific button on the joystick)?

Two questions, is there a theme repository where one who was... shall we say less than artistically inclined, could download some pre-made themes?

The themes are currently work-in-progress. However, you can either use the RetroPie script do install EmulationStation together with themes or manually download themes from https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup/downloads.

Also is there a way to change the key that exits the program to a combination of buttons on a joystick (or even a specific button on the joystick)?

This question already came up some time ago (viewtopic.php?p=183662#p183662), but a solution was not provided ...

[abishur]

Also is there a way to change the key that exits the program to a combination of buttons on a joystick (or even a specific button on the joystick)?

This question already came up some time ago (viewtopic.php?p=183662#p183662), but a solution was not provided ...

Oh I meant to exit out of emulationstation

[abishur]

Two questions, is there a theme repository where one who was... shall we say less than artistically inclined, could download some pre-made themes?

The themes are currently work-in-progress. However, you can either use the RetroPie script do install EmulationStation together with themes or manually download themes from https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup/downloads.

huh, so I it turns out I have those files in ~/.emulationstation/themes but they're not showing up in emulationstation itself

Two questions, is there a theme repository where one who was... shall we say less than artistically inclined, could download some pre-made themes?

The themes are currently work-in-progress. However, you can either use the RetroPie script do install EmulationStation together with themes or manually download themes from https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup/downloads.

huh, so I it turns out I have those files in ~/.emulationstation/themes but they're not showing up in emulationstation itself

Each system has a theme.xml file that uses the ressources in the subfolders of .emulationstation. You can find these also in the themes download https://github.com/downloads/petrockblo ... 12.tar.bz2.

[abishur]

Each system has a theme.xml file that uses the ressources in the subfolders of .emulationstation. You can find these also in the themes download https://github.com/downloads/petrockblo ... 12.tar.bz2.

Ah that's the issue, I created my rom folders on a network share and did not copy the xml files by accident! Thanks!

I've done a lot with EmulationStation since I started this thread, and just polished up some of Xevin's themes and put them up for download. They showcase how nice ES can look.

http://aloshi.com/emulationstation#themes
(click for full size!)

So far I love ES! I will likely be attempt to make some themes once I iron out other issues... which brings me to a question.

I have no plans to use the Doom emulator... ever. Is there a way for me to switch the first emulator to something like "NES"? I'm guessing this is hard-coded in ES but I'd love a way to change which it defaults to.

Certainly, just edit your systems config file (~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg). You can move, remove, or just comment out the Doom entry (add a # at the very start of a line to comment it out). They'll display in the order they're listed.

Thanks that worked great!

I have another issue now... I'm having trouble configuring my controls on EmulationStation using a PS3 controller. I configured it just fine through RetroArch, is there a way for me to convert those numbers over to ES?

Nope, but configuring ES with a controller should be painless - the first time a joystick is detected upon launch, ES will launch directly into an input config screen. Once that's finished the configuration will be saved automatically to ~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg.

If for some reason that screen isn't coming up, check if ~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg exists, and if it does, delete it (the input config screen doesn't come up if that file exists; that would indicate that ES thinks it's already been configured).

It has come up, but it only asks for one button... I forgot which. Then it dumps me back to the emulator list. Is there a reference for me to add it manually? I looked at the file before, but I couldn't make sense of it.

The format the config file uses is "BUTTON [BUTTON#] [INPUT]", "AXISPOS [AXIS#] [INPUT]", and "AXISNEG [AXIS#] [INPUT]". The inputs are numbers (1-8 or so). You can see the list at the top of src/components/GuiInputConfig.cpp if I remember right, they're in order. I think I wrote a bit more about it in the RetroPie thread somewhere. I'll check and make sure I didn't break the input config screen later tonight.

Thanks, I will see if I can put together a correct button mapping for my controller. If I do I'll post my config here.

Alright, in case anyone needs it, here is what I got for PS3 Six-axis mapping for es_input.cfg. I can't get the page up, page down, or select menu to work at all with my controller though. I can not guarantee this is the same for all PS3 controllers, but I used the official one:

JOYNAME Sony PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
BUTTON 4 1
BUTTON 6 2
BUTTON 7 3
BUTTON 5 4
BUTTON 14 5
BUTTON 13 6
BUTTON 16 7
BUTTON 9 8
BUTTON 10 9
BUTTON 11 10

Legend for es_input:

Numbers on the left:

1: L-Thumbstick pushed in
2: R-Thumbstick pushed in
3: Start button
4: Up
5: Right
6: Down
7: Left
8: L2
9: R2
10: L1
11: R1
12: Triangle
13: Circle
14: X
15: Square
16: PS Button

Not sure what select is mapped to, I didn't need it (17 isn't it!)

Numbers on the right: starting with 1 are: "UP", "DOWN", "LEFT", "RIGHT", "BUTTON1 (Accept)", "BUTTON2 (Back)", "START (Menu)", "SELECT (Jump-to-letter)", "PAGE UP", "PAGE DOWN"

I didn't install anything to use the PS3 controller with, as far as I know the wired way shouldn't require any software. I will likely get a 360 wireless dongle and try that instead.

Emulation Station works great although I have one problem, because I dont know how to connect a controller can I use the keyboard for 2 player
Thanks i advance

It depends on your emulator - you need to configure that separately. But I'm pretty sure you can do that with RetroArch (most of the emulators installed by RetroPie) - I think you edit ~/etc/retroarch.cfg or something. You can find more info in the RetroPie thread, and there's some info on the RetroPie wiki): https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie ... /RetroArch

hi i love the work you have done with emulationstation it is awesome!

i have a problem though. i cant seem to get the shutdown/restart menu to come up. i have remapped my controller for emulationstation multiple times but when i press the button mapped for start or select it just exits out of emulationstation and puts me at the terminal.

Any suggestions?

Ah, that was my fault...I should've tested better. Just pushed the fix. As usual, run git pull to update the source code and then make to rebuild.

Ah, that was my fault...I should've tested better. Just pushed the fix. As usual, run git pull to update the source code and then make to rebuild.

WOW! you really are awesome! thanks for the quick reply and the quick fix. everything is running great. Thanks!

Hello

Please i need some help.I am trying to make Es work with advance mame.I have already compiled advmame and it is working.As far i managed to import roms to Es but when i select a game nothing happens.I am newbie to all this so I dont know how i have to write the Command in the configuration file in Es.


Thank you

Hi
First of all, great job, I'm loving raspberry and emulationstation.

I have one problem. I can't get sounds out from emulators, nes and snes. Is it possible to get sounds out from hdmi or headphone jack? Is there a thread about it?

I just need sound to get experience to the next level. With correct looking controllers it's already pretty close to a real thing.

Sound is a bit tricky. You're best off trying to get HDMI to work (the audio jack has some issues). You should first make sure you can get sound out of your Pi. You can try playing a test sound with aplay:

Code: Select all

sudo aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

If that doesn't work, you'll have to monkey with your amixer settings to force HDMI:

Code: Select all

sudo amixer cset numid=3 2

And if that doesn't work, I believe there's an option in the /boot/config.txt that you may need to enable:

# Force the monitor to HDMI mode so that sound will be sent over HDMI cable
hdmi_drive=2

If you get sound but it's bad quality, you can also try changing the audio driver RetroArch uses by adding this to your retroarch.cfg (where that is I'm not sure; probably /etc/retroarch.cfg):

Code: Select all

audio_out_rate=44100
audio_driver=sdl

The SDL audio driver is slower, but much more stable.

And it works like a charm. With nes and snes.
Thank you, thank you, you saved my weekend