Emulator Pi....with a twist!

Hi All,

First off, very new to pi/linux and also the forums, so please excuse any mistakes!

I would love to turn my Pi into a retro gaming machine/ media center, and this seems entirely possible with what I have read in the forums so far. I have tried Raspmc, and the Pi seems to work with that very well indeed! I have also read about MAME and EmulationStation (I even understood some of it!).

Ideally I would like to make a Pi that could run XBMC, and launch various emulators from menu entries, probably all from a 32Gb sd, or a large capacity USB flash drive.
Again, I think all this is possible, albeit with alot of reading and help from the forums [ hint hint ]

Here comes the twist.
It would be amazing to use android phones as the controllers for the games, and as a basic remote for XBMC.
I have read that the Pi can be used with a bluetooth dongle (one of the cheap ones). So that part should be ok.
On android this exists;
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ller&hl=en
Which allows 4 android phones to connect to an android tablet and act as controllers.

So....anyone think this is at all possible in the Pi. My thoughts are that it should be, but I have no idea where to start really! (Sorry)

Any thoughts/comments/pointers/links welcome that might help me achieve this.

Thanks all

For an XBMC remote you can use Yatse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... V0ZnJlZSJd

Unfortunately I haven't found a way to use my Android device as a gamepad for the R-Pi.

There is droidmote client, but unfortunately the server is compiled for ARMv7 so it won't work on the R-Pi (Pi only has an ARMv6)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... GllbnQiXQ..

However, the developer did say that he would compile it for the R-Pi if somebody sends him one
http://www.videomap.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19

Hi Steev,

Yeah, I use Yatse for my home XBMC installation, its great. However it relies on being on the same WiFi network as the host xbmc installation, rather that using bluetooth. The reason bluetooth would be more useful in this application is that the 'console' could be moved from place to place, tv to tv, and the remote would still be paired to the pi, rather than the network that it was all set up on.

Unless the pi itself could create a faux wireless hotspot and the remotes could connect that way.....

That being said, ideally the pi would have a bluetooth and a wireless usb adaptors plugged in, the bluetooth for the gamepads/remote, and the wireless to connect to a wifi access point wherever the pi is to get youtube/rss etc etc.

Thanks for your reply, i'm still really hopeful that this can be achieved!

For anyone following my progress, I have just found this
http://openelec.tv/
Along with this
http://squirrelhosting.co.uk/hosting-bl ... o.php?id=9

Which has got OpenElec running on my pi, I think OpenElec has emulator capabilities....

More research!

OK, so looks like OpenELEC with advanced launcher may be able to launch emulators from within XBMC. Just need to get the emulators and roms working now!

Also noticed that a Wiimote bluetooth driver is in the add-ons for OpenELEC, anyone had any experience with this at all ?
While not ideal, it could be used as a way of controlling the Pi, and also playing the games emulators.
This also seems to be a move in the right direction for using bluetooth android phones as controllers.

Still hopeful!

Found this, think it may be useful, I wonder if it could be linked with XBMC....

https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup

I think the options for the emulation side of this project seem to be pretty available, MAME, retropi, retroarch etc.

The bit I would love to see working is the bluetooth controller side of things.
Does anybody know if porting android applications to a Pi is possible ?
If not how difficult would a program be that can link 4 bluetooth connected phones in as controllers be to create ?

Any pointers welcomed !

Your are looking for something like this. Once you have this on your phone and can connect the phone via bluetooth to Linux you've got a remote. Using it as a joystick should be doable similarly.