Raspberry Pi Zero, 1, 2, 3 AttractMode + Retroarch images (based on buildroot)

[ptiwee]

I've been working on a lightweight, ready to use image for the Raspberry Pi, to transform it to a retrogaming console. Like RetroPie or RecalBox, but I found those system too heavy, too labyrinthine. It's built on top of buildroot, with packages widely inspired by recalbox. Everything should work out of the box. Don't hesitate to give it a look and give some feedbacks.

Download

• Rapsberry Pi Zero/1
• Raspberry Pi 2/3

Sources
Sources are available on GitHub : https://github.com/ptiwee/arcadeus/tree/arcadeus

Features

• AttractMode frontend, retroarch backend
• Systems available : Arcade (FBA), NES (Nestopia), SNES (pocketsnes), Nintendo 64 (glupen64), GameBoy (Gambatte), GameBoy Color (Gambatte), GameBoy Advance (gPSP), Sega Master System (picodrive), Megadrive (picodrive), GameGear (GenesisPlusGX), NeoGeo (FBA), NeoGeo Pocket (Beetle-NGP), PlayStation (pcsx-rearmed)
• Read-only SD card
• Autoscan USB drive for roms
• GPIO Joystick Driver mk_arcade_joystick_rpi

How to install

• Download the image for your Raspberry Pi
• Follow those instructions to install the image to your SD card
• Format a USB drive in VFAT and copy your roms (and needed bios) in the following folders :
• arcade : FBA roms, format .zip
• nes : NES roms, format .nes
• snes : SNES roms, format .snes
• n64 : N64 roms, format .n64
• gameboy : GameBoy roms, format .gb
• gbc : GameBoy Color roms, format .gbc
• gba : GameBoy Advance roms, format .gba
• sms : Sega Master System roms, format .sms
• megadrive : Megadrive roms, format .md
• gamegear : GameGear roms, format .gg
• neogeo : NeoGeo roms, format .zip
• ngpx : NeoGeoPocket roms, format .ngc
• playstation : PlayStation roms, format .bin
• Put the SD card and the USB drive to the Raspberry Pi, connect a keyboard and boot the board. The image cannot work without USB drive.

Artworks
You can place the artworks in flyer/snap/wheel subfolders for each systems.
You can provide additional informations for a ROM by creating a {romname}.txt file in the same directory, with the following informations :

• First line : Title
• 2nd line : Manufacturer
• 3rd line : Year
• 4th line : Game description

You can blacklist ROMs by filling blacklist.txt for each systems, puting blacklisted file name on each line.

Configuring inputs
Currently no simplified interface exists for the inputs.
You can configure AttractMode inputs by pressing TAB during game selection.
You can configure Retroarch inputs by pressing F1 in game.
A unified/simplified interface is planned.

This is an early alpha version, expect bugs. Please let me know for any missing/not working feature.

Changelog

v1.1

• Rebase on top of buildroot 2016.11.1
• Update Glupen64 to the last git version
• USB drive is now mounted as "sync", should reduce corrupted filesystem

[verion]

This is great! I'll definitely try this out.

Sounds like you are aiming for the appliance-like experience - at least I hope so... because for me this is the way that RPi arcade box should work.

[spannernick1]

Looks nice,Great work you have done but can you add emulators to it,You have missed the Sega Mega CD.....?

Nice to see a version for the RPI1..

[ptiwee]

Looks nice,Great work you have done but can you add emulators to it,You have missed the Sega Mega CD.....?

Sure I can add it, I just have to test that it is working fine and the buttons mapping is correct. I'll probably do it before the end of the week.

[raygun]

great work! I'll add a link to the download page so people can find this....

[chrismc]

What is the version of attract mode?

[ptiwee]

The last version is included (2.2.0) and is compiled with mmal support.

[dtyge]

You can configure AttractMode inputs by pressing TAB during game selection.
You can configure Retroarch inputs by pressing F1 in game.

Since this is read only....I am assuming that input configuration won't be autosaved?  Or are you saving on the SD card?

[ptiwee]

Since this is read only....I am assuming that input configuration won't be autosaved?  Or are you saving on the SD card?

Retroarch and AttractMode configurations are saved on the USB drive, as well as savegames and savestate.

[dtyge]

Sweet!  Going to have to give this a try -- wanting to go the minimalist route this time....since last go around was all manual.

[dtyge]

Tried out last night.  Worked great.  Kudos! 

[bionictoothpick]

Thanks for working on this.

[Mslug]

This is a great!

Does this include ssh? And is it possible to add extra drivers etc when I have loaded the image to a SD card, or do I have to take the source and make a image with everything in advance?

[kruuth]

When I try to start the latest image on the pi 3 I get this "Error, could not find default font" warning and it just loops.  How do I fix that?

[Scritley]

I get the exact same problem.  During boot, it just keeps looping with the same error saying "Error, could not find default font".

Anyone get past this issue and if so, how?

***********

Follow up:  I got this error when I did not have the USB stick plugged in.  Once I re-read the full blog and realized that is the only place that isn't read only, I figured it was necessary.  When I plugged it in and re-booted, the error was gone.  Stupid mistake, should have RTFM.

Thanks,
Scott