RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[bearteam]

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RETROARCH WII - 0.9.7
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RetroConsole Level: 1
Author: Themaister, Toad King, Squarepusher/Twin Aphex
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HOW TO INSTALL THIS
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Copy the entire directory (retroarch-wii) to your SD card in your 'apps'
directory. Start up the Homebrew Channel and start up RetroArch Wii from
there.

On first startup, RetroArch will create a folder in the root of your storage
device called 'retroarch'. All RetroArch configuration files are stored here.

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HOW TO USE THIS
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On first startup, RetroArch will select one of the dozen or so
emulator/game cores. The name of the core currently loaded will be
shown at the bottom side of the screen.

You can now select a ROM that this core supports and load it in the Filebrowser.

To select a different core - go to the Settings menu (see 'Ingame controls').
Select the option 'Core' and hit the A button. A filebrowser will appear
where you can select a different core. Press A to switch to the
emulator/game core.

After doing so, select 'Restart RetroArch' to load the newly selected core.

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CONTROLS
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RetroArch Wii will create a new input config file for each core you load.
All input settings will be saved when RetroArch exits.

NOTE: When starting up a new core for the first time, you might have to first
initialize the input settings. Go to the Settings menu (see 'Ingame controls')
and go to 'Controller #number config'. Re-set the 'Device' by going back and
forth between a previous device. The controls will be automatically applied.

This only has to be done once per core.

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INGAME CONTROLS
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During ingame operation you can do some extra actions:

Wii Classic Minus - Go to Settings
Wii Classic Controller Home + ZL + ZR - Quit RetroArch
Wii Classic Controller Home - Go back to 'Menu'

Wiimote Minus - Go to Settings
Wiimote Home - Go back to 'Menu'
Wiimote Home + B - Quit RetroArch

Gamecube pad Z - Go to Settings
Gamecube pad L + R + LStick Up + Rstick Up - Go back to 'Menu'
Gamecube pad L + R + LStick Down + Rstick Down - Quit RetroArch

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WHAT IS RETROARCH?
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RetroArch is a modular multi-system emulator system that is designed to
be fast, lightweight and portable. It has features few other emulator
frontends have, such as real-time rewinding and game-aware shading.

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WHAT IS LIBRETRO?
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Libretro is the API that RetroArch uses. It makes it easy to port games
and emulators to a single core backend, such as RetroArch.

For the user, this means - more ports to play with, more crossplatform
portability, less worrying about developers having to reinvent the wheel
writing boilerplate UI/port code - so that they can get busy with writing
the emulator/porting the emulator/game.

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WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
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Right now it's unique in that it runs the same emulator cores on
multiple systems (such as Xbox 360, Xbox 1, PS3, PC, Wii, etc).

For each emulator 'core', RetroArch makes use of a library API that we
like to call 'libretro'.

Think of libretro as an interface for emulator and game ports. You can
make a libretro port once and expect the same code to run on all the
platforms that RetroArch supports. It's designed with simplicity and
ease of use in mind so that the porter can worry about the port at hand
instead of having to wrestle with an obfuscatory API.

The purpose of libretro is to help ease the work of the emulator/game
porter by giving him an API that allows him to target multiple platforms
at once without having to redo any code. He doesn't have to worry about
writing input/video/audio drivers - all of that is supplied to him by
RetroArch. All he has to do is to have the emulator port hook into the
libretro API and that's it - we take care of the rest.

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WII PORT
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The Wii port of RetroArch has the following features:

- Real-time rewinding
- Switching between emulator cores seamlessly, and ability to install
new libretro cores

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EMULATOR/GAME CORES BUNDLED WITH WII PORT
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The following emulators/games have been ported to RetroArch and are included in
the Wii release of RetroArch.

For more information about them, see the included
'retroarch-libretro-README.txt' file.

- Final Burn Alpha Cores (CPS1 - CPS2 - NeoGeo) [version 0.2.97.26] (***)
- FCEUmm (Nintendo Entertainment System) [recent SVN version]
- Gambatte (Game Boy | Super Game Boy | Game Boy Color) [version 0.5.0 WIP]
- Genesis Plus GX (Sega SG-1000 | Master System | Game Gear | Genesis/Mega Drive |
Sega CD) [version 1.7.0]
- SNES9x Next (Super Nintendo/Super Famicom) (**)
- VBA Next (Game Boy Advance) (*)
- Prboom (for playing Doom 1/Doom 2/Ultimate Doom/Final Doom)
- Mednafen PCE Fast (PC Engine/PC Engine CD/Turbografx 16)
- Mednafen Wonderswan (WonderSwan/WonderSwan Color/WonderSwan Crystal)

All of the emulators listed above are the latest versions currently
available. Most of them have been specifically optimized so that
they will run better on Wii (some games would not reach fullspeed
without these optimizations).

* Some games don't run at fullspeed on Wii (VBA Next is a
RetroConsole Level 2 emulator port). It will be replaced by a
port of gpSP in the near future.
** SuperFX games will not run at fullspeed - a special version of SNES9x
will be developed for Retro Console Level 1 systems.
*** The biggest Neo-Geo ROMs that can be loaded are around 23+MB in
size, such as Real Bout Fatal Fury 1 and King of Fighters '96.

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WHAT EXTENSIONS ARE SUPPORTED BY EACH CORE
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- Prboom WAD|wad
- SNES9x Next smc|fig|sfc|gd3|gd7|dx2|bsx|swc|zip|SMC|FIG|SFC|BSX|GD3|
GD7|DX2|SWC
- Genesis Plus GX md|smd|bin|gen|zip|MD|SMD|bin|GEN|ZIP|sms|SMS|gg|GG|sg|SG|
cue|CUE
- VBA Next GBA|gba
- FCEUmm nes|NES|unif|UNIF
- Gambatte gb|gbc|dmg|zip|GB|GBC|DMG|ZIP
- Final Burn Alpha zip|ZIP
- Mednafen PCE pce|PCE|cue|CUE
- Mednafen Wonderswan ws|WS|wsc|WSC

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ZIP SUPPORT
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FOR EACH CORE (except for Final Burn Alpha)
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There are three modes -

EXTRACT ZIP TO CURRENT DIR: When you press 'X' on a ZIP file in the File Browser,
its contents will be extracted to the current directory. From there, you can
load the RMO and play.

EXTRACT ZIP TO CURRENT DIR AND LOAD FIRST FILE: When you press 'X' on a ZIP file
in the File Browser, its contents will be extracted to the current directory.
The first ROM that was extracted from the ZIP file that is a ROM will be loaded
automatically.

EXTRACT ZIP TO CACHE DIR: When you press 'X' on a ZIP file in the File Browser,
its contents will be extracted to the /dev_hdd1/ partition. From there,
you can load the ROM and play.

WARNING: Savestates and SRAM files that have been created by loading ROMs
from the cache dir this way will be removed after RetroArch has been closed.

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FOR FINAL BURN ALPHA
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Selecting a ZIP file from the Filebrowser will load that game directly.

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Troubleshooting
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If you find that RetroArch no longer works for whatever reason, there is
a way to get it back to work -

- Remove retroarch.cfg from the 'retroarch' folder on your storage device,
then start up again. The Libretro management service in RetroArch should
automatically pick a random libretro core and write this to the config file.

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What can you expect in the future?
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- An official Android port of RetroArch (no, no App Store 'fee' - 'free'
as in beer AND as in libre - will be the focal point of RetroArch 0.9.8)
- Port of NxEngine to libretro - runs Cave Story (PC version is already done,
runs on big-endian consoles but has too many bugs to be playable)
- Port of MAME 0.72 to libretro
- Port of VICE to libretro
- Port of ScummVM to libretro
- More emulators, more games that will run on RetroArch
- Lots of other crazy ideas that might or might not pan out

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Credits
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- Mudlord for his Waterpaint/Noise shaders.
- Hyllian for the xBR shader.
- Opium2k for the nice manual shaders (bundled with PS3 release).
- Deank for assistance with RetroArch Salamander on CFW PS3s and
Multiman interoperability.
- FBA devs for adopting the libretro port.
- Ekeeke for help with the Genesis Plus GX port.
- ToadKing for having done a lot of work on RetroArch Wii.
- Freakdave for helping out with the Xbox 1 port.

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Websites
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Twitter: http://twitter.com/libretro
Source: http://github.com/libretro
Homepage: http://www.libretro.org
IRC: #retroarch (freenode)

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Download Link: https://anonfiles.co...d0eeb68e6fc0ff0

This release has been a long time in the making, and is the first time that I know of a lot of CPS2 games can be played on the Wii.

Just some caveats to know going in:

* READ THE README SO YOU KNOW THE CONTROLS! We had put some unconventional controls in for menu navigation, specifically for the GameCube controller where we were lacking a Home button.
* There might be some delay between loading RetroArch and displaying the menu due to the core loader. This wait might be amplified on slower SD cards/USB sticks and on first boot when files and directories are being generated.
* Some cores can act up if you load multiple games in them without restarting. Specifically PrBoom will crash to HBC if you try to load a second WAD.
* RetroArch does not do any frameskipping. While a lot of work has been done to make games run fullspeed all the time, there are some games that will lag a bit. (Specifically select FBA games and possibly some SNES games with features like pseudo-hires mode/SA-1 chips/etc.)
* While we did a lot of work to make audio perfect, some testers still reported some popping. If you get these, try fiddling with the Audio Control Rate in options.
* Most CPS2 games can load fine. Please report if you find any that crash on load.
* Not all NeoGeo games can be loaded. If the ROM filesize is over 23 MB or so, it might crash on load.
* The full FBA core was not released with the Wii version due to it being so large it cannot load some larger ROMs. If you want to give it a try though, you can download it here: https://anonfiles.co...c26bf314ec59444 (Extract it to apps/retroarch-wii, keeping the name CORE.dol. On load, it will rename it correctly.) Please note that ROMs will crash the emulator if they run out of memory. I've found most ROMs around 5-7 MB load fine, and 10 MB is probably the limit.

http://gbatemp.net/topic/333126-retroar ... age__st__0


We finally get a CPS/CPS2 emulator for Wii now.

[wii_HD]

The file details state

"A port of RetroArch to the GameCube/Wii."

So where is the GC version as the .dol(s) are wii specific.

Otherwise its a nice addition.

How long do you think it will be before the authors get asked to integrate N64 and PSX

[julius]

The Xbox 1 has a port but I do not belive Gamecube is going to have its own.

[emu_kidid]

They are choosing pj64 as the n64 emu core to use I've heard which is a big no-no for low mem systems.. Wii/GC will struggle for N64/PSX support via libretro IMHO since even SuperFX for SNES is slow.

I'd like to help it out but I figure it's a long way away.

[Sintendo]

Were'd you hear that?

[bearteam]

They are choosing pj64 as the n64 emu core to use I've heard which is a big no-no for low mem systems.. Wii/GC will struggle for N64/PSX support via libretro IMHO since even SuperFX for SNES is slow.

I'd like to help it out but I figure it's a long way away.

Emu_kidid, could you help them make a Gamecube port? We are all in great need a FBA port for Gamecube.

[emu_kidid]

My thoughts are that a simple port of this to GC will not work well. They are saying that a 23mb NeoGeo rom is the maximum you can load on a Wii using this and FBA. Remember that the Wii has about 38MB more than the GameCube that it can use, 54mb if you're not using ARAM (this emulator wouldn't be unless coded to).

It needs a smart ROM cache that uses MEM2/ARAM, then you'd get better support on Wii/GC.

[wii_HD]

How about support for (Nintendo DS) NeoDS converted rom format.

That emulator can handle the large games and considering the hardware its a pretty impressive feat.

Check it out. Shame the developer did not iron out one or two kinks before moving on.

[megalomaniac]

didnt iron out one or two kinks??
are you smoking something???



im sure there was a lot of ironing out to get it where it is right now....
look at the cross system coverage and amount of emulators it supports.

if all software was not released until all the kinks were ironed out, then there would be no software releases...ever...



btw, there is a section in the readme called: What can you expect in the future?
i suggest you read it over once again so you can iron out your kinks...

[wii_HD]

@megalomaniac

Did you read my last post correctly.

I was talking about the NeoGeo emu for the Nintendo DS - NeoDS and its ability to boot even the largest Neo roms after conversion to .neo format.

[bearteam]

They are porting it to GC now.
https://github.com/libretro/libretro.gi ... b14c3f03d5

[wii_HD]

They are porting it to GC now.
https://github.com/libretro/libretro.gi ... b14c3f03d5

Thats excellent news.

Thanks guys.

[liquitt]

They are porting it to GC now.
https://github.com/libretro/libretro.gi ... b14c3f03d5

perfect!

[bearteam]

There is some news about GC port.

What about Gamecube port? Are you going to release a Gamecube version of RetroAch today? I can't wait to see its performance on Gamecube.

Not today - it's all but done but I will need -

1) to focus on a faster SNES9x port - something based on v1.43 or 1.50 for Cube - Cube runs 1.52 very well but not enough to play most games at fullspeed all the time - Donkey Kong Country dips from 60fps to 43fps in levels such as World 2-1 - as expected in a way but it still runs way better than expected at the same time. Color addition/subtraction seems to be what is hurting it most in those scenes and there hasn't really been any effort (by either the main developers or by outside forces) to try to optimise that code - that's if it can be optimised beyond the current state in the first place.
2) I want to get the big Final Burn cores working on Cube as well and to see performance with CPS1/CPS2, which leads me onto 3)
3) I will need to focus on virtual memory implementations on Cube especially since there's so little RAM available even a Doom WAD can't fit into RAM - so at the moment while all ports 'work', some ROMs are simply too big that easily fit in the Wii's RAM.

So while everything just 'works' right now there is still a lot of work to be done. We've got the libretro core switching working now at least on Cube and in terms of performance it once again beats its contemporaries - PS2 - hands down - Xbox 1 is clearly superior though and 'just' a bit slower than Wii, but I guess that was to be expected.


Edited by LibretroRetroArch, Today, 04:03 PM.