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Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Tue 18 Jun 2019 09:53
by gameblabla
Hello guys,
i've porting around 10 emulators or so, i've decided to release an initial build of it for the Retrostone.
Why make such a CFW when you already have RetrOrangePi ?
Well my Useless CFW is more suited for console use and uses GMenu2x as the GUI.
Each of the emulators are tweaked and made easy to use, as well as looking as good as possible on the crappy composite screen.

Also RetrOrangePi is a glitchy mess.

Here's what you get inside :
  • Picodrive (Sega CD/Genesis/32X, upstream port)
  • PCSX Rearmed (PSX, upstream port)
  • Divi-Dead (Game engine for this old visual novel japanese game)
  • VBA Next (GBA emulator, based on libretro core, itself based on VBA-M)
  • Gnash (Adobe flash player, Actionscript 2 only)
  • SwanEmu (Wonderswan emulator. A fork of libretro beetle wswan, itself a fork of Mednafen)
  • NGPCEmu (Neo Geo Pocket emulator. A fork of libretro beetle ngp, itself a fork of Mednafen)
  • FCEUX (NES emulator)
  • Gnuboy (Game boy emulator)
  • SMS Plus GX (Master system, Game Gear, SG-1000 emulator. My improved fork of ekeeke's SMS Plus GX)
  • Handy (Atari lynx emulator, fork of libretro handy)
  • PokeMini (Pokemon mini emulator)
  • Virtual Jaguar (Atari Jaguar emulator)
  • SnesEmu (SNES emulator)
Simply add this OPK to the apps folder on the sd card. The apps folder can be found on the FAT32 partition. (3rd one)

If you want to try it on your Retrostone, you can grab it here :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kGXmu ... h1EpGTqa4n

You can watch my video demonstrating some of the stuff :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zECS8kWkikE

If you want to install it on the sd card, it's the same process as RetrOrangePi, except that you also have to extend manually the FAT32 partition.
On linux, you can do that with Gparted. On Windows, you have to use third party tools.

Oh, and btw unlike RetrOrangePi, there's no emulator which forbids commercial usage so the whole firmware is free to use and open source.
... Except for Picodrive and PocketSNES which you will have to remove if you sell the console.

You can check out my source code here :
https://github.com/gameblabla
https://github.com/retrostone-dev

Changelog :

Code: Select all

Version 0.32
- Switched to NTFS, which should allow Windows to mount it properly.
Boot times might be slightly slower though. (i might do a version using ext2 instead)
- Updated Picodrive with newer 32X JIT, allowing for faster 32X emulation.
- Added SnesEmu, a libretro snes9x2005 fork. It allows for input remapping and supports save states, SRAM and SRTC.

Version 0.31
- Added Ganbare Natsuki-San port.
- Updated Handy to fix issues in some games like Roadblaster and Ms.Pacman.
- Updated VBA Next to fix an issue with Summon Knights 2 effects not being displayed properly.

Version 0.3
- Added Picodrive, PCSX Rearmed and Divi-Dead game interpreter.
- Updated SMS Plus GX Port. It can now emulate Block Dude, alibaba and the 4PAK game.
- Added back ability to use ethernet port. Nothing uses it still though.

Version 0.2
- Turned all emulators into OPK packages.
- Greatly improved boot times.
- Fixed issues with FCEUX being configured improperly.
- PokeMini now saves in the root directory.


Version 0.1
Initial version.

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Fri 21 Jun 2019 16:42
by Famla
Great work! Thank You!
I love the GMenu2x and the easy way to copy roms.

Stefan

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Mon 24 Jun 2019 04:46
by gameblabla
I've released an update to my CFW, here are the changes :

Code: Select all

Version 0.2
- Turned all emulators into OPK packages.
- Greatly improved boot times.
- Fixed issues with FCEUX being configured improperly.
- PokeMini now saves in the root directory.
I would suggest you upgrade to it and make a copy of your saves from your FAT32 partition.

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Tue 25 Jun 2019 18:28
by MicroByte
This looks so great and promising and I can't wait to try it out tonight when I get home.

I didn't see it, but how fast does it boot to the menu from when it's powered on?

Thank you for all of your hard work, it's so nice to see some alternative CFW to Retrorangepi.

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Tue 25 Jun 2019 20:53
by gameblabla
MicroByte wrote: Tue 25 Jun 2019 18:28 I didn't see it, but how fast does it boot to the menu from when it's powered on?
Takes around 13 seconds the moment you power it on to getting to Gmenu2x.
I've recorded a short video of it booting here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCOK3-gZlsA
Famla wrote: Fri 21 Jun 2019 16:42 Great work! Thank You!
I love the GMenu2x and the easy way to copy roms.
Stefan
I know right ? I was pissed at the great number of issues that RetrOrangePi had, including missing sounds in games.

Since it supports OPK packages, i should write up a small guide on how to port stuff to the Retrostone on my CFW.

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Thu 27 Jun 2019 14:09
by Admin
Thanks for your hard work ! :)
I'll try it tonight !

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Sat 29 Jun 2019 10:25
by Famla
Thank You so much! Now I really enjoy my Retrostone.
I updated to Version 0.2.

A few questions (I know your CFW is work in progress):

- The Fceux emulator runs to slow at my Retrostone. (At version 0.1 the emulator was to fast.) How to change it?
- How do I delete an unwanted emulator?

Can't wait to see Picodrive and PocketNES on your CFW. Keep up the good work!

Stefan

Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Sat 29 Jun 2019 18:16
by gameblabla
Famla wrote: Sat 29 Jun 2019 10:25 - The Fceux emulator runs to slow at my Retrostone. (At version 0.1 the emulator was to fast.) How to change it?
I'm a bit surprised to hear this as it should be running at the correct speed.
Make sure the PAL setting is not being turned on on NTSC games and that the sound frequency is being set to 48000.
Famla wrote: Sat 29 Jun 2019 10:25 - How do I delete an unwanted emulator?
Just go to the apps folder on the FAT32 partition and delete the appropriate OPK.

Help Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Sun 30 Jun 2019 13:18
by geab
Was pretty easy to get up and running;

Would appreciate help how to copy roms to the image? (Win 10)

and when do I need to apply this: to extend manually the FAT32 partition.?
did format the E drive that pops up when inserting the SD card back into the Windwos PC - trying to follow along the lines of https://youtu.be/HmA48qv7OyI but so far I can not see the folder I added to E-drive appearing :-(

Cheers, Gernot

Re: Help Re: Useless CFW for the Retrostone (1)

Posted: Sun 30 Jun 2019 15:04
by gameblabla
geab wrote: Sun 30 Jun 2019 13:18 Would appreciate help how to copy roms to the image? (Win 10)
Simply copy the files to the FAT32 partition, aka the 3rd partition.
and when do I need to apply this: to extend manually the FAT32 partition.?
did format the E drive that pops up when inserting the SD card back into the Windwos PC - trying to follow along the lines of https://youtu.be/HmA48qv7OyI but so far I can not see the folder I added to E-drive appearing :-(
You need to extend it after flashing the firmware image.
Also don't format anything ! Otherwise you'll need to do this again...
Windows 10 should mount the FAT32 partition just fine but its possible that it doesn't do it due to a bug.... (i had a similar issue for the Arcade Mini because Windows sucks)
Maybe i'll switch it to NTFS for this reason...