Picodrive (standalone and libretro core) Mega Drive emulator

elefas · January 20, 2019, 10:50am

Standalone emulator

Installation

To install on GameShell (OS v0.2), ssh to it and issue:

First of all create a new directory called “Emulators” (assuming more standalone emulators would install there)

mkdir ~/apps/Menu/25_Emulators

There are 2 versions available, OpenGL and Software Renderer. Choose the desired one through the following commands:

OpenGL:

curl -sL https://github.com/pleft/picodrive/releases/download/v1.92-gameshell/PicoDriveGLES.tar.gz | tar -xvz --directory ~/apps/Menu/25_Emulators

Software render only:

curl -sL https://github.com/pleft/picodrive/releases/download/v1.92-gameshell/PicoDrive.tar.gz | tar -xvz --directory ~/apps/Menu/25_Emulators

Reload UI and a new menu option “Emulators” should appear in the main GameShell menu, choosing it the PicoDrive menu item(s) should appear.

OpenGL version (PicoDriveGLES):

Should work with the latest ClockworkPi OS which adds the lima driver. One can change the rendering mode via the menu:
Change options->[Display options]->Video output mode and choose by LEFT or RIGHT buttons either “OpenGL” or “SDL Window”
Should note here that it is just a build supporting OpenGL and it renders on a smaller window than the software rendering does.

Key mappings

In emulator menus

UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT: navigate
A: select
B: cancel

when playing a rom

MENU: open up the emulator menu
START: Start button
UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT: as per game’s functionality
A: A button
B: B button
X: C button

libretro core

To install on GameShell (OS v0.2), ssh to it and issue:

curl -sL https://github.com/pleft/picodrive/releases/download/v1.92-gameshell/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.tar.gz | tar -xvz --directory ~/.config/retroarch/cores/

Launch the Retroarch from the menu,
“Load core”: choose “picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92”
“Load content”: browse to your sega roms directory and pick a rom to play

bunman · January 20, 2019, 11:01am

Picodrive was always my go to emulator, so I’m definitely interested in your releasing a working stand alone version.

I’m possibly wrong about this, but I think stand alone versions of the emulators, optimised for gameshell, will give the community better performance than using the Retroarch versions.

elefas · January 20, 2019, 11:33am

Here is a quick video demonstrating Virtua Racing for 32X and Sonic for MD showing also the FPS

Micro007 · January 20, 2019, 12:26pm

Oh hell yeah id love a standalone emu that does Sega better

retrogamemonkey · January 20, 2019, 8:01pm

I think this would be great. I think having the emu’s outside of retroarch would be great especially if they can be better optimized for gameshell.

Krantz · January 20, 2019, 10:46pm

I think that this would be a great improvement to the system, thank you!

Micro007 · January 21, 2019, 5:08am

If you have a .so for it, I wouldn’t mind keeping it all within retroarch so I can use the hotkeys.

Send it my way!

elefas · January 21, 2019, 7:13am

Currently I am configuring the build for GameShell, I hope in the next days I will upload a standalone executable. It seems that it is possible to also build a libretro core so I will also try it and post the results here

eoiue · January 21, 2019, 10:38am

Why Picodrive instead of Genesis Plus GX? I thought the later was the most accurate (it doesn’t have 32x support though).

elefas · January 21, 2019, 10:51am

Isn’t Genesis Plus GX provided as core through the RetroArch? I think the respective picodrive core crashes immediately. I am trying to provide some pluralism since there are comments about the poor emulation of Mega Drive on GameShell.

Maybe Genesis Plus GX will be the next in line to provide a standalone binary. For now I will focus on PicoDrive.

elefas · January 22, 2019, 8:04pm

For anyone interested in the libretro core of PicoDrive, I have updated the original post of this thread

Quick Instructions:

ssh to GS and issue:
curl -sL https://github.com/pleft/picodrive/releases/download/v1.92-gameshell/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.tar.gz | tar -xvz --directory ~/.config/retroarch/cores/
Launch the Retroarch from the menu,

“Load core”: choose “picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92”

“Load content”: browse to your sega roms directory and pick a rom to play

Micro007 · January 23, 2019, 3:17am

All I did today was eat Doritos and play Sega.

Thanks, man.

lasvegas · January 23, 2019, 5:40am

Let’s put things where they belong…

mv .config/retroarch/cores/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.so /home/cpi/apps/emulators/

Then fix the Sega launcher by editing /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/20_Retro Games/SEGA/action.config:

ROM=/home/cpi/games/SEGA #ROM_SO=/home/cpi/apps/emulators/picodrive_libretro.so ROM_SO=/home/cpi/apps/emulators/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.so EXT=bin,zip LAUNCHER=retroarch -L TITLE=SEGA SO_URL=http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/armv7-neon-hf/latest/picodrive_libr$

elefas · January 23, 2019, 7:07am

Thanks @lasvegas, I was too lazy last night to write instructions about it. Just some corrections

there is a space missing in the mv command (between the .so and the /home/cpi:

mv .config/retroarch/cores/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.so/home/cpi/apps/emulators/

should be:

mv .config/retroarch/cores/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.so /home/cpi/apps/emulators/

Add some more extensions not just bin, zip in the action.config. The SO_URL is obviously wrong but I guess we don’t mind.

ROM=/home/cpi/games/SEGA 
ROM_SO=/home/cpi/apps/emulators/picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92.so 
EXT=bin,zip,gen,32x,smd,iso 
LAUNCHER=retroarch -L 
TITLE=SEGA 
SO_URL=http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/armv7-neon-hf/latest/picodrive_libr$

lasvegas · January 23, 2019, 7:22am

Thanks @elefas… Corrected in my post. Cool that more formats are supported!

iAladdin · January 24, 2019, 11:43am

Great work!
I have create a menu!
Thanks @lasvegas @elefas

elefas · January 25, 2019, 8:13pm

Updated original post with standalone version coming in two flavors in rendering: software and opengl!

jlbp87 · February 5, 2019, 5:44pm

How could I install this emulator to appear in the “Retro Games” folder? So I would have it with other emulators such as PCSX.
PS: Can you tell me how to change the icons for ones in which the system appears? Any post with those icons, if it’s not too much trouble?
Thank you!

elefas · February 5, 2019, 6:21pm

Hi! The Retro Games folder contains RetroArch emulators (cores). There exist a PicoDrive RetroArch core so you can either create a similar menu for this core following the instructions a few posts above: Picodrive (standalone and libretro core) Mega Drive emulator

If you still want the PicoDrive standalone emulator to appear in the Retro Games menu ssh to GameShell and do:

 curl -sL https://github.com/pleft/picodrive/releases/download/v1.92-gameshell/PicoDrive.tar.gz | tar -xvz --directory ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/20_Retro\ Games/

And here are icons for most consoles:

jlbp87 · February 9, 2019, 4:25pm

Hi. A question. Does the Core “picodrive_libretro_gameshell_v1.92” also work on OS 0.3 with Lima?

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