RetroArch/dist-scripts/retroarch-ngc-readme.txt
2013-02-14 21:31:12 +01:00

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RETROARCH GX - GAMECUBE - 0.9.8.4
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RetroConsole Level: 0
Author: Themaister, Toad King, Squarepusher/Twin Aphex
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HOW TO INSTALL THIS
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Copy the entire directory (retroarch-ngc) to your SD card in your 'apps'
directory. Start up something like SDLOAD (or whatever you're using for
loading DOL files) and load any of the cores.
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 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:
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
Right Thumb Stick - Down - Fast-forwards the game
Right Thumb Stick - Up - Rewinds the game in real-time
('Rewind' has to be enabled in the
'Settings' menu - warning - comes at a
performance decrease but will be worth it
if you love this feature)
RStick Left + Z - Decrease save state slot
Rtick Right + Z - Increase save state slot
RStick Up + Z - Load selected save state slot
RStick Down + Z - Save selected save state slot
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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.
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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, Android,
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 Gamecube port of RetroArch has the following features:
- Real-time rewinding (probably too slow for most cores)
- 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 Gamecube release of RetroArch.
For more information about them, see the included
'retroarch-libretro-README.txt' file.
- Final Burn Alpha [version 0.2.97.28]
- Final Burn Alpha Cores (CPS1 - CPS2 - NeoGeo) [version 0.2.97.28] (**)
- FCEUmm (Nintendo Entertainment System) [recent SVN version]
- NEStopia (Nintendo Entertainment System) [1.44]
- 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 1.7.3]
- 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)
- Mednafen NGP (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
- Mednafen VB (Virtual Boy)
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 Gamecube (some games would not reach fullspeed
without these optimizations).
* Most (all) games don't run at fullspeed on Gamecube (VBA Next is a
RetroConsole Level 2 emulator port).
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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
- NEStopia nes|NES|fds|FDS
- 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
- Mednafen NGP ngp|NGP
- Mednafen VB vb|VB
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ZIP SUPPORT (IN GENERAL)
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Selecting a ZIP file will temporarily unzip that file to the harddrive. The
temporary file will be deleted as soon as the game gets unloaded and/or when
you quit RetroArch.
NOTE: For the FBA core (and other cores that have 'block_extract' set to
true) - 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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- Do a Blackberry Playbook/Blackberry 10 RetroArch port
- Do an iOS port of RetroArch (will need hardware for this - gifts appreciated)
- Make the libxenon port release-worthy.
- Add console-friendly features (nicely formatted names for FBA, some better
way to do core switching, etc)
- Fix NxEngine issues on consoles
- Finish up MAME 0.72 port
- Finish up ScummVM port
- Port of VICE 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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- Hyllian for the xBR shader family.
- Opium2k for the nice manual shaders (bundled with PS3 release).
- Deank for assistance with RetroArch Salamander on CFW PS3s and
- Mudlord for his Waterpaint/Noise shaders.
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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