EverSD for Evercade Firmware 1.3.1 - Now with Retroarch Support!

[esmith13]

Could you share your setup? I think that should be the default considering how poorly some systems run with the setup provided by the dev.

I don't feel it is right (or would be allowed) for me to share/reshare others' work, so what you can find attached are the files I created myself to use in conjunction with the old and new EverSD files.

Here is what you need to do assuming you start from a freshly formatted SD card:

1. Download either the attached zip (contains the two files I made - retroarch.cfg & launch.sh) -OR- if you aren't comfortable grabbing zips from strangers, download the retroarch.txt & launch.txt attached instead, inspect them for safety and then rename them to retroarch.cfg & launch.sh respectively. Place them both on the SD card.
2. Get the "old EverSD files" from a previous SD card or re-download from their site (download emulators for FW 1.2.0) and copy the "game" & "emulator" folders to the root of your SD card. (DON'T use the launch.sh included in the download or your old SD card!)
3. Get the "new EverSD files" from this thread's first post and copy ONLY the "retroarch" folder from it to the root of your SD card. You do NOT need to add any cores to the retroarch folder unless you are experimenting yourself beyond the older/better running emulators.
4. Move the retroarch.cfg from the root of the SD card to the "retroarch/config" folder, overwriting the file that came with the new EverSD files

Now add your roms to the "game" folder and use either everloader to build your art files or do it yourself - just like you needed to with the old setup on FW 1.2.0.
I'm going to try to figure out a better way than EverLoader for my own purposes that will involve using skraperUI and a windows batch file to automate the process of bulk-adding art but I am no programmer or even script writer so if anyone has skills there to help me or do it themselves that would be great.

Oh, almost forgot - here are the hotkeys I have configured in the retroarch.cfg I provided:

• Open Retroarch GUI (auto pauses content): SELECT + START
• Quit Retroarch back to stock game select menu: Hold MENU + START
• Show/Hide FPS: Hold MENU + SELECT
• Save State: Hold MENU + R
• Load State: Hold MENU + L
• Save State Slot +1: Hold MENU + DPAD-UP
• Save State Slot -1: Hold MENU + DPAD-DOWN

Also of note in the retroarch.cfg I provided:

• Bilinear Filtering was turned OFF.
• Control inputs were globally remapped to match a SNES controller as retroarch expects. This allows all games using old emulators to play "as expected" without needing to customize the controls yourself. This also means that in retroarch the "B" button is accept/confirm and the "A" button is cancel. (this can be changed in retroarch under Input-> Menu Controls without screwing up game inputs if you need the "A" button to be accept to match the Evercade stock GUI.
• Threaded Video was turned ON. IMHO this is REQUIRED on low-end systems and was needed in conjunction with the old cores to get "stock-like" performance.

 

[Valenhir]

Awesome job @esmith13

 

[esmith13]

does anyone know if there is a way to get a console view of what's happening on the evercade?
I'm trying to work on a more complex launch.sh file and I need to see why it's not working.

 

[esmith13]

OK...

So let's say that I found a way to launch any rom supported by the EverSD version of Retroarch from the Stock UI but I had to write the code that allowed this to work per rom type. What (not zipped) rom extensions should I prioritize adding support for first?

So far I've added:

• NeoGeo Pocket - .ngp / .ngc / .ngpc
• PCEngine - .pce
• PCEngine CD - .chd
• Sega CD - .chd
• Playstation - .chd
• Arcade (FBNeo) - .zip

I also included the formats supported by the built-in evercade emulators so they run in the EverSD Retroarch as well.
This would include: Atari 2600/7800/Lynx, NES/FDS/SNES, GB/GBC/GBA, SMS/GG/MD, Wonderswan, PSX.

Ideally, I would add everything, but it has proven time consuming for a novice like me to add/test/iterate so I would want to focus on what would actually get used most first (assuming anyone even cares at all, LOL).

 

[DoctorEvil8]

OK...

So let's say that I found a way to launch any rom supported by the EverSD version of Retroarch from the Stock UI but I had to write the code that allowed this to work per rom type. What (not zipped) rom extensions should I prioritize adding support for first?

So far I've added:

• NeoGeo Pocket - .ngp / .ngc / .ngpc
• PCEngine - .pce
• PCEngine CD - .chd
• Sega CD - .chd
• Playstation - .chd
• Arcade (FBNeo) - .zip

I also included the formats supported by the built-in evercade emulators so they run in the EverSD Retroarch as well.
This would include: Atari 2600/7800/Lynx, NES/FDS/SNES, GB/GBC/GBA, SMS/GG/MD, Wonderswan, PSX.

Ideally, I would add everything, but it has proven time consuming for a novice like me to add/test/iterate so I would want to focus on what would actually get used most first (assuming anyone even cares at all, LOL).

Sega CD is my top! Would be cool if there were a way to swap discs for the multi disc games too. In my experience with C64 mini and Genesis Flashback is to share the save files across disc one and disc two. This only works if CHD is in sub folders but with same file name.

 

[esmith13]

Sega CD is my top! Would be cool if there were a way to swap discs for the multi disc games too. In my experience with C64 mini and Genesis Flashback is to share the save files across disc one and disc two. This only works if CHD is in sub folders but with same file name.

forgot about multi-disc sega cd. I'll work on getting .m3u supported for that if i can... PSX was easier for multidisc since you can use .pbp instead of .chd to solve multi-disc there.

 

[esmith13]

Added .m3u support for PSX and SegaCD successfully, but the armv7-neon-hf build of genesis_plus_gx.so from libretro is a year old and doesn't have .m3u support in it from the newer dated source.
Does anyone know how to build this core from the original source online? I remember a few months ago people used to have to build their own copy for x86 platforms to add the .m3u support, but that is now included in the nightlies for those other platforms.


EDIT: It will still be recommended that all CD games are in .chd format (or .pbp - especially multi-disc games. Having games with .cue files will add duplicate games to the stock menu and having .bin/.cue doubles that since the stock ui assumes .bin files are genesis roms.

 

[esmith13]

Here's some pics of games in the Stock UI. I wrote a few windows batch files to automate taking images from a typical scraper app and converting them for the Evercade UI in bulk (doesn't look ideal but it's a start):

This a .mp4 (2min @ 28MB) showing me launch Virtua Fighter (32x), Devil's Crush (pce) & Sega Classics 5-in-1 (segacd) from the stock UI into the EverSD full version of retroarch:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QwCgZ5wm78HdBGNksRdgk5IB9Sg_UoEm/view?usp=sharing

Constructive criticism and/or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. I'm by no means a coder or software designer and I figured all of this out with, patience and google... Mostly google...

 

[DoctorEvil8]

Here's some pics of games in the Stock UI. I wrote a few windows batch files to automate taking images from a typical scraper app and converting them for the Evercade UI in bulk (doesn't look ideal but it's a start):

This a .mp4 (2min @ 28MB) showing me launch Virtua Fighter (32x), Devil's Crush (pce) & Sega Classics 5-in-1 (segacd) from the stock UI into the EverSD full version of retroarch:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QwCgZ5wm78HdBGNksRdgk5IB9Sg_UoEm/view?usp=sharing

Constructive criticism and/or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. I'm by no means a coder or software designer and I figured all of this out with, patience and google... Mostly google...

This looks really sharp. How do game saves work? Also, can you use sub folders for game location?

 

[esmith13]

This looks really sharp. How do game saves work? Also, can you use sub folders for game location?

saves and states can be done however you choose to set them in retroarch. My current setup has a "saves", "states", "bios", & "roms" folder on the root of the SD card. The stock "game" folder only has the files needed for the stock menu to function plus artwork and "empty pointer files" that allow the stock menu to list the game roms located in the "roms" folder at root level.
As of the moment, I haven't figured out a way to do subfolders in either "game" or "roms" and the UI itself will never support sub folders or anything similar unless someone writes an entirely new UI application for the evercade.
As in all versions of retroarch, saves are done automatically as you use a game's built in save feature. States are handled by retroarch hotkeys, which I currently have set to MENU+R to save a state and MENU+L to load a state. MENU+START exits a game back to stock UI and SELECT+START+L+R opens the retroarch quick menu.

 

[XDel]

I finally got through this by trying it on a PC with a fresh install of Windows 10. The screwed up part is that I created game images for Retroarch using the tool on the EverSD site. I loaded it up and it has an icon for Retroarch, then one for Castlevania, then one for something I never created, which loads Castlevania 2, then Castlevania 2. When ever I load either Castlevania, the resolution is all screwed up and the controls do not respond. Hurray!!!

 

[esmith13]

I finally got through this by trying it on a PC with a fresh install of Windows 10. The screwed up part is that I created game images for Retroarch using the tool on the EverSD site. I loaded it up and it has an icon for Retroarch, then one for Castlevania, then one for something I never created, which loads Castlevania 2, then Castlevania 2. When ever I load either Castlevania, the resolution is all screwed up and the controls do not respond. Hurray!!!

That's not the EverSD programmer's fault.
Thru working on my customizations to get games running in the new retroarch to show in the stock user interface I have found that the original evercade programming has hard-coding for .nes files to open in their emulator, but that the code to launch the new retroarch runs also, causing a glitch that gives distorted, green-heavy graphics that have the look of missing scan lines and no working input. I did find a workaround for it as part of how I launch all the other systems from the stock ui.

I hope to open a new thread sometime today with a beta version of my changes. I'll post a link to it in this thread once it's up. The setup will be simple. You just need to follow this thread first to get the EverSD working with the Retroarch files download on either 1.2.0 or 1.3.1 prior to putting my changes on. For Windows users I will also be providing a few batch files to make quick and dirty artwork for the stock ui from your typical box/screenshot/wheel images you may already have for emulationstation or other front ends.

Keep an eye out.

 

[esmith13]

I started a new thread for my Evercade customizations here: EverSD - How to Run More Games from Stock UI

Come give it a try and tell me what you think!

 

[RetroFailz]

I started a firmware replacement for Evercade based on a similar system that had source code available.

Currently I have gotten the kernel to work basically the same as the original kernel. I haven't tested any other stuff such as Retroarch.

Code with my patches is on GitHub: https://github.com/RetroFailz/everfw

 

[joyrider3774]

Currently I have gotten the kernel to work basically the same as the original kernel. I haven't tested any other stuff such as Retroarch.

for OTG / ADB to work do i need a special cable or just the standard cable delivered with the evercade ? I managed to build and flash your firmware yet ADB is not working for me and dr_mode is set to OTG. When i hook up the cable it just seems to be charging the evercade and when i hook it up to a linux machine looking into dmesg does not show a new usb device being connected. I'm not sure whats going here exactly except that i perhaps need some kind of special cable i'm not aware of ?

 

[joyrider3774]

anyone still have the previous OFFICIAL firmwares of the evercade ? i could only find 1.3.0 but i'm interested in the much older ones as well just to play with

 

[FreePlayFlorida]

anyone still have the previous OFFICIAL firmwares of the evercade ? i could only find 1.3.0 but i'm interested in the much older ones as well just to play with

Ive got 1.2.0 if thats any good?

 

[joyrider3774]

Ive got 1.2.0 if thats any good?

yes thats fine thanks can you upload and pm the link ?.

Anyone got an even older one as well ?

 

[esmith13]

yes thats fine thanks. Anyone got an older one as well ?

Here is v1.0, v1.1a, v1.2.0, & v1.3.0
This is every release posted on the official site since launch, except 1.3.1 which is currently available and doesn't work with the "old" flash utility included in this download.

 

[joyrider3774]

This is every release posted on the official site since launch, except 1.3.1 which is currently available and doesn't work with the "old" flash utility included in this download.

thank you