How to hack the Leapfrog LeapsterGS handheld console?

[GreatCrippler]

I'd love to get gmenu2x going, but it drove me nuts to get as far as I did with this thing. I don't imagine I'd be able to get the motivation to try and get this going too. Still, very cool work.

 

[Cralex]

Just thought I’d chime in (since this topic is at least still on page 1 of this section) that I’m interested too and planning on getting a LeapsterGS to try this out! I also saw the original hackaday article too late to get the CFW that was originally posted for it. I have better/more powerful portable systems, but anything that can be made to run emulators is interesting to me. Happy to learn about Retroleap and Gmenux running on this thing.

 

[DobaMuffin]

This is an interesting little system. Hopefully I have some time to learn more about it in the upcoming weeks. Gotta love staying home and doing uni online due to coronavirus.

Anyways, I emailed leapfrog about getting the source code and got this link which I think could be useful. Hopefully we can figure out how to port more to this system and how to create our own customized os.

 

[Cralex]

I didn't think anyone cared. I've got the menu working pretty well on my LeapsterGS.

Yes, yes you do. [emoji16] My GS arrived in the mail yesterday and, after switching around some cables to find one that worked, I got Retroleap installed, followed by your excellent ports of Gmenu, games, and emulators. While I have other, more capable portable emulation machines, I just wanted to drop in and say that I appreciate your contributions, (particularly Gmenu, the standalone Gambatte port, and Commander,) and that it helps make this hunk of plastic a decent offering.

You mentioned using rechargeable batteries with this and getting working charging. If I wanted to do this, would I need to grab the official rechargeable battery packs and replace the built-in batteries if they don’t hold a charge anymore, or is there an easier way? Also, am I correct to assume that the official wall charger is required for this, and that I could not charge it over USB?

I use two other devices with Gmenu, so I swapped the A and B buttons in the config right away. I don’t want to make more work for you, but man it’d be nice to have some of the other apps (like Commander) have a swap AB option. Also, is there any way to disable the requirement for the public key? I tried using it with FileZilla, but I was getting an odd “unexpected end of file” error when trying to connect.

Even if you’re done working with the Leapster GS, just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your work and hope that it gets added to the main Retroleap image or something.

 

[mac2612]

Hi Y'all! I'm the original author of retroleap, and I'm really happy that there are folks getting use out of it This is a hobby project for me so I'm not always able to dedicate a ton of time, but given the recent lockdown stuff I've had some time to continue to tinker. If you have any feature requests, please consider posting them on the github.

I'm also flattered that romanaOne took the time to add on some more cool stuff

@romanaOne any chance you'd be willing to send a Pull Request with your changes to the main retroleap github? It'd be really cool to include this stuff in the next official release!

 

[campbell0505]

Damm, some Leapfrogs are hackable? Dunno if my old one is but I still have my L-max, but I don't know where the charger and cartridges are, all I remember is I had some cars game, and a counting one, and the main page of the system had a drawing game I think.

 

[HakanAU]

I have a problem for copy content to LeapsterGS. What's the [email protected] password? Can you give ([email protected]) password, please? When I am trying a creat folder or copy a directory or file then [email protected] wants a password. I tried everything for copy files but it doesn't work for me copy command.

Cheers

 

[Cralex]

I have a problem for copy content to LeapsterGS. What's the [email protected] password? Can you give ([email protected]) password, please? When I am trying a creat folder or copy a directory or file then [email protected] wants a password. I tried everything for copy files but it doesn't work for me copy command.

Cheers

I haven't messed with my LeapsterGS in some time, but I believe you need to use one of the key files from https://github.com/mac2612/sshflash/tree/master/keys in order to authenticate. There should be a way to use the keys with whatever you're trying to use to transfer the files.

 

[HakanAU]

Thanks, Cralex for your answer. I tried it many times but it still wants a password. I am not familiar to Linux. Can you help me, please? Where am I making a mistake? Please check my upload pictures.

 

[Deleted User]

Thanks Cralex for your answer. I tried it many times but it still wants a password. I am not familiar to Linux. Can you help me, please? Where am I making a mistake? Please check my upload pictures.

The sshflash directory is on your Desktop. As for the ROM name, you'll want to either escape the spaces or put the name in quotation marks.
Thus the correct command would be `scp -i ~/Desktop/sshflash/keys/id_rsa ~/Desktop/sshflash/nes/"Super Mario Bros.nes" [email protected]:/roms/nes`.

 

[PizzaBitez]

haha. Can't believe this is a thing

 

[HakanAU]

The sshflash directory is on your Desktop. As for the ROM name, you'll want to either escape the spaces or put the name in quotation marks.
Thus the correct command would be `scp -i ~/Desktop/sshflash/keys/id_rsa ~/Desktop/sshflash/nes/"Super Mario Bros.nes" [email protected]:/roms/nes`.

Thank you very much for your answer and help It is my mistake. I said it before I am not familiar to Linux Terminal command. I am learning step to step. I did fix the path and everything great now.

 

[Thrillhouse215]

Hi all,
First, wow, I cannot explained how thankful I am that there are people like you out here in the world, I love this stuff! Thanks so much for the endless fun this provides. Quarantine has provided me extra time at home and I started taking on some modding projects I've been hearing about with the Wii and DS.
I am very new to this and hoping to get some help. I have some experience with Linux retro gaming with Batocera and some user experience with a repurposed laptop I run Mint on...so I know nothing. I recently picked up a GS for my son (4 yo) after modding two 2DSs I found for my daughters (9 and 6 yo, welcome to the fam!) and then seeing what the Explorer could do. It seems now I didnt look into this enough and the GS is a little harder to crack.
Luckily I found this thread! I hit a few walls trying to get this going. After what I thought was a successful flashing v1.2.1, my GS screen is now upside down and only a few buttons are working? By dumb luck, a few of the buttons will allow me to get to the button map screen so I can report more details there if it will help troubleshoot the issue. I've tried reverting back to stock by doing the Tune up mode but the LFConnect will no longer work properly; it just stays on the starting tune up progress bar and never proceeds. After about 45 seconds, the ? button indicated that the State is in Timeout and the system eventually turns off. Once I restart, it just boots back to retroarch but is still upside down display and random button mapping.
Any thoughts? Is it trash? I had fun breaking it if so! I saw a post here to the stock source code but I am not sure how to manually apply the package. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks all!

 

[FaViO]

could someone just make a video or a step by step guide

 

[antonionoriega]

This is my progress on Leapster Explorer with new 2.0 alpha version
I saw screen flickering on the retroarch menu, but not on the games

I think the image don't have the button mapping, so I was not able to push select/start to start games

I used ubuntu 18.04.5
I installed the dependencies (python 2.7 manually)
I replaced python2 by python2.7 on script to make it work

To boot into recovery mode I used ( Hold L + R + ? and touch Power)

A few pictures

 

[Wakkawakka]

Sorry to bump this old thread but I've put together a couple of YouTube playlists of video tutorials I've created for getting Retroleap onto Leapfrog devices using Windows 10 rather than Linux!

I can't post links as I'm a new member here but search on YouTube as follows to find them -

Leapster Explorer (LF1000) device
(search for 'Flashing a Leapster Explorer (LF1000) device with Retroleap')

LeapPad2 and LeapsterGS Explorer (LF2000) devices
(search for 'Flashing a LeapPad2 (or LeapsterGS Explorer) with Retroleap (Retroarch) using Windows 10!')

The LF1000 version has a GMenuNX frontend and a few standalone emulators. Given the limited hardware (400Mhz ARM,64MB RAM) this seems to be a better approach than trying to run Retroarch.

The LF2000 version boots straight into Retroarch 1.7.3, and comes with a few emulators preinstalled. This is as per mac2612's comments earlier in the thread.

Anyway, hope this is of some use to anybody still interested in repurposing these devices from their now grown-up kids!! :-)

 

[esmith13]

This is so freakin' cool on so many levels...

 

[Wakkawakka]

I just added another video featuring a fixed up gpSP core running Mario Golf Advance Tour on a LeapsterGS Explorer / Retroleap!

Search YouTube for Andy's Retro Tech to find it. A few more posts and I'll be able to post actual links!! :-)

 

[DobaMuffin]

Sorry to bump this old thread but I've put together a couple of YouTube playlists of video tutorials I've created for getting Retroleap onto Leapfrog devices using Windows 10 rather than Linux!

I can't post links as I'm a new member here but search on YouTube as follows to find them -

Leapster Explorer (LF1000) device
(search for 'Flashing a Leapster Explorer (LF1000) device with Retroleap')

LeapPad2 and LeapsterGS Explorer (LF2000) devices
(search for 'Flashing a LeapPad2 (or LeapsterGS Explorer) with Retroleap (Retroarch) using Windows 10!')

The LF1000 version has a GMenuNX frontend and a few standalone emulators. Given the limited hardware (400Mhz ARM,64MB RAM) this seems to be a better approach than trying to run Retroarch.

The LF2000 version boots straight into Retroarch 1.7.3, and comes with a few emulators preinstalled. This is as per mac2612's comments earlier in the thread.

Anyway, hope this is of some use to anybody still interested in repurposing these devices from their now grown-up kids!! :-)

How did you manage to modify the scripts when making the linux distro. I want to see about making a stock linux distro with a liteweight graphical user interface, and in general just have more control over the system.