Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

[FIX94]

Just dropping something here for fun, last year I wrote my own nes and gameboy emulators (fixNES and fixGB) and aliaspider made some libretro ports for it and just now I did some work on the gameboy libretro port to get it to run nicely on wii and wiiu, if for some reason you want to try it on wiiu heres the file for it.
https://mega.nz/#!wwBUCQCT!RMmSbg5SA8uIrtUJGo_piFTNjbXeUXF5ifGLMoOfFwA
Its really a pretty basic core, no savestates or cheats, most games you throw at it should work just fine (both gameboy and gameboy color are supported) and you can also have the gameboy color bios as gbc_bios.bin in your system folder to get the classic bootup and the extra colors in older gameboy games, oh and also it can load up .gbs files which is gameboy (color) music so you can listen to just the music of games if you want to which I guess is an actual plus compared to the existing gameboy cores

 

[the_randomizer]

Just dropping something here for fun, last year I wrote my own nes and gameboy emulators (fixNES and fixGB) and aliaspider made some libretro ports for it and just now I did some work on the gameboy libretro port to get it to run nicely on wii and wiiu, if for some reason you want to try it on wiiu heres the file for it.
https://mega.nz/#!wwBUCQCT!RMmSbg5SA8uIrtUJGo_piFTNjbXeUXF5ifGLMoOfFwA
Its really a pretty basic core, no savestates or cheats, most games you throw at it should work just fine (both gameboy and gameboy color are supported) and you can also have the gameboy color bios as gbc_bios.bin in your system folder to get the classic bootup and the extra colors in older gameboy games, oh and also it can load up .gbs files which is gameboy (color) music so you can listen to just the music of games if you want to which I guess is an actual plus compared to the existing gameboy cores

Hey, the more emulators the better @ShadowOne333 @ploggy

 

[ploggy]

Hey, the more emulators the better [emoji14] @ShadowOne333 @ploggy

Nice.. get them on the Build bot the more the merrier.

Thanks @FIX94.

 

[lordelan]

I updated my RetroArch BIOS Pack on that archive site so it contains all necessary files for higan's Super Game Boy feature according to this guide:
https://forums.libretro.com/t/higan-v105-super-game-boy-bios-tutorial/12676

I know there's no higan core for the Wii U yet but I thought it might be interesting for your nonetheless.

 

[lordelan]

Hey @ShadowOne333, do you still remember our GBC/SGB struggle with mGBA from here

Have you found a way to use GBC and/or SGB color palettes in RetroArch with the mGBA core?

I've been using SGB borders with RetroArch's shaders feature right now which works superb. Did screenshots of the borders with the great emulator BGB, photoshopped them a bit and made config files for them.

This way I can play a game, that has both (GBC colors and a special border when plugged into a SGB) the "perfect way" in RetroArch. This applies to games such as Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters.
That game can be played in black/white on a GB, has some special colors on the SGB (and a border) and has superb colors on a GBC obviously as it is a GBC game actually.
So I can play it with GBC colors and the SGB border in RetroArch thanks to shaders which is brilliant.

However games like Pokémon Red (1st gen) are still in black/white in mGBA as they don't have GBC colors but they do have SGB colors and I don't know how to apply them. It's no problem to use the original Pokémon Red SGB border with the shaders feature but that won't affect the colors of course.
Do you have a solution for that?

Since borders can be handled by RetroArch's shaders, I do only care for the color palettes used. I've got the BIOS files for GBC and SGB but putting them in the system directory doesn't do anything.

As I wrote on github here the games should follow this priority list:
1. use GBC colors if possible
2. use SGB colors if possible
3. use one of those GBC color palettes for non GBC games (what you get when you put in a GB game in a real GBC)
4. use black/white

Edit: Here are two examples. The first one being what I consider "perfect" (SGB border + GBC colors) the second one being Pokémon 1st gen with a border but just old GB colors.

The reason I'm into this is I can't wait to play Zelda 4 DX with GBC colors and the official Zelda SGB border on my Switch (I know this is the Wii U section).

 

[ShadowOne333]

Hey @ShadowOne333, do you still remember our GBC/SGB struggle with mGBA from here

Have you found a way to use GBC and/or SGB color palettes in RetroArch with the mGBA core?

I've been using SGB borders with RetroArch's shaders feature right now which works superb. Did screenshots of the borders with the great emulator BGB, photoshopped them a bit and made config files for them.

This way I can play a game, that has both (GBC colors and a special border when plugged into a SGB) the "perfect way" in RetroArch. This applies to games such as Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters.
That game can be played in black/white on a GB, has some special colors on the SGB (and a border) and has superb colors on a GBC obviously as it is a GBC game actually.
So I can play it with GBC colors and the SGB border in RetroArch thanks to shaders which is brilliant.

However games like Pokémon Red (1st gen) are still in black/white in mGBA as they don't have GBC colors but they do have SGB colors and I don't know how to apply them. It's no problem to use the original Pokémon Red SGB border with the shaders feature but that won't affect the colors of course.
Do you have a solution for that?

Since borders can be handled by RetroArch's shaders, I do only care for the color palettes used. I've got the BIOS files for GBC and SGB but putting them in the system directory doesn't do anything.

As I wrote on github here the games should follow this priority list:
1. use GBC colors if possible
2. use SGB colors if possible
3. use one of those GBC color palettes for non GBC games (what you get when you put in a GB game in a real GBC)
4. use black/white

Edit: Here are two examples. The first one being what I consider "perfect" (SGB border + GBC colors) the second one being Pokémon 1st gen with a border but just old GB colors.
View attachment 117010
View attachment 117011

The reason I'm into this is I can't wait to play Zelda 4 DX with GBC colors and the official Zelda SGB border on my Switch (I know this is the Wii U section).

Zelda 4 DX?
Is that Link's Awakening?

I haven't tried doing this at all to be honest.
I'm not sure if this is possible already or not.
Have you tried like changing the game's extension?
Perhaps something like Pokemon Red.gbc might do it, though I'm still not sure.

What supposedly should work is booting with a BIOS.
Either the GBC, SGB or GBA one, and that should kind of force the game into booting in said modes.
That topic you just posted should have the instructions on how to do so for console mGBA (and Libretro).

One thing (which could be a suggestion for endrift) would be to change the extension of the ROM to either .gb, .gbc, .sgb or .gba depending on what mode we want the game to boot in.
For example, let's say you want a Gameboy game to be played on grayscale, then the ROM should have a .gb extension.
Want the game to make full use of the GBC and it's BIOS even if it's a b/w game? Then change its extension to .gbc.
Same goes for Super Game Boy, if you want to make the game boot in SGB mode, change the extension to .sgb.
Finally, there are a few GBC games that have GBA compatibility like Shantae and the Oracle games I believe, then for these ones you could change their extension to GBA to make full use of it.

This is merely a suggestion, it is not written in mGBA at all.
If you kind of like the idea, perhaps drop it in the mGBA forums and see what endrift thinks of it.

 

[lordelan]

That topic you just posted should have the instructions on how to do so for console mGBA (and Libretro).

That's exactly the problem.
I can't figure out where to put the files for the Libretro core.
It doesn't seem to be the system directory. In that thread you're talking of a location where "a cfg file is" but mGBA doesn't drop any cfg files in RetroArch.

I haven't tried to change extensions yet but your idea seems fine to me.
Though tbh I'd prefer to adjust this from within the quick menu for each game and to a "save game override" kind of like I'm doind it with the borders atm nonetheless or having mGBA looking for a cfg file with the same name as the rom where we can adjust a value for the color mode we want but mGBA doesn't offer any core options at all in RetroArch. Endrift doesn't care that much about Libretro/RetroArch as it seems.

Is that Link's Awakening?

Yep.

 

[ShadowOne333]

That's exactly the problem.
I can't figure out where to put the files for the Libretro core.
It doesn't seem to be the system directory. In that thread you're talking of a location where "a cfg file is" but mGBA doesn't drop any cfg files in RetroArch.

I haven't tried to change extensions yet but your idea seems fine to me.
Though tbh I'd prefer to adjust this from within the quick menu for each game and to a "save game override" kind of like I'm doind it with the borders atm nonetheless or having mGBA looking for a cfg file with the same name as the rom where we can adjust a value for the color mode we want but mGBA doesn't offer any core options at all in RetroArch. Endrift doesn't care that much about Libretro/RetroArch as it seems.


Yep.

I think the fact why we haven't seen them in RetroArch is because RA is using version 0.6.1, which is the latest official build from mGBA.
All of the development builds are ignored in RA until endrift pushes official release 0.7.0 (which shouldn't be too long now).
So maybe we should wait it out a bit until 0.7.0 gets an official release, and then try 0.7.0 in RetroArch, hopefully that will gives us proper borders and colour support

 

[lordelan]

I think the fact why we haven't seen them in RetroArch is because RA is using version 0.6.1, which is the latest official build from mGBA.
All of the development builds are ignored in RA until endrift pushes official release 0.7.0 (which shouldn't be too long now).
So maybe we should wait it out a bit until 0.7.0 gets an official release, and then try 0.7.0 in RetroArch, hopefully that will gives us proper borders and colour support

Ah makes sense. That's the bit of info I was missing. I'll wait patiently then.

 

[NANASHI89]

Does Dreamcast play on this, no problems?
And Virtual Boy?

 

[AmandaRose]

Does Dreamcast play on this, no problems?
And Virtual Boy?

A huge NO to dreamcast games working as there in no dreamcast cores on the WiiU version of Retroarch. As for Virtual Boy that will work perfectly with zero issues.

 

[tomtensfarfar]

How's the input lag for each emulator? What emulators run flawlessly? Thanks.

 

[lordelan]

How's the input lag for each emulator? What emulators run flawlessly? Thanks.

Except PSX all emulators run very well (if there's a Wii U core).
There's no noticable input lag.

 

[tomtensfarfar]

Except PSX all emulators run very well (if there's a Wii U core).
There's no noticable input lag.

Thanks a bunch. Is it possible to use a Dualshock with Retroarch?

 

[lordelan]

Thanks a bunch. Is it possible to use a Dualshock with Retroarch?

It was (with an older build) and will be (once Maschell's Wii U Plugin System works better), so just wait a bit.

 

[tomtensfarfar]

It was (with an older build) and will be (once Maschell's Wii U Plugin System works better), so just wait a bit.

Great. Thanks again .

 

[lordelan]

I can't get shaders (borders) to scale right.
Works with the original bundled preset shaders but not with custom ones with a custom resolution:

https://forums.libretro.com/t/cant-get-shader-border-to-scale-right/15186

Anyone knows why?

 

[cucholix]

you always can use overlay instead shader, for borders

 

[lordelan]

you always can use overlay instead shader, for borders

Last time I played around with that, the settings for it were annoying and active global for all cores at once and it was very hard to get it off again.
Shaders for themselves work really well as borders. I can save them per game or per core, just as I like.
But I can't use borders with different scales as I don't know how to adjust those config files. That's the only point.

 

[ploggy]

@rioray hi mate, hows developments going? Haven't heard from you in a while?