Made a custom launcher, looking for feedback.

[siloraptor]

Made a launcher for myself and decided to release it. Has support for displaying ROM box art. Can also be configured to show a generic cart image if no box art is available. The title screen can also be configure by the user.

The launcher is a work in progress and still missing some things like quick restore of the last game played using the "B" button and the ROM list is not sorted in anyways (ROMS appear as they were saved).

The launcher has to be flashed using esptool.py. I managed to create a new .fw file but it deletes the emulators when flashed. My guess is that the launcher needs to be bundled with the emulators too. Maybe @crashoverride can shed some light.

I'm looking for feedback and features user might want to see implemented. Thanks!

https://github.com/rosarior/Rocket-Launcher

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlzYBavAYTd/

[jutleys]

Good job if there is a easy way to flash I can try this.

[mameise]

Wow that is cool! Just thought about how cool it would be to see also pictures for the roms as i plan to buy another device for my son. As he is only 6 years he cannot read yet so to see the picture would help him a lot. I hope you continue working on it and provide an easy way to install.

Thank you in advance

[mad_ady]

@mameise: how are you going to get the device past the great wife filter? I too have a 6 year old who could become addicted... Teach me!

[mameise]

Hahaha True true. But we already passed this discussion about „too young and so on“ long back. Arrangement is: She has the basic control over the devices my son is allowed to use and controls the time he is allowed to use them. But i have control over getting the devices. So he already has a smartphone with some games installed on it beside his tales he love to listen to. But she gives the go to use and tells him when to stop.

So i will buy the odroid-go, put some games on it (of course no DOOM for example) and tell her: he has a new device, take it when he plays too much

Edit: Before the haters come along: Of course without sim card and he is only allowed to play half an hour or so at max.

[mad_ady]

So it's the old story with mothers being "the bad cop" in the marriage. Sorry for hijacking the thread

[MisterBiro]

I think it looks pretty good, although it would be preferable to flash it with a .fw file for ease of swapping between 'apps'.

Also, why not reuse the existing directory structure for ROMs?

[lix-alpha]

Made a launcher for myself and decided to release it. Has support for displaying ROM box art. Can also be configured to show a generic cart image if no box art is available. The title screen can also be configure by the user.

Interesting, I am also working on a Ui design.I didn't tried to look at the code yet. Are the main ui elements (Top bar, Bottom bar, background...) all in the same file of the firmware? If so, which file should I look at?

Thanks

[tmihai20]

I would also say you could use the existing structure for ROMs. Looks very nice, incredibly smooth. Bundling it within a .fw file would be absolutely great. I will keep an eye on it (or both)

[mad_ady]

One thing that many complain it's lacking is having a tool and a launcher that can:
1 pack multiple fw files into one and flash multiple things together
2 cycling and launching the flashed stuff

Eg, flashing once the emulators, stella, doom, micropython and starting them without reflashing.
It is doable, but requires some work

[siloraptor]

@MisterBiro as @mad_ady noted there is no published way to create .fw files that contain multiple partitions. To far the only process is to install the official .fw then install my launcher.

I didn't want to pollute the ROM folders with other kind of files so that if users remove the launcher they don't get stuck with a lot of image files they no longer need.

[siloraptor]

@lix-alpha The code is not available yet, just the bin file in the "Releases" link. It is still a work in progress. I had to put it down for a while but hope to have some spare time to work on it again and other features I want to see done.

[siloraptor]

@tmihai20 Thanks! It took me several iterations experimenting with a custom framebuffer blit routine in order to improve the framerate.

[crashoverride]

@MisterBiro as @mad_ady noted there is no published way to create .fw files that contain multiple partitions.

Multiple partitions in a .fw is supported. An example can be found on the wiki where an arduino app and data partition are packaged:
https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid_go/ardui ... to_fw_file

[mad_ady]

For some reason your launcher is not getting the love/attention it deserves.

Regarding packing multiple things into one launcher - it's doable with a little effort (@crashoverride will bash me over the head for saying things are simple).
You could have a "configurator" web interface running on a public site (e.g. hosted by HardKernel) where you can select which emulators (and other community projects) you want. You can reorder them as you wish. When ready you hit the build button and the latest versions get pulled and built (or this can be done once a day). It doesn't have to be real-time - the build system could email a link when done.
Then the assembled files get added to a single fw file with your launcher as default. Your launcher would have the metadata needed to know what it can launch and in what order.
The programs that depend on data on other partitions (like doom or micropython) could identify the partitions by their type (e.g. 66 for wad data), not by offset. If offset is needed, the source can be dynamically altered at build time (with sed or something).
It's true that all programs need to be able to exit gracefully (e.g. return control to partition 0), or the base firmware could have a "Boot partition 0, Boot partition 1..." option. That would allow you to exit any rogue program.

Unless I'm mistaken, it could be done.

[kamots]

@siloraptor I would enjoy testing your work but I'm going to be lazy and ask if you can please package it as a .fw file like crashoverride mentioned? This would allow me and others to test very easily, then switch back to Go Play or another application package. Thanks!