Video tutorials

**** Rooting is done at your own risk. We assume no responsibility. 

go to settings, about, and tap build 5 times to enable developer mode. Go to system/advanced/developer options and enable usb debugging(adb) 

 connect your android to your pc via usb cable and install the proper google android and adb drivers, you can find these on RetroGameCorps youtube channel or here: 

https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/ https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb  

navigate to the adb folder you set up and launch command prompt, type adb devices to make sure your device is recognized, if it is, then type adb shell. 

once in shell type su to get to # or root. Then do the following, you can copy and paste these lines  cd /storage/emulated/0/Download 

dd if=/dev/block/by-name/boot of=boot.img  

after this you now have a boot.img in Downloads on your android  on the RG353P install the magisk apk from: https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases 

 once its installed launch it. Click install on Magisk, and select patch boot image, then tap the 3 lines on the top left of file manager for the drop down menu and select downloads, then select boot.img  

now you let the process finish, and you will have boot.img and a new file which is patched boot.img

  copy the patched boot.img to your pc and place it in your adb folder so you can push it to the android device. Rename it boot.img 

 type reboot fastboot  once rebooted type fastboot devices and make sure you see the device, then type fastboot flash boot boot.img 

  Once this completes you will see:

Sending 'boot' (40960 KB)                          OKAY [  1.067s] Writing 'boot'                                     OKAY [  0.542s] Finished. Total time: 1.646s 

type fastboot reboot. Congrats, you are now rooted with the latest magisk and free to install modules and use root how you see fit. 

Once you have installed magisk, you can then install gapps from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/magiskgapps/files/r/

Use core V1.1

 Once this is finished you will need to register the device.

Download device id.apk  run it and copy your GSF ID. 

click the popup from play services and click learn more, select the custom rom option on the botton and sign into google, now paste the GSF in the box and submit it. It can take a while for the device to register.

It is no secret Advanced MAME is a very robust and yet little understood emulator.

In this section I will break down step by step, how I work with and use Advanced MAME to emulate some of the more obscure systems, and how to set it all up.

For this example I will use the system Megaduck/Cougarboy

If you are using a SBC with ARES or TheRA you will do the same as these steps, only the launch command will go into the /opt/ares/configs folder into a folder you will create named megaduck, and on the handheld devices, the launch command goes directly into the es_systems.cfg

        <system>

<name>Megaduck</name>

<fullname>Megaduck</fullname>

<path>/roms/megaduck/</path>

<extension>.bin .BIN .zip .ZIP</extension>

       <command>perfmax; /opt/advmame/bin/advmess megaduck -cfg /home/odroid/.advance/megaduck.rc -cart %ROM%; perfnorm</command>

<platform>Megaduck</platform>

<theme>megaduck</theme>

</system>

The above is the launch command from inside an es_systems.cfg file, and is used in combination with the megaduck.rc file located at /home/aresuser/.advance/

This directory is the same for SBC and handheld devices.

Either install Advanced MAME from runcommand or grab the binary from our github at:

https://github.com/Retro-Arena/ARES-Binaries

Please note the PI4, XU4, RP64 binaries are Armhf, and the others are Aarch64.

If manually installing, unzip the Advanced MAME zip, drag and drop the contents to the /opt folder and then open a ssh connection. type sudo chmod -R 777 /opt and cd /opt/advmame/bin

At this point type ls and you will see several binaries in this location, type sudo ./advmame

You will notice the print out says generating files, these files are located at /home/aresuser/.advance which is a newly created folder. 

This folder will contain your .rc files (needed to control and configure system settings) and your bios files, but this can be changed by opening the .rc file you will create for your system and pressing Ctrl + f and entering rom in the search box, notice it takes you to a line on the text, locate the one specific to rom and add your normal location, example /roms/bios or /home/aresuser/bios

The rc files are the tricky part, do not chmod the .advance folder or it may cause issues. 

instead open the advmame.rc file and copy all, now close it, create a file named megaduck.rc in the .advance folder and save it, do not change its permissions.

If you followed all steps above, you should have Advanced MAME installed, the rc file for it and Megaduck, and it will be added to your runcommand or es_systems.cfg

create the  folder megaduck in your roms directory and add your games, restart emulationstation and connect a keyboard. When you launch the game, use the tilde ~ to open the menu. The first thing you want to change it input settings globally, this will let you enter this menu again and change settings without needing a keyboard in the future, and once you finish that, you may set up per game controls and you no longer require the keyboard.

The above must be done for each system you add using Advanced MAME, a sample Megaduck rc file will be available in the helpful files section below, but this is a reference, do not drag and drop it in or it will not work as its configured for another system.

 You can use the launch command from the es_systems.cfg or runcommand in a terminal or ssh connection to get the error message should a system fail to run.

   The above videos are owned by their makers, and are directly from their and our YouTube channels.  You can click the name of the video to be taken directly to the YouTube channel.     

M.A.M.E Tutorial:

 Mame Tutorial for n00bs - Emulation - LaunchBox Community Forums (launchbox-app.com) 

A lot of BIOS and other helpful info can be found here:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

For the Ubuntu based handhelds:

https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki

               1. How to add a lr or libretro core:

firstly you require the core, which is a file with a .so extension. This goes into opt/retropie/libretrocores, /opt/retroarena/cores, or /opt/ares/cores in this directory you create a lr-emulator folder, and inside of this folder is where the .so file goes.  Back in opt/retropie, /opt/retroarena, or /opt/ares go into the configs folder, inside of this folder you want to look for the type of system if it exists, such as dreamcast or nes, if you are adding a new system that does not exist you will need to create this folder, in this folder you will need two files, retroarch.cfg and emulators.cfg. Using Dreamcast as an example, inside of emulators config you would need this line: lr-reicast = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-reicast/reicast_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"

this tells it where the core is and for which system it is used. retroarch.cfg would have these lines:

# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/"

# input_player1_joypad_index = "0"

video_shared_context = true

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

sometimes you can get away with only the emulator config, or not needing any special instructions inside the retroarch.cfg. Once you have placed the .so file, and once you place the cfg or both config files, you can then restart emulationstation, and your new emulator will be configured. If you are adding an entirely new system, you will also require the rom folder, and need to add the system itself into /etc/emulationstation to the es_systems.cfg file, which would look like this:

  <system>

    <name>naomi</name>

    <fullname>Naomi</fullname>

    <path>/media/tinker/roms/naomi</path>

    <extension>.cdi .chd .gdi .sh .CDI .CHD .GDI .SH</extension>

    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ dreamcast %ROM%</command>

    <platform>dreamcast</platform>

    <theme>naomi</theme>

  </system>

If you are adding a system like Phillips CDI that is a part of mess or mame there will be other emulator specific instructions, for example cdi requires the cdimono1 bios in the rom folder and bios folder, and the rom folder needs to be named cdimono1. 

             2. How to automount a usb/sd at boot:

1. Run sudo blkid and note down your device's UUID. The line should look something like /dev/mmcblk1: UUID="053b91eb-19c4-4684-be81-ee758579f034" TYPE="ext3", where 053b91eb-19c4-4684-be81-ee758579f034 would be the UUID.
2. Replace the location in FStab with the UUID(sudo nano /etc/fstab). The FStab line should now look something like UUID=053b91eb-19c4-4684-be81-ee758579f034 /home ext3   default 0 2
   Note: according to mount(8), the options field (the fourth field on the line) should be defaults rather than default.

*** How to build and install Microvision 

 git clone the repo below

 slaminger/Microvision-Emulation: Repository for Microvision Emulator (Build 14) produced by Paul Robson and freely released (github.com) 

cd into the folder and type make

RetroPie installed on top of Raspbian
Bit of background before we start. The Milton-Bradley Microvision was released in 1979. It was the first handheld to use interchangeable cartridges. It had a 16x16 square pixel screen, an analog knob at the bottom, and a membrane-based keypad so that when cartridges were swapped out, different buttons, up to 3(across) by 4 (down) would be available to the user. Unfortunately, it was not successful, and the build quality combined with the age of the units means working consoles are rare. More information can be found on wikipedia as well as this really nice fansite. I have also included a picture below.

MVEM and some versions of MESS/MAME emulate this system. MVEM is superior in my opinion. I did not create MVEM. All credit there goes to Paul Robson who coded the emulator and a few homebrew games for the Microvision around 2014 and released the source code and binaries for his final build (Build 14) free for anyone to use. All I did was work out how to get it installed in RetroPie.
Unfortunately, I cannot give a link to the emulator itself. All binary and source code distributions I have been able to find contain at least some copyrighted games as *.bin files. I am looking into creating a GitHub repository without any of the copyrighted material.
EDIT: Here is a GitHub repository link. It only contains the emulator source code freely released by Paul Robson and his own freely released homebrew games. Other games are copyrighted to Milton-Bradley and cannot be legally released

EDIT: It has come to my attention that Raph Koster has released a Build 15 of MVEM based on Paul Robson's original source code. This new build can also be made to work with RetroPie without much difficulty. This features a game screen area with spaces between the pixels, overlays for controller and screen, and an explanation of the game controls. In my opinion, this is an improvement over build 14. I will leave the build 14 information available here, but I will also add sections to the instructions where build 15 installation differs from build 14. These sections are current marked with EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15 and END OF EDIT BLOCK to begin and end the sections respectively. Unfortunately, I do not have a download link at this time for the build 15 source, as all distributions that I know of contain the games that are still copyrighted by Milton-Bradley.
I can't really say anything else without breaking forum rules, so I'll move on. If you have found the source code, then we can begin at step 1.
The source code distribution that worked for me is commonly called "emulator-osx.tar.gz" which contains Build 14.
This has a CRC32 checksum (E873F9A9).
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15:
Build 15 source is usually called mvem_dev.zip. My version has CRC32 checksum (0AB7BE73)
The .bmp files used for the overlays can be copied over from the Windows release of MVEM build 15. My version is called MVEM.zip and has the CRC32 checksum (B30EB4D0)
END OF EDIT BLOCK
There is another distribution marked as the complete project that actually only contains Build 12. The main difference that I can see is that Build 12 does not have the ability to change the screen size in the command-line input.
Part 1: Compilation
I was able to compile via GCC 4.9.2, available standard under Raspbian Jessie. No need to go to Raspbian Stretch to grab GCC5+ as with later MAME versions.
Aside from this, the only prerequisite appears to be SDL2, judging by the information in the Makefile.
Once you have the source code, you will need to choose a directory (i.e /home/pi/mvem and place everything there). Here is a list of source files from the version I have along with CRC32 checksums.
BUILD 14:
code11.h (A6A762F3)
core11.c (D1047849)
core11.h (628B3E4)
debugsc11.c (7BCC4DA9)
debugsc11.h (2113B5Ed)
font.h (9841B07E)
general.h (5463D313)
hardware.c (0113A4D3)
hardware.h (DA38D0AF)
hwinterface.c (7CE3AFD7)
hwinterface.h (E4FFDAF2)
main.c (6D004998)
mnemonics11.h (90685C70)
opcodes11.h (9A90C1B8)
rom.h (2E642F46)
system.c (CE941B7E)
system.h (C39D5E72)
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15:
All source files have the same names. However, as Build 15 may be in active development, I cannot reliably give CRC32 checksums.
END OF EDIT BLOCK
BUILD 14:
You should also have this Makefile
CC      = gcc EXE =  CFLAGS  = -g -O2 -DDEBUGGABLE -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -I/usr/X11R6/include  -I/usr/X11/include -DHAVE_OPENGL -g LIBS =  -lSDL2_test -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2   TARGETS = mvem$(EXE) all: $(TARGETS) mvem$(EXE): main.c hardware.c core11.c debugsc11.c system.c hwinterface.c # debugsc80.c  core80.c $(CC) -o $@ $^ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS)
However, I needed to modify the Makefile to allow it to compile on my Pi
The CFLAGS line (should be line 4), needs to be modified as shown below.
CC      = gcc EXE =  CFLAGS  = -std=c99 -g -O2 -DDEBUGGABLE -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -I/usr/X11R6/include  -I/usr/X11/include -DHAVE_OPENGL -g LIBS =  -lSDL2_test -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2   TARGETS = mvem$(EXE) all: $(TARGETS) mvem$(EXE): main.c hardware.c core11.c debugsc11.c system.c hwinterface.c # debugsc80.c  core80.c $(CC) -o $@ $^ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS)
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15:
Some versions of the Makefile for Build 15 need to be edited for successful Raspberry Pi compilation. Here is my working Makefile
CC      = gcc EXE = CFLAGS  = -std=c99 -g -O2 -DDEBUGGABLE -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -I/usr/X11R6/include  -I/usr/X11/include -DHAVE_OPENGL -g LIBS = -lSDL2_test -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2  TARGETS = mvem$(EXE) all: $(TARGETS) mvem$(EXE): main.c hardware.c core11.c debugsc11.c system.c hwinterface.c # debugsc80.c  core80.c $(CC) -o $@ $^ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS) clean: $(RM) *.o *~ $(MAIN)
Please ensure that the CFLAGS line contains the -std=c99 and that the LIBS line does not contain an erroneous "#".
Also, please examine this section at the beginning of my working hardware.c
#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <ctype.h> #include "hardware.h" #include "hwinterface.h" #include "debugsc11.h" #include <SDL2/SDL.h>
Some versions of hardware.c replace the #include <SDL2/SDL.h> with #include <c:/MINGW/MINGW_DEV_LIB/INCLUDE/SDL2/SDL.h>. This is a mistake and needs to be corrected to match my version before compilation.
END OF EDIT BLOCK
If you have an executable file labeled "mvem" remove it by typing "rm mvem" first. After that you should be able to type "make" to compile via GCC 4.9.2
Here is the output from my successful compilation. There is a warning, but it seems harmless.
gcc -o mvem main.c hardware.c core11.c debugsc11.c system.c hwinterface.c -std=c99 -g -O2 -DDEBUGGABLE -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -I/usr/X11R6/include  -I/usr/X11/include -DHAVE_OPENGL -g -lSDL2_test -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2 In file included from core11.c:37:0: core11.c: In function ‘tms1100reset’: code11.h:18:31: warning: iteration 128u invokes undefined behavior [-Waggressive-loop-optimizations]     dataMemory[i] = dataMemory[i] & 0xF;                                ^ code11.h:17:2: note: containing loop  for (i = 0;i <= 0x80;i++)   ^   
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15
Here are the warnings I got from compiling Build 15. My version appears to work properly in spite of these warnings.
gcc -o mvem main.c hardware.c core11.c debugsc11.c system.c hwinterface.c -std=c99 -g -O2 -DDEBUGGABLE -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -I/usr/X11R6/include  -I/usr/X11/include -DHAVE_OPENGL -g -lSDL2_test -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2 hardware.c: In function ‘IF_Initialise’: hardware.c:85:17: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘IF_ToggleFullscree ’ [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]      if (f == 1) IF_ToggleFullscreen();                  ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hardware.c: At top level: hardware.c:155:6: warning: conflicting types for ‘IF_ToggleFullscreen’  void IF_ToggleFullscreen(SDL_Window* Window) {       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hardware.c:85:17: note: previous implicit declaration of ‘IF_ToggleFullscreen’ was here      if (f == 1) IF_ToggleFullscreen();                  ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In file included from core11.c:38:0: core11.c: In function ‘tms1100reset’: code11.h:18:31: warning: iteration 128 invokes undefined behavior [-Waggressive-loop-optimizations]      dataMemory[i] = dataMemory[i] & 0xF;                      ~~~~~~~~~~^~~ code11.h:17:2: note: within this loop for (i = 0;i <= 0x80;i++)   ^~~
END OF EDIT BLOCK
If compilation fails, then it is most likely that you are missing GCC or SDL2. As far as I know, those are the only two requirements here. My original installation was several months ago, so I may have forgotten something. However, I performed a fresh compilation when writing this tutorial. 4  

Part 2: Running MVEM
Once compilation is complete, you can use the following command format to run MVEM (Build 14). Build 12 users will need to remove the <screen_size> part, as that is not available in that build.
./mvem <rom_filename> <screen_size>./mvem "bomber.bin" 640x480
At this point, a more advanced user might be done listening to me and simply follow the RetroPie tutorial for adding an external emulator. However, I will continue to describe my RetroPie configuration process and provide the checksums for all known game files that work with MVEM.
Part 3: Configuring RetroPie for MVEM
First, You will need to find your es_systems.cfg file
/etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg is the default
You will need to add the following code inside the <systemList></systemList> tags, but outside of any other tags. You will also need to change the PATH to match your directory. I highly recommend you store your games and emulator executable in the same directory.
<system> <name>microvision</name> <fullname>Milton-Bradley Microvision</fullname> <path>/home/pi/emulator-osx</path> <extension>.bin .BIN</extension> <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ microvision %ROM%</command> <platform>microvision</platform> <theme>microvision</theme> </system>
Second, you will need to handle the /opt/retropie/configs changes.
Go to your /opt/retropie/configs directory and create a new folder name microvision
Inside this new folder, you need to create a retroarch.cfg and emulators.cfg file.
Here are the contents of my working files. You may need to change paths to match your own install directories.
emulators.cfg:
mvem = "/home/pi/emulator-osx/mvem  %ROM% 640x480" default = "mvem"
retroarch.cfg:
# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/microvision/" #include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"
At this point, you should be able to restart emulation station and have a new section for the microvision with all of your *.bin files visible. 1  

Part 4: Controlling the Emulator
The controls are hardcoded:
Escape is used to exit.
The analog control can use either the mouse movement left and right or O and P.
The microvision control pad (3 across x 4 down) uses 123,qwe,asd,zxc for each of the respective rows. Overlays are not shown, so it may be tricky to work out how to play. You may need to look up images of the microvision keypads for these games.
Debugging mode is accessed with M. I don't really understand it, so I'm going to put Paul Robson's explanation here. Probably best to stay out of debugging mode though.
0-9A-F change displayed address
G run program until broken (with M)
K set breakpoint at current address
S single step
V step over
M return to monitor (if running)
Esc exits the debugger
Part 5: Notes on ROMS and MVEM configuration
I recommend sticking with the 640x480 game area at the maximum. It is large enough to be clearly visible to me, and with 16x16 square pixels on the screen, you don't have to worry about missing detail. The main problem with increasing the game area is that there is a separate row below the game area that shows the current position of the analog control. If the game area is made larger than 640x480, this row will overlap the game area. As the source code has been released, this may be fixable, but I don't know how to do it.
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15
Build 15 users are able to select larger screen sizes. I currently use 1280x720x1 for my screen size value.
Raph Koster has confirmed that 1920x1080x1 should work for users of 1080p screens
END OF EDIT BLOCK
Here are the CRC32 checksums for my current collection (Build 14).
Alien Raiders(Milton Bradley)(1981):
alienraiders.bin (B1632712)
Baseball(Milton Bradley)(1980):
baseball.bin (40E3327A)
Block Buster(Milton Bradley)(1979):
block.bin (FD18EA6D)
Bomber(Milton Bradley)(2014):
bomber.bin (BADBD0F8)
Bowling(Milton Bradley)(1979):
bowling.bin (460AC30E)
Connect Four(Milton Bradley)(1979):
connect4.bin (6A4CF60B)
Cosmic Hunter(Milton Bradley)(1981):
cosmichunter.bin (D8BA1377)
Demo(Paul Robson)(2014):
demo.bin (54F1B288)
Invaders(Paul Robson)(2014):
invaders.bin (D520FF6E)
Mindbuster(Milton Bradley)(1979):
mind.bin (D5DC1F7D)
Star Trek Phaser Strike(Milton Bradley)(1979):
phaser.bin (C7768D04)
Pinball (Milton Bradley)(1980):
pinball.bin (906544EA)
Super Block Buster(Milton Bradley)(19xx):
sbb.bin (796660E3)
Sea Duel (Milton Bradley)(1980):
seaduel.bin (83093475)
Vegas Slots (Milton Bradley)(1979):
slots.bin (4500C1D9)
Speed(Paul Robson)(2014):
speed.bin (67A53F5E)
Test(Paul Robson)(2014):
test.bin (A64065F9)
Once you have these files, you can rename them as you wish. However, you may wish to leave pinball.bin as is. The pinball.bin uses a separate pinball.bmp for a background, which is included with the source code. If pinball.bin is renamed, this background will not show up when running the game. This background is not required to run the game, but the game logic makes much more sense with the background.
EDIT BLOCK RELEVANT TO BUILD 15:
The file naming scheme has changed in Build 15. I have not fully tested file renaming. I would recommend sticking with the names from Raph Koster's distribution, as the emulator appears to use these names to determine which .bmp images to load for the controller and screen overlays.
Also, there is an ongoing bug where certain .bmp images (controller, key hints, and knob) will not appear if you are loading MVEM after booting the Raspberry Pi straight to Emulation Station. This is fixable by exiting Emulation Station, running and exiting MVEM on any game and then reopening Emulation Station. This appears to be a problem with SDL-based external emulators and RetroPie/Emulation Station.
END OF EDIT BLOCK

*** RetroPie on the Tinkerboard Specific Instructions:

If using ROTT on EMMC and you wish to use the SD card for roms, the es_systems.cfg file located at /etc/emulationstation will need to be modified, the easiest way to do this is to copy it to the PC and use note++. Once copied to PC and opened inside of note ++ highlight where it says /home/tinker/RetroPie/roms and click ctrl f, and go to replace all, replace it with /media/tinker/nameofromfolderonsd

when you boot the system you will need to use sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/tinker. your sd will be mounted. be sure to swap the es_systems.cfg so it knows where to find the roms.

If you want the SD card to auto mount upon reboot rather than having to manually mount the card each time, do the following:

(from command line; either F4 on Tinker Board or via SSH)
1. Edit the fstab file by typing
sudo nano -Bw /etc/fstab

2. Go to the first empty line at the end of the fstab file and enter the following:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/tinker auto nonempty,nofail,user,uid=tinker,gid=tinker 0 2

3. Ctrl-X to exit, type Y to save the modified buffer and enter to save back to /etc/fstab

4. Reboot your machine an et voila'!  The SD card is auto mounted with your roms ready to play.

you can also just use the fstab in the zip below. 

Overclocking is enabled as of ROTT 1.0.8. You can check the CPU frequency with sudo cpufreq-info, 

to set theCPU frequency use sudo cpufreq-set -u and the speed, for example 2.00GHz or 2.1GHz.

you can also use sudo cpufreq -g governor (performance, ondemand).

To access additional content, connect a mouse and keyboard, press f4 to exit emulation station and return to console. type sudo systemctl start lightdm, this will open desktop.

in the core zip at the bottom of the page you don't need the .info file, but I left  it because it has... info. you can add it into the folder with the .so and it will not cause any harm.