Integrated Video Game Emulators

Edit by Garbear

Instructions, FAQ and current status of XBMC's RetroPlayer branch can be found here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1336026

</edit>




Before anyone asks, I will say that I am aware that there is an application for emulators available. I made this request because the application never seemed to work correctly for me, and I just think it would be awesome if the emulators were already built inside of XBMC itself rather than an external program you had to download on your own.

Some of the systems I'll list here. Most of them are older systems, so it should be easier to create an emulator for them.

Nintendo 64
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
MAME
Playstation 1

I suggest listing the emulators on the check-off list during download/installation, so if they don't want to download an emulator they can simply un-check it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 12/3/2012:

I've decided to make an objective map of the development process. Also, I wanted to call it something and I decided on Universal System, or Uni-system for short.
Here's what I wrote down on my notebook earlier today:

Uni-system v1.0
-Support for MAME, NES, Super NES, and Sega Genesis

Uni-system v2.0
-Support for Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1

Uni-system v3.0
-Support for Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Original Xbox

Uni-system v3.5
-Develop online support by some kind of means. LAN tunneling enforced by p2p would be an option.

Uni-system v4.0
-Support for Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3
-Enhanced "online" (see Uni-system v3.5)

That's just my abstract ideas, so take it for a grain of salt.

Imagine a world where...

...you could load game emulators with no minimizing hacks, no spending half a year configuring launchers. Something that brings the movie flow to XBMC: Find a file, hit enter, and let XBMC load the right emulator and settings, all completely transparent to the user.

(2012-11-30 06:48)Ned Scott Wrote:  Imagine a world where...

...you could load game emulators with no minimizing hacks, no spending half a year configuring launchers. Something that brings the movie flow to XBMC: Find a file, hit enter, and let XBMC load the right emulator and settings, all completely transparent to the user.

I would kill for this

I waited for objections in case the team wanted to make this some kind of surprise... but no one really said anything (and I've already told some people because it's just so freaking cool).

XBMC developer garbear is working on supporting Libretro in XBMC as if it were a normal video player. Basically standard APIs allow XBMC to act as a front end to binary backend emulators that are loaded and unloaded automatically, and are supported on just about every OS and CPU platform you can think of. No real bloat is added to XBMC because it's just supporting an API, as if it were another type of video player. XBMC sees the file type, loads the right emulator binary, and it even works with XBMC's player controls (fast forward will speed the emulator up, rewind will actually rewind the gameplay, etc). It also uses XBMC's keymap files, so you can configure the controller to work seamlessly across movies and game playback windows. He's got the code up somewhere on github if anyone wants to check it out (it actually works. Still early in development, but still very awesome). If I find the link again I'll throw it up here.

And check out libretro at http://www.libretro.org

Subbed!! Oh hell yes! I need to look at the linky but if this can do Mame I'm going to be damned happy! So far I've had no luck and little time to try to get this going with plug-ins so this would rock! Now I'll have to figure out what to for a controller lol. This is terrific news, sign me up :-)

Ah, here we are: https://github.com/garbear/xbmc/commits

Example emulator add-on: https://github.com/garbear/xbmc/tree/ret...dev/addons

This would be amazing. Please please please scrape from http://thegamesdb.net

Absolutely AWESOME news!!!

Something I've hoped for for ages, but haven't dared ask for.

Completely thrilled by this news - well done!

(2012-12-01 05:05)BLKMGK Wrote:  Now I'll have to figure out what to for a controller lol.

An xbox 360 controller would be a shoe in, unless you need the dpad precision of a playstation controller. Full fixed optimized support for xbox 360 controllers is coming next beta I hear: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=135871 Layout of the new keymap is something like this (though not finalized): http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1254007

I can't wait for emulator support to come back to XBMC, speaking as someone who loved the Xbox 1 days.