RetroFE 0.5 beta has now been released

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emb

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We are thrilled to announce that RetroFE 0.5 beta is available for download! We have been working very hard at this release and decided that now is the time to hand out the latest version to the public

If you have not heard of RetroFE, it is an (open source) frontend for arcade cabinets that runs on both linux and windows. The intent of RetroFE is to be customizable and easy.

Website: http://www.retrofe.com/
Forum: http://retrofe.com/forum
Wiki: http://retrofe.com/wiki (work in progress)
Source: http://bitbucket.org/teamretro/retrofe

Here is a showcase video showing a couple concept themes:
(thanks to timmyb for creating this video)

A steam-punk theme created by a member on the RetroFE forums


Important note: This version is incompatible with all previous versions of RetroFE


New Features:
Content management
  • New directory structure for managing artwork and ROMs
  • A fully setup “Sega Genesis” collection with artwork for one game
  • Command line option to create a new collection (retrofe.exe –createcollection “your collection name”)
  • New database design, data scraping for hyperlists and mamelists
  • Cleaner log.txt output
  • Easy system setup
  • Support for %ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME%, %BASE_MEDIA_PATH%, and %ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME% for collection settings.conf file paths
  • baseMediaPath and baseItemPath setting option

New layouts to showcase new capabilities
  • Default layout – created by timmyb
  • Mamed layout – created by phulshof
  • Updated splash screens (now as part of the layout itself)

Improved fonts
  • Improved font spacing
  • Support for multiple font colors

Enhanced menu system
  • Multiple menus can be displayed at once
  • new vertical menu option (eliminates the need to specify individual points)
  • New feel when scrolling (scrolling feels more like a the clicking of a gun)
  • Menu arguments to control menu scroll speed
  • Up/down/left/right scrolling options

New layout display options
  • New tag to display the current status of RetroFE
  • New tag to display boxes (container tag)
  • tag option to display a picture of a collection
  • option to display images and text for manufacturer, genre, year, number buttons and number players
  • option to display text if image was not found
  • Fixes for min/max scaling

A strong special thanks goes out to the main development team in their huge contributions towards the project (in particular timmyb, obiwantje, phulshof, warham, and myself).

Enjoy!
 

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emb

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Version 0.5.148 has been released. Features in this update (relative to the version in the initial post) include:

Bug Fix: emulators (like mame) were not working. Emulators now correctly launch from the current directory of emulator instead of from RetroFE.

BugFix: exitOnFirstPageBack now works

BugFix: overriding media paths for collections was not working

BugFix: issues with menu (existed only in 0.5.138 which has been removed)

BugFix: RetroFE sometimes hangs at startup (potential bugfix)

Re-added support for subcollections
Removed several more dependencies from needing microsofts c++ redistributable

Bug fix: Press back when scrolling causes menu to misbehave (or sometimes crash)

Feature: Artwork is checked using the ROM name instead of the full name (i.e. "mslug.png" instead of "Metal Slug.png")

Feature: Display artwork for parent ROM if artwork does not exist for the clone

Feature: new list.includeMissingItems parameter for collections settings. Set to true to allow items from include.txt to show up in list even if ROM does not exist (i.e. useful for merged ROM sets)
 
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emb

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Version 0.5.151 has been released. Changes include:

Feature: Games are now ordered by their actual game name instead of their ROM name.

New layout: Added preliminary Pandora concept layout (created by phulshof)
 
rfancella

rfancella

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emb,
Quick question. What are the hardware and software requirements for the Linux version of this frontend?

Thanks,
Ron
 
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emb

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It can handle slower systems. It dont have specific specs yet, but this can run on slower systems. I have a 1.6ghz atom netbook that runs fine. Video might cause some stutter (as a netbook of that speed doesn't handle video well without hardware decoding). If needed, video can be disabled.

I plan on compiling an image for the Raspberry PI in a few weeks.
If compiling by source, you dont really have software requirements (a couple libs may be needed though).

I run RetroFE on my cabinet using xubuntu 14.04 with matchbox wm and it works great.
 
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billyc666

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been doing some testing and all was pretty straight forward. the only thing I couldn't get to work is the theme per system. I put this line in the settings.conf file in the Nintendo Entertainment System collection folder

layout = Nintendo Entertainment System (I just renamed one of the existing folders for testing purpose)

it always seems to just show the default layout. any ideas?
 
rfancella

rfancella

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emb said:
It can handle slower systems. It dont have specific specs yet, but this can run on slower systems. I have a 1.6ghz atom netbook that runs fine. Video might cause some stutter (as a netbook of that speed doesn't handle video well without hardware decoding). If needed, video can be disabled.

I plan on compiling an image for the Raspberry PI in a few weeks.
If compiling by source, you dont really have software requirements (a couple libs may be needed though).

I run RetroFE on my cabinet using xubuntu 14.04 with matchbox wm and it works great.
Click to expand...

emb,
Where can I find the source?
I have a micro PC running Debian I would like to see if it will run on. ;)

Thanks,
Ron
 
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emb

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billyc666 said:
been doing some testing and all was pretty straight forward. the only thing I couldn't get to work is the theme per system. I put this line in the settings.conf file in the Nintendo Entertainment System collection folder

layout = Nintendo Entertainment System (I just renamed one of the existing folders for testing purpose)

it always seems to just show the default layout. any ideas?
Click to expand...
That is because there is no support for individual layouts per system. Our goal is to have a consistent experience regardless of what collection is selected.

Some themes however do display images for a selected collection (I.e. a picture of an nes console).

RetroFE may eventually support handling multiple layouts, but thats a long ways down the roadmap (if it does happen).
 
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billyc666

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emb said:
That is because there is no support for individual layouts per system. Our goal is to have a consistent experience regardless of what collection is selected.

Some themes however do display images for a selected collection (I.e. a picture of an nes console).

RetroFE may eventually support handling multiple layouts, but thats a long ways down the roadmap (if it does happen).
Click to expand...

ah right I see . I got the wrong idea , I was thinking I could make an individual layout for each system.

is there any plans for a per game background (like how xbmc uses fan art) or default if not found
 
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emb

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billyc666 said:
ah right I see . I got the wrong idea , I was thinking I could make an individual layout for each system.

is there any plans for a per game background (like how xbmc uses fan art) or default if not found
Click to expand...
That is already supported :). All you need to do is edit your layout and add a reloadableImage tag . Set the type (to screenshot, screentitle, logo, box, whatevever) and set the height and/or width to stretch. You can even have the video playing in the background (or the foreground and transparent) if you wanted.

If you want to do some fading to smooth the transitions, create onHighlightEnter and onHighligntExit animations very easily (there are a couple examples in the layout configs to do this).
 
Agrajag

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I like the way this is going! I've got a Celeron NUC (currently running Linux Light) that I'm thinking of using for a vertical bartop, and am about to buy a Raspberry Pi 2 to put in my X-Arcade.

Between RetroFE, RetroPie, EmulationStation and PiPlay we're now spoilt for choice on Linux / RPi.
 
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emb

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RetroFE version 0.5.154 has been released. Features include:

Bug Fix: Any keypress would launch game or cause random scrolling (after returning from launching game)

Bug Fix: Fixed screen focus issue in linux when returning from launching game

Bug Fix: Linux now launches games from the same folder of the emulator executable
 
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