EmulationStation Arcade (aka Light version)

This is light version of Retropie EmulationStation.

It has some of the modern Retropie features - like carousel themes, themes with variables (like SNES mini) - but using less resources than Retropie version (usually at least 1/3 of RAM usage, close to original ES), but no support for video, random, favorites or custom collections.

It's perfect for arcade cabinets, as it has a real kiosk mode (no config menus, Retropie config screen is hidden, exit only with F4 or shutdown) and when only 1 system is found, the gamelist view is automatically displayed.

Additionally it has and a handheld mode, where config menus are hidden but sound and shutdown menu are displayed.

And finally: both analogue and digital directionals will work!

Usage

You can use --help or -h to view a list of command-line options. Briefly outlined here:

--resolution [width] [height]	- try and force a particular resolution
--gamelist-only		- only display games defined in a gamelist.xml file.
--ignore-gamelist	- do not parse any gamelist.xml files.
--draw-framerate	- draw the framerate.
--debug			- show the console window on Windows, do slightly more logging
--windowed	- run ES in a window, works best in conjunction with --resolution [w] [h].
--vsync [1/on or 0/off]	- turn vsync on or off (default is on).
--no-splash		- don't show the splash screen.
--force-handheld		- hide all configurations
--force-kiosk		- hide all configurations, don't display any menus, including exit

On Kiosk mode, exit will work only with F4 or system shutdown.

Install

Retropie/Raspbian

First exit EmulationStation.

Then download and install the deb package for Retropie based on Raspbian Stretch:

wget https://github.com/raelgc/EmulationStation/releases/download/2.7.4-light/emulationstation-2.7.4-light-arm.deb
sudo apt install ./emulationstation-2.7.4-light-arm.deb

Done! Just start EmulationStation.

To uninstall, just remove the package:

sudo apt remove emulationstation

Ubuntu 18.04

Repeat above instructions, but using the Ubuntu 18.04 package.

Building

To build from source code, after clone this repo, install required build packages:

sudo apt-get install cmake build-essential libsdl2-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-date-time-dev libpugixml-dev libfreeimage-dev libfreetype6-dev libeigen3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libasound2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev

If you want fallback fonts for Chinese/Japanese/Korean during runtime, install fonts-droid (sometimes package is named fonts-droid-fallback).

Generate and build the Makefile with CMake:

cd emulationstation
cmake .
make

On Windows

Install all required libraries:

Boost (you'll need to compile yourself or get the pre-compiled binaries)

Eigen3 (header-only library)

FreeImage

SDL2

pugixml

cURL (you'll need to compile or get the pre-compiled DLL version)

Remember to copy necessary .DLLs into the same folder as the executable: probably FreeImage.dll, freetype6.dll, SDL2.dll, libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll. Exact list depends on if you built your libraries in "static" mode or not. For pugixml, just include the sources.

CMake (this is used for generating the Visual Studio project)

If you don't know how to use CMake, here are some hints: run cmake-gui and point it at your EmulationStation folder. Point the "build" directory somewhere - I use EmulationStation/build. Click configure, choose "Visual Studio [year] Project", fill in red fields as they appear and keep clicking Configure (you may need to check "Advanced"), then click Generate.

Credits

As always, all credits to Retropie project and Aloshi, the original author of EmulationStation.