HOWTO play emulators on OpenELEC for the raspberry Pi!


...Once upon a time a user called *mezzo* asked himself: "Why there is no retroarch addon for the raspberry pi?". So without thinking twice decided to compile the *Library* so he can play their favorite emulators within their favorute *Media Center*. And best of all, they shared their knowledge with the whole kingdom and with every house. The villagers could play games and watch movies from a leisure center...

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[Time ago](https://misapuntesde.com/post.php?id=369) we saw a first attempt and was only a matter of time before someone would improve the system to use emulators on this distro. I have always advocated for its stability and speed against their adversaries. Now bring us the opportunity to finish watching a movie and playing [Hellfire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-9g9TMARs0) from the *Genesis Megadrive* (my favorite game).

Supported platforms:

• NES (fceu)

• MAME (imame4all)

• Master System/Genesis (picodrive)

• Atari (stella)

• SuperNES (pocketsnes)

• Others (beta test)

We'll use a *SSH* conection to our *OpenELEC* distribution. *SSH* must be enabled. You can check it on *SYSTEM > OpenELEC > Services*. The user is **root** and password **openelec**.

You have two methods to install. Choose one:

[ Method 1: Easy peasy ]

Log into SSH and type:

wget https://misapuntesde.com/res/AdvLauncher_uLySeSS.zip
unzip AdvLauncher_uLySeSS.zip -d /
rm AdvLauncher_uLySeSS.zip
killall -9 kodi.bin

[ Method 2: The hard way ]

We need to install the *Addon* and run some commands in the terminal. My tests have been in the latest version of *OpenELEC Kodi*, which at the time of writing this article is the *version 5.0*.

We need also activate the option **Show hidden files and folders** inside *Settings > Appearance > File List*.

Execute the following in the terminal:

cd /storage/.kodi/addons/
wget https://misapuntesde.com/res/emulator.tools.retroarch-1.0.2.zip && unzip emula* && rm emula*.zip
wget http://www.gwenael.org/Repository/repository.angelscry.xbmc-plugins/repository.angelscry.xbmc-plugins-1.2.3.zip && unzip repo*.zip && rm repo*.zip
chmod +x /storage/.kodi/addons/emulator.tools.retroarch/bin/*
./emulator.tools.retroarch/bin/retroarch.start
ln -s /storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/emulator.tools.retroarch/* /storage/emulators
mkdir -p /storage/emulators/roms
mkdir -p /storage/emulators/advancedlauncher
# The next copy agame to test inside the rom folder (It's a Homebrew and free of use)
cd /storage/emulators/roms/ && wget https://misapuntesde.com/res/felix.zip && unzip felix.zip && rm felix.zip


Advanced Launcher & RetroArch Addons

Come back to *OpenELEC* and choose in the main menu *Programs > Add-ons > Get more... > Advanced Launcher* and press the *Install* button.

Select *Advanced Launcher > Default* **with the right mouse button** and choose *Add New Launcher* as you can see in the capture above, and follow the next steps:

Add New Launcher. Press to zoom.

Create New Launcher. Press to zoom.

1) **Create New Launcher > Files launcher**: When asked the application you want to launch, follow the following path: **Root filesystem/storage/.kodi/addons/emulator.tools.retroarch/bin/retroarch.sh**

Script Path. Press to zoom.

2) **Select files path**: We indicate the path of the *ROMS*: **Home folder/emulators/roms/**.

3) Now the *ROMs* extension, for *Genesis Megadrive* is **bin**.

ROMs extension. Press to zoom.

4) *Application arguments* we type: **picodrive "%rom%"** (or the name of the emulator you want to launch to the file extension. You can see list of supported platforms on the top of the post).

Emulator's name. Press to zoom.

5) Launcher title, I typed *Megadrive*.

Title. Press to zoom.

6) The platform, choose *Sega Genesis* from the list.

7) (**OPTIONAL**) I put *fanart* and *thubnails* inside **/storage/emulators/advancedlauncher**.You should then copy *.jpg* images inside that folder and add them manually pressing right mouse button on each game.

Repeat these steps for each emulator you want to have.

[ Add ROMs ]

Now we add *ROMS* clicking on each emulator, right mouse button and select *Add Items*.

Add Items. Press to zoom.

From now you can play your favorite emulators with hardware acceleration at **60 fps!**.

Advanced Launcher with preconfigured emulators. Press to zoom.

[ And now what? ]

To copy the *ROMS*, we can activate *SAMBA* protocol and copy from our Desktop computer.

When playing, press **F1** to enter the options menu of the emulator, and to select an option, press the key **X**, to return to the previous menu, **Z**. Press **ESC** to exit the game.

You can add more emulators. Go to project [lakkatv](https://github.com/lakkatv/Lakka/tree/lakka/packages/lakka) where you will find binaries, although I have not tried this method commented on the [forum](http://openelec.tv/forum/128-addons/72972-retroarch-addon-arm-rpi?start=90#124999), where you can also found *Amstrad, Amiga or ScummVM* binaries.

You'll be looking forward to playing with *Joystick*. When you're in the game, plug your pad or joystick and press **F1** option and select *settings > input > Bind all*. You can import your *RetroPie* configuration and overwrite *retroarch.cfg* file in the following path: **/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/emulator.tools.retroarch/config/**

Here's the final result in a video (sorry for quality, was in a hurry and did not look at the colors on screen):

OpenELEC Kodi con emuladores para la Raspberry Pi

I hope you enjoy my first guide of the year ;)

News source: [cria-o-teu-avatar.blogspot.com.br > Retroarch addon no OpenELEC para Raspberry Pi (Pt)](http://cria-o-teu-avatar.blogspot.com.br/2014/12/retroarch-addon-no-openelec-para.html)

Forum: [RetroArch Addon (arm RPI)](http://openelec.tv/forum/128-addons/72972-retroarch-addon-arm-rpi)