- RetroFE Cross-platform MAME Frontend
- Getting Started
- Installing on MacOS
- Compiling and installing on Ubuntu Linux (10.04 or newer)
- Compiling and installing on Windows
- Compiling and Installing on Raspberry Pi 2 (raspbian)
- Authors
- License
RetroFE is a cross-platform frontend designed for MAME cabinets/game centers/etc. with a focus on simplicity and customization.
The full releases contain a 32-bit Windows executable (in the core directory, with a link in the RetroFE directory) and a 64 bit Linux executable (in the RetroFE directory). If you run Linux however, depending on your distribution, you may need to compile your own executable from the source. MacOS users will always need to compile their own executable.
Additional themes can be downloaded from the Themes page.
Note: Some people report that for windows the installation of a codec pack for video playback may be needed. A suggestion would be to download Shark’s STANDARD video codec pack .
Note: Windows users will require a recent version of Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio.
The quickest and easiest way to install RetroFE for mac is to use Homebrew and type:
brew install retrofe
This will install RetroFE in /usr/local/opt/retrofe. RetroFE can then be started by typing 'retrofe'.
brew linkapps retrofe
(RetroFE requires a backend to load the emulator cores)
brew cask install retroarch
RetroArch will be installed in /Applications. The RetroFE's sample configuration is setup to use RetroArch for mac. Before starting RetroFE you need to start up RetroArch to download the Genesis Plus GX core and the MAME 2014 core as an example. In RetroArch use arrow keys to move and select by hitting X on the keyboard "Online Updater" -> "Core Updater" -> "". Also run "Online Updater" -> "" to keep RetroArch up to snuff. Check out RetroArch's documentation to learn more. Especially read about using Shaders to make your games look even better.
Brew installs applications in /usr/local/Cellar and symlinks the latest version number to /usr/local/opt. This path will not be visible to Finder.
To expose it open Finder and pin the retrofe folder to the Sidebar:
In Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder -> /usr/local/opt/retrofe
In Finder -> File -> Add to Sidebar
The issue is with the png files that are being used with the Artwork. Libpng is pretty touchy about it. You can get rid of these messages with a handy tool called pngcrush found on sourceforge and github.
** Error message: **
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
** Install pngcrush on Mac: ** (linux use apt-get ?)
brew install pngcrush
** Use pngcrush to Find and repair pngs: **
find /usr/local/opt/retrofe/collections -type f -iname '*.png' -exec pngcrush -ow -rem allb -reduce {} \;
RetroFE will load it's media and configuration files relative to where the binary file is located. This allows the build to be portable. If you want RetroFE to load your configuration from a fixed location regardless of where your install is copy your configuration there and set $RETROFE_PATH. Note this will work if you start RetroFE from the command line.
vi ~/.bash_profile
export RETROFE_PATH=/your/new/retrofe
Depending on your version of OS X the GUI will read user defined Environment variables from another place. If you find this dificult to setup you can get around it by creating a text file in your HOME directory: /Users//.retrofe with one line no spaces: /your/new/retrofe. This will also work in Linux. RetroFE's configuration search order is 1st: ENV, Flat file, and executable location.
** See below for optional flat file example **
echo /your/new/retrofe > ~/.retrofe
If you don't use Homebrew you will need to download and install the same dependencies as given in the linux instuctions. You may need to export the libs with $LIBRARY_PATH and or supply the include folders with $CPATH before building.
export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/opt/gst-plugins-base/lib:/usr/local/opt/gstreamer/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/opt/glib/lib:/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib
Download the source code:
git clone https://github.com/pixelpicnic/RetroFE
Generate your gcc make files:
cd retrofe
cmake RetroFE/Source -BRetroFE/Build -DVERSION_MAJOR=0 -DVERSION_MINOR=0 -DVERSION_BUILD=0
Compile RetroFE and create a full environment (ensure --os=mac !):
cmake --build RetroFE/Build
python Scripts/Package.py --os=mac --build=full
Copy your live RetroFE system to any folder of your choosing: cp -r Artifacts/mac/RetroFE /your/ideal/retrofe/path
Install necessary dependencies:
sudo apt-get install git g++ cmake dos2unix zlib1g-dev libsdl2-2.0 libsdl2-mixer-2.0 libsdl2-image-2.0 libsdl2-ttf-2.0 libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-libav zlib1g-dev libglib2.0-0 libglib2.0-dev sqlite3
Download the source code:
git clone https://github.com/pixelpicnic/RetroFE
Generate your gcc make files:
cd retrofe
cmake RetroFE/Source -BRetroFE/Build -DVERSION_MAJOR=0 -DVERSION_MINOR=0 -DVERSION_BUILD=0
Compile RetroFE and create a full environment:
cmake --build RetroFE/Build
python Scripts/Package.py --os=linux --build=full
Copy your live RetroFE system to any folder of your choosing: cp -r Artifacts\linux\RetroFE /your/ideal/retrofe/path
** Visit the RetroFE downloads page to download a precompiled version if you do not want to compile your own. **
Install Python 2.7
Install sphinx with python
Install visual studio 2012
Install Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .net Framework 4 http:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279
Install cmake
Install tortoisehg
Install 7zip
Install gstreamer and gstreamer-devel to c:/gstreamer(x86, not 64 bit!) from http:https://gstreamer.freedesktop/org/data/pkg/windows/1.4.0
Download the source code
git clone https://github.com/pixelpicnic/RetroFE
Setup Environment (to setup necessary variables and paths to compile in visual studio)
cd retrofe
Generate visual studio solution files
cmake RetroFE/Source -BRetroFE/Build -DGSTREAMER_ROOT=C:\gstreamer\1.0\x86
Compile RetroFE and create a full environment by running the following commands
cmake --build RetroFE/Build --config Release
python Scripts\Package.py --os=windows --build=full
Copy your live RetroFE system to any folder of your choosing. files can be found in Artifacts\windows\RetroFE
** Due to performance, the Rasperry Pi 1 is not supported. **
Just run the following on your raspberry pi 2 (assuming you have an internet connection:
bash <(curl -s https://github.com/pixelpicnic/RetroFE/Scripts/Raspi2/install.sh)
This Repo was forked from phulshof/RetroFE and all thanks go to phulshof for putting this project together.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt file for details