xovox/retrocrt

RetroPie on CRT! RetroTink, JAMMA, SCART & more!

Some License Nonsense

RetroCRT :: Utility suite to configure RetroPie for a CRT

Copyright (C) 2021 Duncan Brown (https://github.com/xovox)

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

RetroCRT's Future

I haven't needed to update RetroCRT for a while, everything works as I'd expect it to. There are features I'd like to add, but over all it's fairly mature.

RetroCRT

RetroCRT is a suite of tools designed to make RetroPie gaming on 15khz CRTs easy and user friendly. This only covers video output, JAMMA controls will be a separate project to increase maintainability.

The biggest advantage RetroCRT has over other RetroPie 15khz CRT toolsets/distributions is we're only updating configuration files line-by-line, so updating RetroPie should never be an issue. This means that RetroCRT should be able to coexist with RetroPie and probably almost everything else you're running.

RetroCRT Emulator Support

RetroCRT only supports Libretro cores, with a few exceptions. If you find a Libretro core that's not properly configured when you launch it, please see the issues page and file a new issue if you don't see your platform already requested

• Social/Support
  • RetroPie CRT Gamers is my group for RetroCRT and other tools/distributions
  • The issues page to submit bugs/unexpected behavior

Installation

See the manual.

Supported Hardware

• See the issues page to see planned supported hardware

• Raspberry Pi

  • 3 B & B+ are the only ones tested and supported
  • 4 is not currently supported

• TV: RetroTink Ultimate

  • Component & RGB only, for now
  • NTSC only, for now

• JAMMA Arcade: pi2jamma

• RGB: pi2scart

• RGB/VGA: GERT VGA 666

  • You can buy it on Amazon

What You Get

• My 240p EmulationStation theme, RetroCRT 240p!
• Only updates required lines in configs, preserving your personal customizations!
• 240p test suite roms for several console platforms!
• Easy installation!
• Pixel-perfect console emulation!
• Pixel-perfect arcade emulation for most games!
  • This is achieved with on-load screen resolution changes!
• Automatic rotation for vertical games!
• Installation of additional 15khz CRT Friendly EmulationStation themes!
• No system messages on boot/shutdown/reboot!
• My unbridled enthusiasm about building this project!

Troubleshooting

Before doing anything else, update RetroCRT! You can do this in the RetroPie screen in EmulationStation.

If that doesn't fix it, see the troubleshooting doc.

Notes on Resolutions

This is a hobby project, so I've made moves to make everything as simple & maintainable as possible.
The platforms I've been using this on are calibrated exclusively for 320x240 & 1920x240, and that's how RetroCRT behaves. You will see black borders around games that are < 240p, this is by design, I calculate aspect ratios based on vertical resolution. For example, 224p is calculated as follows (1920 / 4

To keep my hobby project maintainable, RetroCRT will use only 2 resolutions while you use it: 320x240 for console & EmulationStation as well as game play running 1920x240. This means that any game that runs < 240 will have black borders. I calculate correct aspect ratios for all games based on vertical resolution by calculating vertical percentage times max horizontal output, like (224 / 240) * 1920 = 1785.60 which is rounded up to the nearest even #. Hardware output resolution of 224p for uncalibrated sets is eventually coming, but I don't have alot of time to maintain this project.

Media

Most of this media is outdated as it's based on my previous theme

Videos

• Fresh Install of RetroCRT shows what you get out of the box
• RetroCRT Theme Demo shows what it looks like populated with snapshots & videos
• RetroCRT Configuration Files shows what you have living in /boot that you can edit on your PC, macOS, & Linux computer

Photo

• Screenshot

Resources

• The manual has a ton of info, read this to get up to speed

Footnotes

Splash music is Master Boot Record's After Burner

I am not affiliated with RetroPie, Mike Chi, RetroTink, pi2jamma, or anyone else. I'm doing this as a personal project.

Shout out to Vykran for the initial groundwork, though he seems to be PAL & I'm NTSC... which brought us to where we are now.

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