To be honest, for launch, I was kinda focused on the Linux apps, the OS setup, and facilitating the Commodore emulation......
I considered that a minimum viable product.
So the next phase for COS is the facilitation of that Commodore emulation further, via a retro ROM launching front-end (including meta-data hopefully), as well as including some more emulators. There may be multiple game front ends, both existing and new for Commodore OS.
If you're willing to wait, the SNES problem can easily be fixed in an update....otherwise you can install one or more of the following pretty easily.
RetroPie/EmulationStation
I nearly went with the RetroPie front end, but I got lost in the weeds trying to set it up just right and it was taking too long, and I really wanted to get COS out in 2023. The problem was I really wanted the games repository to be outside of your home folder, and under usr/share and whilst I made good progress when I changed some scripts, it was proving to be a bit of a headache.
It's easy enough to install though following the instructions at
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Debian/
But I really think one of the following two emulators capable of SNES emulation will be auto installed as standard in a future update.
I am leaning towards Mednafen, if only because it it will likely have better command line support for external game front ends.
Mednafen
Install it including the front-end with:
Annoyingly Mednaffe creates an icon in the Games menu rather than under Emulation.
Mednafen gives you emulation for:
Atari Lynx.
Neo Geo Pocket (Color).
WonderSwan.
GameBoy (Color).
GameBoy Advance.
Nintendo Entertainment System.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom.
Virtual Boy.
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (CD).
SuperGrafx.
PC-FX.
Sega Game Gear.
Sega Genesis/Megadrive.
Sega Master System.
Sega Saturn (experimental, x86_64 only).
Sony PlayStation.
Or
Higan
Install with:
"higan is an emulator for systems from Nintendo (SNES, NES, Gameboy,
Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance), Sega (Master System, Game Gear),
NEC (PC Engine, SuperGrafx) and Bandai (WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color).
It was formerly called bsnes and the SNES emulation is especially
complete and polished.
higan strives to provide the most faithful hardware emulation possible.
It focuses on accuracy and clean code, rather than speed and special
features. It is meant as a reference emulator to document how the underlying
hardware works. As a result the minimum system requirements are high."
I'd be interested in what you think or prefer and why?
