171w ago - Once and awhile something very cool slips by unreported, and today that happens to be the ZeroGame v0.50 multi-console emulator frontend for PS3 Linux (YDL) via OtherOS- sorry PlayStation 3 Slim owners.
Created by
ZeroJay, below is a video of it in action demonstrating the following videogame consoles emulated at these timestamps:
GameBoy Advance (GBA): 0:58, GameBoy (GB): 1:32, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME): 2:05, TurboGrafx-16 (TG-16): 2:41, Sega Genesis: 3:19, Super Nintendo (SNES): 4:01 and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): 5:10.
Download:
ZeroGame v0.50 for PS3 Linux /
ZeroGame v0.51 for PS3 Linux /
ZeroGame v0.52 for PS3 Linux /
ZeroGame SVN Repository /
Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 PS3 iSO (3.8GB) /
Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 PS3 iSO (3.8GB) [Mirror]
To quote from the video's caption: "In this video I am testing out The zerogame project created by zerojay. The project is a confluence of a number of different programs working behind the scenes on top of an optimized install of yellow dog linux 6.2.
The great aspect of this project is that the only effort required by you is to install yellow dog linux then install The Zerogame Project; that is it. No hunting down various emulators for various systems then tweaking and configuring each.
No configuring bluetooth for the sixaxis or dualshock 3. No need to learn a new operating system. Just follow zerojays txt guide. After the install you dont even need to touch a keyboard every thing can be controlled from the 6A/DS3. Note: the program is in beta at 0.5 so it still has kinks and is a work in progress."
From the ReadMe file: Zerogame is a bash shell script that will take a freshly installed copy of Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 on your PS3 and with a few minutes and occasional input from you will give you one good emulation box that you can boot up whenever you feel like playing some classics.
What do I need?
• Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 freshly installed on your PS3
• A working internet connection
• An HDTV that supports 1080p or 720p (480p/i and 576p/i support in the future)
• A wired USB keyboard
• One or more Sony Sixaxis/Dualshock3 controllers
How do I install zerogame?
1) Format your PS3 hard drive and allot at least 10GB of hard drive space to OtherOS. Create a backup, format and restore the backup afterwards if you don't want to lose any PS3 data. You will need an external USB drive for your backup, if you need to do one.
2) Download and burn the Yellow Dog Linux v6.2 ISO to a DVD
3) Install the Yellow Dog Linux bootloader to the PS3
4) Install Yellow Dog Linux v6.2 to your PS3 with the default options
You can disable Office & Productivity software set for faster installation of YDL.
5) Boot into Yellow Dog Linux.
There is no need to create a user. Firewall can be enabled or disabled, makes no difference.
6) Once post-installation setup is complete and you are at a graphical login screen, swap to a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F1) and login as root and type in your root password.
7) Run the following command to update YDL to fix the Bluetooth bugs:
yum update && reboot
8) Run the following command to download the zerogame script
wget http://thezerogameproject.com/releases/zerogame-0.50.tar.gz
9) Decompress the tarball using the following command:
tar zxvf ./zerogame-0.50.tar.gz
10) Make the installation script executable with the following command:
chmod 755 ./install-zerogame.sh
11) Run the script with the following command:
./install-zerogame.sh
12) Follow on-screen prompts
13) Reboot before use
How do I use zerogame?
After the installation and once the PS3 has rebooted, you'll need to put your ROMs in the correct places for Wahcade to find them. At this time, the directories are preset and aren't changable without directly editing the .ini files for each system. (See http://bugs.zerojay.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7 for more info.)
At this point, here is where zerogame expects the ROMs to be:
Atari Lynx: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/lynx/
Gameboy: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/gb/
Gameboy Advance: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/gba/
Gameboy Color: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/gbc
Sega Genesis/MegaDrive: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/gen/
Game Gear: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/gg/
Master System: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/sms/
MAME: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/mame/
NES: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/nes/
FDS: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/fds/
TG16: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/tg16/
SNES: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/snes/
Wonderswan: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/ws/
Wonderswan Color: /home/zerogame/gamefiles/roms/wsc/
You'll have to move or copy your ROMs there manually. Make sure that the ROMs are readable by the zerogame user as well.
Previews can also be installed and placed in the following directories:
/home/zerogame/gamefiles/previews/videos/[console]
/home/zerogame/gamefiles/previews/artwork1/[console]
/home/zerogame/gamefiles/previews/artwork2/[console]
In the current theme, artwork1 is shown in the box at the top left and artwork2 is shown in the box at the middle left. Video previews replace artwork1 in the top box after a few seconds, if they can be found.
Once the games are installed and you're ready to start using zerogame, unplug everything from your PS3's USB ports except for your USB keyboard.
Fluxbox will startup with an all-black background (to be changed in the future) and then launch Wahcade. Once Wahcade is running, you can turn on your PS3 controllers at any time by pressing the PS button on the controller. Wahcade will immediately index the games for the currently open system and then present a list of games for that console for you to select from.
As you scroll from console to console using the L1 and R1 buttons, Wahcade will index the games in each system's associated ROM directories and bring up a list. This indexing only happens once.
(Note: The indexing for MAME can take a VERY long time depending on how many ROMs you have in the set. As it indexes the games, it will appear to have frozen or crashed, but this is not the case. Indexing a full MAME ROM set takes me between 20 and 25 minutes and again, will only happen once.)
You should then be able to select any game from the list and be able to play it. Zerogame will attempt to scale the game to fit your screen while maintaining the same aspect ratio. It most likely won't completely fill up your screen but Zerogame will do its best.
To quit back to Wahcade from the emulator, press the PS button on the first controller.
To return to the PS3 GameOS, press the PS button on the first controller while in Wahcade.
What exactly is installed?
Software repositories added:
• PS3 Bodega
Software installed:
• wahcade (emulator frontend)
• mednafen (multisystem emulator, used for NES/TG-16/GB/GBC/GBA)
• sdlmame (tweaked SDL version of the MAME arcade emulator)
• sdlmame-tools (various tools for sdlmame)
• pygame (required for Wahcade joystick control)
• fscaler (tweaked scaler program, uses SPEs for scaling image)
• snes9x-gtk (snes9x with GTK GUI)
• portaudio (sound server used by snes9x-gtk)
• xe (multisystem emulator, used for Genesis)
• xorg-x11-utils (required by the scaler scripts)
• fluxbox (very lightweight window manager)
• gstreamer-python (required by Wahcade for music/previews)
• gstreamer-plugins-good (various plugins for gstreamer, used for music/previews in Wahcade)
• gstreamer-plugins-bad (various plugins for gstreamer, used for music/previews in Wahcade)
• gstreamer-plugins-ugly (various plugins for gstreamer, used for music/previews in Wahcade)
• gizmod (handler for joystick to keyboard control)
50 Comments - Go to Forum Thread »
• updated/reformatted Readme (attached, w/ a few changes from the one posted a few days ago)
• pre-zginstalll.sh script to update YDL repos BEFORE the yum update (IF doing a clean YDL install)
• adds option to autologin/autolaunch (like previous versions did) or to login/logout manually, if you want to use YDL for other purposes (Note: the manual option will ONLY work if you do a fresh install of YDL...it doesn't undo what previous ZG versions did). It should hopefully install over 0.50/0.51 if using the normal autologin option, but I haven't tested this
• adds option to install FTP server to access zerogame user folder to manage files remotely (code borrowed from 'refactor' menu-based installer on SVN)
• adds option to use XMAME for some arcade titles (full info in installation option) or not
• a few more game exceptions and game .cfg files for MAME to help them display properly
• added .bin/.rom extension to xe configs for Genesis/MegaDrive ROMs (since xe is only used for emulating Genesis/SegaCD)
• added extra line feeds to install script to better clarify 'sections' and a few notes to warn of issues
• changed the gamefiles folder creation to go ahead and make all the roms and previews folders on the PS3 HD even if a network share is used
• recopies an old version of /sbin/hwclock in case yum update installs a known bad update
• fully disables screensaver/display sleep while logged in as zerogame due to some users having it kick-in during gameplay (so don't leave it unattended w/ the TV on for long periods)
• maybe a few other misc. tweaks that I'm not recalling.
To really accurately test this, people willing to do fresh YDL installs are needed since installing over old versions isn't ideal testing conditions...esp. since the non-autologin option won't undo the autologin stuff older versions did. The more willing to test it and give feedback, the quicker we might have an official 0.52 (only 7-8 people downloaded the previous beta and only 2-3 of those gave any feedback).
For this beta, you will need to download the file BEFORE doing a yum update. Here is the modified install instructions for this beta:
1) Format your PS3 hard drive and allot at least 10GB of hard drive space to Other OS.
Create a backup, format and restore the backup afterwards if you don't want to lose any
PS3 data. You will need an external FAT32-formatted USB drive for your backup, if you
need to do one.
2) Download and burn the Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 ISO image to a DVD.
3) Install the Yellow Dog Linux bootloader to the PS3 ('Install Other OS' in PS3 System
Settings).
4) Boot Other OS and install Yellow Dog Linux 6.2 to your PS3 with the default options,
choosing a Root Password of your choice.
You can disable Office & Productivity software set for faster installation of YDL and if
you don't plan to use YDL for other purposes.
5) Boot into Yellow Dog Linux.
There is no need to create a user (it is recommended not to). Firewall can be enabled
or disabled...it makes no difference, except if you choose to install in non-autologin
mode and want to access files via LAN or be able to manage Zerogame files via FTP, in
which case it should be off or have FTP/SAMBA enabled on it.
6) Once post-installation setup is complete and you are at a graphical login screen, swap
to a console login (via Ctrl-Alt-F1), login as 'root' and type in your root password
chosen during YDL install.
7) Manually download or copy the zerogame_rev593xnxb2.tar.gz file to the root folder.
(You can Ctrl-Alt-F7 to go back to the graphical login screen and login as root there to
use Firefox, if needed)
8) Decompress the tarball using the following command:
tar zxvf ./zerogame_rev593xnxb2.tar.gz
9) Make the pre-install and install scripts executable with the following commands:
chmod 755 ./pre-zginstall.sh
chmod 755 ./install-zerogame.sh
10) Run the pre-install script to fix YDL update issues:
./pre-zginstall.sh
11) Run the following command to update YDL to fix some Bluetooth bugs:
yum update && reboot
12) After rebooting, run the install script with the following command:
./install-zerogame.sh
13) Follow on-screen prompts.
14) Reboot before use.
Keep in mind this IS a beta, so do not install over an existing Zerogame install you're happy with unless you don't mind the prospect of having to start over from scratch. Even if this is released as actual 0.52, it would still be recommended to start from a fresh YDL 6.2 install, but I may also be able to come up w/ an update file for 0.51 users that just replaces the main changed files.
Here it is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OW0LFP6S
BTW, 1 person downloaded a previously available beta 2 file...the only change has to do with folder creation if you choose to set up a LAN and use the non-autologin option (it just wouldn't create the folders on the PS3 HD anyway, as intended...there's no other problem with it).
NOTE ABOUT SETTING UP LAN: You likely won't get a computer name instead of an IP address to work unless you edit the /etc/nsswitch.conf file to change the hosts line (about half-way down the file) from hosts: files dns to hosts: files wins dns, save and reboot. This will be taken care of automatically in the installation script if this proposed 0.52 becomes official.
P.S. - I still haven't yet figured out the 90-120 sec. delay introduced if you rename your zerogame user folder and reinstall. I was also trying to do a script to update 0.51 to 0.52, but am not sure if that will work out too well (it may only partially update...w/o SD resolutions support or the ability to switch to a manual login option, among a few other things).