Some more updates to the user guide.

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Leon Styhre 2020-08-02 16:24:16 +02:00
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EmulationStation Desktop Edition - User Guide
=============================================
# EmulationStation Desktop Edition - User Guide
**Note:** This document is intended as a quick start guide, for more in-depth information and details on how to compile EmulationStation and perform more advanced configuration, please refer to the [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) document.
## Note: This guide is currently under construction!
**_Note: Currently under construction!_**
[[_TOC_]]
### Getting started
## Getting started
Getting started with EmulationStation is very easy, just make sure to install the software properly, either manually as built from source code or using one of the supplied packages. On Windows you'll use the installer instead of a package.
The installation procedure will not be covered here as it differs between operating system, so please refer to your operating system documentation for information regarding this topic. EmulationStation Desktop Edition is currently supplied as .deb and .rpm packages for Linux and as a standard NSIS installer for Windows.
The following operating systems have been tested:
* Kubuntu 20.04
* Windows 10 (x86)
* Windows 8.1 (x86)
Upon first startup, ES will create its home directory, by default the location is ~/.emulationstation.
On Unix this defaults to /home/<username>/.emulationstation/ and on Windows it defaults to C:\Users\<username>\.emulationstation\
A settings file, `es_settings.cfg` will be generated with all the default settings, and a `es_systems.cfg` file will also be copied from the program resource folder, that contains the game ROM and emulator settings.
A settings file, `es_settings.cfg` will be generated with all the default settings, and a `es_systems.cfg` file will also be copied from the program resource folder. This file contains the game ROM and emulator settings and can be modified if needed. For information on how to do this, refer to the [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) document.
There's a log file in the home directory as well named `es_log.txt`, please refer to this in case on any errors as it should provide information on what went wrong.
There's a log file in the home directory as well named `es_log.txt`, please refer to this in case of any errors as it should provide information on what went wrong.
Upon startup with the default settings, ES is set to the gamelist view style `AUTOMATIC`. In this mode the application will look for any game media files (videos and images) and set the view style accordingly. If at least one image is found for any game for a certain system, the view style `DETAILED` will be shown and if at least one video file is found, the view style `VIDEO` will be selected. The gamelist view styles are described in more detail later in this document.
Upon startup with the default settings, ES is set to the gamelist view style `AUTOMATIC`. In this mode the application will look for any game media files (videos and images) and set the view style accordingly. If at least one image is found for any game for a certain system, the view style `DETAILED` will be shown, and if at least one video file is found, the view style `VIDEO` will be selected. The gamelist view styles are described in more detail later in this document.
Main screen
===========
## Main screen
When starting EmulationStation with the default settings, you will see the main screen first. From here you can navigate your systems and enter their respective gamelists. If there are no game systems installed, you will not see this screen but rather an error message will be displayed, informing you that no games could be found.
When starting EmulationStation with the default settings, you will see the main screen first. From here you can navigate your game systems and enter their respective gamelists. If there are no game systems installed, you will not see this screen but rather an error message will be displayed, informing you that no games could be found.
Depending on the theme, the system navigation carousel can be horizontal or vertical. The default theme rbsimple-DE provides horizontal navigation, i.e. you browse your systems be scrolleft left or right.
Depending on the theme, the system navigation carousel can be horizontal or vertical. The default theme rbsimple-DE provides horizontal navigation, i.e. you browse your systems be scrolling left or right.
Help system and general navigation
==================================
## Help system and general navigation
There is a help system available throughout the application that provides an overview of the possible actions and buttons that can be used. It's possible to disable the help system, but it's enabled by default.
Main menu
=========
## Gamelist view
This menu can accessed from both the main screen, and from the gamelist views. It contains the scraper, the quit/restart/power-off menu as well as the application settings.
The gamelist is where you browse and start the games, and it's where you will spend most of your time when using ES.
Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entry.
## SCRAPER
## Main menu
This menu can be accessed from both the main screen and from the gamelist views. It contains the scraper, the quit menu as well as the application settings.
For a breakdown of all the settings in the main menu, see the reference section lower in this document.
## Game options menu
This menu is opened from the gamelists, and can't be accessed directly from the main screen. The menu changes slightly depending on the context, namely whether a game file or a folder is selected, and whether the current system is a collection or a normal game platform.
You open this menu by pressing the `Select` key.
Here's a summary of the menu entries:
### JUMP TO..
This provides the ability to quick jump to a certain letter. If the setting to sort favorite games above non-favorites has been selected (it is enabled by default), then it's also possible to jump to the favorites games by choosing the star symbol.
### SORT GAMES BY
This is the sort order for the gamelist. There's is a global sort order setting that can be changed in the main menu, and it's this sort order that is also shown here unless it's been modified during the program sessions. The sort order is persistent per game system throughout the program session.
### FILTER GAMELIST
Choosing this entry opens a separate screen where it's possible to apply a filter for the gamelists, which is persistent throughout the program session, or until the filter is reset. The option to reset the filter is also shown on the separate screen.
### EDIT THIS GAME'S METADATA / EDIT THIS FOLDER'S METADATA
This opens the metadata editor, which will be described in detail below.
### ADD/REMOVE GAMES TO THIS GAME COLLECTION
This is only shown if the system is a collection. This will also be described in more detail below.
## Metadata editor
In the metadata editor, you can modify the metadata for a game, scrape for game info and media files and delete media files or the entire game.
The following entries can be modified:
**NAME**
This is the game that will be shown when browsing the gamelist. If no sortname has been defined, the games are sorted using this field.
**SORTNAME**
This entry makes it possible to change the sorting of a game without having to change its name. For instance it can be used to sort **Mille Miglia** as **1000 Miglia** or **The Punisher** as **Punisher, The**.
**DESCRIPTION**
Usually provided by the scraper although it's possible to update this manually or write your own game description.
**RATING**
Ratings in half-star increments. Can be set as such manually or be scraped, if the scraper service provides ratings (currently only ScreenScraper does).
**RELEASE DATE**
Release date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD).
**DEVELOPER**
Developer of the game.
**PUBLISHER**
Publisher of the game.
**GENRE**
One or multiple genres for the game.
**PLAYERS**
The amount of players the game supports.
**FAVORITE**
A flag to indicate whether this is a favorite. Can also be set directly from the gamelist by using the **Y** key.
**COMPLETED**
A flag to indicate whether you have completed this game.
**BROKEN/NOT WORKING**
A flag to indicate whether the game is broken. Useful for MAME games for instance where future releases may make the game functional.
**HIDDEN**
A flag to indicate the game is hidden. If the corresponding option has been set on the main menu, the game will not be shown. Useful for examle for DOS games to hide batch scripts, configuration tools etc.
**KIDGAME**
A flag to mark whether the game is suitable for children. This will be applied as a filter when starting ES in 'Kid mode'.
**COUNT AS GAME**
A flag to indicate whether the game should be counted. It's only used for the game system counter on the main screen, but is quite useful for multi-file games such multi-disk Amiga or Commodore 64 games, or for DOS games configuration executables that you want to keep in ES and therefore can't hide.
**LAUNCH COMMAND**
Here you can override the launch command for the game, for example to use a different emulator than the default for the game system. Very useful for MAME/arcade games.
**PLAY COUNT**
A statistics counter that counts how many times you're played the game. You normally don't need to touch this, but if you want to, the possibility is there.
## Scraper
The scraper supports downloading of game metadata and media files from the Internet. Currently two scraper services are supported, ScreenScraper.fr and TheGamesDB.net.
## Getting your games into EmulationStation
For most systems, this is very straightforward, just put your game files into the folder corresponding to the system name. These names can be found in the end of this document.
# Reference information
## Main menu entries
### SCRAPER
**SCRAPE FROM**
@ -51,7 +181,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SYSTEMS**
### CONTENT SETTINGS
#### CONTENT SETTINGS
**SCRAPE GAME NAMES**
@ -67,7 +197,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SCRAPE 3D BOX IMAGES**
### OTHER SETTINGS
#### OTHER SETTINGS
**REGION**
@ -80,7 +210,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**AUTO-ACCEPT SINGLE GAME MATCHES**
## UI SETTINGS
### UI SETTINGS
**GAMELIST TO SHOW ON STARTUP**
@ -108,7 +238,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SHOW START MENU IN KID MODE**
### SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
#### SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
**SCREENSAVER AFTER**
@ -116,7 +246,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SCREENSAVER BEHAVIOR**
### VIDEO SCRENSAVER SETTINGS
#### VIDEO SCRENSAVER SETTINGS
**SWAP VIDEOS AFTER (SECS)**
@ -124,7 +254,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**PLAY AUDIO FOR SCREENSAVER VIDEO FILES**
### SLIDESHOW SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
#### SLIDESHOW SCREENSAVER SETTINGS
**SWAP IMAGES AFTER (SECS)**
@ -141,7 +271,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**CUSTOM IMAGE FILTER**
## SOUND SETTINGS
### SOUND SETTINGS
**SYSTEM VOLUME**
@ -150,7 +280,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**NAVIGATION SOUNDS**
## GAME COLLECTION SETTINGS
### GAME COLLECTION SETTINGS
**AUTOMATIC GAME COLLECTIONS**
@ -167,7 +297,7 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SHOW SYSTEM NAMES IN COLLECTIONS**
## OTHER SETTINGS
### OTHER SETTINGS
**VRAM LIMIT**
@ -198,10 +328,10 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**SHOW "POWER OFF SYSTEM" MENU ENTRY**
## CONFIGURE INPUT
### CONFIGURE INPUT
## QUIT
### QUIT
**QUIT EMULATIONSTATION**
@ -210,138 +340,111 @@ Here is a breakdown of the complete menu, with a brief explanation for each entr
**POWER OFF SYSTEM**
Game options menu
=================
This menu is opened from the gamelists, and can't be accessed directly from the main screen. The menu changes slightly depending on the context, namely whether a game file or a folder is selected, and whether the current system is a collection or a normal game platform.
## JUMP TO..
This provides the ability to quick jump to a certain letter.
## SORT GAMES BY
## FILTER GAMELIST
## EDIT THIS GAME'S METADATA / EDIT THIS FOLDER'S METADATA
## ADD/REMOVE GAMES TO THIS GAME COLLECTION
Scraper
=======
The scraper supports downloading of game metadata and media files from the Internet. Currently two scraper services are supported, ScreenScraper.fr and TheGamesDB.net.
Getting your games into EmulationStation
========================================
For most systems, this is very straightforward, just put your game files into the folder corresponding to the system name. These names can be found in the end of this document.
Supported game systems
======================
## Supported game systems
Here is the list of supported game systems:
| Platform Name | Full Name | Recommmended game setup |
| --------------------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| 3do | 3DO | |
| ags | Adventure Game Studio | |
| amiga | Amiga | .hdf WHDLoad harddisk images or .adf disk images |
| amiga600 | Amiga 600 | .hdf WHDLoad harddisk images or .adf disk images |
| amiga1200 | Amiga 1200 |
| amstradcpc | Amstrad CPC |
| apple2 | Apple II |
| arcade | Arcade |
| astrocade | Bally Astrocade |
| atari2600 | Atari 2600 |
| atari5200 | Atari 5200 |
| atari7800 | Atari 7800 ProSystem |
| atari800 | Atari 800 |
| atarijaguar | Atari Jaguar |
| atarijaguarcd | Atari Jaguar CD |
| atarilynx | Atari Lynx |
| atarist | Atari ST |
| atarixe | Atari XE |
bbcmicro BBC Micro
c64 Commodore 64
cavestory Cave Story (NXEngine)
channelf Fairchild Channel F
coco Tandy Color Computer
coleco ColecoVision
daphne Daphne Arcade Laserdisc Emulator
doom Doom
dos DOS (PC)
dragon32 Dragon 32
dreamcast Sega Dreamcast
famicom Nintendo Family Computer
fba Final Burn Alpha
fbneo FinalBurn Neo
fds Famicom Disk System
gameandwatch Nintendo Game and Watch
gamegear Sega Gamegear
gamecube Nintendo GameCube
gb Game Boy
gba Game Boy Advance
gbc Game Boy Color
genesis Sega Genesis
intellivision Mattel Electronics Intellivision
chailove ChaiLove game engine
lutro Lutro game engine
macintosh Apple Macintosh
mame Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
mame-advmame AdvanceMAME
mame-libretro Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
mame-mame4all MAME4ALL
mastersystem Sega Master System
megadrive Sega Mega Drive
mess Multi Emulator Super System
moonlight Moonlight game streaming
msx MSX
msx1 MSX1
msx2 MSX2
n64 Nintendo 64
nds Nintendo DS
neogeo Neo Geo
nes Nintendo Entertainment System
ngp Neo Geo Pocket
ngpc Neo Geo Pocket Color
odyssey2 Magnavox Odyssey2
openbor OpenBOR game engine
oric Tangerine Computer Systems Oric
pc IBM PC
pcengine NEC PC Engine
pcenginecd NEC PC Engine CD
pcfx NEC PC-FX
ports Ports
ps2 Sony PlayStation 2
psp PlayStation Portable
psvita PlayStation Vita
psx Sony PlayStation 1
residualvm ResidualVM game engine
samcoupe SAM Coupé
saturn Sega Saturn
scummvm ScummVM game engine
sega32x Sega 32X
segacd Sega Mega-CD
sg-1000 Sega SG-1000
snes Super Nintendo
solarus Solarus game engine
stratagus Stratagus game engine
supergrafx NEC SuperGrafx
tg16 NEC TurboGrafx-16
tg-cd NEC TurboGrafx-CD
ti99 Texas Instruments TI-99
trs-80 Tandy TRS-80
vectrex Vectrex
videopac Philips Videopac G7000 (Magnavox Odyssey2)
virtualboy Nintendo Virtual Boy
wii Nintendo Wii
wiiu Nintendo Wii U
wonderswan Bandai WonderSwan
wonderswancolor Bandai WonderSwan Color
x68000 Sharp X68000
xbox Microsoft Xbox
xbox360 Microsoft Xbox 360
zmachine Infocom Z-machine
zx81 Sinclair ZX81
zxspectrum Sinclair ZX Spectrum
3do
ags
amiga
amiga600
amiga1200
amstradcpc
apple2
arcade
astrocade
atari2600
atari5200
atari7800
atari800
atarijaguar
atarijaguarcd
atarilynx
atarist
atarixe
bbcmicro
c64
cavestory
channelf
coco
coleco
daphne
doom
dos
dragon32
dreamcast
famicom
fba
fbneo
fds
gameandwatch
gamegear
gamecube
gb
gba
gbc
genesis
intellivision
chailove
lutro
macintosh
mame
mame-advmame
mame-libretro
mame-mame4all
mastersystem
megadrive
mess
moonlight
msx
msx1
msx2
n64
nds
neogeo
nes
ngp
ngpc
odyssey2
openbor
oric
pcengine
pcenginecd
pcfx
ports
ps2
psp
psvita
psx
residualvm
samcoupe
saturn
scummvm
sega32x
segacd
sg-1000
snes
solarus
stratagus
supergrafx
tg16
tg-cd
ti99
trs-80
vectrex
videopac
virtualboy
wii
wiiu
wonderswan
wonderswancolor
x68000
xbox
xbox360
zmachine
zx81
zxspectrum