RetroArch Official 0.9.8 PS3 build released by squarepusher

Update:: SNES9XNext Core has been fixed. Please re-download from the links below

The evolution of RetroArch and its libretro cores continues with the official 0.9.8 PS3 build release by Themaister & Squarepusher aka TwinAphex.

This new version of RetroArch includes some new cores: Mednafen_neo_pop (Neo Geo Pocket / Color) & Mednafen_VB (Virtual Boy). These two cores first appeared on a recent unofficial build from pete_uk's (0.9.8 Beta 3). Nestopia an alternate NES core is a newly added core and I must say i been playing with this for about a week in an unofficial build and it performs quite nicely. There has been improvements to all parts of RetroArch including updates to all the libretro cores, Various fixes/additions such as Onscreen keyboard, An added PAL60 temporal PAL mode, Fixes to a lot of path issues, Added rewind granularity options & also a Rewrite of the video driver from scratch (RGL v2). Plus many more Changes/Additions you can view in the change log below.

Also released today was an android port for RetroArch so be sure to check that out @ Google Play. As well as updates to the Wii port of RetroArch. Thank you Themaister & Squarepusher for your continued support on one of the best PS3 homebrew apps ever produced.

PS3 Changelog for RetroArch 0.9.8 official:

RETROARCH CONSOLE
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v0.9.8
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[LIBRETRO] Added Mednafen NGP and Mednafen VB.
[LIBRETRO] Added NEStopia Undead (1.44).
[LIBRETRO] Updated Mednafen PCE Fast and Mednafen Wonderswan to 0.9.28.
[FBA] Updated Final Burn Alpha to 0.9.27.28.
[Gambatte] Updated Gambatte (now has built-in GBC BIOS color palettes).
[SNES9x Next] Updated SNES9x Next (fixes numerous bugs).
[FCEUmm] Updated FCEUmm to latest version.
[Genesis Plus GX] Updated Genesis Plus GX to latest version.
(RARCH_CONSOLE) Various stability fixes
(RARCH_CONSOLE) More sane unzipping mode - will temporarily extract file to HDD and then instantly delete it when it's done with it (ie. when another ROM gets loaded or when RetroArch shuts down)
(RARCH_CONSOLE) All console ports now use 59.94Hz for synchronization on the RetroArch side instead of 59.92Hz as before. All consoles use 59.94Hz
so this agrees better with them.
(PS3) Added PAL60 temporal PAL mode
(PS3) Fixed a lot of path issues - SRAM/savestate dir enable now work, 'Default ROM directory' should now work, etc.
(PS3) Added rewind granularity options
(PS3) Rewrote video driver from scratch (RGL v2). Faster blitting.
(PS3) Onscreen keyboard should work again.

Click the spoiler below for Important Info or Visit this LINK

RetroArch 0.9.8 README File

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RETROARCH PS3 - 0.9.8
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RetroConsole Level: 2
Author: Themaister, Squarepusher/Twin Aphex
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO INSTALL THIS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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ON DEBUG (DEX) PS3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Put the PKG file 'retroarch-ps3-v0.9.8-dex.pkg' on your
USB stick, put it in your PS3. Go to the PS3 XMB - go to the
Game tab - Select 'Install Packages', and install the PKG file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON CFW P3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Put the PKG file 'retroarch-ps3-v0.9.8-cfw.pkg' on your
USB stick. Put it in your CFW PS3. Go to the PS3 XMB - go to the
Game tab - select 'Install Packages', and install the PKG file.

NOTE: The official release no longer supports Geohot/Wutangzra
CFWs. If you must use them, you have to do pkg_finalize on the PKG
to install it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO USE THIS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On first startup, RetroArch will select one of the dozen or
so emulator/game cores. The name of the core currently loaded will
be shown at the top side of the screen.

You can now select a ROM that this core supports and load it in
the Filebrowser.

To select a different core in the menu - press Select to go to the
Settings screen. From here, go to the 'Retro tab', and select
'Default emulator core'. Press X to go to a filebrowser where you
can select a different core. Press X to confirm, then exit
RetroArch. Start up again to boot up to the new emulator core.

To change to a different core ingame - press R3 to bring up
the 'Quick Menu'. Select 'Change libretro core'. Press X to
go to a filebrowser where you can select a different core.

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INGAME CONTROLS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During ingame operation you can do some extra actions:

Right Thumb Stick - Down - Fast-forwards the game
Right Thumb Stick - Up - Rewinds the game in real-time
('Rewind' has to be enabled in the
'Settings' menu - warning - comes at a
performance decrease but will be worth it
if you love this feature)
RStick Left + R2 - Decrease save state slot
Rtick Right + R2 - Increase save state slot
RStick Up + R2 - Load selected save state slot
RStick Down + R2 - Save selected save state slot
L3 + R3 - Go back to 'Menu'/'Quick Menu'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS RETROARCH?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RetroArch is a modular multi-system emulator system that is
designed to be fast, lightweight and portable. It has features
few other emulator frontends have, such as real-time rewinding
and game-aware shading.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS LIBRETRO?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Libretro is the API that RetroArch uses. It makes it easy to
port games and emulators to a single core backend, such as
RetroArch.

For the user, this means - more ports to play with, more
crossplatform portability, less worrying about developers having
to reinvent the wheel writing boilerplate UI/port code - so that
they can get busy with writing the emulator/porting the emulator/game.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right now it's unique in that it runs the same emulator cores on
multiple systems (such as Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, Xbox 1, etc).

For each emulator 'core', RetroArch makes use of a library API that
we like to call 'libretro'.

Think of libretro as an interface for emulator and game ports. You
can make a libretro port once and expect the same code to run on all
the platforms that RetroArch supports. It's designed with simplicity
and ease of use in mind so that the porter can worry about the port
at hand instead of having to wrestle with an obfuscatory API.

The purpose of libretro is to help ease the work of the emulator/game
porter by giving him an API that allows him to target multiple
platforms at once without having to redo any code. He doesn't have
to worry about writing input/video/audio drivers - all of that is
supplied to him by RetroArch. All he has to do is to have the emulator
port hook into the libretro API and that's it - we take care of the rest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLAYSTATION3 PORT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PS3 port of RetroArch is one of the most developed console ports
of RetroArch.

A couple of unique features RetroArch PS3 boasts that is not commonly
found anywhere else:

- Game-aware shading in every emulator now (*)
- Real-time rewinding
- More shader features (motion blurring, etc)
- Switching between emulator cores seamlessly, and ability to install new
libretro cores

Included with RetroArch PS3 are a bunch of shaders - including the
latest versions of the popular xBR shader. It is possible to use two
shaders simultaneously to get the best possible graphical look.

* Check out Opium2k's manual shaders for Zelda 3 and others - you can
find DLC packs for RetroArch at this site:

https://code.google.com/p/retro-arch/

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EMULATOR/GAME CORES BUNDLED WITH PS3 PORT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following emulators have been ported to RetroArch and are included
in the PS3 release of RetroArch.

For more information about them, see the included
'retroarch-libretro-README.txt' file.

- Final Burn Alpha (Arcade - various) [version 0.2.97.28]
- FCEUmm (Nintendo Entertainment System) [recent SVN version]
- NEStopia (Nintendo Entertainment System) [1.44]
- Gambatte (Game Boy | Super Game Boy | Game Boy Color) [version 0.5.0 WIP]
- Genesis Plus GX (Sega SG-1000 | Master System | Game Gear | Genesis/Mega Drive |
Sega CD) [version 1.7.3]
- SNES9x Next (Super Nintendo/Super Famicom)
- VBA Next (Game Boy Advance)
- Prboom (for playing Doom 1/Doom 2/Ultimate Doom/Final Doom)
- Mednafen PCE Fast (PC Engine/PC Engine CD/Turbografx 16)
- Mednafen Wonderswan (WonderSwan/WonderSwan Color/WonderSwan Crystal)
- Mednafen NGP (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
- Mednafen VB (Virtual Boy)

All of the emulators listed above are the latest versions currently
available. Most of them have been specifically optimized so that they
will run better on PS3 (some games would not reach fullspeed without these optimizations).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT EXTENSIONS ARE SUPPORTED BY EACH CORE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Prboom WAD|wad
- SNES9x Next smc|fig|sfc|gd3|gd7|dx2|bsx|swc|zip|SMC|FIG|SFC|BSX|GD3|
GD7|DX2|SWC
- Genesis Plus GX md|smd|bin|gen|zip|MD|SMD|bin|GEN|ZIP|sms|SMS|gg|GG|sg|SG|
cue|CUE
- VBA Next GBA|gba
- FCEUmm nes|NES|unif|UNIF
- NEStopia nes|NES|fds|FDS
- Gambatte gb|gbc|dmg|zip|GB|GBC|DMG|ZIP
- Final Burn Alpha zip|ZIP
- Mednafen PCE pce|PCE|cue|CUE
- Mednafen Wonderswan ws|WS|wsc|WSC
- Mednafen NGP ngp|NGP
- Mednafen VB vb|VB

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZIP SUPPORT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selecting a ZIP file will temporarily unzip that file to the harddrive. The
temporary file will be deleted as soon as the game gets unloaded and/or when
you quit RetroArch.

NOTE: For the FBA core (and other cores that have 'block_extract' set to
true) - selecting a ZIP file from the Filebrowser will load that game
directly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Troubleshooting
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you find that RetroArch no longer works for whatever reason, there is
a way to get it back to work -

- Remove retroarch.cfg from the 'SSNE100000' folder, then start up again.
The Libretro management service in RetroArch should automatically pick a
random libretro core and write this to the config file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can you expect in the future?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Do a Blackberry Playbook/Blackberry 10 RetroArch port
- Do an iOS port of RetroArch (will need hardware for this - gifts appreciated)
- Make the libxenon port release-worthy.
- Add console-friendly features (nicely formatted names for FBA, some better
way to do core switching, etc)
- Fix NxEngine issues on consoles
- Finish up MAME 0.72 port
- Finish up ScummVM port
- Port of VICE to libretro
- More emulators, more games that will run on RetroArch
- Lots of other crazy ideas that might or might not pan out

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Mudlord for his Waterpaint/Noise shaders.
- Hyllian for the xBR shader.
- Opium2k for the nice manual shaders (bundled with PS3 release).
- Deank for assistance with RetroArch Salamander on CFW PS3s and
Multiman interoperability.
- FBA devs for adopting the libretro port.
- Ekeeke for help with the Genesis Plus GX port.
- ToadKing for having done a lot of work on RetroArch Wii.
- Freakdave for helping out with the Xbox 1 port.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Websites
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitter: http://twitter.com/libretro
Source: http://github.com/libretro
Homepage: http://www.libretro.org
Opium2K DLC for RetroArch: https://code.google.com/p/retro-arch/
IRC: #retroarch (freenode)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

** Some users have experienced some bugs in this version, The RetroArch Developers are working on a new version that will be released soon. In the meantime if you experience bugs please revert to 0.9.8 beta 3 a compile by pete_uk

Download: RetroArch v0.9.8

Mirror: Brewology (PKG Only)

Source: Libretro Twitter & XBINS.org

Resigned for 3.41-4.xx CFW by CaptainCPS-X
SNES9xNext Core re-compiled by pete_uk

Other useful RetroArch Links

PSX-SCENE: The Pinnacle Scene Xenocracy

● Latest News ● Report News ● Search Forums ● Hall of Fame ●
● Facebook.com/PSXScene ● RSS ● Twitter.com/psx_scene ●

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37 Comments

STLcardsWS - 01-27-2013, 05:42 AM
- Reply
I think it suppose to delete the file after unzipping/using it. so essentially that what it does as the user will never seen the unzipped contents

tranby - 01-27-2013, 07:26 AM
- Reply
i can confirm i have the retroarch working on rogero 4.30 v 205 and the latest mm 4.19

but i only have the snes folder and not genisis dont know why
but when im in mm and pick a rom it kicks me back to retroarch main screen

does anyone know why

update also i could not get the squarepushers retroarch to load so i had to use pete uk updated version with the snes folder
hence thats why i think i only have the snes folder but dont know how to get the genisis to work

NOXPLOAD - 01-28-2013, 05:06 PM
- Reply
There is a bug with the FBA core. When playing CAVE roms (Battle Bakraid, Armored Police Batrider) the buttons do not function and when going to the game menu I cannot use the R trigger button to configure controlls.

Also in my testing the new roms Doddonpachi 2:Bee Storm and Demon Front run slow and crash the PS3. Don't know if the original authors were aware of this or not but I truly appreciate the effort in making this great homebrew app. Everthing else is great.

JOshISPoser - 01-28-2013, 05:46 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by STLcardsWS

I think it suppose to delete the file after unzipping/using it. so essentially that what it does as the user will never seen the unzipped contents

don't some saves depend on the game being zipped or not? like, the name of the save changes, doesn't it?

i've never extensively tested cause i never really had to.

STLcardsWS - 01-28-2013, 06:05 PM
- Reply
There is a bug with the FBA core. When playing CAVE roms (Battle Bakraid, Armored Police Batrider) the buttons do not function and when going to the game menu I cannot use the R trigger button to configure controlls.

Also in my testing the new roms Doddonpachi 2:Bee Storm and Demon Front run slow and crash the PS3. Don't know if the original authors were aware of this or not but I truly appreciate the effort in making this great homebrew app. Everthing else is great.

Sqaurepusher know there is some issues in the FBA core. There will be a new release soon. That will correct some of those errors.

don't some saves depend on the game being zipped or not? like, the name of the save changes, doesn't it?

i've never extensively tested cause i never really had to.

good question i am not sure. but it shouldnt matter as it always playing the actual rom not the zip name it self.

JOshISPoser - 01-28-2013, 06:14 PM
- Reply
thanks. i was more or less making sure sram saves or save slots were being kept.

i have had a donkey kong save going for a while from emu to emu and i think it worked on ssnes or one of those top ones.

NOXPLOAD - 01-28-2013, 07:59 PM
- Reply
Thank you. I guess I'll revert to the previous version of RetroArch beta 3 as the controls was working with that version.

JOshISPoser - 01-29-2013, 02:52 AM
- Reply
okay, well, i finally tried this out and, humph...

the cores are really messed up for me. i select snes9x, it loads prboom, i choose prboom, i get mednafen_vb and then finally when i choose gens, i get snes9x which is what i wanted.

i then proceeded to test out fbalpha and fbalpha_neo to try to play windjammers and both said video ram error. it worked perfectly fine before this update. i'm pretty good though for waiting cause i'm in no rush with image backups working atm of psx games.

STLcardsWS - 01-29-2013, 11:10 AM
- Reply
Did you try a current download? here. The older downloads would of done that the new one would shouldn't of..

But i know that this official 0.9.8 is buggy. Squarepusher knows that and will be coming with a new version The focus was on the android port and there was a few things that were overlooked in the consoles. nothing major but its causing weird bugs. My advise is to revert back to 0.9.8 beta 3 until that happens if you are having errors.

JOshISPoser - 01-29-2013, 11:38 AM
- Reply
would a current download fix the fbalpha problems?

i mean, like i said, it's nothing like i'm dying for with psx support being brought up again (my favorite console)

STLcardsWS - 01-29-2013, 01:16 PM
- Reply
Here is what squarepusher has to say about the FBA coreCPS emulation) link

Going to revert most of the major changes I did to the CPS drivers - guess it's better for it to be slower than to accidentally break stuff.

Also, the PS3 version right now is semi-broken - I'm going to push out a new version. Sorry for rushing things on the console front - the Android version was where 90% of all the attention was going to for this release.

regarding neo geo on fbalpha, i think i know the issue.

update:
this screen correct?
Attachment 40954

This issue will arise :
if you select (rewind / on) on the menu.

Now not sure if that is the cause of the issue now. but worth a look.

Sorry I cant test it right now

JOshISPoser - 01-29-2013, 01:33 PM
- Reply
thanks. so, should i update my roms or bios or something?

STLcardsWS - 01-29-2013, 01:48 PM
- Reply
Details, Details, Details.. (this is for the people PMing me of "this" dont work. what's this?)

I haven't used this version for more then a few minutes. I have been testing some unofficial builds lately..,

But usually the romsets are only affected on
CPS 1.2 & 3 emulation
Neo-Geo usually is okay i think just the updated bios is needed but the ones working in 0.9.8 beta3 should work.
However i am not sure, haven't even looked at the cores much in this build.

Also did you see my update above?

JOshISPoser - 01-29-2013, 03:28 PM
- Reply
nope, didn't see the update, i'll give it a try.

i think i had rewind on just to check it out a while back.

it worked, thanks man.

NOXPLOAD - 01-29-2013, 06:51 PM
- Reply
JOshISPoser search for FB Alpha v0.2.97.26 (RetroArch v0.9.7) the most up to date romset for RetroArch.

JOshISPoser - 01-29-2013, 07:29 PM
- Reply
i'm pretty sure that's the set i got the roms i wanted from.

st louis cardinals helped me out and everything is peachy as an apricot pie :P