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Thoth Tech

Emulation Station Script Research

How to Setup A Script

  1. In your ~homepath/.emulationstation folder create a new folder named scripts

  2. within the scripts folder, using the table from https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation/#scripting (Under scripting > 2. Event directories), create a new folder with the name of the event you want the script to run for.

  3. Within the event folder, you can place Shell Script files that you want to run on the event.

Notes

The scripts will need testing on either a raspberry pi or a Linux pc, as windows doesn’t natively support running shell scripts.

As shown by the table on https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation/#scripting, depending on the event, certain bits of data get passed along to the script.

Ten Minute Idle Timer

For creating the idle timer you will most likely need to have a script running from the game-start event, which passes down the %rom_path%, %rom_name%, and %game_name% arguments. The arcade machine isn’t using emulators testing would need to see which of these arguments can call a close on the opened game.

Test Hello World Script

Below is a test script that will create a file containing the words HELLO WORLD, the #! /bin/bash line gives the script elevated permissions.

#!/bin/bash


FILE="YOUR-FILEPATH-HERE"
echo before
echo HELLO WORLD >> "$FILE"
echo "$\*" >> "$FILE"
echo after

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/94322/is-it-possible-for-a-daemon-i-e-background-process-to-look-for-key-presses-fr
This is a stack exchange question looking into detecting inputs on a linux/unix device. The answers talk about the file paths for devices and gives a sample code using C.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26927/emulation-game-start-scripts-folder
A forum post asking about some issues regarding a game-start script.