Are there thoughts on supporting the open standard for "RetroArch Open Hardware" game cartridge media reader adapter in the RetroPlayer branch of Kodi?
Maybe as VFS (Virtual FileSystem) add-on for Kodi or should media readers have their own type of add-ons?
Anyway, they are making a modular open-source hardware design using open standards with free and open software while also partnering with manufacturers:
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/intro...e-project/
"You insert the N64 cartridge into the cartridge reader and you connect it to a PC (or some other device) with a USB Type C-cable. The device will then map the contents of the cartridge itself as a Mass Storage device volume. EEPROM, Flash, ROM, and SRAM are mapped as separate files on this volume. (*)
Playing the game should be as easy as just loading the ROM from this device. So already even without the aforementioned RetroArch integration, it already works. But our hope is that with the RetroArch integration, we finally get the promise of a true cross-platform game console where you can take your games library with you, whether it’s digital or physical, and just use it across the devices that you already have RetroArch on. This is the dream and promise we have been slowly building towards – the power lies in the user’s hands, not that of any corporation or organization.
* – This might be subject to change. We are still considering whether to change this to a dedicated protocol to allow using cartridge hardware in an emulator core without just reading all of the cart as one big contiguous ROM file."
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/categ...-hardware/
Hardware designs have not been released publicly yet(?) but m4xw seem to currently be working on "emuMMC" as an SDMMC driver as a replacement for Nintendo's Filesystem Services (initially used by Nintendo 64 emulator cores) which allows loading eMMC images from SD or even SD from eMMC:
https://github.com/m4xw/emuMMC
As I understand it, the current "emuMMC" SDMMC driver architecture does present physical games cartridges as file-based eMMC (Embedded MultiMediaCard)?
If someone has contacts at the Libretro/RetroArch Open-Hardware Project (a.k.a. "ProjectFuture") perhaps try to get them to send prototype hardware to @garbear?
By the way, be sure to take their current survey and sign up for their new newsletter if you are in their physical game cartridge media reader adapter:
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retro...er-survey/
https://retroarchopenhardware.com/survey.php
https://retroarchopenhardware.com/
"If there is sufficient demand, we have the possibility to start building hardware that will help regular users preserve their old videogames at affordable prices. Every person filling in this survey counts towards making this a future reality, so please take a moment to look at it."
"The promise of RetroArch Open-Hardware has always been open hardware with open software delivering an open solution.
We stand by this goal to this day, however we felt that the DIY market alone will not help the cause significantly to bring emulation to the mainstream.
Thus we partnered with a hardware manufacturer for a commercial release – bringing the peripheral into everyone’s hands – while still keeping a free and open DIY route.
With that in mind we are re-designing the hardware to be modular – meaning there would be a base unit & “addon modules” for other console hardware (the main focus for initial release will still be N64).
Our goal is to reach more people with this approach – while only slightly increasing the difficulty for DIY folks (req. of a second PCB).
If things go well, we could enter production in mid 2022 and have a product by the end of the year (knowing current global shipping tho, there will be some nightmares down the road)."
Maybe as VFS (Virtual FileSystem) add-on for Kodi or should media readers have their own type of add-ons?
Anyway, they are making a modular open-source hardware design using open standards with free and open software while also partnering with manufacturers:
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/intro...e-project/
"You insert the N64 cartridge into the cartridge reader and you connect it to a PC (or some other device) with a USB Type C-cable. The device will then map the contents of the cartridge itself as a Mass Storage device volume. EEPROM, Flash, ROM, and SRAM are mapped as separate files on this volume. (*)
Playing the game should be as easy as just loading the ROM from this device. So already even without the aforementioned RetroArch integration, it already works. But our hope is that with the RetroArch integration, we finally get the promise of a true cross-platform game console where you can take your games library with you, whether it’s digital or physical, and just use it across the devices that you already have RetroArch on. This is the dream and promise we have been slowly building towards – the power lies in the user’s hands, not that of any corporation or organization.
* – This might be subject to change. We are still considering whether to change this to a dedicated protocol to allow using cartridge hardware in an emulator core without just reading all of the cart as one big contiguous ROM file."
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/categ...-hardware/
Hardware designs have not been released publicly yet(?) but m4xw seem to currently be working on "emuMMC" as an SDMMC driver as a replacement for Nintendo's Filesystem Services (initially used by Nintendo 64 emulator cores) which allows loading eMMC images from SD or even SD from eMMC:
https://github.com/m4xw/emuMMC
As I understand it, the current "emuMMC" SDMMC driver architecture does present physical games cartridges as file-based eMMC (Embedded MultiMediaCard)?
If someone has contacts at the Libretro/RetroArch Open-Hardware Project (a.k.a. "ProjectFuture") perhaps try to get them to send prototype hardware to @garbear?
By the way, be sure to take their current survey and sign up for their new newsletter if you are in their physical game cartridge media reader adapter:
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retro...er-survey/
https://retroarchopenhardware.com/survey.php
https://retroarchopenhardware.com/
"If there is sufficient demand, we have the possibility to start building hardware that will help regular users preserve their old videogames at affordable prices. Every person filling in this survey counts towards making this a future reality, so please take a moment to look at it."
"The promise of RetroArch Open-Hardware has always been open hardware with open software delivering an open solution.
We stand by this goal to this day, however we felt that the DIY market alone will not help the cause significantly to bring emulation to the mainstream.
Thus we partnered with a hardware manufacturer for a commercial release – bringing the peripheral into everyone’s hands – while still keeping a free and open DIY route.
With that in mind we are re-designing the hardware to be modular – meaning there would be a base unit & “addon modules” for other console hardware (the main focus for initial release will still be N64).
Our goal is to reach more people with this approach – while only slightly increasing the difficulty for DIY folks (req. of a second PCB).
If things go well, we could enter production in mid 2022 and have a product by the end of the year (knowing current global shipping tho, there will be some nightmares down the road)."
