Game add-ons: Difference between revisions

From Official Kodi Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
Line 15: Line 15:


==Libretro cores==
==Libretro cores==
:{{Main|Libretro|Porting Libretro cores to game add-ons}}
The Game API in the [[Kodi Game|Kodi Game branch]] has a Libretro wrapper which is 1:1 compatibility with the libretro API, so all libretro cores are valid game add-ons. Libretro itself is a well defined interface to handle the communication between a frontend (Kodi with RetroPlayer) and an Emulator Core (e.g. nestopia).  
The Game API in the [[Kodi Game|Kodi Game branch]] has a Libretro wrapper which is 1:1 compatibility with the libretro API, so all libretro cores are valid game add-ons. Libretro itself is a well defined interface to handle the communication between a frontend (Kodi with RetroPlayer) and an Emulator Core (e.g. nestopia).  



Revision as of 07:14, 26 October 2018

Home icon grey.png   ▶ Kodi Game ▶ Game add-ons

Status on ported currently existing game client addons for the new Game API made available in Kodi Game branch.

Stop hand.png These pages are maintained by the community, it only goes as far as fair use, and this should not be considered as an endorsement for copyright infringement. The information on this page might also contain errors or be outdated. It might also contain ants, and their antsy antics. *


Stand-alone game add-ons

Stand-alone games or emulators that does not use the Libretro API.

Here will be a list of existing/ongoing and future/upcoming project for making new stand-alone game add-ons for Kodi:

Libretro cores

The Game API in the Kodi Game branch has a Libretro wrapper which is 1:1 compatibility with the libretro API, so all libretro cores are valid game add-ons. Libretro itself is a well defined interface to handle the communication between a frontend (Kodi with RetroPlayer) and an Emulator Core (e.g. nestopia).

Here is a list of Libretro cores, of which most already have been ported into game add-ons for Kodi, at least as an initial port, (you can see the status of each libretro core in the table below):


* License is GPLv2 compatible

If something in the core matrix needs to be changed, leave a message in the forum.

BIOS requirements

Some libretro cores require BIOS files to work, and those BIOSes must be placed in the system folder (with each BIOS being a binary file). For now you will need to find those BIOS files by yourself and and copy them to your system yourself as it may not be fully legal for Team-Kodi to provide them bundled with each libretro core that needs them. The reason for this is that these BIOSes are usually considered to be in an legal gray-zone and can be a little difficult to aquire, at least legally. For example, since all PlayStation emulators, like Beetle PSX & PCSX ReARMed, require a closed source BIOS file to work, and its BIOS file must be placed in the system folder on your emulator software (libretro cores in this case).

BIOS requirement table

The table below lists all the required BIOSes which some emulators requires for each each emulated system, so if a systems BIOS is not listed here then it means that it should not require a BIOS file.

Warning! Linux is a case sensitive system. Please name BIOS files exactly according to this table.
System BIOS file MD5 Comment
3DO - 3DO panafz10.bin 51f2f43ae2f3508a14d9f56597e2d3ce
Atari - 7800 7800 BIOS (U).rom 0763f1ffb006ddbe32e52d497ee848ae
Atari - Lynx lynxboot.img FCD403DB69F54290B51035D82F835E7B
Final Burn Alpha BIOS goes next to the ROMs
DOOM BIOS goes next to the ROMs
Magnavox - Odyssey2 o2rom.bin 562d5ebf9e030a40d6fabfc2f33139fd
MAME 2003 BIOS goes next to the ROMs
NEC - PC Engine - TurboGrafx 16 syscard3.pce 0754f903b52e3b3342202bdafb13efa5
NEC - PC-FX pcfx.rom 08e36edbea28a017f79f8d4f7ff9b6d7
Nintendo - Famicom Disk System disksys.rom ca30b50f880eb660a320674ed365ef7a
Nintendo - Game Boy Advance gba_bios.bin a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6
Phillips - Videopac+ o2rom.bin ? Same as Magnavox Oddessy2?
Sega - Dreamcast dc_boot.bin e10c53c2f8b90bab96ead2d368858623 Goes under system/dc/
Sega - Dreamcast dc_flash.bin 0a93f7940c455905bea6e392dfde92a4 Goes under system/dc/
Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis bios_CD_J.bin 278a9397d192149e84e820ac621a8edd Japan
Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis bios_CD_U.bin 2efd74e3232ff260e371b99f84024f7f USA
Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis bios_CD_E.bin e66fa1dc5820d254611fdcdba0662372 Europe
Sega - Saturn saturn_bios.bin f273555d7d91e8a5a6bfd9bcf066331c
Sony - PlayStation scph5500.bin 8dd7d5296a650fac7319bce665a6a53c Japan
Sony - PlayStation scph5501.bin 490f666e1afb15b7362b406ed1cea246 USA (Can be renamed from scph7003.bin)
Sony - PlayStation scph5502.bin 32736f17079d0b2b7024407c39bd3050 Europe
Sony - PlayStation Portable ppge_atlas.zim a93fc411c1ce7d001a2a812643c70085 Goes under system/PPSSPP/
Note that most of these BIOSes are not revered engineered releases but binary ROMs ripped from the EEPROM inside of an actual game console system hardware, so it is proprietary binary blobs (precompiled software binaries) which might still be under copyright depending on the console age and origins. It may be that some of those BIOSes are can be seen as Fair use since these game consoles are no longer sold and there is probabably no commercial value of them, but that is something that the XBMC Foundation need to talk about with attorneys about before being able to distributing such BIOS files as resource add-ons or bundled with each libretro core in an official repository.

What is a BIOS?

A BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is the startup code of a system and is required for certain emulators to work.

Where do I place the BIOS files?

You will need to place them into the System Directory (linux example for pcsx bios files: ~/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/game.libretro.pcsx-rearmed/system/ ).

Alternatively, you can place the into your Content Directory next to the game you are going to play.

Remember, since Linux is a case sensitive system, you have to rename the BIOS files according to this table so that the libretro cores will be able to find the BIOS files.

Why isn’t my BIOS working?

  1. Make sure the BIOS files are placed into the correct directory (see above).
  2. Make sure they are named correctly so the core can identify them.
  3. Make sure it’s the correct version/region of a BIOS.
  4. Make sure your files are not corrupted (bad source, broken download, etc.).
  5. Make sure to check the log for any errors.

See also