Talk:Game add-ons

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Libretro cores not yet ported to the Game API in Kodi

Which libretro cores have not yet ported to the Game API in Kodi? Gamester17 (talk) 07:45, 10 May 2016 (EDT)

http://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=Main_Page#Core_Software_Library

  • 3DEngine
  • Beetle/Mednafen SGX
  • CATSFC
  • Craft
  • Dinothawr
  • Dolphin
  • Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
  • Emux
  • fMSX
  • Fuse
  • Gambatte
  • Game & Watch
  • gpSP
  • Hatari
  • MESS
  • PCSX1
  • ProSystem
  • QuickNES
  • Rustation
  • TempGBA
  • TGB Dual
  • vecx
  • Virtual Jaguar

Add BIOS requirements to the table?

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). Currently you will need to find those BIOS files by yourself as it may be illegal to provide them bundled with each libretro core that needs the. For example, since all PlayStation emulators, like Beetle PSX & PCSX ReARMed, (as well as some other libretro cores), require a closed source BIOS file to work, these BIOSes are usually considered to be in an legal gray-zone and can be a little difficult to aquire, at least legally. Those BIOSes must be placed in the system folder on your emulator software (libretro core in this case).

This linked table lists all the required BIOSes which some emulators requires, so if a systems BIOS is not listed here then it means that it does not require a BIOS file.

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.

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 hardwarre, 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.

Gamester17 (talk) 07:55, 22 December 2015 (EST)

Example of BIOS requirement table

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.

Acceptable to link to sites with BIOS files in wiki or?

See above discussion, it it OK on this wiki page to link to sites like http://emulation-general.wikia.com/wiki/Emulator_Files which in turn contain links to the BIOS files with MD5 values or maybe even OK to link to the files directly? Gamester17 (talk) 08:00, 22 December 2015 (EST)

  • There is first the gray area of abandonware if the publishing company does no longer exist or care about the copyright of the BIOS file from old video game consoles which can be used for emulation. Gamester17 (talk) 04:27, 26 July 2017 (EDT)
    • I guess that otherwise the legality of hosting and maybe even direct linking non-reversed engineered binary BIOS files might depend if copyright still applies and in which country the actually files is hosted as well as how old the original code is, as different countries have copyright lengths. Copyright Law (Berne Convention to be precise?) is different in different countries right? A few countries have example have a copyright expiration data of 25 years from publication/completion, which would cover a lot of the old video game consoles. Will a copyrighted code get into public domain once its copyright expires? If copyright in practice ever expire, since in the United States for example the fairly recent Copyright extension act, the new term is 95 years or author's life plus 70 years, whichever comes first. So according to current US law, no software created since the popularization of the personal computer will become public domain before 2050. And very little of it before 2070. But if that same was also published in a other country which have different copyright laws or at least different copyright expiration dates. Gamester17 (talk) 04:27, 26 July 2017 (EDT)