How can I add original Pico-8 to Recalbox?

[pjexposito]

Hi.

Are there any way to replace opensource Pico-8 core with the original program?

What file do I need to modify?

Thanks!

[Zing]

@pjexposito

Are there any way to replace opensource Pico-8 core with the original program?

No.
Unless you are a developer who can rebuild the entire system yourself.

What file do I need to modify?

It is necessary to recompile the entire system.
And, it's against Recalbox's usage policy to use non-opensource emulators, so you won't get help for that here.

[pjexposito]

@zing Ok, thanks!

[djib]

@zing hello.
I think it would be great to have the official Pico-8 available if you drop the binary in the BIOS folder as another popular distrib does.

I used to be able to run the binary on Recalbox 7, but apparently Recalbox 8 is missing some libraries. It's a bit frustrating, the Pico-8 is a great system and the libretro port is pretty poor at running recent carts.

[Zing]

@djib

I think it would be great to have the official Pico-8 available if you drop the binary in the BIOS folder as another popular distrib does.

Sorry, Recalbox follows the open source policy, other systems don't follow it as strictly, and add emulators without that concern, but that won't happen with Recalbox.

If that is not the case, and you are referring to an open source emulator, I recommend that you open an issue on gitlab, or make a suggestion in Discord, it will be easier for developers to analyze:

• https://gitlab.com/recalbox/recalbox/-/issues
• https://discord.com/invite/NbQFbGM

[djib]

@zing OK thanks for the explanation. It makes sense.

[SmileyDude]

@zing said in How can I add original Pico-8 to Recalbox?:

Sorry, Recalbox follows the open source policy, other systems don't follow it as strictly, and add emulators without that concern, but that won't happen with Recalbox.

I'm sorry, but this does not make sense to me. I totally understand why Recalbox would not distribute closed source emulators. But to not allow for a closed source emulator, especially in the case of Pico-8 where it is a fantasy console being actively developed by an indie developer seems wrong. Even more so, the current open source solution is an incomplete/incompatible implementation, so there is even more of a reason for people to want to be able to install and run it.

Is there some reason why Recalbox cannot allow for the end user to drop in their own binaries to replace the built in emulator? I've never heard of an open source license that doesn't allow for closed source code to run on their platform.

[Bkg2k]

@smileydude Because en emulator is not just a binary you drop there and it runs auto-magically
An emulator may have tons of dependencies, rely on several low-level libraries or event requires specific display systems.

Recalbox should be seen as a firmware: this is not a linux distribution and there is no package mangager. It's an optimized linux built with the minimum requirements. That is, you cannot install dependencies manually.

Obviously, there are several chances that the pico-8 emulator may run flawlessly on Recalbox and I remember an old procedure to install it manually, but we cannot guarantee anything if you do.
And keep in mind, the pico-8 emulator is not free! Even if we whish to do so, we wouldn't be authorized to distribute the pico-8 binaries.
Moreover, you cannot "replace the build-in emulator" as it is a Retroarch Core while the pico-8 emulator is a standalone emulator. There are huge technical differences.

[SmileyDude]

@bkg2k I understand why Recalbox wouldn't include Pico-8. That's a very reasonable stance. But I don't understand why someone would say "And, it's against Recalbox's usage policy to use non-opensource emulators, so you won't get help for that here.". It's one thing to say you won't distribute non-open source emulators and another to say that the usage policy doesn't allow it.

Usually there is some sort of mechanism for launching 3rd party apps or overriding the built in apps that I've seen with other emulator focused distros. Is that just not possible with how Recalbox is setup today?

[Bkg2k]

@smileydude @Zing was right saying it's against our policy. And it's against most of open-source project policies.

And this is easy to understand: Why would we open our sources to show everyone what's exactly done and let everyone to contibute, to include closed-source opaque-binaries with possible virus/adware/miner/data-reporter/hundreds-of-other-not-that-cool-piece-of-craps?

The only exception are nVidia drivers because we can't do without: the open-source drivers are not reliable at all.