RetroFlow Launcher Vita

RetroFlow Launcher
File:Retroflowlaunchervita.jpg
General
Author	jimbob4000 & VitaHEX games
Type	Title Launchers
Version	4.0.2
License	MIT License
Last Updated	2022/10/16
Links
Download
Source

This is a modded version of Hexflow Launcher Vita; a 3d coverflow like launcher for PS Vita.

This version includes categories for retro games which can be launched without bubbles for RetroArch, DaedalusX64 and Flycast. Playstation and PSP games can also be launched without having to create bubbles for every game!

This version also has categories for favorites and recently played games.

Display and launch your retro games and homebrews in style.
RetroFlow Launcher features a 3d user interface to display your games with their box art and supports many customization options like custom covers and backgrounds.

Launching a game or app from RetroFlow Launcher will close the launcher automaticaly without asking.

Supported systems

PS Vita, PSP, Playstation, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Game Boy, Sega Dreamcast, Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, PC Engine, PC Engine CD, TurboGrafx-16, TurboGrafx-CD, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color, MSX, MSX2, ZX Spectrum, Atari Lynx, Atari 600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, ColecoVision, Vectrex, FBA 2012, MAME 2003 Plus, MAME 2000, Neo Geo (FBA 2012) and Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Daedalus X64 Vita is required for N64 games.

Retroarch Vita is required for other retro systems.

Adrenaline Vita is required for Playstation and PSP games.

Flycast Vita is required to play Dreamcast games. Also see the compatability list as not all games are playable yet.

Installation

1. Install the RetroFlow VPK's.

Install the latest version of RetroFlow and additional RetroFlow Adrenaline launcher VPK from here or download both from gamebrew.

'RetroFlow Launcher' is the app you will use to browse games. 'RetroFlow Adrenaline launcher' is needed for launching Playstation and PSP games.

2. Rename your PSP games using the steps below.

Renaming is needed for cover matching. RetroFlow will look for a title ID in the filename.

Windows users:

Please rename PSP ISO and CSO files using Leecherman's PSP ISO Renamer tool using the following parameters:

%NAME% (%REGION%) [%ID%]

The result should look like this (please notice the square brackets):

Cars 2 (US) [UCUS-98766].iso

Games can also be named with just the title ID like so: "UCUS98766.iso" but this isn't recommended.

Mac users:

See the FAQ's section for a guide on renaming on a mac.

More information on PSP and Playstation after the FAQ's section.

3. Check your PS1 and PSP are in the right Adrenaline folders

PS1 and PSP games with eboot files should be saved here:

ux0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/

PSP ISO and CSO games should be saved here:

ux0:pspemu/ISO/

uma0 can also be used.

Tip: PS1 games can also be launched using RetroArch, helpful for games which don't run well in Adrenaline.

4. Add your retro games to RetroFlow

Option 1 - Use the default folders: Launch RetroFlow for the first time, RetroFlow will create the folders where you can save your games.

Once it's finshed loading; close RetroFlow and copy your favourite retro games into the relevant subfolders below:

ux0:/data/RetroFlow/ROMS/

For PC Engine CD and TurboGrafx-CD RetroFlow will look for '.cue' files for these CD systems. Please make sure all the games are loose with the system's rom folder with .cue files.

For Dreamcast '.gdi' and '.cdi' games are supported.

RetroArch Playstation 1 games use the 'PCSX ReARMed' core, more information on supported extensions here: https://docs.libretro.com/library/pcsx_rearmed/

Option 2 - Use your own game folders: If you don't want to save your games in the RetroFlow data folder, you can use your own directories.

Go to 'Scan settings' and then 'Edit game directories' to change the path to game folders.

Once you are done, select 'Rescan' to find the games.

Tip: It's important that your roms are named using the no-intro file naming convention, e.g. "Game Name (USA)" , otherwise cover images won't be found.

5. Rescan to find your games

Press 'Start' and go to 'Scan Settings', then select 'Rescan' Your retro games should now appear when you restart the app. 'Startup scan' can be turned off once you have finished adding your games, the app will startup faster when it's turned off.

6. Download covers & backgrounds

To download cover images, press start, then choose which covers or backgrounds you would like to download.

Issues loading games with Adrenaline?

Please try installing AdrBubbleBooterInstaller. Or try installing Adrenaline Bubble Manager to check bubbles load okay.

Media

Screenshots

Possible incompatabilities

Repatch

Potential issue with repatch / repatch_4 plugins in the tai config. May cause the Vita to shutdown. Try disabling these if you encounter an issue.

PSP Categories lite

Unsupported, if you're experiencing please try without the plugin.

RetroFlow FAQ's

I'm on a Mac, how do I rename PSP games?

You can use the UMD FileRenamer app here.

Step 1. Download the UMD FileRenamer app above Open the 'UMD_FileRenamer-1.0.jar' file and select your folder of games, then rename.

Step 2. Replace (parenthesis) with [brackets] In the finder, select all the games, right click and select 'rename items'. Replace the opening and closing parenthesis with square brackets instead.

Name (XXXX-XXXXX).iso

Will be renamed to:

Name [XXXX-XXXXX].iso

The game names will be missing the region code, but it's not required for the RetroFlow to work.

Can I use HexFlow too?

Yes; RetroFlow is seperate, it uses different folders and a different title ID.

Do I need to create bubbles for games?

No; RetroFlow doesn't need bubbles for games.

Missing artwork - How should I name my games so covers are found?

It's recommended that your roms are named using the no-intro file naming convention, e.g. "Game Name (USA)" , these names are used to match with cover images.

You can manually download artwork, or rename your games to match the filenames in the covers repo.

Some systems aren't showing?

Empty collections are hidden by default, once you add some games into the roms folder, they will appear.

Can I change the Mega Drive name to Genesis?

Sure; changing your language to 'English - American' will change the 'Mega Drive' name and logo to 'Genesis'.

Can I change a core for RetroArch?

The cores have been set by system and cannot be changed on a game-by-game basis at the moment.

To change the core for an entire system, search for "Retroarch Cores" in the file below and edit the core file names accordingly.

ux0:/app/RETROFLOW/index.lua

The RetroArch core files can be found here: "ux0:/app/RETROVITA/"

Can I change the rom folder locations?

Yes, from version 4.0 onwards. Go to 'Scan settings' and then 'Edit game directories' to change the path to game folders.

Adding PSP and Playstation games

RetroFlow uses the game ID's for Playstation and PSP for cover matching. Please use the guides below.

PSP

For PSP ISO and CSO files please rename using Leecherman's PSP ISO Renamer tool using the following parameters:

%NAME% (%REGION%) [%ID%]

The result should look like this:

Cars 2 (US) [UCUS-98766].iso

RetroFlow uses the ID to match artwork, and tidies the rest of the filename to display in the app. CSO files are also supported, and should be named as above.

Playstation

PS1 using Adrenaline

For PSX2PSP, game folder name must match with the GameID. For example:

ux0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/**SLES01234**

Games will need to be in a EBOOT format, see here for information on how to convert PSX Disc Images to EBOOT for PSP. RetroFlow also uses the ID to lookup the name of the game.

PS1 using RetroArch

RetroArch Playstation 1 games use the 'PCSX ReARMed' core, more information on supported extensions and setup see here: https://docs.libretro.com/library/pcsx_rearmed/

Custom Game Covers, Game Backgrounds and Music

Place your custom covers in the game system's here "ux0:/data/RetroFlow/COVERS/"

Place your custom game backgrounds in the game system's here "ux0:/data/RetroFlow/BACKGROUNDS/"

Cover and background images must be in png format. For Vita, PSP, PSX games and Homebrew the The cover image file name must match the Game ID or the Game Name of each app. For roms the cover image name should match the Rom Name i.e. "Game Name (USA).png". The recommended resolution for Vita covers is 250x320px. Sample image

Download Covers and Backgrounds

Covers and game backgrounds can be downloaded automatically from the artwork section of the settings menu (Start button). You can also download covers manually from the link below. A big thanks to astuermer for his contribution.

https://github.com/jimbob4000/hexflow-covers

Custom Backgrounds

Place your image in "ux0:/data/RetroFlow/WALLPAPER" (recomended resolution 1280x720px or less). Some custom backgrounds are available HERE You can change your background within the app by going to the settings menu > theme > custom background.

Custom Music

Place your .ogg formatted music files in "ux0:data/RetroFlow/MUSIC" (music will play automatically when the "Sounds" option is enabled).

AutoBoot

If you want to auto-launch RetroFlow Launcher every time your PS Vita boots up you can use the AutoBoot plugin by Rinnegatamante.

Controls

Navigate your library using the DPad or the Left Stick or with the Touch Screen.

DPad Up: Skip to favorites category

R/L triggers: Skip 5 items

Cross: Select/Launch game/app

Square: Change Category/Rename game

Triangle: Game Details/Add or remove favorites/About

Circle: Change View/Cancel

Start: Settings menu

Select: Search

Changelog

4.0.2 New

• RetroArch PS1 support added. (Adrenaline still recommended over RetroArch for PS1)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a small percentage of games not showing due to filename filtering.
• Fixed error on scanning when a file has no extension (retro systems), those files are now excluded from the scan.
• Fixed app name titles crashing into the footer text for one of the game view options (long names masked with a gradient).
• Battery icon repotioned slightly.

Note

• More info on setting up the RetroArch PS1 core (PCSX ReARMed) here: https://docs.libretro.com/library/pcsx_rearmed/

Full list of changes can be found here.

Credits

Original HexFlow app by : VitaHex Games

Programming/UI: Sakis RG

Developed with Lua Player Plus by Rinnegatamante

Special Thanks

Creckeryop

andiweli (HEXFlow Covers database)

DRok17 for his work on bubble builders.

Rinnegatamante for tips and support with Lua.

Leecherman for his work on AdrBubbleBooter and the PSP ISO Renamer

BlackSheepBoy69 for sharing tips and code from HexFlow Launcher Unofficial Custom

Translations

French - @chronoss

German - @stuermerandreas

Spanish - @kodyna91

Italian - @TheheroGAC

Russian - @_novff

Portuguese - @nighto

Japanese - @iGlitch

Chinese - @acd13141

Polish - @SK00RUPA

Polite notice

Please note that I'm not a developer, this mod started as a personal project, please be mindful that there may be some redundant code, or some requests that will be beyond my knowledge to implement. Please feel free to build upon the mod as long as you provide credit to the original HexFlow developer and the people who contributed to the project.

Support

If you want to support VitaHex's work you can become a Patron.

PayPal option is also available HERE

VitaHEX Twitter

VitaHEX Official Page

External links

• Official Website - https://github.com/jimbob4000/RetroFlow-Launcher
• Github - https://github.com/jimbob4000/RetroFlow-Launcher
• VitaDB - https://vitadb.rinnegatamante.it/#/info/745