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(Tutorial) Hyperspin Android Overview and Install


thatman84
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  • 3 months later...

Does anyone else find it impossible to make any changes once you have HS loaded up and running on ShieldTV?

as I experiment with media files and find mistakes like wrong file names I always feel like I have to start with a fresh install to see my changes take effect.

i want to make a simple setup with only NES, SNES, N64, and GENESIS. Can I just delete all files that are associated with all the other systems inclusive of media, ini, xml, cores etc?  I tried to do this and the app crashes after intro video. 

 

Thanks for the help looking forward to being involved in this community/project.

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1 hour ago, scott222 said:

Does anyone else find it impossible to make any changes once you have HS loaded up and running on ShieldTV?

as I experiment with media files and find mistakes like wrong file names I always feel like I have to start with a fresh install to see my changes take effect.

i want to make a simple setup with only NES, SNES, N64, and GENESIS. Can I just delete all files that are associated with all the other systems inclusive of media, ini, xml, cores etc?  I tried to do this and the app crashes after intro video. 

 

Thanks for the help looking forward to being involved in this community/project.

No. Only thing to do is if you remove items that use XML then you must redo XML.

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1 hour ago, scott222 said:

Does anyone else find it impossible to make any changes once you have HS loaded up and running on ShieldTV?

as I experiment with media files and find mistakes like wrong file names I always feel like I have to start with a fresh install to see my changes take effect.

i want to make a simple setup with only NES, SNES, N64, and GENESIS. Can I just delete all files that are associated with all the other systems inclusive of media, ini, xml, cores etc?  I tried to do this and the app crashes after intro video. 

 

Thanks for the help looking forward to being involved in this community/project.

I have only had minimal crashes with HS and usually after I have been messing with other things and or renaming my Hyperspin folder or using different ones. Also I have seen more instability from many apps after the latest shield update.

But your issue with removing systems should not be one.

dont delete any single folders from systems or the man in menu stuff (Videos for example)

you can always just remove the entries from the main menu.xml database if space is not a concern.

dont really want to be deleting any folders in Media/Main Menu or Media/Front End just in needed video or image files and theme zips maybe.

the key database folder in Main Menu and there are a couple of settings files you don't want to delete either settings.ini

main menu.ini cat think of others right now.

 

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When I was still getting used to the identical rename rule with Roma and xml files I had a few Roma that I needed to change the name for since they where not launching.  I would change the name with ESFE but it wouldn't fix the problem.  I would end up back on my PC rewriting the name and reinstalling lol. 

Im going to try you recommendation for slimming down the build. Space really isn't an issue I just don't want the other stuff there (on the wheels) if I'm not using it. 

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  • thatman84 pinned this topic
  • 1 month later...

I loaded Hyperspin and was blown away by the beauty!!!  I created a couple test folders (NES, SNES, Sega Genesis) with 2 or 3 moms in each folder.  When I select the system from the wheel and scroll through to the ROM that I have, I get an error message : Trying to load a missing ROM.  I renamed the ROMS in Don's tool prior to installation.  The .ini file for NES has a ROM path of Emulators/Nintendo Entertainment System/roms, exactly where they are located in .nes format.  I even tried adding Hyperspin/ to the beginning of the path to see if that would make a difference and they technically are in the Hyperspin folder.  Any suggestions?  I'm at a standstill!!!

 
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2 hours ago, swurver said:

I loaded Hyperspin and was blown away by the beauty!!!  I created a couple test folders (NES, SNES, Sega Genesis) with 2 or 3 moms in each folder.  When I select the system from the wheel and scroll through to the ROM that I have, I get an error message : Trying to load a missing ROM.  I renamed the ROMS in Don's tool prior to installation.  The .ini file for NES has a ROM path of Emulators/Nintendo Entertainment System/roms, exactly where they are located in .nes format.  I even tried adding Hyperspin/ to the beginning of the path to see if that would make a difference and they technically are in the Hyperspin folder.  Any suggestions?  I'm at a standstill!!!

 
  •  

You fixed this right?

Tips.

Names match whats in database xml of system

Path is exact CASE SENSITIVE

Extensìon is added to ini file

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...
  • 9 months later...

Hi I'm learning to setup Hyperspin on PC now and it seems to work. My goal is to have it eventually on my Nvidia Shield. But since you say both versions can live together, I can't figure out how I could "export" my pc configuration easily to an android version?

Do I have to do it manually by editing all the ini and xml files or is there an easier way like using rocketlauncher? E.g. Where you need to give the path to the emulator, you could just download the apk and point it to the apk?

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14 hours ago, pina said:

Hi I'm learning to setup Hyperspin on PC now and it seems to work. My goal is to have it eventually on my Nvidia Shield. But since you say both versions can live together, I can't figure out how I could "export" my pc configuration easily to an android version?

Do I have to do it manually by editing all the ini and xml files or is there an easier way like using rocketlauncher? E.g. Where you need to give the path to the emulator, you could just download the apk and point it to the apk?

Its all manual im afraid. There is a collection of settings files in the downloads section iirc.

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15 hours ago, pina said:

Hi I'm learning to setup Hyperspin on PC now and it seems to work. My goal is to have it eventually on my Nvidia Shield. But since you say both versions can live together, I can't figure out how I could "export" my pc configuration easily to an android version?

Do I have to do it manually by editing all the ini and xml files or is there an easier way like using rocketlauncher? E.g. Where you need to give the path to the emulator, you could just download the apk and point it to the apk?

My honest advice would be to purchase Arc Browser on the Google Play store and use that. It's actively developed and being constantly improved upon and sadly Hyperspin isn't. I actually have both configured on my STV. That single purchase can be shared with your family account and/or used on your Android phone, so although it costs money you can get quite a lot of use out of it.

Arc Browser has ready made system presets and can scrape artwork online for the games. It integrates with the voice search which is a nice feature, you can say "Sonic" and all the Sonic games from all the systems you've added to AB's library will show. It now supports video previews, you can add favourite games (Hyperspin doesn't do that), choose to use Retroarch 32 or 64 bit versions for separate systems...I could go on and on. In short it'll make your life easier and is honestly a better frontend.

Hyperspin will have to be configured manually through the ini files in the "settings_android" folder. Yes the Hyperspin themes do look more flash than Arc Browser BUT many of them use swf in the zip files, so aren't compatible on Android (trust me I know, having tested and fixed soooo many of them for my STV). It's definitely worth the time doing Hyperspin and Rocketlauncher on PC, as you can do many more systems than on Android. It's your decision of course but hopefully some advice from an experienced retro gamer (i.e me) helps.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great guide, thanks. Quick question...I think I already know the answer but wanted to confirm...

Ideally for me (Shield TV 2017 with external USB drive attached for ROMs & Media), the Hyperspin folder would be located on my USB drive in the NVIDIA_SHIELD folder so that I can directly edit *.ini files, etc from my PC. However when I put the Hyperspin folder there I get the "can't find Hyperspin folder" message. If I move the folder to the root of the USB drive then the Hyperspin app sees it and boots in fine. I know it was stated that for ROMs/Media on a NAS drive need to be in the root of the NAS drive but is the same true for external USB drives? Is there any way to change that or is it just baked in that way?

Thanks...Piper

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1 hour ago, PiperCalls said:

Great guide, thanks. Quick question...I think I already know the answer but wanted to confirm...

Ideally for me (Shield TV 2017 with external USB drive attached for ROMs & Media), the Hyperspin folder would be located on my USB drive in the NVIDIA_SHIELD folder so that I can directly edit *.ini files, etc from my PC. However when I put the Hyperspin folder there I get the "can't find Hyperspin folder" message. If I move the folder to the root of the USB drive then the Hyperspin app sees it and boots in fine. I know it was stated that for ROMs/Media on a NAS drive need to be in the root of the NAS drive but is the same true for external USB drives? Is there any way to change that or is it just baked in that way?

Thanks...Piper

Unfortunately those locations are fixed. The app would need updating and afaik theres no dev maintaining it currently. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

Trying this out of curiosity. When I start a game Retroarch loads but stays on a black screen. I tried Mame4Droid, as it is the only non retroarch emulator, and that worked fine. Also the wheel seems to have every game listed in the xml rather than just the ones I have. Not sure if that's a bug or normal behavior for Hyperspin.

:edit: I think it's because I've both the 32bit and 64 bit RetroArch installed. Unfortunately I can't uninstall the 64 bit one because I have weeks of customisations on it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/29/2020 at 5:25 AM, VanZan said:

Trying this out of curiosity. When I start a game Retroarch loads but stays on a black screen. I tried Mame4Droid, as it is the only non retroarch emulator, and that worked fine. Also the wheel seems to have every game listed in the xml rather than just the ones I have. Not sure if that's a bug or normal behavior for Hyperspin.

:edit: I think it's because I've both the 32bit and 64 bit RetroArch installed. Unfortunately I can't uninstall the 64 bit one because I have weeks of customisations on it.

I have both 32 and 64 installed. Hyperspin can only run from the 64bit (the one in playstore) , so make sure you have installed the right cores in the 64 version. 

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