ttg-batocera-store/README.md

ttg-batocera-store — the Teletype Games store for Batocera

Puts the https://teletypegames.org catalog on a Batocera box, with EmulationStation metadata and box art, under its own menu entry: Teletype Games, next to the box's own systems. Started from there on the device, or from the CLI over SSH.

This repository is only the store definition — config.json plus the two wrapper scripts. All the logic lives in the shared engine, warp-engine-batocera-store, which works with any WarpEngine-based site; this is just the Teletype Games configuration of it.

For RetroArch rather than a Batocera box — desktop, Android, Steam Deck — the same catalog is served by ttg-retroarch-store.

Install

Straight onto the device:

curl -fsSL https://git.teletypegames.org/stores/ttg-batocera-store/raw/branch/master/install.sh | sh

Or from a checkout of this repo:

scp -r ttg-batocera-store root@batocera:/tmp/
ssh root@batocera /tmp/ttg-batocera-store/install.sh

The installer fetches the engine, drops it and this config in /userdata/system/batocera-store/ttg/, writes the ttg-store launcher, and runs the first sync — which downloads the games and writes the menu entry. Restart EmulationStation (batocera-es-swissknife --restart) to see it.

Use

On the device. Teletype Games ▸ Store ▸ "Update Teletype Games". It downloads anything new, then restarts EmulationStation. ES gives a launched script no console, so the output goes to /userdata/system/batocera-store/ttg/store.log.

main carousel:  …  ▸  Teletype Games  ▸  ┌ Commodore 64
                                         ├ TIC-80
                                         ├ Ports          the native builds
                                         └ Store          → "Update Teletype Games"

Only the platforms that have something installed show up as folders, so the entry never has a dead end in it. The games are launched exactly as the box would launch them — the engine copies the launch command and the emulator list off the box's own c64, tic80 and ports systems, so whatever you configured for the C64 applies to our C64 games too.

Over SSH.

S=/userdata/system/batocera-store/ttg-store

$S list                 # compatible catalog entries; * installed, ^ update available
$S sync                 # download everything new, refresh gamelists and the menu
$S sync blessingofra    # just one title (never prunes)
$S -n sync              # dry run
$S remove c64demo       # uninstall
$S config               # effective configuration, and where the menu entry lives

Global flags go before the subcommand: $S --roms-root /tmp/roms sync.

Upgrading from a pre-4.0 install

Older versions installed into the box's own systems — c64/teletypegames/, tic80/teletypegames/, ports/teletypegames/ — and ran the sync from Ports ▸ Teletype Games Store. The first sync after the upgrade moves all of that into /userdata/roms/teletypegames/, the store's own folder, by taking the old install off the box and downloading again. It also removes the old Ports entry: the updater now lives inside the menu entry.

Nothing of yours goes with it: our nodes come out of your gamelists and the rest — your own games, their play counts and favourites — is written back untouched, and the gamelist.xml.ttg-backup copies are listed and left alone. Today's catalog is six cartridges and one native build, so the re-download is minutes.

-n sync shows the whole thing without doing any of it. To stay on the old layout, set emulationstation.menu.mode to merge in /userdata/system/batocera-store/ttg/config.json before syncing.

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://git.teletypegames.org/stores/ttg-batocera-store/raw/branch/master/uninstall.sh | sh

Or /tmp/ttg-batocera-store/uninstall.sh from a checkout on the box. It takes out the games — including any unpacked port payload — our gamelists, the menu entry, the launcher and the store home, and restarts EmulationStation.

DRY_RUN=1 ./uninstall.sh     # show what would go, remove nothing
KEEP_HOME=1 ./uninstall.sh   # keep state.json and the log, for a reinstall

Since everything the store installs lives in one folder of its own, an uninstall leaves the box exactly as it was: your own ROM folders are never touched.

What this store installs

Cartridges go to the folder of the system that boots them, native builds to a ports folder — all of them inside the store's own tree:

Catalog platform	Asset kind	Folder in the menu	Extension
c64	cartridge	Commodore 64 (VICE)	.prg
tic80	cartridge	TIC-80	.tic
ebitengine	linux_x64 / linux_arm64	Ports	.zip
bevy	linux_x64 / linux_arm64	Ports	.zip
godot	linux_x64	Ports	.zip
love	linux_x64	Ports	.zip

Statuses released and archived, whole catalog, no owner filter. To change any of it, edit /userdata/system/batocera-store/ttg/config.json on the box — the full key reference is in the engine's README.

Native games as Ports

Cartridges are a little under half the catalog; the rest of our games are native Linux builds, and no emulator boots those. Batocera runs Linux, so they are installed the way its Ports system does it: the zip is unpacked under teletypegames/ports/.data/, and the launcher EmulationStation lists is teletypegames/ports/<name>.sh, which cds into the program's directory before running it. They appear under Teletype Games ▸ Ports, and remove takes the unpacked program with it.

Each one is a 30–100 MB download rather than the few kilobytes of a cartridge.

The build has to match the box. Batocera runs on x86_64 mini-PCs as much as on the Raspberry Pi and the ARM handhelds, and a native binary only starts on the architecture it was built for. The engine detects the architecture — list and config both report it — and picks the asset for it; where there is none the title is skipped with a message naming the architecture, rather than installing something that cannot start:

skipped rabbitroller: no 'linux_arm64' asset in any release

ebitengine and bevy build for both linux_x64 and linux_arm64; godot and love are x86_64-only for now — a Godot ARM export needs a preset in the game repo, and LÖVE has no upstream ARM runtime. tic80 has an ARM problem too, but it is installed as a cartridge, which is data for an emulator and runs anywhere. phaser ships only a web build, so it is not mapped at all.

Statuses still apply, and they are what keeps this small today: most of our native titles are demo, which is not in catalog.statuses. On x86_64 the only native game that currently installs is rabbitroller. Add "demo" to catalog.statuses on the box to get the rest.

Where things land

/userdata/system/batocera-store/
├── ttg-store                            launcher
└── ttg/
    ├── store.py, warpstore.py, config.json
    └── state.json, catalog.json, store.log

/userdata/system/configs/emulationstation/es_systems_ttg.cfg   the menu entry

/userdata/roms/teletypegames/            the store's own ROM folder
├── c64/
│   ├── blessingofra-2.0.0.prg, rabbit-1.0.0.prg, …
│   ├── images/blessingofra.png, …
│   └── gamelist.xml
├── tic80/
│   └── …
├── ports/
│   ├── rabbitroller.sh, images/rabbitroller.png
│   ├── .data/rabbitroller/              the unpacked program
│   └── gamelist.xml
└── store/
    ├── update.sh                        the sync, as the menu starts it
    └── gamelist.xml