ttg-retroarch-store/README.md

ttg-retroarch-store — the Teletype Games store for RetroArch

Puts the https://teletypegames.org catalog into RetroArch's library: two playlists — Teletype Games - Commodore 64 and Teletype Games - TIC-80 — with box art, on any machine RetroArch runs on.

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

Install

curl -fsSL https://git.teletypegames.org/tools/ttg-retroarch-store/raw/branch/master/install.sh | bash

Or from a checkout of this repo:

./install.sh

The installer fetches the engine, drops it and this config in ~/.local/share/warp-engine-store/ttg/, writes the ttg-retroarch-store launcher into ~/.local/bin, prints the directories it resolved from your retroarch.cfg, and runs the first sync. Restart RetroArch to see the playlists — it builds its menu at startup.

If the two cores are not installed, the playlists still work and RetroArch asks which core to use the first time. To be rid of the prompt: Online Updater ▸ Core Downloader ▸ VICE x64 and TIC-80, then sync again.

Use

S=~/.local/bin/ttg-retroarch-store

$S paths                # where things go, and whether the cores are there
$S list                 # compatible catalog entries; * installed, ^ update available
$S sync                 # download everything new, refresh the playlists
$S sync blessingofra    # just one title (never prunes)
$S -n sync              # dry run
$S remove c64demo       # uninstall

Close RetroArch before syncing: it writes its playlists back when it exits, so a sync underneath a running instance can be undone. The store refuses rather than lose the work.

Keep it current from crontab:

0 * * * * ~/.local/bin/ttg-retroarch-store sync >>~/.local/share/warp-engine-store/ttg/store.log 2>&1

What this store installs

Catalog platform	Playlist	Core	Extension
c64	Teletype Games - Commodore 64	vice_x64_libretro (VICE x64)	.prg
tic80	Teletype Games - TIC-80	tic80_libretro (TIC-80)	.tic

Statuses released and archived, whole catalog, no owner filter — six titles, 233 KB in total as measured on 2026-08-17:

Playlist	Titles
Commodore 64	Blessing of Ra, Rabbit Scooter, C64 Demo for Arok Party 2026
TIC-80	Definitely not an Impostor, BombExpert, Mr Anderson's Adventure

That is the cartridge half of the catalog. Our other games are native builds and web builds, and no libretro core runs those — on a Batocera box they install as Ports instead, see ttg-batocera-store.

Everything lands under the teletypegames/ subfolder of RetroArch's content directory, so a prune can never reach content you put there yourself. To change any of it, edit ~/.local/share/warp-engine-store/ttg/config.json — the full key reference is in the engine's README.

Onto an Android phone or a handheld

RetroArch on Android reads the same playlists, but Android cannot run Python, so the tree is rendered here and copied over:

$S export /tmp/ra-ttg \
    --target-prefix /storage/emulated/0/RetroArch \
    --target-libretro-dir /data/data/com.retroarch.aarch64/cores \
    --core-suffix _android.so
adb push /tmp/ra-ttg/. /storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/

Both cores are published for Android arm64-v8a and armeabi-v7a, so the games do run there — but this path has not been tried on a device yet. If the playlists do not show up, check the phone's own paths:

adb shell cat /storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/retroarch.cfg | grep _directory

Where things land

~/.local/share/warp-engine-store/
├── ttg/
│   ├── retroarch_store.py, warpstore.py, config.json
│   └── state.json, catalog.json
└── (launcher: ~/.local/bin/ttg-retroarch-store)

<content_root>/teletypegames/c64/     blessingofra-2.0.0.prg, rabbit-1.0.0.prg, …
<content_root>/teletypegames/tic80/   impostor-1.0.tic, …
<playlists_dir>/Teletype Games - Commodore 64.lpl
<playlists_dir>/Teletype Games - TIC-80.lpl
<thumbnails_dir>/Teletype Games - Commodore 64/Named_Boxarts/Blessing of Ra.png

playlists_dir, thumbnails_dir and the cores folder come from your retroarch.cfg — they are not always where you would guess, so paths prints what was resolved and where each answer came from.

Not yet verified on real hardware

The engine has been exercised end to end (download, playlists, thumbnails, prune, uninstall, Android export), but two things need a real run:

• Does the VICE core auto-start a raw .prg, or does it load and wait? If it waits, the fix is a core option or shipping .d64 instead.
• The Android push: the paths above, and whether scoped storage lets RetroArch read what adb push wrote.

Report back what happens — the design notes are in devarea/RETROARCH_STORE.md.