fs-uae-wrapper/README.rst

This little utility is a wrapper on great FS-UAE emulator, to perform some actions, like uncompressing archived files (CD ROMs images, filesystems), launch the emulator and archive emulator save state.

As an example, if there is a collection of CD³² game files and one want to provide configuration for each game, but want to keep ISO images with corresponding files in archive (due to size of those images) than FS-UAE Wrapper is a way to achieve this.

Requirements

• Python (2 or 3)

• 7z archiver

• unrar

Installation

Just perform (preferably in virtualenv) a command:

$ pip install fs-uae-wrapper

Usage

After installation you should be able to access new command fs-uae-wrapper, and its invocation is identical like fs-uae binary:

$ fs-uae-wrapper [fs-uae-config-file] [parameters]

There is special option for passing wrapping module, which might be placed directly in fs-uae configuration or passed as an option:

[config]
...
wrapper = cd32
...

or

$ fs-uae-wrapper --wrapper=cd32

In this case there would several things happen. First, Config.fs-uae would be searched, read and there would be wrapper option searched. If found, specific module will be loaded and depending on the module, there would be performed specific tasks before fs-uae is launched and after it.

Assumption is, that configuration file are written in portable way, so the are saved as relative configuration file (hence the name Config.fs-uae, even if the are named differently. If certain wrapper is specified, it will create temporary directory and place the configuration file there as Config.fs-uae.

If no wrapper option would be passed either as an config option or command line argument, all command line options will be passed to the fs-uae executable as-is.

Modules

For now, only for cd32 module exists, but there are planned couple more.

cd32

There are few assumptions regarding file names and archives. Let's see some sample config for a game, which is saved as ChaosEngine.fs-uae:

 1 [config]
 2 wrapper = cd32
 3 
 4 amiga_model = CD32
 5 title = The Chaos Engine CD32
 6 
 7 cdrom_drive_0 = Chaos Engine, The (1994)(Renegade)(M4)[!][CDD3445].cue
 8 
 9 save_states_dir = $CONFIG/fs-uae-save/
10 
11 joystick_port_1_mode = cd32 gamepad
12 platform = cd32

First assumption is that archive containing files for the game (here: Chaos Engine) should not be in subdirectory. Second, archive name should be the same as a cue file, so in this case it should be like Chaos Engine, The (1994)(Renegade)(M4)[!][CDD3445].zip in case of zip archive. There are three archive types supported: 7z, rar and zip.

Next, the invocation of the wrapper would be as follows:

$ fs-uae-wrapper ChaosEngine.fs-uae

Now, there several thing will happen:

• Config file will be read, and wrapper module will be find (because we already put it on line 2)

• New temporary directory will be created

• Archive with game assists will be extracted in that directory

• Configuration file will be copied into that directory, and renamed to Config.fs-uae

• If there is saved state, it also would be extracted there

• fs-uae will be launched inside that directory

Next, after fs-uae quit, there will:

• Create archive containing save state with name like the configuration file with additional _save suffix. In this example it would be ChaosEngine_save.7z.

• Wipe out temporary directory

License

This work is licensed on 3-clause BSD license. See LICENSE file for details.