EmuELEC's ports system has one emulator, `ports`, the dispatch to a
script ports.yaml generates. The scraper now reads each port's engine
(the libretro core handed to emuelecRunEmu.sh with -C, else port_exe),
so devilutionx, sonic2013, soniccd, sonic-mania, reminiscence and
rigelengine are examined. Standalone emulators keep the spelling the
launch code dispatches on instead of invented lowercase forms, and
media players and runtimes go to the overrides' remove_cores.
Each system of the AmberELEC, EmuELEC and KNULLI lists now carries the
cores its ES list offers it, in menu order, under `cores:`.
The install manifest marks each game data file "category": "game_data":
a platform entry only game data profile entries read, or a core file its
profile declares game data. Firmware carries no category. Every manifest
says "categorized": true so the installer can refuse an older list.
generate_pack.py --no-game-data cuts those files from the platform list
and the core profiles before the build, names each one with the cores that
read it as game data, and tags the pack _NoGameData through _narrowings.
verify.py and the pack check take the same cut, so --verify-packs and the
report describe the pack the builder wrote. Modes without a platform
(--emulator, --system alone, --from-md5) and --all-variants refuse it.
A platform can hand each libretro core a system directory of its own
(core_system_dirs). platform_layouts then gives one view per directory,
so the gap report, the builder, the manifest, slots and cross_reference
place a core's files below each folder it is handed, and a core handed
none gets no file. Resolution strips the folder again and searches the
collection by the core's own path.
Each OS publishes Batocera's systems dict (knulli-systems, and
batocera-systems at AmberELEC's newest prerelease commit and EmuELEC v4.8),
read with the shared parser. Cores come from each OS's own ES list.
AmberELEC and EmuELEC declare neogeo/ and ports/ beside bios/ from
/storage/roms, so their packs extract there and core_destination puts
core files under bios/.
standalone_path is relative to the directories a standalone build
resolves it against, now declared per profile (standalone_directories).
A launcher record that links or passes a whole folder of the BIOS tree
under one of them gives that folder, and platform_layouts rebases the
standalone view once for the builder, the manifest, verify and slots
(launchers.standalone_root, common.standalone_destination).
Flycast on RetroPie and ROCKNIX reads bios/dc, on EmuDeck
bios/flycast/bios, on Batocera (FLYCAST_BIOS_PATH) and RetroBat
(Dreamcast.BiosPath) bios/dc. The ROCKNIX, Batocera and RetroBat
scrapers now record the patched data directory, the environment
variable and the setting that say so.
The -listxml names, for every machine, its parent (romof), the devices of its default configuration (device_ref) and the cards its slots offer (slotoption). A machine takes the system of the first set on its romof chain a written entry lists, and passes it to each device it can instantiate. A device set reached from one system gets system:, from several the new per-entry systems:, from none neither, and keeps serving every system of the profile. The gap report, the core extras and slots read the entry's own systems, so generate_pack --system and the installer pick by them.
The builder keeps a held regional fallback when the requested file is
missing (since 2026-10-17), and the comment beside the manifest's
omissions still said the opposite. A file the builder holds but the
manifest cannot download sat in omitted_files counted unheld, so the
installer kept a fallback the pack drops. Such an omission now carries
held: true and narrow() counts it held, as the builder does.
An emulator page linked its YAML and api/v1 JSON, platform and system
pages nothing. Each platform page now links its YAML, its own
api/v1/platforms/<id>.json and its install manifest, and each system
page its api/v1/systems/<slug>.json, both validated by the envelope
schema.
The manifest now carries system_names, each system's native_system names from the platform's own file, and --system, its suggestions and --list-systems read them: --platform batocera --system psx installs sony-playstation.
release_record rebuilt nothing from the name builder: a substring match
took RetroArch_v1.22.2_AndroidArm64V8A_BIOS_Pack.zip for the RetroArch
pack. The record now refuses any pack that is not a registered platform's
full pack and stores the platforms each pack serves, which the readers
use instead of the pack name.
The Required packs and manifests carried every data tree, the FreeIntv
overlays included. A data_directories entry now accepts required: false,
and the platform, emulator and manifest walks leave such a tree out under
--required-only. FreeIntv reads its overlays only with the multi-screen
option and draws a placeholder keypad without one (src/libretro.c:294-296,
350-369).
The scraper walks each package's functions the way RetroPie runs them in one shell (assignments, arrays, for loops, brace expansion, $md_id, calls into other packages) and records every link, copy, move and setting that names $biosdir, the addEmulator flags (sdltrs -romfile3), the BIOS read outside $biosdir (basilisk --rom, gngeopi -B) and the launch scripts that exit without their file (fs-uae kick13.rom, reicast dc_boot.bin).
Each package also gets a package record with its rp_module_repo and the systems it registers, which maps a package to the build it compiles. The schema gains package, repo, systems and the moves and package kinds. platforms/retropie.yml is regenerated at 46128cd2: only the launchers section is new.
The scraper reads the start scripts and the configs each package installs at the tag the BIOS list is pinned to: configs that name a BIOS path, the yabasanshiro search, directories handed to DuckStation and the PCSX2 builds, and the ln -s commands that put bios/ where an emulator reads. A package that ships one config per device gets a device field only where the values differ, as melonDS does on AMD64.
The resolver reads built_by as the platforms on which a core name means this build. Its definition said platforms that compile a libretro build, which excludes a standalone build a platform installs from the project's release. The field now says what it decides: platforms that ship this build under its core name, compiled or installed from the release.
DuckStation identifies its BIOS by MD5 in a folder it scans
(bios.cpp:208), so its entries' names are labels. The export wrote them
into Batocera's and ROCKNIX's lists as files to hold: a user with only
scph5501.bin read 104 missing BIOS where DuckStation boots. Labels also
lent their md5 to a name another core opens, and paired by name they
replaced System.dat's scph5000.bin hashes.
found_by: name | content, on a profile or a file and keyed by build like
load_from. The truth records which cores open each name (_named_by). A
label pairs with a platform entry by hash only, is never added, merges
with an opened name only on a shared hash, and is counted in the export
report rather than listed as missing.
unread_on names the platforms whose launcher points the emulator at other files. RetroBat writes absolute BIOS paths into standalone BlastEm's config, so the default names were reported as required and missing there. Such an entry leaves that platform's gap report and pack, and its emulator page says where it is never opened.
The data page promises that v1 fields are only ever added, and the envelope schema left items unconstrained, so a renamed field passed validation. Each kind now lists the fields its items carry and their types.
bundled describes the emulator's own release, and a platform package can differ both ways: Batocera's hcl package installs the binary alone and sends users to fetch the data, while its blueMSX core package copies the machines and databases beside the core. not_bundled_on and installed_on name those platforms, and the builder reads them through one rule.
A file or tree installed with the emulator is already on the user's machine, so packs, install manifests and verify's pack count leave it out. bundled is scoped by mode like any entry: Dolphin's Sys and PPSSPP's assets ship with the standalone releases, not with the libretro cores, so they now follow the libretro build only and still reach RetroArch packs. PrimeHack, standalone only, ships its own Sys.
Paid Android emulators announce versions that circulate only rebuilt or re-signed. The profile stays on the newest unmodified build, and version_source.no_genuine_copy names the release searched for, so check_freshness stops flagging it until the page announces a later one.
About forty profiles describe projects published outside any forge (Altirra, ePSXe, DraStic, mednafen, xroar). profile_sync skipped them as an unsupported host and check_freshness reported the same UNKNOWN line every run, so a new release adding a firmware went unseen. A profile can now name the page announcing its releases and a pattern for the version: --check-version reads it, and check_freshness --profiles calls the profile stale when the page announces another version than core_version.
RomM lists a platform's firmware folder without descending (base_handler.py:1002, recursive=False) and EmulatorJS writes the chosen file, or each zip member, under its bare name. 543 files of the RomM pack sat below a folder where no core could read them. The registry now marks RomM's folder flat, and such files are omitted with the reason below_platform_folder in the manifest and the installer.
Profiles, the wiki, comments, docstrings, command output and schema descriptions carried em-dashes, clause-joining semicolons, unicode arrows, box-drawing banners and check-mark glyphs. Each sentence was rewritten rather than having its character swapped. Hashes, paths, source_ref values and every cited file:line are unchanged, which a comparison of each parsed profile against the previous revision confirms.
validate_pr comments now say PASS and FAIL in words, and source_ref values in a profile's structured blocks render as code. test_prose_style fails if any of these comes back, in tracked files or in the generated site.
Manifests list each data directory's source archive and the hash of
every file; the installer rebuilds the tree from the archive and keeps
only the files whose hash matches.
The RetroArch list is folded for Windows and macOS. Its manifest
now carries the names a case-keeping directory also needs, and the
installer adds them after probing the BIOS directory.
Batocera, RetroBat, Recalbox and ROCKNIX offer some emulators both as a
libretro core and standalone. Filed as standalone only, the libretro
layout was dropped: libretro Dolphin had no dolphin-emu/Sys/GC files.
Platforms now name dual-mode emulators and each gets both layouts.
RomM's verify_file_hashes compares the size, then md5, sha1 or crc. We
compared md5 alone, so a fixture entry with one mistyped hash was left out
of the pack RomM would accept it from. The rule is declared in romm.yml
and read by verify, the builder and the manifest.
A prose citation whose text lived under several pins stayed in
read again until the text changed, so fixnes, zesarux and emucorex,
exact at their pins, would have refused every later bump.
prose_written_at names the pin a reader confirmed; it settles the
readings and never overrides a history with one candidate.
Dolphin and its forks hash dsp_rom.bin and dsp_coef.bin together and
warn on any combination outside known_roms. The profiles now carry the
accepted pairs, and the resolver keeps both files inside the first pair
the collection holds whole: MMJR and Ishiiruka were served the free ROM
beside the official coefficients.
Recalbox compiles libretro/mame at 0.258 and 0.278 itself; typed
libretro, both profiles were resolved for every all_libretro platform
although the buildbot RetroArch installs from has neither. A profile
now names the platforms that build it (built_by), and is reached only
when a platform lists it by name.
Abdessamad Derraz