PlusCart: Self host / Inject ROMs?

[+Gemintronic]

Is there a way to self host ROMs with the WiFi plus cart?  My feeble research seems to indicate things need to be submitted to.. a PlusCart host somewhere on the Internet?

 

I must be wrong.  How do people upload compiled ROMs to their own PlusCart on their own WiFi network?

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Gemintronic

[+Andrew Davie]

9 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

Is there a way to self host ROMs with the WiFi plus cart?  My feeble research seems to indicate things need to be submitted to.. a PlusCart host somewhere on the Internet?

 

I must be wrong.  How do people upload compiled ROMs to their own PlusCart on their own WiFi network?

 

 

The way I do it is to install Nextcloud.

 

This is a client that runs on my computer, and it monitors a local folder.

Anything I put in that local folder (my Makefile does it for me) is automatically uploaded to my account/folder on the PlusStore.

Then it's visible to the PlusCart itself.

 

So, my build process is simply hit the hotkey to assemble the game... and then wait about 2 seconds...  and then select the item on the PlusCart and play/test.

 

 

[+Al_Nafuur]

10 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

Is there a way to self host ROMs with the WiFi plus cart?  My feeble research seems to indicate things need to be submitted to.. a PlusCart host somewhere on the Internet?

 

I must be wrong.  How do people upload compiled ROMs to their own PlusCart on their own WiFi network?

 

The main intention of the PlusCart is not the replace the SD storage with an local WiFi storage. If you want to stay local you should use a SD-Card with an UnoCart or Harmony. And if you want to use your WiFi only locally, you can use a WiFi-SD card with these Carts.

 

But in our use case I can't see any gains in using a local network. It is just more setup and maintenance work for the user.

 

A community maintained online repository will have all new ROMs available for all users without any hassle for a single user (updating his own "server"). And for ROMs that are not available in the public repository or his own development ROMs, the user can use his "My ROMs"  folder and sync it via the nextcloud client just like @Andrew Davie described before.

 

User can share some of their subfolders with other users e.g developers with their testers.

 

Via the PlusROM functions the ROM itself can communicate with an online server.

 

For all these new features an internet connection is necessary. And some of the menu features like "Search ROMs", "Recently added ROMs", "Popular ROMs" don't make much sense in a local setup or when the repository is self maintained.

 

So if a user wants to (or must) stay local there is no gain in using the PlusCart instead of the UnoCart/Harmony with SD or WiFi-SD

 

[+Gemintronic]

For my use case automating compile and upload to a real VCS is very attractive.  My bungled style of development involves a lot of playtesting and iteration.  Might try both a PlusCart and the Harmony + WiFiSD route.

 

Sounds like Andrew Davie has a procedure I can work with.  Thank you for the help, guys!

Edited December 16, 2020 by Gemintronic

[+Andrew Davie]

1 hour ago, Gemintronic said:

For my use case automating compile and upload to a real VCS is very attractive.  My bungled style of development involves a lot of playtesting and iteration.  Might try both a PlusCart and the Harmony + WiFiSD route.

 

Sounds like Andrew Davie has a procedure I can work with.  Thank you for the help, guys!

Welcome. Happy to answer any questions.

 

[+SvOlli]

Nevertheless, how about an option to put PlusCart in a listening mode? It then will listen on a defined port (like 2600) that will get the binary payload just like a file sent to this port with a tool like netcat. This payload will then be handled just like a ROM downloaded. My guess is that this could be implemented rather easy. And if "start in listen mode" could be bound to something like the "B/W" switch upon power on, PlusCart would also make a very useful tool for a homebrew developer.

 

Just my 2 cent that came up while reading this thread.

[+Andrew Davie]

30 minutes ago, SvOlli said:

PlusCart would also make a very useful tool for a homebrew developer.

 

In case you didn't see what I'm already doing - I already have a build process up and running, where I assemble the code and then a few seconds later it's already on the PlusCart ready to run.

[+Al_Nafuur]

1 hour ago, SvOlli said:

And if "start in listen mode" could be bound to something like "B/W" switch upon power on, PlusCart would also make a very useful tool for a homebrew developer.

 

 

No need to switch off and on if you can use the exit function. With the exit function you will stay in the current folder, so you can easily restart your updated ROM.