Table of Contents

EasyRPG

EasyRPG is a free, open source engine to create RPG games, aiming to be also compatible with all RPG Maker 2000 and RPG Maker 2003 games.

RPG Maker 2000/2003 games tend to have mechanics and visuals similar to 16-bit JRPGs, though custom scripts can be made by the creators to modify how the game feels and looks.

For more information about EasyRPG itself, check out its website.

This system scrapes metadata for the “easyrpg” group(s) and loads the easyrpg set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

Emulators
EasyRPG
libretro: EasyRPG

BIOS

No EasyRPG emulator in Batocera needs a BIOS file to run.

Game files

Place your EasyRPG game files in /userdata/roms/easyrpg.

The EasyRPG engine supports RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 games, you have to put the game's entire folder inside, and add .easyrpg to its name the game folder is the one containing the RPG_RT.ldb file.

The games must be put inside /userdata/roms/easyrpg and respect some rules:

New to Batocera v33: ZIP file support!

Advanced structure information

When opening a game folder, we see a similar structure from one game to another :

This structure can be slightly different from one game to another, however the RPG_RT.ldb and RPG_RT.lmt must be directly inside the .easyrpg folder.

Some games are distributed in a slightly different way (for exemple, VGPerson's translations will often have a folder containing two executables StartFullscreen.exe and StartWindowed.exe, as well as several folders including a Data one, this Data folder contains the structure we talked about before, which means it is the actual game folder).

Game specific formats

Sometimes, games will have strange extensions to their filenames, while their format isn't directly exploitable, they can technically be converted to more common formats.

Source: the Tools page of EasyRPG

Emulators

EasyRPG

EasyRPG configuration

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: easyrpg.videomode

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
TEST PLAY easyrpg.testplay Enable the debug menu and the walk-through-walls button
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
GAME REGION (ENCODING) easyrpg.encoding Needed by some games to use special characters
⇒ Autodetect (Recommended) autodetect, European (Western) 1252, European (Cent/East) [W-1250] 1250, Japanese [Shift-JIS] 932, Cyrillic [Windows-1251] 1251, Korean 949, Chinese (Simplified) 936, Chinese (Traditional) [Big5] 950, Greek 1253, Turkish 1254, Baltic 1257.

RetroArch

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: easyrpg.videomode, easyrpg.ratio, easyrpg.smooth, easyrpg.shaders, easyrpg.pixel_perfect, easyrpg.decoration, easyrpg.game_translation

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
GRAPHICS BACKEND easyrpg.gfxbackend Choose your graphics rendering
⇒ OpenGL opengl, Vulkan vulkan.
AUDIO LATENCY easyrpg.audio_latency Audio latency in milliseconds, turn it up if you hear crackles
⇒ 256 256, 192 192, 128 128, 64 64, 32 32, 16 16, 8 8.
THREADED VIDEO easyrpg.video_threaded Improves performance at the cost of latency and more video stuttering. Use only if full speed cannot be obtained otherwise.
⇒ On true, Off false.

libretro: easyrpg

libretro: easyrpg configuration

Test-play mode

One of the advanced game settings in EasyRPG is the Test-play mode, it basically lets the player access the debug features present in RPG Maker 2000 and 2003, originally meant to test the game more easily, those include a Walk through walls key that also disable random encounters when held down, a way to access a save menu anywhere, and a debug menu that is quite powerful, those can be used for example to cheat.

A screenshot of the EasyRPG Debug Menu, all the informations displayed in it are described in this section. The Save option opens the save menu, while the Load options opens the load menu, they cannot be accessed during a standard battle.

The Switches options let's you modify the state of various booleans used in the game, while the Variables menu is used to alter the values of number variables.

The entry between Variables and Items is used to set the amount of money you have, its name depends on how the game calls it internally.

The Items option lets you adjust your inventory fully.

The Battle menu can trigger a battle, assuming the game uses the basic battle system, otherwise you might encounter some issues trying to use it2).

Map is used to teleport anywhere in the game, assuming you know how the game refers to the maps internally3).

Full Heal will heal the entire party.

Call Event can be used to trigger various events occurring in game.

Controls

EasyRPG only uses a few controls, they are as follow :

The following hotkey combos work as well in the standalone version :

Here are the default EasyRPG's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

Known Issues

Encoding and filenames

Some games may have special characters in their filenames, or use special characters in-game, when this happens, it may be unable to find said files or display said characters if you didn't adjust the advanced game setting Encoding

Sometimes unzipping the game wrongly can also result in special characters in filenames being incorrect as explained here, when it happens, the asset won't be loaded properly and a warning message will be displayed on top of EasyRPG, The best way is to unzip the game correctly (by using a program able to do so, like unar) and precise the required encoding afterwards.

The page about EasyRPG's special features lists the encoding settings and their purposes:

Option nameDescription
AutoUses the RPG_RT.ini file information (works for most games by default since they don't use special characters often)
Western EuropeanEnglish games or games from most western Europe and America countries
Windows-1251Cyrillic games (full Cyrillic support for Russian and other languages)
Windows-1250Central European games (mostly Latin Extended A glyphs)
Shift-JISJapanese games (with Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji)
Big5Traditional Chinese games (Taiwan, Hong Kong)

You can alternatively edit the RPG_RT.ini file to put the encoding as an EasyRPG parameter, so for exemple, in that file: 

[RPG_RT]
GameTitle=Ib
MapEditMode=2
MapEditZoom=0
KnownVersion=281479271809025
 
[EasyRPG]
Encoding=1252

The [EasyRPG] part and all that is below has been manually added to let EasyRPG know how to launch the game.

Will force the 1252 encoding for the game if the option is not set in Batocera, which corresponds to Western European:

Compatibility

There are a few known compatibility issues with EasyRPG at the time.

Troubleshooting

Further troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

1)
Sometimes, games will be distributed in a slightly different way, in which case, you will need to adapt it
2)
Touhou mother, for exemple, uses a completely custom battle system, which isn't compatible with this option
3)
Sometimes, using it without knowing how the game is done might trigger some events out of order
4)
The debug menu can also be accessed in the pause menu when Test-play is enabled