Pixelcade for RecalBox
You’ll need at least 600 MB free on your SD card for the Pixelcade LED installation. Pixelcade will be installed in:
Pixelcade Executable: /etc/init.d/pixelcade
Pixelcade Artwork: /recalbox/share/pixelcade-art
The following hardware devices have been tested with RecalBox and Pixelcade together. Other devices may work but if not, post on the Pixelcade Discord and we’ll look into it.
- Raspberry Pi 4 / 400
- Raspberry Pi 5
Installation
From a computer on the same network (Ethernet or WiFi) as your Recalbox device, SSH into your device using the username of root and the password of recalboxroot.
ssh root@recalbox or ssh root@<Your RecalBox IP Address>
password: recalboxroot
And then copy and paste the below command to install Pixelcade:
Pixelcade LED Installer Command
mount -o remount,rw / && cd /etc/init.d && curl -kLO -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alinke/pixelcade-linux-builds/main/install-scripts/setup-recalbox.sh && chmod +x setup-recalbox.sh && ./setup-recalbox.sh
Pixelcade LED Installer Beta (if a Beta does not exist, the production version will be installed)
mount -o remount,rw / && cd /etc/init.d && curl -kLO -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alinke/pixelcade-linux-builds/main/install-scripts/setup-recalbox.sh && chmod +x setup-recalbox.sh && ./setup-recalbox.sh beta
The installation script will take around 20-30 minutes to complete depending on the speed of your Internet connection.
Optional LED Art Pack
An optional paid LED art pack is available for Pixelcade LED with additional animated marquees. Note this art pack is for Pixelcade LED only and not for Pixelcade LCD marquees.
After purchasing the LED art pack, you’ll receive a serial code. Use this command to install the art pack:
cd ~/pixelcade && ./pixelweb -p /recalbox/share/pixelcade-art --install-artpack <serial code>
Pixelcade Companion Web Interface
Use the Pixelcade Companion Web interface to browse marquee artwork. From any web browser on the same network as your RecalBox, go to:
http://recalbox.local:8080 or <RecalBox IP Address>:7070
For example: http://recalbox.local:7070 or 192.168.1.198:7070
Pixelcade Command Line Parameters
Pixelcade will start automatically utilizing the custom.sh built in startup script of RecalBox located at:
/etc/init.d/S99MyScript.py
The Pixelcade installer adds this line to S99MyScript.py which will start Pixelcade automatically with these command line parameters:
cd /etc/init.d/pixelcade && ./pixelweb -p /recalbox/share/pixelcade-art -port 7070 -image "system/recalbox.png" -startup &
Pixelcade has additional command line parameters for customization. Use this command to see the possible parameters.
cd /etc/init.d/pixelcade && ./pixelweb -h
Usage of ./pixelweb:
-b string
optional bind address (default “0.0.0.0”)
-check-artwork
check Pixelcade artwork for updates. Exits with code 0 if no update available, 1 if update is available, 2 if directory does not exist, 3 if unknown error.
-colorlogging
show the selected console and rom in color in the Pixelcade Listener window (default true)
-d string
path to pixelcade device. Set to auto to scan for device. On Windows use COM# (default “auto”)
-debug
debug log level
-delay int
time (in seconds) to delay device init
-demo
Enable demo mode
-devicescan
scan for device if not found or not specified with -d
-font string
default font for text (default “Arial Narrow 7”)
-fontcolor string
default font color for text (default “red”)
-fontcolorrandom
random default font color. Overrides -fontcolor (default true)
-fontsize int
default font size for text (default 28)
-fuzzy
enable fuzzy matching for images (default true)
-fuzzydistance int
higher number means more distance and less confidence for match (default 20)
-fuzzymatches int
max number of fuzzy matches before disregarding (default 40)
-image string
optional image to display on startup (default “mame/pixelcade.png”)
-install-artpack string
install art pack with license code
-install-artwork
install Pixelcade artwork to pixelcade root. Exits with code 2 if artwork already installed.
-logfile string
optional log file
-nointro
skips playing the startup text and logo. Screen will be black on startup.
-nomdns
Skip mDNS registration
-p string
path to pixelcade root (default “/etc/init.d/pixelcade”)
-port int
optional port to listen on (default 8080)
-progress-installer
Use an alternative artwork installer that shows download progress in a command line
-progress-stdout
print progress output as stdout only
-silent
silent mode / do not display any log output
-sports-ticker-refresh int
num minutes before updating sports scores, minimum is 1 minute (default 1)
-startup
startup mode
-swapbluegreen
swap blue and green. Only needed for certain panels.
-system-image string
optional system image to display on startup. Overrides -image
-text string
optional text to display on startup (default “Welcome to Pixelcade”)
-trace
trace log level
-update-artwork
install Pixelcade artwork to pixelcade root
-version
display the version number
Customizing Pixelcade Behavior in RecalBox
You can customize the Pixelcade behavior by modifying the scripts located in
/recalbox/share/userscripts
Here are the scripts for reference which you can customize
https://github.com/alinke/pixelcade-linux/tree/main/recalbox/scripts
| Script | Description |
| systembrowse[systembrowsing].sh | Launches each time a system/console/collection is selected. This script make this API call to display the system/console marquee:
|
| gamescroll[gamelistbrowsing].sh | Launches each time a game is selected like for example while scrolling through games. This script makes this API call to display the game marquee:
|
| gamelaunch[rungame].sh | Launches each time a game is launched. This script will check if the game has high scores and display high scores in cycle mode if yes. Cycle mode means cycling between the game marquee and the high score scrolling. If the game does not have or does not support high scores, then the text “Now Playing will scroll and then the game marquee will be displayed. You can customize these settings in this script: DISPLAYHIGHSCORES=yes If set to no, high scores will not scroll and the “Now Playing will scroll and then the game marquee will be displayed. NUMBERHIGHSCORES=3 The number of high scores to scroll, choose 1 for example to only show the top score. CYCLEMODE=yes Cycle mode continually cycles between the game marquee and scrolling high scores while a game is active. If set to no, then high scores will scroll only once on game launch and then display the game marquee. NUMBER_MARQUEE_LOOPS=10 For cycle mode, number of seconds a still image PNG marquee will remain before scrolling the high score text. This has no effect if it’s an animated GIF marquee which will always loop once. |
| Launches when the EmulationStation front end is started. This script will display the default text “Welcome and Game On” using this API call:
|
Launches when the EmulationStation front end is shutdown. This script will display the text “Thanks for Playing” using this API call:
|
Here are features available from the Pixelcade API which you can use in the above scripts https://pixelcade.org/api