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Zaparoo Core v2.3.0 released, new Batocera support

· 3 min read
wizzo
wizzo
Lead Developer

Zaparoo Core v2.3.0 is now available! Adds stable support for Batocera, revamps the playlist feature and adds heaps of smaller improvements.

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Batocera Support​

Batocera running Zaparoo on a Raspberry Pi 5

The star of this release is the newest supported platform: Batocera! Batocera is a software emulation distribution based around EmulationStation, with support for a huge number of systems and devices.

This went so well, I ended up marking this release as stable. It has almost the exact same level of support for all features as Zaparoo on MiSTer, including support for all the same hardware like NFC readers.

If you want to give it a shot, please take a look at the Batocera platform guide for install instructions. There are builds available for ARM, ARM64, x86_64 which should cover most of the devices Batocera works with.

Not much else to say here... it just works!!!

Playlist Updates​

The playlist feature has been completely revamped to actually be useful now! This was a feature I threw in last minute a while ago, but it still needed a lot of love.

Originally, you could load a folder as a playlist with **playlist.play:/some/folder and then navigate between media with **playlist.next and **playlist.prev. It was neat but probably not very useful.

Now, we have some new commands:

  • **playlist.load - Load a folder as a playlist without starting playback.
  • **playlist.stop - Stop playback (exit the media) and clear the playlist.
  • **playlist.pause - Stop playback without clearing the playlist.
  • **playlist.goto - Jump to a specific item in the playlist and play it.
  • **playlist.open - Load a playlist and display a list picker on screen to choose which item to play.

On top of that, the loading itself has been improved. Folder loading works a little better, but more importantly, playlist files are now supported in the .pls format.

With all these new features, suddenly playlists feel much more useful and natural. Please take a look at the playlist documentation for more information, and definitely give the playlist.open command a try! You will like it.

Other Changes​

  • Prepared bases for further platform support.
  • Overhauled build process to allow for easier platform support.
  • Added support for searching all system in launch.random command.
  • Added feature to allow setting a portable directory for Zaparoo config and data.
  • Added support for scanning subfolders in mappings folder.
  • Fixed bug where uppercase Zap Links weren't being detected.
  • Fixed bug where Core was sending incorrect media notifications to App.
  • Added a flag to run API method to mark scripts as unsafe.
  • License and platform READMEs are now included with all releases.
  • Build scripts now work natively on Windows.
  • The launcher advanced argument can be used to override system auto-detection on launch commands.