AutoBleem on a PC USB stick

AutoBleem on a USB stick that turns any PC into a PlayStation Classic-style console: boot the PC from the stick and it comes up in the game carousel, with nothing of the PC's own disks touched. Games live on the stick itself, on a partition any computer can write to. A 32-bit Linux is inside, so an old PC works as well as a new one. ← Downloads

autobleem-v2.0.0-alpha1.1-pcusb-i386.img.xz (646.0 MB) - a development build

You need

A PC with an Intel or AMD processor - anything from a Pentium M / Athlon XP up, 32- or 64-bit; 1 GB of memory or more. The stick carries three Linux kernels and boots the one the processor calls for, from a plain BIOS or from UEFI (32- or 64-bit).
A USB stick of 8 GB or more - 32 GB and up for room for games (the system takes 8 GB, the rest becomes the games partition).
A USB or Bluetooth gamepad - a DualShock 4, an Xbox pad, an 8BitDo, any pad Linux sees as a game controller. The launcher is driven with the pad; a keyboard is only for the first boot.
Internet on the first boot (a network cable, or WiFi - the setup asks): it downloads RetroArch, its cores, the BIOS files and the cover databases.
A screen on HDMI or DisplayPort; the sound goes out the same cable.

Graphics: Intel and AMD graphics work out of the box. Nvidia cards run on the open driver, which handles most of them; a very new one may show nothing - use another card or the processor's own graphics.

Writing the stick

Windows: the AutoBleem Flasher (on the download page, next to the image): unzip it and run AutoBleemFlasher.exe - it asks for administrator rights, since it writes a whole disk. Pick the channel (Release, Testing or Nightly) and the stick; it downloads that channel's image, checks it, writes it and reads it back. Only removable disks are offered, and everything on the chosen one is erased. Rufus (in DD Image mode) and balenaEtcher work as well, with an image you downloaded yourself.
Linux / macOS: download the image (a .img.xz file), then xzcat autobleem-*.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress (the stick's device, not a partition of it - everything on the stick is erased).

Booting from it

Plug the stick in and start the PC from it: the boot menu key at power-on (F12, F11, F8 or Esc depending on the make - the PC's own screen says which), or the boot order in the BIOS/UEFI setup. Secure Boot must be off in the UEFI setup: nothing on the stick is signed. Both a BIOS ("legacy" / CSM) boot and a UEFI boot work.

What the first boot does

The first boot is the installation, on the screen, watched and answered with the keyboard:

It asks whether to show the setup graphically (recommended, the AutoBleem logo with the questions and progress bars under it) or as text on the console - choose text if the graphical screen stays black on your PC; the choice is kept for the updates that follow.
With no network cable it asks for a WiFi network and its password.
It asks whether to install RetroArch (the other systems - NES, SNES, Mega Drive, arcade and about a hundred more; close to a GB of downloads). A minute with no answer means yes. Without it AutoBleem is a PlayStation-only machine.
The system partition is grown to 8 GB and the rest of the stick becomes the AUTOBLEEM games partition (exFAT).
RetroArch, its cores, the BIOS files, the cover databases and the sample games are downloaded; the boot logo is set up.
The PC reboots into the launcher.

Something failed? The screen says so and the same boot runs again next time. The log is /var/log/autobleem-firstboot-install.log on the stick's Linux partition.

Games

Plug the stick into any computer: the AUTOBLEEM drive is the games partition. PlayStation games go into Games/, a folder per game (.cue+.bin, .pbp, .chd) - or drop the files straight into Games/ and the launcher sorts them into folders. The other systems' games go into RetroArch/roms/, a folder per system, named as they are already there. The launcher scans on every start and while it runs; covers and titles come from the databases and, when online, from libretro's thumbnails.

Your own PlayStation BIOS (romw.bin, romJP.bin) goes into System/Bios/; the setup put the standard ones there already.

Options and updates

autobleem.txt on the stick's small first partition holds the first boot's options (the system partition's size, RetroArch yes/no, what to download) - edit it on any computer before the first boot; the comments in it explain each key.

The launcher checks this site for updates once a day (Options → Updates, and Software Update in the L2+R2 menu) and installs one from inside, the games untouched.

For a terminal: ssh is on from the first boot, user autobleem, password autobleem - change it (passwd). On the PC itself, Alt+F2 gives a login prompt next to the launcher.