MiSTer FPGA Forum

I wish there was a way to toggle a fool-proof simplified "User friendly mode" or "Party mode" UI that would hide most anything that isn't picking games and starting them.

Hear me out.

Typically a bunch of friends of mine and myself rent cottages throughout the year, one week-end here and there, so we can throw big parties and have loads of fun. Typically I always bring my SNES Classic to those and it's always very popular, especially when it's in the winter or when it's raining. The UI is very clear and easy to use. Nintendo are the masters of simple user-friendly UIs, after all.

Now, I'd like to bring my MiSTer in the future when all this Covid crap is over, since it can run so much more things, but the UI is so "tekky" and cluttered, for a lack of better words, that I fear "regular" people will get lost in there and/or start messing around with my settings and god knows what else. Lord help me if they stumble in the scripts folder somehow.

So I was wondering if it would be feasible to get a mode that triggers a version of the UI that is more simple, kinda like the SNES classic, where the only thing you can do is start and play games, and return to the game and/or core menu, so that I wouldn't fear letting friends messing around with it when I'm not looking?

Have you tried ALT+F12?

When you say it's cluttered, what are you comparing this to? Not saying it's a bad idea. I think some kind of locked down Kiosk mode would be great for kids and less techy people who are over and playing... Just wondering what your goal is.

invzim wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 8:44 pm Have you tried ALT+F12?

Well first of all the very idea of having to use a keyboard goes against the kind of simplicity I’m looking for.

But beyond that it doesn’t change anything? It brings you to the core selection menu, but doesn’t hide settings/options in any way when in the OSD? Am I missing something?

aberu wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 8:51 pm When you say it's cluttered, what are you comparing this to? Not saying it's a bad idea. I think some kind of locked down Kiosk mode would be great for kids and less techy people who are over and playing... Just wondering what your goal is.

I’m comparing it to the NES/SNES Minis, where the act of choosing a game is huge and at the forefront of everything, and settings are tucked away somewhere. Whereas when you open the OSD, loading a game, resetting, or going back to the core selection is one of a wall of identically-sized options. They’re not even grouped together, or on the same page for that matter.

The kind of “locked down kiosk mode” you describe is exactly what I’m thinking of. Something where only the most basic functions are available and where the act of starting a game, resetting, or going back to start another one are all that is available, and made big and obvious. And while we’re at it, renaming options like “Load *.SMC *.SFC” to just “Select Game”, like you would expect to see in a consumer product. And hiding file extensions. Anything that can contribute to making it look cleaner.

Also relevant to MiSTer users with younger children.

Certain folks will make excuse after excuse against this, but it is absolutely necessary.

mhartman wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 12:03 am Certain folks will make excuse after excuse against this, but it is absolutely necessary.

Nope, generally the opposition has been against ridiculously graphical interfaces because people overestimate the power of the ARM processor on the DE10-Nano, the difficulty of making a second UI that isn't plagued with the bloat of something like Retroarch, and the difficulty in maintaining that second UI constantly.

It's not arbitrary, it's also not absolutely necessary.

Somehow when I was a kid I dealt with MS-DOS. Maybe people should be willing to spend time with their kids or let their kids explore.

It's a nice-to-have. It would be cool if someone developed it.

Agreed - my comment was unnecessary hyperbole. It would be a greatly appreciated feature. My MiSTers are in arcade cabinets and would benefit greatly from a simple way to change games for guests who would enjoy changing games.

My kids have the interface figured out.

Here's what someone would have to do, for perspective, if they would want to get this done.

1. Come up with a list of what needs to be blocked and what should be available. Blocking the user out of changing input assignments might be a good idea, blocking them out of modifying video settings might be a bad idea, it's a tough call. Keeping them from saving settings might be good, but keeping them from changing filters might be bad because then it becomes a pain if they see shimmering, etc... They would also need to come up with an appropriate way to lock and unlock this functionality.

2. Come up with the method of how to do this and begin rewriting Menu_MiSTer AND Template_MiSTer to implement "Kiosk Mode".

3. Update the SYS of every single of the 100+ cores after this is verified to function through extensive testing.

It ain't easy. When I tried to learn the menus, adding menu options is not super easy currently either, which is a function of the OSD not being as much of a GUI as it is an OSD (like the menus on a CRT).

While I get where OP is coming from, this is asking a lot from MiSTer devs for little in return.

If this feature would mean so much to you, consider this alternate possibility:

1) Buy an alternate SD card to use at parties. If it gets messed up, nothing of value is lost!
2) if an alternate SD card is too expensive, back up your SD card before the party

As for "understanding the UI", just explain it to the 2-3 people who will hang around your MiSTer (because MiSTer is cool and you can at least -some- cool nerds to understand and hang out there), and trust that they'll be able to explain it to the other people coming to try out the system.

Hopefully, this DIY approach, while not as classy as what you probably have in mind, will certainly accomplish the same goal. What's more, I can't see a way that would better embody the spirit of the MiSTer project!

Cheers and have a nice party.

Some of the computer cores with huge curated hard drive images kind of work for this, like MegaAGS on Amiga. You can basically ignore the Mister menu and just use it as if it were a real amiga, with a fancy gamepad-navigable frontend and shortcut keys that exit games and take you back to the frontend.

For consoles maybe something like a virtual flash cart could do similar, pending on how feasible it would be to create or repurpose something.

There's also the super attract mode script that does some interesting things in terms of randomly launching games when idle. Maybe some script could be developed that watches for certain keypress to trigger launching next or previous game or the like.

A good start towards this would be:
- the ability to map an alternate menu button (or button combo) to a controller that goes straight to the rom select folder
- when invoked this way, prevent access back to the main menu (you can only navigate rom folders)

Another idea would be quick press of the menu button takes you to the rom browser, longer press for full menu.

There are projects to control the MiSTer from either a web page or a phone app. These might enable a reasonable alternative.

Just make a curated list of games on a 2nd SD card or back up your current SD card


For me I find it easier for children to have adult supervision present