DoubleFlush's hazardous adventures!

[DoubleFlush]

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I've done a lot since last update (including an exam).

Firstly, i've installed retropie, and have with some success connected the screen, and got this working. I'll post pictures later. My image is still a tad blurry, to the point where the "no gamepad detected" text is really quite hard to make out. is this normal? is my screen defective? does it need 5v modding (i have performed none)?

secondly, i have acquired a defective gba, from which i have yoinked quite a few parts, including the shoulder buttons. But perhaps most importantly, i have used the original pcb to draw up schematics for the custom pcbs i need to make for buttons. i have faith they'll turn out nicely. I'll opt for milling the pcbs by hand. my mother has access to very fine detail rotary tools, and does a lot of fine detail work with it, and has assured me she's up to the task. i would even give it a try myself, but i have no doubt her work will be neater than mine.
i'll now scan the drawn schematics, clean it up in photoshop, and somehow transfer it to a pcb-blank. haven't figured out the details there, yet.

The big proverbial pickle, however, lies in the usb, and the entailing matters. I need the ability to connect usb, mostly, at this point, to be able to transfer roms. Being able to simply add the roms directly onto the rpie sd would simplify greatly, but the only guides i have found on transferring roms to retropie is via a usb memory stick. If any of you know how i might go about adding the roms directly onto the sd card, that would be of tremendous help. The second matter is input. it says i need to configure a gamepad, and i believe that even if i got teensy working, with the buttons, i might first need to configure via either a keyboard or another gamepad. am i right in thinking this? or could i just connect the teensy and everything would be dandy?

thirdly, i was thinking i would not include a usb hub inside the gpa (gamepie advanced), to save space. I was also considering wiring the buttons directly onto gpio, as i've seen a few threads on this, and space is definitely an issue. what are your thoughts on this?

otherwise, i've started modding the case, with great success so far. taking out some internal structure i've made sure i won't need, and i'll soon widen the screen area, to accomodate the bigger screen. i've pictures here, too, that i'll upload some time soon.

[DoubleFlush]

Hah! great success! i've managed to get a usb hub connected to the pi zero, and connected both a usb stick and a gamepad via it. the problem was that pad 23 was shorted to the leg of the usb port. i read on the forums that this was a common problem, because the two are so vicariously close, and indeed, mine was shorted. i was easily able to fix that, and hey presto, everything suddenly worked! i've set up a few basic settings.

my screen is still quite unlcear, though. any tips on this?
however, now, i believe, i shall be able to proceed.

[DoubleFlush]

Another update.
I've transferred a few games (quite a lot, actually)
but upon trying to run any of them, i'm kicked back to the game selection screen. my first thought was that i needed a bios.
i got a bios, and put it in the bios folder on the flashdrive (there were no subfolders. should there have been?), but to no avail. the same result occurred.

my next thought, which i have no idea how i would solve, is that there might not be an emulator installed. is this possible? do all the emulators need to be installed? if so, how do i do this, without internet? i don't have a wifi dongle...

[DoubleFlush]

Yet another update.
I've got it all working now. The problem was with the gameboy bios. it was the wrong version, and probably in the wrong place.
tally ho!

[PotaTox]

Update?

[DoubleFlush]

Yeah, as in status-update. Oh, or were you asking for a new update?