Preparing a game directory for xsystem35

BGM

xsystem35 supports playing BGM directly from a CD, but you will probably want to play from audio files stored on your filesystem instead to avoid the hassle of inserting CDs or mounting CD images. If you do want to play BGM from a CD image, you will have to install cdemu in order to emulate a CD drive. It is not enough to simply mount the CD’s filesystem as the audio is not stored there.

To use ripped audio files, you must create a file listing the location of each track in the filesystem. I recommend creating a “BGM” subdirectory in the main game directory and storing the tracks there. Then create a file “playlist” in the game directory, and enter the paths to your tracks, one per line. The first line in the file is ignored for legacy reasons. E.g.

!!!THIS LINE IS IGNORED!!!
BGM/Track 1.ogg
BGM/Track 2.ogg

etc. Note that you can use relative paths, as I have done here. Since you will be running xsystem35 from inside the game directory, all paths are relative to there.

.xsys35rc

The .xsys35rc file is used to configure xsystem35. Every option that can be configured via .xsys35rc can also be set via command line options. You can have a global configuration at $HOME/.xsys35rc as well as per-game configurations at $GAMEDIR/.xsys35rc. Options in the per-game configuration override the global settings, and options specified on the command line override both.

The main thing you’ll want to configure is the cdrom device. I recommend creating global configuration at $HOME/.xsys35rc with the following contents:

# Get BGM from a file named 'playlist' in the game directory
cdrom_device: playlist
# Enable font antialiasing (HIGHLY recommended)
antialias: Yes

Then all you have to do is create a file named playlist in the game directory (as described in the BGM section above) and no further game-specific configuration is required.

Below is a list of options that can be set in a .xsys35rc file.

Option Name Values Description
font_device sdl,ft2,x11 Font device to use
font_gothic <path> Path to X11 Gothic font
font_mincho <path> Path to X11 Mincho font
ttfont_gothic <path> Path to TTF Gothic font
ttfont_mincho <path> Path to TTF Mincho font
ttfont_gothic_code jisx0213 Font code for TTF Gothic font
ttfont_mincho_code jisx0213 Font code for TTF Mincho font
ttfont_gothic_face <integer> Font face to use for TTF Gothic font
ttfont_mincho_face <integer> Font face to use for TTF Mincho font
antialias Yes,No Enable font antialiasing
audio_buffer_size <integer> Audio buffer size
cdrom_device <path> Path to CD-ROM device or playlist
joy_device <path> Path to joystick device
midi_device <string> MIDI device name
midi_output_device <string> MIDI output device name
no_shm Yes,No Don’t use MIT-SHM
qe-kanjicode 0,1 Kanji code of save filenames (0:utf8, 1:sjis)
no_imagecursor Yes,No Disable image cursor

xsystem35.gr

Game resource (.gr) files list the locations of various files needed to run a game. They are strictly optional, as xsystem35 can automatically find the files it needs when run from inside a game directory. You should create a .gr file when:

The following is a .gr file for the English translation of Kichikuou Rance.

ScenarioA KICHIKUSA.ALD
GraphicsA KICHIKUGA.ALD
GraphicsB KICHIKUGB.ALD
WaveA KICHIKUWA.ALD
Ain System39.ain
SaveA ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSA.ASD
SaveB ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSB.ASD
SaveC ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSC.ASD
SaveD ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSD.ASD
SaveE ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSE.ASD
SaveF ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSF.ASD
SaveG ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSG.ASD
SaveH ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSH.ASD
SaveI ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSI.ASD
SaveJ ~/.xsys35/saves/kichikuou/KICHIKUSJ.ASD

Note the use of relative paths. If you want to run the game from an arbitrary location, you should use absolute paths instead. Also note that while xsystem35 does not do a full shell expansion on the path name, it does expand ~ into $HOME.