After a lot of scrummaging around the code and the system, I've come to the realisation that the Media Plugin _MIGHT_ be able to be adapted to play emulator games.
I can see there is enough to add a Games media type, with sub types for different consoles... to best handle the emulations themselves, I think that xmame, zsnes, etc should be individually wrapped into their own plugins each handling their respective media types (we may have to change mame's rom file extension to .mame or something like that to keep things from colliding), and just have the respective plugins bring up windows and swallow them appropriately.
The games would be placed into the Pluto/LinuxMCE file structure under Games, with sub-folders for each game type (or in the same folder, it really doesnt matter if the ROMs are named to separate them by game media type.) This would allow for the games to replicate themselves automatically to all the media directors in the house.
Finally, I believe that support for the individual game systems should be placed under the Add Software banner (I mean, why else do we have that screen if not for adding additional software packages!), adding an emulator would automatically add the Games scenario under Media, which would bring up the File list for all Games.
In addition, there could be plug-n-play scripts for various USB sticks (such as the Tankstick, which I am a proud owner of.) which would add configurations to the installed emulators, this REALLY could be done right, for the first time _EVER_ !
Is there anyone here who has experience with making media plugins who had done so on the Pluto side of things? What direction should I go in? I really think there is enough here to keep things consistent and clean, without reinventing a ton of functionality.
-Thom
