Note
This core was developed with Claude Opus 5 (1M context) in Claude Code.
An Analogue Pocket core that plays both Rally-X and New Rally-X.
There are two ways to get the core onto your card. You will have to find the game ROM yourself.
Pupdate is the easy way. This
core is on its list, so Pupdate will fetch it, install it to
Cores/MorganVieira.Rally-X, and keep it current as new versions are released.
If you run an Analogizer adapter, Pupdate is also what writes its
analogizer.bin config file. ANALOGIZER.md covers that.
Grab the latest release,
unzip it, and merge Cores, Platforms and Assets into the root of your SD
card. The zip is already laid out the way the Pocket expects, so there's nothing
to rename or move once it's across.
This part is the same either way. The core ships with no game data in it and
never will, so you'll need a MAME set of your own: rallyx.zip for Rally-X, or
nrallyx.zip for New Rally-X. Pupdate won't do this bit for you.
The Pocket can't read a MAME zip, so tools/build_rom.py turns one into the
single image the core loads:
python tools/build_rom.py --zip path/to/rallyx.zip
It works out which of the two sets you handed it, checks every part against its
CRC32, and writes build/rallyx.rom or build/nrallyx.rom. Either one comes out
at 21,280 bytes.
That CRC32 check is worth having. Wrong or half-renamed parts still add up to exactly the right size, and the image they produce boots to a black screen. That looks like a broken core rather than a bad zip, so the script rejects the file instead.
Copy the image to Assets/rallyx/common/ on your SD card, creating that folder
if it isn't there. Both games can live in it at once. The Pocket asks which one
you want each time the core starts, and you can switch between them from the core
menu while it's running.
The script only needs Python 3.
The core keeps your high score between sessions. There's nothing to set up and no menu entry for it. The Pocket writes the score out when you quit the core, turn the Pocket off, or put it to sleep, and reads it back the next time you start the game.
Each game gets its own file in Saves/rallyx/common/, named after the ROM you
loaded, so rallyx.rom gives you rallyx.sav. Delete the file to put the high
score back to the factory default.
Analogizer is a cartridge-slot adapter that adds analog video output and SNAC controller support, and this core works with it. ANALOGIZER.md covers the video modes, which pads work and where the A/B switch has to sit for each one, where the config lives, and which problems to report here rather than upstream.
Warning
The adapter draws its power from the cartridge slot, so this core switches that slot on for everybody, adapter or not. Don't leave a cartridge in the slot while this core is running.
TBD