Help with rom specific configuration

jonnykesh

@dratsum Use advanceMame if you have a Pi3. Update your OP, a B is very different from a 3B.

dratsum

@jonnykesh Sorry - first pi. Didn't realize the was another B. Would AdvanceMAME still work with the roms from 0.37b5 Romset?

caver01

@jonnykesh I don't see why AdvanceMAME wouldn't run on an original Pi. Interesting question, but it should work. Not all games will run as smoothly, but it should work. Might be interesting to find out, or see if anyone using a zero is able to succeed with AdvanceMAME.

jonnykesh

@dratsum No, probably not. You need a 0.94 set for 0.94 or a 0.106 set for 1.4 and 3.5.

caver01

@dratsum You should know that the retroarch config files (from rgui) are user-readable, and they are .cfg files too (this is a point of confusion) but they are different than the .cfg files that MAME writes.

jonnykesh

@caver01 I have a zero in a drawer somewhere. Might fish it out some dark rainy night and give it a go. Plenty of those on the way!

caver01

@jonnykesh Me too. I hope to build a minty-pi at some point. It'd be a shame if I cannot play asteroids on it! Actually, the tiny display I would use with it won't require the better rendering anyway!

dratsum

Thanks @caver01

Is what I'm trying to do simply not possible in Mame4All, or would I be able to add my own rom config settings to the retoarch config files?

caver01

@dratsum said in Help with rom specific configuration:

Thanks @caver01

Is what I'm trying to do simply not possible in Mame4All, or would I be able to add my own rom config settings to the retoarch config files?

It is a loaded question with two answers:

it definitely IS possible to do per-rom configs with Retroarch emulators (lr-mame4all, lr-mame2003, lr-fbalpha). I do it a lot for screen rotation, customizing controls, overlays, and shaders. You simply create a file right next to the ROM (not in a sub folder), and you name it the same as the rom.zip.cfg, like this: asteroid.zip.cfg

However:
2. You cannot affect MAME vector configurations using the retroarch config file. You can set the viewport, you can add overlays and shaders and you can even change control mapping, but none of these are MAME configurations, they are more overall settings for the retroarch environment while running the emulator. In some respects, this is nice, because the settings can be used by lr-mame2003, or by lr-fbalpha, or lr-mame4all, as they config would apply equally to all three emulators. You cannot, however, add configurations like Beam Width, or Flicker, as these are strictly mame concepts not controlled by retroarch.

For what you wanted in your original post, AdvanceMAME is your best option. AdvanceMAME plays vector ROMs beautifully, and I use it exclusively for that purpose. It also has superior control-mapping for analog. If you were to setup a home-built cabinet with three trackballs in order to play 3-player Rampart for example, you could do it with AdvanceMAME, and only with AdvanceMAME. That said, lr-mame2003 is far and away the best MAME emulator in retropie in terms of features and rom compatibility, but I use AdvanceMAME for all vector games.

dratsum

@caver01 - got it - thanks so much for help.