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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?

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    guidancemameclassic80s
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    • dankcushionsD
      dankcushions Global Moderator @briankross
      last edited by

      @briankross said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

      @briankross said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

      @caver01
      Since we have a similar setup for MAME, I noticed the graphics appear smoothed out and perhaps an added glow for centipede and millipede in AdvanceMAME. But I actually like the bit graphics better in lr-mame2003. Do you know about this by chance? I'll dig around.

      Found it.

      Once in the game using AdvnaceMAME, press TAB, Video, Resize Effect = no, then "save for this game".

      does this basically give a raw pixelly image like the other mame emulators? in that case, should this be a default? i could add that to my changes...

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • caver01C
        caver01 @dankcushions
        last edited by

        @dankcushions said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

        this is a good place to ask a couple of questions i have about the advmame directories. i was going to update the defaults so these are saved in a sensible place:

        @dankcushions The defaults are probably fine as-is. I just moved mine to bios because I already had samples and artwork there. It made sense--one less thing to forget.

        @dankcushions said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

        does this basically give a raw pixelly image like the other mame emulators? in that case, should this be a default? i could add that to my changes...

        @dankcushions Yeah, the parameter is display_resizeeffect none and display_rgbeffect none will prevent pixel smoothing. That's probably the best default to be consistent with other emulators. However, I always change mine to display_resizeeffect filter and display_rgbeffect triad3dot, as this is as close as I can get to a CRT shader in AdvanceMAME. Some games look good with it, some don't. Sometimes the triad6dot looks better. It just depends on the game resolution.

        I am running far fewer games on AdvanceMAME than I used to. It's coming down to Vector, Trackball/Spinner, and a few oddballs: (can't run Arch Rivals, Sarge, and Xenophobe on lr-mame2003 for some reason).

        dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • dankcushionsD
          dankcushions Global Moderator @caver01
          last edited by

          @caver01 ok good! thanks - i will implement those above defaults after i've tested them.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • briankrossB
            briankross @dankcushions
            last edited by

            @dankcushions

            Good idea!

            Which file are you editing to change or include directories?

            When you have multiple paths for the same thing, will it still recreate folders in the rom folder? (I'm assuming it will). I'm looking to point the AdvanceMAME folders to another logical location so it will no longer recreate folders in the rom folder root directory, cleaning it up a bit.

            • Brian
            dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • RiverstormR
              Riverstorm
              last edited by

              Hey guys I've been slowly porting over to lr-mame2003 and I noticed a couple things that I may be configuring wrong as I can't seem to get them working.

              One is history.dat (& mameinfo.dat) I put the files in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/ directory but when I check the history it tells me no history file available.

              The other is artwork located in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/artwork/ but it doesn't seem to use it.

              caver01C dankcushionsD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • caver01C
                caver01 @Riverstorm
                last edited by caver01

                This post is deleted!
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                • dankcushionsD
                  dankcushions Global Moderator @Riverstorm
                  last edited by

                  @Riverstorm said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                  Hey guys I've been slowly porting over to lr-mame2003 and I noticed a couple things that I may be configuring wrong as I can't seem to get them working.

                  One is history.dat (& mameinfo.dat) I put the files in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/ directory but when I check the history it tells me no history file available.

                  works for me. are you using the latest version? i fixed this stuff semi-recently. you might need to rebuild from source.

                  The other is artwork located in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/artwork/ but it doesn't seem to use it.

                  it should be in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/artwork/though i've not tested it.

                  RiverstormR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • RiverstormR
                    Riverstorm @dankcushions
                    last edited by Riverstorm

                    @dankcushions said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                    works for me. are you using the latest version? i fixed this stuff semi-recently. you might need to rebuild from source.

                    I haven't rebuilt in a while I bet that's the issue. I will try that tonight.

                    it should be in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/artwork/though i've not tested it.

                    I made a mistake I do have it in mame2003/artwork under the BIOS directory. I tried a few different versions of Artwork (0.37b5, 0.94 and 0.106 basically MAME4All and AdvMAME's artwork) but their really isn't DATs for Artwork. Are you downloading them from a specific place that works with 0.78 by chance?

                    dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • dankcushionsD
                      dankcushions Global Moderator @Riverstorm
                      last edited by

                      @Riverstorm

                      i've not tested it.

                      :)

                      no idea how artwork works in mame but that's the code picks it up from at least. it's another thing you'll need the latest version for, probably.

                      RiverstormR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • RiverstormR
                        Riverstorm @dankcushions
                        last edited by

                        @dankcushions said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                        @Riverstorm

                        i've not tested it.

                        :)

                        no idea how artwork works in mame but that's the code picks it up from at least. it's another thing you'll need the latest version for, probably.

                        Ok, I'll dig around and test out some different versions after grabbing the latest version of lr-mame.

                        caver01C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • caver01C
                          caver01 @Riverstorm
                          last edited by

                          @Riverstorm There's a website where a guy has gathered the samples from different eras of MAME, and a similar list of artwork files if I recall. Probably not something I can link to, but you should be able to find it.

                          RiverstormR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • RiverstormR
                            Riverstorm @caver01
                            last edited by

                            @caver01 said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                            @Riverstorm There's a website where a guy has gathered the samples from different eras of MAME, and a similar list of artwork files if I recall. Probably not something I can link to, but you should be able to find it.

                            Thanks Caver, I will poke around and see what I can find. :) I know there's so many websites dedicated to MAME. It's just finding the right one.

                            I think I looked once and didn't see a way to send private messages on this forum correct? I think that would be a handy feature. I had a question or two for you a few times that I didn't want to create a new thread and end up piggy-backing off another where it would have been a nice feature to use instead.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • RiverstormR
                              Riverstorm
                              last edited by

                              @caver01 I found Artwork that is compatible for MAME 0.61, up to MAME 0.106. It still doesn't work.

                              It sounds like I'll need the newer version. Are you running the latest? Do you know if it works for any like Boot Hill, Gorf, Asteroids, Solar Quest, Star Castle, Omega Race, Lunar Lander. Basically if any artwork works then I am sure it's good to go. Almost a tongue twister. :)

                              caver01C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • caver01C
                                caver01 @Riverstorm
                                last edited by

                                @Riverstorm I haven't tried this in lr-mame2003. Some of the games you cited are not ones I want to run in 2003. Asteroids, Solar Quest, Star Castle, Omega Race, Lunar Lander--these are all vector games and I will run them with AdvanceMAME 1.4. Artwork is great for those in that emulator, although often a bit bright, but you can tweak that by following my instructions here.

                                caver01C RiverstormR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • caver01C
                                  caver01 @caver01
                                  last edited by caver01

                                  Come to think of it, I would like to get artwork running in Space Invaders using lr-mame2003.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • RiverstormR
                                    Riverstorm @caver01
                                    last edited by

                                    @caver01 said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                                    @Riverstorm I haven't tried this in lr-mame2003. Some of the games you cited are not ones I want to run in 2003. Asteroids, Solar Quest, Star Castle, Omega Race, Lunar Lander--these are all vector games and I will run them with AdvanceMAME 1.4. Artwork is great for those in that emulator, although often a bit bright, but you can tweak that by following my instructions here.

                                    Yeah I know most of that list was vector games. I think the only two that aren't are Boot Hill and Gorf. I use AdvMAME for them but I figured they might be an easy test to see if Artwork is a functional feature.

                                    @dankcushions I was going through this link Floob posted:

                                    https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/lr-mame2003

                                    I noticed the values aren't enclosed in quotes but in the file (/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg) they are. I am assuming the settings from the Wiki should also be enclosed? That's a nice Wiki can it be linked on the Retropie Documentation Wiki? I think it's more informative then this one that you end up at drilling down.

                                    https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro

                                    dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • dankcushionsD
                                      dankcushions Global Moderator @Riverstorm
                                      last edited by

                                      @Riverstorm thanks, I wrote it :) I have corrected the quotes thing. well spotted!

                                      and that link you posted is the readme for the core - it's not retropie specific, so some of the instructions are too retropie -centric to go there.

                                      our mame2003 wiki linked on the retropie wiki (scroll down in the mame page), but I know what you mean - the first links at the top of the mame page are to the GitHub projects. that's just how the wiki was originally written, but I do think it could be restructured in that regard, so each core has its own wiki page, but yeah... someday!

                                      RiverstormR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • briankrossB
                                        briankross @dankcushions
                                        last edited by

                                        @dankcushions

                                        Wondering if you mind scrolling up a bit and have a look at my reply to you. :)

                                        • Brian
                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • RiverstormR
                                          Riverstorm @dankcushions
                                          last edited by

                                          @dankcushions said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                                          @Riverstorm thanks, I wrote it :) I have corrected the quotes thing. well spotted!

                                          and that link you posted is the readme for the core - it's not retropie specific, so some of the instructions are too retropie -centric to go there.

                                          our mame2003 wiki linked on the retropie wiki (scroll down in the mame page), but I know what you mean - the first links at the top of the mame page are to the GitHub projects. that's just how the wiki was originally written, but I do think it could be restructured in that regard, so each core has its own wiki page, but yeah... someday!

                                          Ok, I found it further down the page where you indicated. The Github projects are a bit confusing to say the least. The one you wrote is fantastic! I was able to get lr-mame2003 up and running and tweak it perfectly using it. Thank you! :)

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • dankcushionsD
                                            dankcushions Global Moderator @briankross
                                            last edited by

                                            @briankross said in Need guidance: Best MAME emulator to use for classic 80's games?:

                                            @dankcushions

                                            Good idea!

                                            Which file are you editing to change or include directories?

                                            the .rc files in /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/

                                            When you have multiple paths for the same thing, will it still recreate folders in the rom folder? (I'm assuming it will). I'm looking to point the AdvanceMAME folders to another logical location so it will no longer recreate folders in the rom folder root directory, cleaning it up a bit.

                                            it only creates folders where you tell it to in the .rc. if you have multiple it will create them in both. it seems to read files from both, but it will only update or create files in the first one in the list, at least in my tests.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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