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

caver01

@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.

Riverstorm

@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.

Riverstorm

@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. :)

caver01

@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.

caver01

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

Riverstorm

@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

dankcushions

@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!

briankross

@dankcushions

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

Riverstorm

@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! :)

dankcushions

@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.

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 downloaded the source code from RetroPie Setup. Is there a Wiki on the steps to compile it? I did a search and found steps for 2010 but not 2003.

I saw a lot of errors similar to this downloading the source. Is that fairly typical more like warnings of defined unused variables?

src/vidhrdw/konamiic.c:6347:24: warning: variable âsrc_moduloâ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
  int count, src_pitch, src_modulo;
                        ^

I was wondering also with the newest can you use the left and right analog sticks on a controller like the XBOX 360?

The other button I see that doesn't work on the older version is the XBOX action button (silver button in center). I was using that to enter the MAME TAB setup from controller as it was pretty handy.

dankcushions

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

@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 downloaded the source code from RetroPie Setup. Is there a Wiki on the steps to compile it? I did a search and found steps for 2010 but not 2003.

that's all done for you by retropie-setup as part of the update/install from source process. downloading the raw source would take seconds.

I saw a lot of errors similar to this downloading the source. Is that fairly typical more like warnings of defined unused variables?
src/vidhrdw/konamiic.c:6347:24: warning: variable âsrc_moduloâ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
  int count, src_pitch, src_modulo;
                        ^

typical of old code :) warnings are 'fine'. errors will cause the compile to fail.

oh, depending on your version of retropie you may also need to update retroarch (from binaries is fine).

Riverstorm

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

oh, depending on your version of retropie you may also need to update retroarch (from binaries is fine).

Thanks Dank, I am mainly using 3.7 would that require a Retroarch upgrade?

Also should the left and right analog sticks and the XBOX action button (silver button in center) work or is that a feature request? :) I used them frequently in my TAB--General Input Configuration for MAME. Referring to lr-mame2003 of course as it does work in mame4all-pi, lr-imame4all and AdvMAME.

Riverstorm

@dankcushions The new source fixed the history.dat issue. Very nice! There's some good information in the history.dat. Cheats work great.

Everything works except using the analog sticks and XBOX button in the Configure Input menu. Is their a way to enable them or is that an enhancement that might come in the future?

Nice job with lr-mame2003! Have a great holiday weekend if it applies! ;)

Riverstorm

@dankcushions & @caver01 Artwork does work with the new source.

mediamogul

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

Artwork does work with the new source.

Very nice to hear. Is there any noticeable slowdown?

EDIT:

Everything works except using the analog sticks and XBOX button in the Configure Input menu. Is their a way to enable them?

As a temporary solution to this problem, I have mapped the left and right analog sticks, as well as the XBox button to read as keyboard input and it works very well.

mediamogul

After updating RetroArch from binary, lr-mame2003 from source, adding a complete 'artwork' folder to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/ and changing the name of /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/sample to 'samples', I neither have artwork or samples functioning. Are they now meant to be enabled somewhere with this newest version?

Riverstorm

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

Very nice to hear. Is there any noticeable slowdown?

As far as I can tell there isn't any slowdown. I know this is a bit simplified but artwork is more like a wallpaper. Something I wasn't even aware of was the ability to set the translucency of the artwork. Thanks to Caver for a great tutorial on vector based games.

As a temporary solution to this problem, I have mapped the left and right analog sticks, as well as the XBox button to read as keyboard input and it works very well.

I think getting the analog sticks working would be a tremendous asset as they can be used for the management function (TAB menu) but also they may be utilized for several dual joystick games like Crazy Climber, Cloak & Dagger, Karate Champ, Robotron, Smash T.V., Total Carnage, Batte Zone, Front Line (I think this one required a spinner too). It basically allows you to play those games with a joystick like the XBOX or PS.

After updating RetroArch from binary, lr-mame2003 from source, adding a complete 'artwork' folder to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/ and changing the name of /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame2003/sample to 'samples', I neither have artwork or samples functioning. Are they now meant to be enabled somewhere with this newest version?

No, if you have them in the correct folders (which they look right) you should be good to go. :)

mediamogul

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

It basically allows you to play those games with a joystick like the XBOX or PS.

Re-reading what I wrote, I realized it was a little ambiguous and perhaps you knew exactly what I meant, but what I was trying to express was that I've mapped the analog sticks of my gamepad to output keyboard keys so that use of the sticks can register in MAME for the games you mentioned. This works out quite nicely as those games don't rely on the full analog range that is lost in that particular solution. Of course getting those sticks to register without a workaround would be most ideal. I logged a report about the issue, but at the time I was under the impression that it just affected the right joystick. This is likely because I have RetroArch configured to duplicate the DPad control to the left analog stick.

About the samples and artwork, I just can't seem to get that working. I'm going to try installing the required pieces again to see if I missed something along the way. If that doesn't work, I'll probably open up a separate topic for my issue as this thread is likely to suffer an identity crisis with any additional topics of conversation. If I do, I'd appreciate your input on the matter, if you have any thoughts.

caver01

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

Front Line (I think this one required a spinner too).

Frontline (I used to love playing this in the arcade) originally had a big rotary dial to aim your gun. It clicked as you rotated it to aim the gun in 8 directions and was also a pushbutton (push to fire). This is nearly impossible to play with arcade controls unless you have the dial described, but I could see how using two sticks and LR shoulder buttons on a hand-held controller might work.