High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha

dankcushions

@impman66 said in High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha:

I think previously I setup retroarch to save autosave on exit.

i would turn that off whilst investigating this issue

barbudreadmon

@impman66 lr-fbalpha is storing .hi files in the same folder than .nv and .fs files, which is the fba subfolder of what is defined as savefile_directory in your retroarch.cfg (default to the rom folder if nothing is defined, i don't recommend this), the folder is created by the core if it does not exist.

I guess you made sure hiscores are enabled in the core options so if the folder/files are not created, the only think that comes to mind is that you don't have the write permissions for that folder. What's the output for "ls -l path/to/the/folder" ?

Impman66

@barbudreadmon Ah, really don't know to tell the truth, as I say I am a complete beginner, how do I enable hiscores in the core options, and how do I find the output for "ls -l path/to/the/folder" . Hopefully, these posts that you and @mitu have been helping me with will help lots of others.
Thanks in advance

BobHarris

@impman66 If all else fails, you can just use a savestate to store your highscores. I actually quite like it; for example in Street fighter iii i keep several savestates for sets of highscores on different challenges (difficulty,number of rounds stuff like that).

Impman66

@bobharris Thanks Bob will see how things go.

mitu

@impman66 Hiscores should already be enabled (they're enabled by default), but you can check by pressing Select + X while in-game and this will open up the menu for RetroArch. The setting is under 'Options' (I think).
As for checking the permissions - you need to execute the command

ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/fba

from a command prompt. Either plug in a keyboard and exit Emulationstation, or use SSH to connect to the RetroPie. The output should be something like

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/fba
total 20
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 128 Jan  4 19:22 1944.nv
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 128 Jan  7 20:28 ddonpach.nv
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi  94 Jan  8 19:16 gngt.hi
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 612 Jan  7 20:33 redearth.fs
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 412 Jan  7 20:43 sfiii.fs

Impman66

@mitu That's great thanks will check a bit later, and get back to you all. Again thank you so much

Impman66

@mitu said in High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha:

@impman66 Hiscores should already be enabled (they're enabled by default), but you can check by pressing Select + X while in-game and this will open up the menu for RetroArch. The setting is under 'Options' (I think).
As for checking the permissions - you need to execute the command
ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/fba
from a command prompt. Either plug in a keyboard and exit Emulationstation, or use SSH to connect to the RetroPie. The output should be something like
pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/fba
total 20
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 128 Jan  4 19:22 1944.nv
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 128 Jan  7 20:28 ddonpach.nv
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi  94 Jan  8 19:16 gngt.hi
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 612 Jan  7 20:33 redearth.fs
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 412 Jan  7 20:43 sfiii.fs

Did the check and got
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 128 Jan 11 19:57 1944.nv
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 88 Jan 11 20:01 galagao.fs

That's it, also checked the options file and hiscore is enabled. May be Pacland and Pooyan are not hi-score enabled.
Will play another and see what happens.

mitu

@impman66 said in High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha:

May be Pacland and Pooyan are not hi-score enabled.

They are. Try disabling auto save on exit, as @dankcushions suggested, then get a hiscore and exit the emulator normally. The .hi file is written when you exit the game.

EDIT: just checked by loading the pacland.zip ROM file and the pacland.hi file was created ok in the arcade/fba folder, even without getting a hiscore.

Impman66

@mitu Odd that,

I am now updating Retroarch by source as I deleted a number of config files.
Downloaded, redid the configurations of the gamepads.
Now retroarch has reverted back to the old style green lettering instead of the modern look, also the *.hi files ARE saving only in the BIOS/FBA folder. Also, the high score tables are all corrupted - an issue that should be cured by replacing the hiscore.dat file with the one mentioned in other threads. did this and it still goes in BIOS folder. Nearly midnight here so will have a go tomorrow, thanks for all help! Night

barbudreadmon

@impman66 Are you sure you updated the core to the latest version ? What does it say in the bottom left corner when you open the retroarch menu (i want the commit) ?

Impman66

@barbudreadmon said in High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha:

@impman66 Are you sure you updated the core to the latest version ? What does it say in the bottom left corner when you open the retroarch menu (i want the commit) ?

Sorry don't know how to get a commit. But version says 1.6.9 - No Core

Will update again from binary just in case

After updating from binary still showing same version

barbudreadmon

@impman66 you get the core version with its commit in the bottom left corner, but you need to load a core for this.

Impman66

@barbudreadmon said in High Scores not saving in FinalBurnAlpha:

@impman66 you get the core version with its commit in the bottom left corner, but you need to load a core for this.

Really appreciate this help. When I go into Retroarch and select LOAD CORES it comes up with No items, but all the cores I need are installed do I need to do something else. Real sorry but I am total novice at this.

barbudreadmon

Launch a fba game, it will load the lr-fbalpha core, you'll get the version.

Impman66

@barbudreadmon
OK thanks I have

1.6.9 - FB Alpha v0.2.97.42 2021f2d

barbudreadmon

That's a version from early november, hiscores won't work properly with this version, and the .hi files will get saved in the old location. Update it to the latest (i don't know about the binary version, it is probably safer to use the retropie scripts to build it from sources) and your issues will be solved.

Impman66

@barbudreadmon Thanks so much will attempt it.

Impman66

@barbudreadmon

WHAT A STAR YOU ARE!!!!!! It is now working, soooo happy and so thankful. Truly thank you so much!!!