A tutorial to getting the most out of the Intellivision with Jzintv

mediamogul

You can usually find it next to a barber pole or circus tent. No, wait. I'm thinking of Waldo.

hooperre

Can someone advise me if this seems like a sensible way of mapping my PS4 controller for Jzintv?

dudleydes

@hooperre YES! I would say that - they're my mappings. All I can suggest is to try them and see how it goes. If you're not happy, then feel free to adjust them to your liking.

Let me give an explanation of how I reached these configurations. The keyboard hackfile Arcade.kbd is the default one which I use for the majority of games where the disc on the Intellivision controller is mapped to the left analog stick on the PS3 controller, the action buttons to the face buttons, the keypad to the D-pad which you need to use with L1 and R1 to press keys 4 to 6 and keys 7 to 9 respectively. (It's called Arcade.kbd because it's the first keyboard hackfile I created for arcade style games such as Astro Smash and Lock'n'Chase. I just haven't bothered to change the name.)

This mapping makes it difficult to play games that require directional shooting such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons:Cloudy Mountain and TRON Deadly Discs. For these, I created a mapping using xboxdrv and the keyboard hackfile hackfile.kbd so that the right analog stick can be used to shoot in the required direction, effectively making these twin-stick shooters. You can find an explanation of how this works here.

Other games that benefit from using xboxdrv are sports titles that require directional passing and shooting. These include:

Slam Dunk-Super Pro Basketball
Slap Shot-Super Pro Hockey
Spiker-Super Pro Volleyball

This mapping can be used for Night Stalker but I felt, as I only need to shoot in the four cardinal directions, it would be more precise to map shooting to the face buttons. To accomplish this, I created a keyboard hackfile Night Stalker (1982) (Mattel).int.kbd specifically for Night Stalker.

I also created specific keyboard hack files for games such as All-Star Major League Baseball where the right Intellivision controller needs to be used to play one player games and Dracula where the right controller is used to control the zombie (I've mapped this to the D-pad so it's possible to control Dracula and the zombie at the same time!). There are other titles for which I use specific mappings where I felt the default didn't work for me.

Each of these games would require a separate entry in /opt/retropie/configs/intellivision/emulators.cfg to account for the different keyboard hackfile flags in the launch command. Rather than do this, I created a script jzintv.sh which will launch games if it finds a keyboard hackfile with the same name as the rom with a .kbd extension.

As I said, give the mappings a try. I would suggest starting with the general mapping, Arcade.kbd before trying the other mappings. If there's any further info you need then let me know. If you would like copies of the keyboard hackfile for All-Star Major League Baseball, Dracula or other titles, then I'm happy to add them to the gist.

hooperre

@dudleydes said in A tutorial to getting the most out of the Intellivision with Jzintv:

@hooperre YES! I would say that - they're my mappings. All I can suggest is to try them and see how it goes. If you're not happy, then feel free to adjust them to your liking.

Let me give an explanation of how I reached these configurations. The keyboard hackfile Arcade.kbd is the default one which I use for the majority of games where the disc on the Intellivision controller is mapped to the left analog stick on the PS3 controller, the action buttons to the face buttons, the keypad to the D-pad which you need to use with L1 and R1 to press keys 4 to 6 and keys 7 to 9 respectively. (It's called Arcade.kbd because it's the first keyboard hackfile I created for arcade style games such as Astro Smash and Lock'n'Chase. I just haven't bothered to change the name.)

This mapping makes it difficult to play games that require directional shooting such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons:Cloudy Mountain and TRON Deadly Discs. For these, I created a mapping using xboxdrv and the keyboard hackfile hackfile.kbd so that the right analog stick can be used to shoot in the required direction, effectively making these twin-stick shooters. You can find an explanation of how this works here.

Other games that benefit from using xboxdrv are sports titles that require directional passing and shooting. These include:

Slam Dunk-Super Pro Basketball

Slap Shot-Super Pro Hockey

Spiker-Super Pro Volleyball

This mapping can be used for Night Stalker but I felt, as I only need to shoot in the four cardinal directions, it would be more precise to map shooting to the face buttons. To accomplish this, I created a keyboard hackfile Night Stalker (1982) (Mattel).int.kbd specifically for Night Stalker.

I also created specific keyboard hack files for games such as All-Star Major League Baseball where the right Intellivision controller needs to be used to play one player games and Dracula where the right controller is used to control the zombie (I've mapped this to the D-pad so it's possible to control Dracula and the zombie at the same time!). There are other titles for which I use specific mappings where I felt the default didn't work for me.

Each of these games would require a separate entry in /opt/retropie/configs/intellivision/emulators.cfg to account for the different keyboard hackfile flags in the launch command. Rather than do this, I created a script jzintv.sh which will launch games if it finds a keyboard hackfile with the same name as the rom with a .kbd extension.

As I said, give the mappings a try. I would suggest starting with the general mapping, Arcade.kbd before trying the other mappings. If there's any further info you need then let me know. If you would like copies of the keyboard hackfile for All-Star Major League Baseball, Dracula or other titles, then I'm happy to add them to the gist.

Ah awesome thanks for your response. As someone who hasn't used xboxdrv before... does it automatically override my configuration settings in ESconfig? Or does it specifically need to be called in the emulators.cfg?

dudleydes

@hooperre xboxdrv is only called when a game is launched in jzIntv. Just make sure to disable xboxdrv after you have installed it so that it's not continually running in the background. You can do this in Configuration/ Options in the xboxdrv installation menu in the RetroPie setup script. The xboxdrv process will be killed after you exit jzIntv so you will have default controls in ES.

You will also need to change this line in the xboxdrv configuration file intellivision.xboxdrv for the PS4 controller. Run the command ls /dev/input/by-id/ and look for the entry for your PS4 controller that includes event. Now replace usb-Sony_PLAYSTATION_R_3_Controller-event-joystick with the PS4 controller entry.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

I'm going to start an issue on github for the inclusion of .rom in the es_systems.cfg, but I believe there might be a few more that need adding. Currently, .bin and .int are covered, but it seems as though .rom, .itv and perhaps even .cue should be there as well. Can you confirm this? Also, can .bin files be used without an accompanying .cue? If not, it may be that .bin needs to be eliminated from es_systems.cfg in favor of .cue as is done with the PSX and SegaCD entries.

edmaul69

@mediamogul .cue files accompany .int and .bin but never try to boot them. They arent like other .cue files. But yes if .rom .ROM isnt included then they should be. All mine are .rom files. .int can just be renamed to .bin. The pc version of jzintv comes with 2 programs. Bin2rom and rom2bin. These can convert them both ways. If you are doing bin2rom you need the .cue and .bin in the same folder as the program. There are maybe 2 prototype games that wont work trying to convert to .rom because of the code thats in the .cue file. Go for the gold is one of them. Drag the .bin or .rom onto the programs rom2bin and bin2rom. Dont drag the .cue file ever though.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Just to cover all the bases, is there anything special about .itv, or is it just another iteration of .int/.bin?

edmaul69

@mediamogul i am not sure what a .itv is. I have never seen it. But it might just be a .bin renamed like .int.

edmaul69

@mediamogul when a .bin is renamed to .int it just keeps it from looking for a .cue file.

edmaul69

@mediamogul so it appears .itv is a nostalgia rom. I only use nostalgia to get the crc numbers to compare trying to find rom variants.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Gotchya. It's listed as a format supported by jzintv, but that info is not coming from the main page. Do you have a ROM handy to confirm whether or not it'll launch. No rush of course.

edmaul69

@mediamogul when you say rom do you mean .rom or .itv?

mediamogul

@edmaul69

sorry, .itv.

edmaul69

@mediamogul i could not find an .itv rom anywhere however, i can tell you that joe states they work there is no doubt in my mind knowing joe personally that it works. He is a programmer for google and he is a phenomenal programmer.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

That's good enough for me. I'll start up an issue. Thanks for checking into it. Is it just me, or has there been a pretty major surge in intellivision interest lately. Nice to see the system getting some love.

edmaul69

@mediamogul it is nice to see the love. Its the last retro console i ever bought (except my ps1 that i never tested and stuck a pi in) and had never played it before 2011. But i fell in love with it and my first pi was built into an intellivision flashback.

GameNut

I just recently installed Retropie on a Raspberry Pi3. I also purchased the Ultimate PC Interface for using Flashback controllers. How do I get the controller configured in Retropie? When it first loads up, it detects the controller, but none of the buttons or the disc work. Please help!

edmaul69

@gamenut go to intellivision.us. There is a download for the ultimate intellivision or something like that. It has the files needed for raspberry pi. In it there is the hackfile.cfg which is the controls. You need to edit the emulators.cfg to look for it. If you look at the info above it should show info pointing to the hackfile.cfg and where you should put it. If you are using something other than a vision-daptor, ultimate pc interface or ultimate flashback interface you need to edit the controls to match what you are using. You shouldnt have to edit directions just the buttons.

Edit: i see you have a upci

gpmcty

I would like to share a couple tips to this tutorial to further improve the emulation experience with JZINTV. Edmaul69's tutorial was a great help to me in getting JZINTV to work. I currently have RetroPie installed on both a Raspberry Pi and a laptop running Ubuntu 18.04LTS.

I have my emulators.cfg file setup as Edmaul69 suggests with an entry for non ECS and ECS games. The flag for the ECS is "-s". For the "jzintvecs" entry he adds "-s1" which is enabling the ECS. The flag was omitted in the non-ECS entry. One side effect I was experiencing with this setting was being shown the Intellivision ECS splash screen on some non-ECS games such as B17 Bomber. To fix this I added the "-s0" flag to the "jzintv" entry disabling the ECS. After adding the flag B17 Bomber started properly.

The next tweak is for the hard core group. With a little Googling for the exec rom, most will find there are actually two available. One is the standard exec from the Mattel Intellivision. The other is the Sears variation. Using the "-e" flag you can specify the exact location of the exec rom image and overide looking in the BIOS folder for the exec. Usage is as follows without quotes "-e /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/exec.int". My emulators.cfg has 4 entries. Mattel, MattelECS, Sears, SearsECS. I shortened the name of the Sears bios to make it easy to type.
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Hope this helps,

Greg McCartney