Woah! Did EVERYONE already know how to boot Atari 800 carts directly from EmuStation?

fabio78

Erm... Maybe that "someone" should be you, then? Otherwise what's the point of this post? Sorry for being blunt, it just reminds me of those click-bait articles "You won't believe what happened next!!1!" and when you open it, you won't know.

dankcushions

all retropie emulators work like this unless otherwise specified. you launch by game.

SpudsMcToole

@dankcushions Yes, obviously. But A800 stuff always just dumped you in the Atari menu.

SpudsMcToole

@fabio78 There's a really simple trick to make A800 stuff auto-launch instead of dumping you in the menus. You go into the menus, select "Create Cartridge from ROM" and it adds a header or something to it that makes it autoload. You can speed through a whole folder in minutes.

fabio78

@spudsmctoole Cool. Is this in the A800 menu? Does it need to be done individually for each ROM?

SpudsMcToole

@fabio78 In the A800 menu (via F1), yes. And yes, you have to do it individually for each ROM, but because of the way the menus are organised you can do that really quickly. (It's basically hit Return six times, hit Down, then repeat.)

(I'd happily upload the pre-patched files and post a link, but I suspect that may be against the rules here, yeah?)

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole said in Woah! Did EVERYONE already know how to boot Atari 800 carts directly from EmuStation?:

I suspect that may be against the rules here, yeah?

Indeed it would. I've used this feature myself in the past and while it works well, I really wish it didn't alter the file directly. Creating a matched config file that the software could have looked for would have been a better solution. As is, I don't know if this would make the the resulting ROM files incompatible with other software.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul Well, it's not like I still don't have the original files on my PC, so I'm perfectly content to have the patched ones on the Pi. But yes, individual config files is always the ideal. I'm a bit baffled as to how the Atari emu configs work, it seems to magically remember some settings that I can't see anywhere.

SpudsMcToole

@spudsmctoole Incidentally, any idea why it doesn't work for 5200 games? (And nor does anything else. I've watched YouTube tutorials, but no matter what I do, whether I patch the ROMs or not, the emulator crashes back to the menu every time on every game.)

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole

It has to do with how you're automating the conversion process. It's not as simple as just accepting a default cartridge type. You still have to choose the correct type of 5200 cartridge for the ROM. It's more work, but once it's all set, you never have to do it again.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul Ha, I wish I had been automating it :D

But no, I may not have been clear there - I meant that I can't make a single 5200 ROM run no matter what I do to it, no matter what the settings, no matter what ROM type I choose, whether I "convert" it or not. I don't understand it.

I've followed the instructions in every tutorial. I've tried different versions of game ROMs. I've definitely got 5200.ROM in the BIOS folder and the emulator knows where it is. I've tried using specific settings that people say are the right ones for certain games (eg 2-chip 16K 5200 cart for Qix). And every time it just crashes with a CIM error.

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole

I can't really say then. As long as you have the BIOS files, point Atari800 to those files and choose the correct 5200 cartridge type when converting the ROM into a cartridge file, everything should work. Mine launch immediately.

Edit: When it crashes, does it freeze the software? Also, do you have "Save configuration on exit" selected?

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul No. What happens is that the first time I launch a ROM, it freezes the emulator on the "select cart type" screen - the keyboard doesn't work at all, except for F5, F8 and F9. The cursors, Enter and F1 are dead so I can't even try to run the game.

If I press F5 to reset, or if I quit out with F9 and launch the ROM again, all the buttons work and I can try to select a cart type, but it dumps me back to the crash screen complaining about the CIM error. All the menu controls still work and I can try to run the ROM again as a different cart type, but the results are always the same.

(And yes, I have Save config on exit set to Yes.)

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole

I believe I know what this is, but I haven't had to deal with it in a while. Atari800 has a bug to where setting certain configuration options will corrupt your atari800.cfg. After you set a particular option and exit the software with "Save configuration on exit" selected, the damage is done and it will prevent you from launching from the cart selection menu. Throughout my experimentation, the only solution I came up with was to delete my atari800.cfg file and reinstall the software, allowing the RetroPie-Setup to create a fresh copy. Since then, I've only ever made changes to atari800.cfg with an outside text editor and I made sure to keep "save on exit" off.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul If that's the case it seems very weird that it still works absolutely fine for Atari 800 games. But I'll have a go.

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole

It seems related to launching from the cartridge-type selection menu, which the 800 side of things doesn't have to deal with often.

Edit: The Atari800 emulator in general has my vote as being the most finicky to deal with in all of RetroPie.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul Well, I've been launching stuff from the 800 cartridge menu literally all day...

Bizarrely, to try to avoid uninstalling I just tried deleting the atari800.cfg file from the 5200 config folder and replacing it with the one from the atari800 folder, while changing the autosave setting to 0. Now the keyboard works properly the FIRST time I try to launch a ROM, but freezes the SECOND and all subsequent times - the exact reverse of what happened before. Game still doesn't work, though.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul said in Woah! Did EVERYONE already know how to boot Atari 800 carts directly from EmuStation?:

The Atari800 emulator in general has my vote as being the most finicky to deal with in all of RetroPie.

Blimey, more so than Intellivision and Colecovision? :D

mediamogul

@spudsmctoole said in Woah! Did EVERYONE already know how to boot Atari 800 carts directly from EmuStation?:

Blimey, more so than Intellivision and Colecovision?

Those can be a pain, but they seem to be relatively free of bugs.

Game still doesn't work, though.

Try reinstalling. It's likely you need a fresh copy.

SpudsMcToole

@mediamogul That's a bold call. In my experience I'd say the INTV is worst of all. Near-incomprehensible control config and SO many games don't work. It's about 1 in 50 for most emus, more like 1 in 3 for the INTV.