FBA vs. MAME

Loggahead

mame2003-plus is still in testing, but it's getting fairly polished at this point IMO. arcadez has been working on it for almost a year, and a few other of us have put in weeks to months.

It works better than mame2003 most of the time, and has more than 150 more working games, but every once in a while we have a regression or other new bug.

You seem to be very thorough in your approach to arcade emulation -- you would be very welcome as a user/tester. Games that haven't ever worked right in mame2003 are getting fixed, and new ones added.

Every time I try and install lr-mame2003-plus under experimental packages it eventually comes back with an error saying that it "Could not successfully build lr-mame2003-plus. I've tried multiple times and keep getting that same message. Any thoughts?

markwkidd

@loggahead said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd said in FBA vs. MAME:

mame2003-plus is still in testing, but it's getting fairly polished at this point IMO. arcadez has been working on it for almost a year, and a few other of us have put in weeks to months.

It works better than mame2003 most of the time, and has more than 150 more working games, but every once in a while we have a regression or other new bug.

You seem to be very thorough in your approach to arcade emulation -- you would be very welcome as a user/tester. Games that haven't ever worked right in mame2003 are getting fixed, and new ones added.

Every time I try and install lr-mame2003-plus under experimental packages it eventually comes back with an error saying that it "Could not successfully build lr-mame2003-plus. I've tried multiple times and keep getting that same message. Any thoughts?

Could you update RetroPie-Setup and then try to build mame2003-plus again? The build script that is part of RetroPie-Setup was updated a week or so ago.

Loggahead

@markwkidd That's probably it. Will try that now.

Loggahead

Got a question on Golden Axe II (ga2.zip). It doesn't appear to be available for fba so I've been running it in mame2003. Mame says that video emulation isn't 100% correct and the main thing I notice is that the shadows are all messed up. Is there a better emulator for Golden Axe II?

markwkidd

@loggahead said in FBA vs. MAME:

Got a question on Golden Axe II (ga2.zip). It doesn't appear to be available for fba so I've been running it in mame2003. Mame says that video emulation isn't 100% correct and the main thing I notice is that the shadows are all messed up. What's the best emulator option for Golden Axe II?

I don't see anything in the history of the Golden Axe II driver to explain for the glitch you're seeing in mame2003, but sometimes those records are incomplete.

If you can confirm the shadow issue in mame2003-plus you would be welcome to file an Issue report. It may be fixable.

Loggahead

@markwkidd How do I file an issue report? I have a couple issues I found.

Also, I can't seem to pull up the Tab menu in mame2003+. Is there a different hotkey for the mame menu? I need to change some per game controls in there.

markwkidd

@loggahead said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd How do I file an issue report? I have a couple issues I found.

Also, I can't seem to pull up the Tab menu in mame2003+. Is there a different hotkey for the mame menu? I need to change some per game controls in there.

Great!

You can file issues in the github repository: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro

There is also a new forum thread: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17766/mame2003-plus-250-new-games-new-input-system-new-features-new-bugs

mame2003-plus's default input mode is retropad -- you can get into the MAME menu in retropad mode by pressing Select + X and toggling MAME Menu in the core options.

You can also change your input mode to mame_keyboard to switch to a traditional all-keyboard mode where the Tab will launch the MAME Menu.

finally, you can set the core option to simultaneous mode which will read inputs form the keyboard and from the retropad simultaneously, as in "classic" mame2003.

Loggahead

@markwkidd Ah! Very cool! I'll play around with the Mame menu inside the retropad menu and see if I can do what I need to do there. Very cool! If I have to do the all-keyboard mode, will that mess with my controller mappings at all? I basically keep a keyboard behind my cabinet's coin door that I use when needed but my IPAC2 is programmed as 2 separate controllers instead of keyboard keys.

I'll get a couple of the issue submitted. Thanks for all of the help! I like where this 2003+ is going!

markwkidd

@loggahead said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd Ah! Very cool! I'll play around with the Mame menu inside the retropad menu and see if I can do what I need to do there. Very cool! If I have to do the all-keyboard mode, will that mess with my controller mappings at all? I basically keep a keyboard behind my cabinet's coin door that I use when needed but my IPAC2 is programmed as 2 separate controllers instead of keyboard keys.

I'll get a couple of the issue submitted. Thanks for all of the help! I like where this 2003+ is going!

Nice, thanks!

The concept is that if you are using a retropad (including a keyboard or arcade controls seen that are set up as a retropad!) that you should be able to do anything you need to configure mame2003 without using the mame_keyboard at all.

mame_keyboard is really oriented towards people who have controls and other aspects of their configuration that are based around the legacy MAME keyboard interface. As the retropad mode improves, even those folks might be able to switch to retropad, but for the forseable future the mame_keyboard mode will be there so they can keep the workflow they're used to.

Do I understand right that you're saying you only use the keyboard for configuration? I'd appreciate it greatly if you could let me know if there are parts of your configuration you still can't reach without the mame_keyboard input being active.

Loggahead

@markwkidd said in FBA vs. MAME:

you still can't reach without th

That is correct on the mame_keyboard. I ONLY use it if absolutely neccessary and that typically only happens when I need to modify a specific game's controls that isn't possible in the Quick Menu. For example, I needed to map Robotron on my cabinet to use my P2 joystick as the "P1 Right Joystick".

I'll start using the retropad menu and see if I come across any limitations.

grant2258

anyone else finding robocop is running bad on fba on retropie?

Darksavior

@grant2258 I thought the opposite. Though the intro music does start a second later and not immediately like in mame2003, at least fba has sound effects for insert coin, when you obtain a gun, and probably other sound effects missing from mame2003. Also, I noticed mame2003 (I'm using plus) is a bit brighter than fba. I don't know which one has the correct brightness but I'll go with fba.

In terms of performance? I wouldn't know. My pi3b+'s at 1.5ghz.

FBA

Mame2003-plus

grant2258

@darksavior said in FBA vs. MAME:

ss

dont mean sound just performance you can adjust the brightness in 2003+

grant2258

hhmmm i think i will update my pi some neogeo games need a little boost as well 2+b 30 3+b is worth the update. Ill put lakka on the pi im using now. Pi hut here i come :D

robertvb83

@loggahead said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd said in FBA vs. MAME:

you still can't reach without th

That is correct on the mame_keyboard. I ONLY use it if absolutely neccessary and that typically only happens when I need to modify a specific game's controls that isn't possible in the Quick Menu. For example, I needed to map Robotron on my cabinet to use my P2 joystick as the "P1 Right Joystick".

I'll start using the retropad menu and see if I come across any limitations.

i just stumbled on this and now im very excitet. i searched the whole internet i thought this wasnt possible! can you help me please? im not sure if this is what you did... i have two zero delay arcade controllers (for 2 players). how exactly did you manage to configure robotron to use p2 Joystick as second Joystick for p1? i dont know how to use or what the mame keyboard is

markwkidd

@robertvb83 are your zero delay encoders seen as a keyboard or as a gamepad?

robertvb83

@markwkidd they are each seen as a seperate gamepad
they are detected as dragonrise usb controllers in autoconfig

markwkidd

@robertvb83 said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd they are each seen as a seperate gamepad

Great. I wanted to know what part of the code that this investigation would begin with.

Here's what I think is the situation: I don't think the code we have accommodates the Robotron input scheme but if you're willing to come over to github and work through it with me I believe there are at least two possible tidy approaches to solving this that are ultimately not going to take more than an hour or two to figure out.

Could you please post an issue in github with the words Robotron controls in the title? https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/issues

grant2258

@markwkidd said in FBA vs. MAME:

the co

mark its the same controller as im using its a gamepad input :)

markwkidd

@grant2258 said in FBA vs. MAME:

@markwkidd said in FBA vs. MAME:

the co

mark its the same controller as im using its a gamepad input :)

That can't hurt! @grant2258 this is what I mean by two possible ways to fix this:

I think there is some unused MAME code which we might be able to activate
Or we might just look at the MAME code and port/move it to the libretro input processing in mame2003.c