Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA:

robertvb83 · 25 May 2018, 18:41

@barbudreadmon when trying to rebuilt the fba...43 romset i get missing roms for 1000s of games... could this be a problem of the dat file? they dont seem to exist anywhere.

missing BIOS rom: sp1-j3.bin
missing BIOS rom: sp1-u3.bin

barbudreadmon · 25 May 2018, 18:44

@robertvb83 You shouldn't mind about those 2, see comments in https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/commit/d14bd8b99cfc8b405eaebbd836fefb85060edae8

will · 28 May 2018, 18:28

I was able to find a full fba .43 romset last week online. Took a while to download, but it's perfect and I didn't have to bust out clrmamepro. (Though I am well versed in how to use it)
Obviously I can't mention where to get roms at here, but it only took me about 6 minutes of searching to find it.

dankcushions · 28 May 2018, 23:10

@robertvb83 said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

@mitu do I understand this correctly that the latest lr-fbalpha emulator that is active in retropie if you update from source requires an updated romset v0.2.97.43???

this would be strange because the wiki still says v0.2.97.42. see also wiki here

not strange - updating the wiki properly to reflect the new romset involves updating various links to datfiles, the compatibility lists (this alone takes HOURS), and quite a bit of text referring to the previous version in both the wiki and the script. i've done this myself the last couple of FBA versions, but have zero motivation to do it right now.

dankcushions · 29 May 2018, 09:54

@barbudreadmon said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

This is seriously depressing when people prefer trusting a web page instead of what the emulator is showing in its menu. The fbalpha2012 version shown in the wiki page is also wrong, it has been known for almost 3 years that it was not 0.2.97.30, and the emulator menu has been showing 0.2.97.29 for almost 2 years.

be fair - the github for 2012 says 0.2.97.24! also, i was going to update it ages ago but then we had this conversation: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012/issues/53 - i thought it was .24 with some backports from .29/.30? who knows what the right romset is to use with that thing...

barbudreadmon · 29 May 2018, 09:59

@dankcushions said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

@barbudreadmon said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

This is seriously depressing when people prefer trusting a web page instead of what the emulator is showing in its menu. The fbalpha2012 version shown in the wiki page is also wrong, it has been known for almost 3 years that it was not 0.2.97.30, and the emulator menu has been showing 0.2.97.29 for almost 2 years.

be fair - the github for 2012 says 0.2.97.24! also, i was going to update it ages ago but then we had this conversation: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012/issues/53 - i thought it was .24 with some backports from .29/.30? who knows what the right romset is to use with that thing...

I was just stating the fact people shouldn't blindly trust a wiki page. Imho, at least for lr-fbalpha, you should just link the repository for information about the last release and the dats.

robertvb83 · 29 May 2018, 10:02

@dankcushions i fully understand that. Also your leck of motivation. For mame and fba related emulation it is nearly impossible to keep everything up to date. For me it was for long time not easy to understand what this is all about. Why the heck do i need to sort ALL roms new in case of an update and not only put some new roms in the set. (i know better now, as i understand the concept more clearly)

i did not really get the point when commenting that one. I thought more in the direction that there are different types of emulators but they are pretty much fixed. and thus there is a fixed corresponding romset... so i was just confused that there would be a different fba emulator as retropie standard with a new romset that is not described anywhere

I think mame will never be a plug and play thing. If you want it working nice you have to deal with it and learn. But that is ok for me considering the insane benefit and historical meaning of this project.

dankcushions · 29 May 2018, 10:27

@barbudreadmon said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

@dankcushions said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

@barbudreadmon said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

This is seriously depressing when people prefer trusting a web page instead of what the emulator is showing in its menu. The fbalpha2012 version shown in the wiki page is also wrong, it has been known for almost 3 years that it was not 0.2.97.30, and the emulator menu has been showing 0.2.97.29 for almost 2 years.

be fair - the github for 2012 says 0.2.97.24! also, i was going to update it ages ago but then we had this conversation: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012/issues/53 - i thought it was .24 with some backports from .29/.30? who knows what the right romset is to use with that thing...

I was just stating the fact people shouldn't blindly trust a wiki page. Imho, at least for lr-fbalpha, you should just link the repository for information about the last release and the dats.

i agree - i did update all the dat links a while back to the actual files on the repo, but those links might now be dead following the update, not checked.

it's a bit difficult for us as the documentation here repeats much stuff from github readmes, but also those tend to be written for a different audience (our audience does not need to know build instructions, etc, since retropie's scripts do all that). the balance is tricky!

barbudreadmon · 29 May 2018, 10:39

@dankcushions said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

it's a bit difficult for us as the documentation here repeats much stuff from github readmes

As a sidenote, there is quite a lot of new things in the readme, perhaps you should take a look.

clewis · 11 Jun 2018, 03:55

I just tried compiling from source, and it still installs v0.2.97.42. I would like to upgrade to v0.2.97.43. Did something change or am I doing something wrong?

mitu · 11 Jun 2018, 03:57

@clewis What version of RetroPie are you using ?

clewis · 6 Nov 2018, 05:04

@mitu

4.4.1

I tried compiling on a RPI3 and a RPI3B+

mitu · 6 Nov 2018, 05:07

@clewis If you have 4.4.1, then installing from source will get you the latest version of libretro-fbalpha from the github repository, which should be v0.2.97.43. How are you checking the version ? Note that the install script still outputs Installing .. v0.2.97.42 in the logs, but if you check in RetroArch, after starting a game, it should show the right version.

clewis · 6 Nov 2018, 05:13

@mitu

I see! Let me check that.

I was hoping to play vertical classics without the need of samples, and I guess lr-mame2016 is not compiling for anyone right now? Anyway, this version of FBA is based off Mame .197? I was hoping to get more accurate colors, and not have to use sound samples.

BRB and thanks!

You were right, and it is .43

Unfortunately DK colors and sounds are not like lr-mame2016 so I'm stuck. Thanks for your help!

barbudreadmon · 11 Jun 2018, 05:44

@clewis said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

Unfortunately DK colors and sounds are not like lr-mame2016 so I'm stuck

If you think something is wrong with colors or sound in current fba, give more details (DK is Donkey Kong ?).
Also, be aware that mame2016 is not current mame.

clewis · 6 Nov 2018, 15:28

@barbudreadmon

EDIT: I just read some of your posts and I didn't realize who you were. Sorry I'm new!

Using Donkey Kong as an example, there are classic arcade games that would historically require sound samples in order to get all of the sound effects or music. These days in Mame, samples are no longer required for Donkey Kong and others. lr-mame2016 is new enough that the sounds are all emulated.

As far as the colors go, here are some pics:

This is FBA. The colors are the same as mame2003.

Here is the actual PCB. I would show how close mame2016 is, but It can't be compiled on Stretch yet, but it is so close I can't tell the difference.

Sorry for the glare! I know most people don't care as much for the 80's verticals and are more interested in the 90's horizontals.

barbudreadmon · 12 Jun 2018, 07:26

@clewis Removing the sound samples would be hard at this moment, proper sound support is not an easy one for this hardware. Are there missing sounds in the samples ? I also took a look at the color issue and something can probably be done about it. I'll let you know as soon as i get a feedback about it from upstream.

clewis · 6 Dec 2018, 14:24

@barbudreadmon

Thanks barbudreadmon!

The samples are all there. The analog sounds that are sampled, are way louder than the digital sounds that are emulated. What you get is Jumpman's footsteps super loud and the barrel jumping sound too quiet.

It's great that the color fix might be doable. That would be huge!!

barbudreadmon · 12 Jun 2018, 13:32

@clewis said in Shock Troopers (shocktro.zip) not loading using FBA::

What you get is Jumpman's footsteps super loud and the barrel jumping sound too quiet.

Even if they are samples, i guess some balance adjustment could be done.

barbudreadmon · 14 Jun 2018, 11:48

@clewis 2 good news :

i found out why lr-mame2016 fails building, i just created the PR to fix it, it should be merged soon
i just tested the dkong color fix for fba (and compared it to lr-mame2016), it looks great, if the fba standalone team gives me the ok (this is new stuff and not a simple hotfix, this kind of improvement is generally only made public when a new standalone fba is released), i'll push it to the lr-fbalpha repository later today, otherwise you'll have to wait for the .44 release.