mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Ok, yeah from what Clyde is showing it seems different displays will need different sizes or it might be possible to use negative positioning but would have a side effect of clipping. Basically filling the y axis (1200) and clip what goes beyond 1600. I don't even know if it's possible just a guess.

Yeah I was thinking if a game had 2 backdrops. Let's say you submit one named invaders.zip and "John" comes along and submits an alternate "invaders.zip" you can't sumbit that in a pull request correct? One would overwrite the other?

Riverstorm

@UDb23 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I would suggest we create a separate thread to discuss about backdrops to avoid "cluttering" this thread. ;-)

Sounds good.

UDb23

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

One would overwrite the other?

yes

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@UDb23 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I would suggest we create a separate thread to discuss about backdrops to avoid "cluttering" this thread. ;-)

Sounds good.

Okay, I will do that. Stay tuned while I am testing your suggestions.

Clyde

Done. :)

Clyde

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I then tried to resize the backdrop picture to 1200x1600 and change the position in invaders.art to -0.214286,0,1.214286,1, calculated by @UDb23's spreadsheet for a backdrop of 1600x1200 and a game area of 1120x1200 (upscaled SA's original resolution of 224x240), but the backdrop isn't displayed then.

That it didn't display in my previous attempt may have been a problem with the format of my zip files. My file manager Krusader for Linux/KDE uses the compression method "Deflate". Mame2003-plus can't read this compression, apparently (runcommand.log):

[libretro ERROR] [MAME 2003+] Error in zipfile invaders.zip
The format of this zipfile is not supported, please recompress it
[libretro ERROR] [MAME 2003+] Error in zipfile invaders.zip: OS not supported

So I had to manually choose "Copy" as compression method, all other methods I can choose – namely Bzip2, Deflate64, LZMA, and PPMd – result in a different error, Compression method unsupported.

So mame2003-plus can only read zip files with "Copy" compression?

Riverstorm

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

So mame2003-plus can only read zip files with "Copy" compression?

That's definitely a question for the core guys. I use a program named RAR with maximum zip only compression set and haven't had any issues. Copy to me implies zero compression, basically stored in a zip file.

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Copy to me implies zero compression, basically stored in a zip file.

That's what I thought, too. Besides, the error "OS not supported" seems very strange to me for opening an archive file, especially since both the pc which created the file and the Pi who received it run Linux, although x86-64 and ARM variants.

And all other methods get the "method not supported" error, only Deflate gets the "OS not supported" one. 😒

But you're right, that is more a topic for libretro (I guess). I just wanted to note that the image not displaying was most probably not a result of the positioning in the .art file.

Riverstorm

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

But you're right, that is more a topic for libretro (I guess)

Maybe @markwkidd or @grant2258 would know the answer.

Clyde

@Riverstorm Again, that's what I thought, too. I'm off to offline things like supper now, anyway. Have a nice evening or whatever time of the day is at your place. o/

UDb23

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

So mame2003-plus can only read zip files with "Copy" compression?

FYI
I used 7 zip under windows and 7zip's counterpart on Mac; both with default compression: no issues.

grant2258

use the legacy .zip format not. zipx

http://kb.winzip.com/kb/entry/36/

mame does support deflate its the default format for zip universally. winzip and 7zip use it by default your zip compression util must be setting it to something else.

Ive never had any issues in linux using zip or unzip at the command line either or with winrar/winzip/7zip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)

Clyde

@grant2258 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

use the legacy .zip format not. zipx

I had to look up zipx because I never heard of it before. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format), it's the name only Winzip uses for zip files "that use compression methods newer than DEFLATE; specifically, methods BZip, LZMA, PPMd, Jpeg and Wavpack". But my zip files that mame2003-plus rejects do use Deflate according to KDE's standard archiver Ark, so they aren't zipx files either. :(

mame does support deflate its the default format for zip universally. winzip and 7zip use it by default your zip compression util must be setting it to something else.

Strangely, even zip files that I create with 7z a invaders.zip * in the directory which contains my PNG and ART files are rejected by mame2003-plus with the "OS not supported" error. I'm using 7-Zip [64] 16.02 from Kubuntu 18.04.1's official repositories.

But files created with the standard zip tool Zip 3.0 (July 5th 2008), also from Kubuntu's repos, can be read by mame2003-plus! Again, I used no other options than zip invaders.zip *.

Very strange … as is the error "OS not supported". But I don't want to hijack this thread with this, I'm just extremely puzzled about it. And using the ziptool, I now have the means to create deflated files that mame2003-plus will recognize. \o/

grant2258

it the way your creating your zips send a link to a zip thats not working ill look at whats getting set. Its another flag thats getting set somewhere would need a zip to see what flag is being set cant really help beyond that

grant2258

run zipinfo -v you will see the problem is in the header compare 7z and zip created archives. I believe from a quick look at the source the problem is with with

minimum file system compatibility required:     Unix

this is causing the os error

A Former User

Where are you guys putting your roms, for Mame 2003 Plus ?
I've tried here

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/mame2003-plus/roms

And here

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2003-plus/roms

And Mame 2003 Plus just doesn't see them. It runs a few roms, so it must be reading them from the arcade roms folder.
Here is what I've done so far.
Compile the latest Mame-2003-Plus source.
Run a game that works, bring up the menu and export a xml dat file
Using clrmamepro, and the guide on these forums, I made a rom set from a 0.78 set + 0.139 set, non-merged sets.
This worked great, the missing roms text reported
"You are missing 20 of 4875 known mame2003-plus sets (+ BIOS sets)"
So that went well. So it's not the roms, just where they are uploaded to.

One other thing, when I managed to get a rom to work, the Mame menu was just a few entries,

Dip Switches
Bookkeeping Info
Game Info
Game history
Cheat
Generate XML DAT
Return to Game

there was no input menu - so I couldn't make custom inputs per-game.

Clyde

@grant2258 That's it! Krusader and 7z add Unix file system as minimum requirement. I never stumbled upon this because I normally only create zip files for my own use on Linux. I guess I could configure 7z to another minimum, but alas, Krusader don't have any such options (the usual disadvantage of GUI tools).

Here's the output for three test files. Their file names tell which program I used:

$ zipinfo -v krusader_zip.zip | grep minimum
  minimum file system compatibility required:     Unix
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0
  minimum file system compatibility required:     Unix
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0
$ zipinfo -v 7z.zip | grep minimum
  minimum file system compatibility required:     Unix
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0
  minimum file system compatibility required:     Unix
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0
$ zipinfo -v zip.zip | grep minimum
  minimum file system compatibility required:     MS-DOS, OS/2 or NT FAT
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0
  minimum file system compatibility required:     MS-DOS, OS/2 or NT FAT
  minimum software version required to extract:   2.0

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It's only 10 in the morning and I already learned something important. 😊

One last question in this matter: Do you know if the requirements of a zip file can be changed after its creation?

edit: But … shouldn't mame2003-plus or libretro be able to open such zip files on a *nix system? It's a rare case, but an incorrect behaviour nonetheless.

@John_RM_70 I don't think you can place roms in subfolders of the actual roms folders. You can either put your mame2003-plus roms in $HOME/RetroPie/roms/arcade or in $HOME/RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro. The former has the advantage that you can mix roms for multiple arcade emulators.

edit: As for the controls, they're to be managed in RetroArch's RGUI/XMB menu, not in MAME itself anymore. You can change that in RA's GUI under Quick Menu > Options > Input interface.

A Former User

Thanks Clyde. The problem with using the RetroPie/roms/arcade folder is that it's already occupied by a older Mame set. Do you think Mame 2003 Plus is in a good enough state to wipe the older roms and only use 2003 plus ?

@Clyde said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

edit: As for the controls, they're to be managed in RetroArch's RGUI/XMB menu, not in MAME itself anymore. You can change that in RA's GUI under Quick Menu > Options > Input interface

I'm not at my Pi at the moment, but going the Retroarch Input interface way - can you still map controls per-game ? For example, I use twin sticks in Robotron, so they need to be mapped properly for the twin sticks. Thanks for your help.

Clyde

@John_RM_70 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Thanks Clyde. The problem with using the RetroPie/roms/arcade folder is that it's already occupied by a older Mame set. Do you think Mame 2003 Plus is in a good enough state to wipe the older roms and only use 2003 plus ?

I did just that over the holidays. 😊 So a) yes, I think it should be good enough (it's "only" an enhanced fork of mame2003 after all), but b) I haven't much actual experience with it. I'm in the process of testing all of the new and fixed games one after another.

I would suggest that you backup your old set before replacing it with a mame2003-plus set.

Another option is to put only the new and fixed games in arcade together with your old set, and configure only them to be run by mame2003-plus via the Runcommand menu.

As a third option, you can put your old set in arcade and your plus set in mame-libretro. You'll then have "Arcade" as well as "MAME" as systems in Emulation Station. I have this setup on my Linux pc that is fast enough to run mame2016 in "Arcade", whereas in "MAME" I keep a copy of the mame2003(-plus) set of my Pi for testing.

I'm not at my Pi at the moment, but going the Retroarch Input interface way - can you still map controls per-game ? For example, I use twin sticks in Robotron, so they need to be mapped properly for the twin sticks. Thanks for your help.

Yes, that's possible. The Quick Menu > Controls in RA can save your mappings either for a single game or for the current core (e.g. mame2003-plus).

If some bind you want is not possible via RA, you can still switch to mame input, bind the buttons in MAME, and then reset RA to retroarch input. MAME should retain the mappings you did in its menu, I think. But others here can tell you that for sure.

A Former User

@Clyde Thanks Clyde, that is exactly what I was looking for.