Ms Pacman Delay with mame2003

srm51555

Has anyone found a delay when playing any Mame emulators. The delay is very small but noticeable when playing fast mode Ms Pacman. I have not really noticed delays with other games. I have the TV on game mode and using the gamepadblock although I have noticed the same delay with other controllers so I'm trying to find if its the Rom, Pi, or TV.

Thanks,
Scott

mitu

Can you add more info about your system - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

srm51555

Sorry, I even read that and still forgot

Pi 2 B
Amazon basics 2.4 amp wall charger
Retropie 4.4
Premade SD Image on RetroPie Site
USB Connected is gamepadblock with 4 way SuzoHapp 20th anniversary Pac/Galaga joystick and 4 cherry microswitch controlled buttons
Mame2003
Ms Pac rom is 0.78

I found a input lag (I think it's called that, I'm away from my Pi at the moment) under the retroarch screen and set it to 3. I played a bit and it seems to be a little better, still not like the arcade. When I went back into the retroarch it was back at zero. Not sure if the setting resets itself when I went back in or never saved.

Thanks,
Scott

grant2258

this is a 4 way game your using a 8 way joystick could be your issue i think mark ported the 4 way emulation on a 8 way joystick to mame2003 just goto the rugui-> options and put it on see if it helps. If you dont see it update from source

mitu

@srm51555 said in Ms Pacman Delay with mame2003:

Amazon basics 2.4 amp wall charger

That's not quite a proper power source - do you get any under-voltage signs on the TV top left part of the screen ? What TV/resolution are you using ?

Not sure if the setting resets itself when I went back in or never saved.

It's not saved - you'll have to add them manually to the arcade system (or the mame-libretro) configuration file in /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg.

Can you try to turn on the FPS counter and see if the game is running full speed or had FPS dips ? You can do that from the RGUI, under Settings -> Onscreen Display -> Onscreen Notifications.

Also, what @grant2258 said.

srm51555

grant2258 - being so new to this originally I thought using the same hardware as the original was the way to go but I see how this would be a problem. Is there one you'd recommend?

mitu- I have not with this power supply. It's a Visio 4K, not sure the model, I also tried an old 4:3 19" computer monitor (Vertical orientation) since the original arcade was vertical 19.5". I feel the computer monitor was better but still not 100%. I will try the FPS counter but unfortunately in out of town for the next couple of days. I think Grant is on to something with the 4 way vs 8 way controller.

All - I really appreciate all your help, I played the fast version in the arcade a couple months back and now want a home version. My plan is to work out the hardware then cut some wood for a replica.

Thanks,
Scott

grant2258

teh first thing you need to do is determine if the joystick is 4 or 8 way load an 8 way game like fshark if it can do diagonals like right and up its an a 8 way. if it only got up down left right its a 4 way.

srm51555

I activated the FPS feature and found it is running at 60.0 most of the time, the highest I saw was 60.4 and the lowest was 59.8. The original was running at 60 as well.

As for the control I was unable to find a fshark rom so I looked at the specifications of the controller and it is a 4-way. I verified this by trying to activate two switches at the same time, without success.

Have there been games that someone couldn't get 100% with emulation or is it just me? I'm hoping the latter.

Thank you as always,
Scott

mitu

Looks like the emulation is fullspeed, so it's not a performance problem - but it might be an internal emulator speed for this 'fast mode Pac-Man'.
Try to get a verbose log from the emulator by running with Verbose Logging selected in the Runcommand launch menu and then uploading the contents if /dev/shm/runcommand.log to pastebin.com, maybe we can spot a problem (and we'll also see what's the ROM you're using).
You can also try using lr-fbalpha - it supports the Pac-Man games.

grant2258

yea can you clarify " fast mode Ms Pacman"

srm51555

@grant2258 said in Ms Pacman Delay with mame2003:

yea can you clarify " fast mode Ms Pacman"

Under the game settings screen in the Ms Pacman ROM you can change some of the parameters like making the ghosts and Ms Pacman move faster. In the real life arcade version this was a feature arcade owners used to speed up play to make the game more profitable. It was controlled by changing one or two IC's. We have a local arcade that has it and it's really fun. Entry to the arcade is one time daily fee so it's not too expensive if you die.

Thanks,
Scott

grant2258

you would need to use the hack not the original rom what rom are you using? try mschamp rom its probably the one your looking for or go through the hacks until you find the exact one

srm51555

Last night I found the same delay with the original settings. I can't remember 100% but I think I tried another ROM and had the same thing. I'll try again and report back.

On another note does anyone know why the GPIO settings on the pi are not always active? It would be nice if one could use the pinout guide, wire in a controllers and just configure in Retropie what button does what, just like a new controller. My gamepadblock just stopped working last night after about two weeks of operation, reloading the firmware was no help.

Thanks,
Scott

mitu

@srm51555 said in Ms Pacman Delay with mame2003:

On another note does anyone know why the GPIO settings on the pi are not always active?

The GPIO settings are the same as on a stock Raspbian Lite distro - that's what RetroPie uses undearneath on the Pi. I don't think the settings are 'not active'.

It would be nice if one could use the pinout guide, wire in a controllers and just configure in Retropie what button does what, just like a new controller

I don't think this would work without the help of a GPIO controller module, but you can certainly do that if you follow the instructions on the modules' installation page.

srm51555

Update, I used the same ROM on MAME 0.209 this weekend and it worked as is should. Not sure if it's the Pi or SW but I'm ok with using the RetroPi on console types games only. Thank you for all of your help.

Thank,
Scott