Amiberry (Amiga) help

g0nz0uk

Oh I think I have the .Iha files for all my games on my backup drive, didn't know I had these.

So do I remove all the game folders in here and add the single *.iha files instead?

nemo93

no problem @g0nz0uk ! Looks like you have almost everything. Now it's just a matter of placing the right content at the right place.

So do I remove all the game folders in here and add the single *.lha files instead?
=> absolutely correct. I'd suggest you organise your folders like this:

/home/pi/RetroPie/amiga/roms/<put your lha's here>

Just place there the lha's you do want to play. No need for demos, cdtv nor hdf at this stage. Focus only on copying the lha of the games you'd like to play to your "amiga roms" folder. When I say lha it's just a single file with .lha as the extension, typically a few MB at most. Lha is a compression algorithm similar to zip if you like. What you show me on your post above is in the fact the uncompressed version of a WHD package. That's exactly what you need but it has to be put inside/compressed to lha :) You have to check on the Web for those (and to get the up-to-date versions).

In the end running lha versions of Amiga games is no different than running Megadrive roms (in zip or 7z format) with Retropie. Which is really great. One lha = one game. Then ensure your Emulationstation setup (or whatever frontend you rely on) is configured to accept .lha as an extension and then ensure your "gamelist.xml" is pointing towards the correct lha files. So that your Emulationstation entry for Chaos Engine will point to ChaosEngine_v2.1_AGA_1324.lha.

=> Have a look also at the official Amiberry wiki which is really helpful. Especially at section 3.

g0nz0uk

Such a useful/descriptive reply thanks!

Can I then remove this folder completely?

Do I move the gamelist.xml into the roms folder?

I have some Iha roms now, I will have to edit the path to the rom, how might that look? Like this?

<path>./roms/ChaosEngine_v1.2_AGA_1324.lha</path>

<game>
	<path>./Chaos Engine.uae</path>
	<name>Chaos Engine</name>
	<image>./boxart/Chaos Engine.png</image>
	<video>./snap/Chaos Engine.mp4</video>
	<rating />
	<developer />
	<publisher />
	<genre />
	<players />
	<playcount>3</playcount>
	<lastplayed>20171025T145307</lastplayed>
</game>

nemo93

morning @g0nz0uk ! Before removing anything please make sure to have a backup somewhere first! If you moved all the lha's you want to your "amiga/roms/" folder then indeed your "amiga-data" will no longer be required.

Regarding your gamelist.xml, you're absolutely correct. Just edit the path as you suggested (<path>./roms/ChaosEngine_v1.2_AGA_1324.lha</path>) and you should be good to go! You're almost there :-)

Note: the name of the lha has its importance. Amiberry will check that name to identify the WHD package, what settings to apply etc. Therefore do not rename the lha to something like ChaosEngine.lha for instance. If you do so no good settings will be found.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 You are the best! So helpful it's really appreciated. Chaos engine starts full screen an all the buttons work! Now for the other games (Turricans).

I put the .lha file in the root instead of the roms folder so you see the games list straight away is this a problem:

nemo93

you're welcome @g0nz0uk always happy to help whenever I can :-) Glad you're about to enjoy some good old memories with Amiga!

Regarding the location of your lha honestly it's up to you. It won't change the way WHD packages or Amiberry will work. Put these anywhere you like and keep your gamelist.xml "<path>" inline with that location, everything else will work just fine.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 I'm lots of gaming to do now :)

Is there a quick way to say states and load?

With regards to the gamelist.xml I will manually fix this in notepad++ however is there a way to auto generate most of it? I think with my Megadrive folder I somehow auto generated it.

nemo93

Don't forget to update once in a while the "whdload_db.xml" from the Amiberry GUI (default to keyboard F12 then go the "Paths" panel and click on the "WHDload file update" button). The whdload_db.xml file provided is a week old or something and it's updated quite often. Hence if a game has not the proper settings please update the whdload_db.xml first and relaunch the game.

Also ensure to have all the appropriate Kickstart roms placed under your Retropie "bios" folder for maximum compatibility with some games (doc).

Save/load states are supported from the Amiberry GUI (hit F12 while running a game or the "menu toggle" combination on your controller - see the doc for setting up your controller following the Retroarch convention). Check on the left for the Savestates panel - should be the last item in the list.

About your last question I'm afraid I don't have any answer to that unfortunately. I'm not sure if the "scrapers" included with Retropie do work with lha. If you already have a gamelist.xml from your previous setup (with the uae's) just replace the <path>NAME of LHA</path> entries with the name of the lha.

Enjoy!

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 Thanks I have enough to get me fully up and going now, thanks again for your time, you've made me and a few others very happy.

g0nz0uk

Sorry regarding updating the whdload_db.xml file this will help with getting some games fullscreen that are not?

Just tried Hammerfist (a fav on mine on the Amiga and C64) and it's not full screen like Chaos Engine was.

Thanks

Thorr69

@nemo93 said in Amiberry (Amiga) help:

Don't forget to update once in a while the "whdload_db.xml" from the Amiberry GUI (default to keyboard F12 then go the "Paths" panel and click on the "WHDload file update" button). The whdload_db.xml file provided is a week old or something and it's updated quite often. Hence if a game has not the proper settings please update the whdload_db.xml first and relaunch the game.

This would be great advice if it actually worked. Every Pi I have fails on this. It always says there is no internet connection (which there definitely is).

nemo93

@g0nz0uk I do confirm Hammerfist is not part of my testbed hence I haven't checked that specific game settings. I could definitely have a look soon and I'll update the XML. If you found other games not properly working, please report these on this github (go to the Issues tab and create one new issue per game please) and I'll have a look!

@Thorr69 hello :-) There was a bug due to some invalid characters inside the XML itself. This prevented Amiberry to update the file. Both Amiberry and the XML have been updated now to prevent this from happening again. Did you try to update the XML recently?
=> You also have the last resort alternative which is to get the XML from there and copy it to your Retropie configs folder and under amiga\amiberry\whdboot\game-data. But the file can be updated no problem from now on and from Amiberry directly.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 mine certainly updated.

I'll add to the Github 1 by 1, I have 70 games to go through :)

Do I need to say anything in specific for each post there?

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 Added a few to github, I'll test some more later for you.

g0nz0uk

If there is a why I can update the file let me know and give to you.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 Thanks for looking at the whdload_db.xml so quickly. I will download and test.

I'll look through you whdload_db.xml before posting again as it's not fair on you.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 I think you mention you did Hammerfist, I've downloaded the latest whdload_db.xml, but still see it in a box.

Did I do something wrong?

Thorr69

@nemo93 said in Amiberry (Amiga) help:

@Thorr69 hello :-) There was a bug due to some invalid characters inside the XML itself. This prevented Amiberry to update the file. Both Amiberry and the XML have been updated now to prevent this from happening again. Did you try to update the XML recently?

I installed amiberry from source on the 4.6 system I built this week. I tried to do the XML update 2 minutes before making my comment. It didn't work, which is what I expected, and thus I made my comment. It always says "No internet connection". I am always hooked up with a wired connection. In the past I have disconnected the ethernet and switched to WiFi to try to make it work. Still hasn't. I've really been hoping that Dungeon Master's save problems have been fixed, but without the update function, I'll never know.

nemo93

@g0nz0uk hello :-) thanks a lot for submitting these new games. Please keep doing that the exact same way you did (one issue per game with the lha name is ok). Also keep in mind not all games can run "full screen". Chaos Engine or Hammerfist for instance support a 200 height resolution and as such will almost "fill" the screen. Yet many other games don't support such resolution (eg. Flashback, Exile, Settlers, etc) and they will "fill" only the middle of the screen. That's why I've marked some of your issues as "won't fix". You can still change that from the Amiberry GUI and set another Display resolution.
=> the update process of "whdload_db.xml" is not straightforward and won't happen in 5mn! @HoraceAndSpider on Github explained how often the file is updated. Just be patient and within a few days you'll get everything updated :) You did nothing wrong!

@Thorr69 sorry to hear that. We got no such feedback since the fix. @g0nz0uk here is also fine updating the file. I can only suggest 2 things:

check for user rights on the following directories and ensure pi user is properly assigned. Then try updating the file again:

$ sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs/amiga
$ sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/game-data (to be sure :))
$ sudo chmod 644 /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/game-data/whdload_db.xml

That's how my system looks like:

pi@retropie:/opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot $ ls -l
total 836
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 692922 May 17 17:32 boot-data.zip
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi   4096 May 14 19:22 game-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi    297 Oct 31  2018 hostprefs.conf
drwxr-xr-x 6 pi pi   4096 May 13 10:27 save-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 144732 May 17 17:32 WHDLoad
pi@retropie:/opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot $ ls -l game-data/
total 9332
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 4779891 May 17 20:22 whdload_db.xml

if the above doesn't solve yoiur issue please try the last resort alternative. Get the XML from there (right-click + Save as) and copy it to /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/game-data. Then try updating from Amiberry GUI once again.
Dungeon Master is running like a charm here and I could see a save data folder (/opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Savegames) :-)

Hope this helps.

g0nz0uk

@nemo93 Thanks!

I've getting my gamelist.xml all done now, a long manual update but worth it then I want to tackle the screen sizing/checking.

One question I do have, I ran Speedball2 CD and there is no music, how does the lha files handle the CD based games?