Missing ADVMame 0.94&1.4 For RetroPie is v4.6 from latest rasberry pi 4 image

stoney66

I assume 3.8/9 is still an option though? I haven't tried new image yet on my 3b.

mitu

Yes, advmame is still available - though you'll need to use SDL for video and input.
Supported packages are listed on this page.

Riverstorm

@david264 said in Missing ADVMame 0.94&1.4 For RetroPie is v4.6 from latest rasberry pi 4 image:

Also got an issue with ADV Mame loosing button mapping after you exit the rom and load another for the same system.
anyone else having similar issues

I seem to be having the same issue as @david264 where the you may enter the TAB menu and change any inputs but once you exit the game all the inputs are reset back to their defaults. It seems all the settings actually are reset to defaults upon exit.

I am running a Pi 4 with RP 4.6.2 (af6f0e1e) and AdvMAME 3.9. The games launch fine and play fine (with a keyboard the defaults are ok but controllers have movement only--no buttons work).

You may modify the advmame.rc directly. That works great for some options (i.e. shutting off safequit, etc.) but inputs are a bit difficult as this is an example of a keyboard/controller input input_map[coin1] keyboard[0,5] or joystick_button[045e_02a1,12]

mitu

@Riverstorm That's a known problem without a solution at the moment - advmame 3.9 crashes on exit when misc_smp is enabled and the configuration is not saved. If you've copied a previous .rc file, you might have it enabled, RetroPie will generate (on the Pi4) a .rc file with it disabled.

Riverstorm

@mitu - Ok, thanks I did search and found this thread on the subject.

It looks like you can disable smp make your input changes and then re-enable it. I tested a handful of games and it seems to be working so far.

Riverstorm

@mitu - Just confirming what you already know! ;) It does seem to lock up at randomly with smp enabled.

It takes a bit of extra work to figure out how AdvMame inputs work (without menus) but I was able to fully configure everything to match RA inputs by directly editing advmame.rc so the core works as if it's an RA core.

On a side note to not get to far off topic. I was popping in out of different cores playing games for a few minutes at a time and did get these errors a few times over the past few days usually upon exit. They are repeated over and over in the log file but they seem to be something different and didn't always lockup but created a blank screen. You could SSH into the Pi and reboot.

Jun 25 12:09:51 retropie kernel: [ 8986.233082] [drm:vc4_bo_create [vc4]] *ERROR* Failed to allocate from CMA:
Jun 25 12:09:51 retropie kernel: [ 8986.233090] [drm]                           dumb:  36004kb BOs (5)
Jun 25 12:09:52 retropie kernel: [ 8986.931060] [drm:vc4_bo_create [vc4]] *ERROR* Failed to allocate from CMA:
Jun 25 12:09:52 retropie kernel: [ 8986.931067] [drm]                           dumb:  36004kb BOs (5)
Jun 25 12:09:52 retropie kernel: [ 8987.625753] [drm:vc4_bo_create [vc4]] *ERROR* Failed to allocate from CMA:
Jun 25 12:09:52 retropie kernel: [ 8987.625761] [drm]                           dumb:  36004kb BOs (5)
Jun 25 12:09:53 retropie kernel: [ 8988.311200] [drm:vc4_bo_create [vc4]] *ERROR* Failed to allocate from CMA:
Jun 25 12:09:53 retropie kernel: [ 8988.311208] [drm]                           dumb:  36004kb BOs (5)
Jun 25 12:09:54 retropie kernel: [ 8988.998553] [drm:vc4_bo_create [vc4]] *ERROR* Failed to allocate from CMA:
Jun 25 12:09:54 retropie kernel: [ 8988.998561] [drm]                           dumb:  36004kb BOs (5)

Riverstorm

@mitu - Just adding a little more information if it's helpful. I know things aren't working properly so I'm not looking for a fix but just to verify what I've been seeing compared to others.

Input settings aren't saved through the menu with SMP on. It seems to read the advmame.rc but doesn't write to it. You can disable SMP or modify the advmame.rc directly which does work.

It didn't crash with OR without SMP enabled on exit. It was usually random during game play at various amounts of time.

The other thing is on Pi 4 overclocked to 2.1GHz it was very slow with SMP enabled or disabled (slower diabled). Testing Gravitar was more like a walk. It's not unplayable slow but slow enough you have the advantage because you don't need lightning reflexes to make the shots. Lot's of time to think about your moves. The frames would drop to around 50% and climb back up to 100% circularly.

The reason I prefer AdvMame (even 0.94 or 1.4) is it seems to have a slight edge visually on vector games that I can't match in other cores doing a lot of fiddling with the settings.

mitu

@Riverstorm said in Missing ADVMame 0.94&1.4 For RetroPie is v4.6 from latest rasberry pi 4 image:

Input settings aren't saved through the menu with SMP on. It seems to read the advmame.rc but doesn't write to it. You can disable SMP or modify the advmame.rc directly which does work.

This is consistent with what was reported so far.

It didn't crash with OR without SMP enabled on exit. It was usually random during game play at various amounts of time.

You usually don't see the crash on exit, unless you're looking at the log. If it's randomly during gameplay, check if the same happens without an overclock.

I don't have an idea about the kernel error messages - though it seems similar to this issue. I think @pjft had this problem, I don't know how they solved it (if it was solved).

Riverstorm

@mitu - I started a new image last week based on 4.6 and had installed several arcade cores, emulators and ports. Then I was jumping in and out of several games testing inputs, shaders, etc. I don't know if I created the perfect storm by doing so but I was unable to reproduce the crashes. I saw some were reproducing the kernel issues by scrubbing with VLC. I read several posts on the raspberrypi forums of memory fragmentation or something along those lines. In a typical game session I don't go in and out of that many emulators except during a new setup but if it happens again I'll see if I can test the fixes outlined in that thread (I found two).

On a side note I don't know if it's worth starting a new thread or do you know how much longer 4.5 will be supported? I have an older 4.5 image and I updated the RP script to 4.6.2 and then went to 'Main Packages" and did an 'Update All'.

When it was finished all the emulators worked fine but I noticed it moved several packages from main to optional. They were packages that were installed prior to running 'Update All'. Some I know that were moved were mame4all-pi, mame2000, one of the SNES emulators and I think one more. I can get a more definitive list if you think it's worth looking into at all. You get used to finding a package in Main and then all of sudden they are located in Optional.

mitu

On a side note I don't know if it's worth starting a new thread or do you know how much longer 4.5 will be supported?

I guess binaries will be offered for some time; from: https://retropie.org.uk/news:

For RetroPie 4.6 we have moved to Raspbian Buster as a base for our pre-built Raspberry Pi images. Raspbian Stretch is no longer supported by Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd. We will continue to support Stretch for a while longer, but will likely stop updating binaries for it later this year.

When it was finished all the emulators worked fine but I noticed it moved several packages from main to optional.

I don't see a problem with that. Things change, emulators get moved around if something better comes up or it's bit rotten. Specifically, mame4all and mame2000 have better alternatives on the Pi2 and above.

Riverstorm

@mitu said in Missing ADVMame 0.94&1.4 For RetroPie is v4.6 from latest rasberry pi 4 image:

I don't see a problem with that. Things change, emulators get moved around if something better comes up or it's bit rotten. Specifically, mame4all and mame2000 have better alternatives on the Pi2 and above.

@mitu - Oh, ooops, didn't think of that, so they were moved intentionally from Main to Optional and it's not a bug! :/ Is mame4all-pi in the Pi 0/1 packages or is it another broken package like AdvMame 0.94/1.4 and will it make it's way back to 4.6 Pi 4 eventually in time?

mitu

@Riverstorm said in Missing ADVMame 0.94&1.4 For RetroPie is v4.6 from latest rasberry pi 4 image:

Is mame4all-pi in the Pi 0/1 packages or is it another broken package like AdvMame 0.94/1.4 and will it make it's way back to 4.6 Pi 4 eventually in time?

Yes(yes) and I don't think so. Neither of these emulators are active developed anymore, so updating them for the Pi4's KMS/DRM drivers is not something that I would expect to happen.

Riverstorm

@mitu - Ok, that sounds good, I appreciate the information.