Is the ATARI5200 emulation of the ATARI800 broken?
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Hey guys! I've been trying for days to troubleshoot problems with my retropie 4.7.1 and the lr-atari800 emulator with the atari 5200 games (with whom i've spent a significant part of my childhood in the eighties). Even with a decent configuration looks like that the 99% of the roms aren't working. I tried just for curiosity to install the 4.2 version of the ATARI800 for windows on my laptop and i discovered that it gives the same problems with the same 99% of the roms i have tested it. Every single rom starts with a broken "Copyright 19 Atari" screen (with the last two digits of the date missing) and then the emulator crashes. I then tried the roms with Altirra and they work fine.
Are there problems with the core emulator? Anyone else experiencing the same issues? Are there alternatives to the ATARI800 emulator?
Thanks and merry xmas!
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Have you tried going into the Core Options, after launching the game with
lr-atari800, and setting the Atari System to 5200 ? By default, the emulator starts with the 400/800 option value. -
Hi! Yes I think I've done just everything right. I installed the rom and set the system to 5200. The games start but they crash just after the Atari welcome screen. And what's more suspicious, they do the same thing on the windows version with the correct configuration...
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Do you have the right BIOS files present also ? I booted Choplifter and Joust and the games start fine after setting the core option for Atari System to 5200.
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Yes. I just checked the md5sum of the BIOS and it matches the one in the official doc https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Atari-800-and-5200/. Also, the same BIOS works fine with Altirra.
Do you have the 4.2 version of the atari800? Have you tried it on PC? What bugs me is that i get the same behaviour from the PC version....
Thanks anyway!
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(By the PC i mean the windows version...)
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Here's what i get. It's the same as the Retropie when the emulation starts!
Screen1.PNG
Cattura.PNG -
@misterkilgore said in Is the ATARI5200 emulation of the ATARI800 broken?:
Do you have the 4.2 version of the atari800? Have you tried it on PC? What bugs me is that i get the same behaviour from the PC version....
I'll try running with the standalone Atari800 (which is version 4.2 in RetroPie), I only run the libretro core (
lr-atari800), which is an older version (3.1 I believe). -
I did try with the same ROMs with the Atari800 standalone emulator, looks like I'm getting the same results. No matter what settings I set, the boot stops and I get a similar initial boot screen with the truncated year number. I don't usually use the standalone emulator, so I'm not sure if I'm missing some configuration somewhere or there's a bug in the emulator.
For the
lr-atari800emulator, can you post the your configuration file from/home/pi/.lr-atari800.cfg? -
Here you go. Also, the games romset is taken from the internet archive.
Indeed, thanks for the help!
Atari 800 Emulator, Version 3.1.0
ROM_OS_A_NTSC=
ROM_OS_A_PAL=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Atariosa.rom
ROM_OS_B_NTSC=
ROM_OS_AA00R10=
ROM_OS_AA00R11=
ROM_OS_BB00R1=
ROM_OS_BB01R2=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ATARIXL.ROM
ROM_OS_BB02R3=
ROM_OS_BB02R3V4=
ROM_OS_CC01R4=
ROM_OS_BB01R3=
ROM_OS_BB01R4=
ROM_OS_BB01R59=
ROM_OS_BB01R59A=
ROM_5200=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/atari5200.rom
ROM_5200_A=
ROM_BASIC_A=
ROM_BASIC_B=
ROM_BASIC_C=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ATARIBAS.ROM
ROM_XEGAME=
ROM_400/800_CUSTOM=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ATARIOSB.ROM
ROM_XL/XE_CUSTOM=
ROM_5200_CUSTOM=
ROM_BASIC_CUSTOM=
ROM_XEGAME_CUSTOM=
OS_400/800_VERSION=AUTO
OS_XL/XE_VERSION=AUTO
OS_5200_VERSION=AUTO
BASIC_VERSION=AUTO
XEGS_GAME_VERSION=AUTO
H1_DIR=
H2_DIR=
H3_DIR=
H4_DIR=
HD_READ_ONLY=1
PRINT_COMMAND=lpr %s
SCREEN_REFRESH_RATIO=1
MACHINE_TYPE=Atari 5200
RAM_SIZE=48
DEFAULT_TV_MODE=NTSC
MOSAIC_RAM_NUM_BANKS=0
AXLON_RAM_NUM_BANKS=0
ENABLE_MAPRAM=0
DISABLE_BASIC=1
ENABLE_SIO_PATCH=0
ENABLE_SLOW_XEX_LOADING=0
ENABLE_H_PATCH=0
ENABLE_P_PATCH=0
ENABLE_NEW_POKEY=1
STEREO_POKEY=1
BUILTIN_BASIC=0
KEYBOARD_LEDS=0
F_KEYS=0
BUILTIN_GAME=0
KEYBOARD_DETACHED=0
1200XL_JUMPER=0
CFG_SAVE_ON_EXIT=0
MIO_ROM=
BLACK_BOX_ROM=
PROTO80_ROM=
CARTRIDGE_FILENAME=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari5200/Kangaroo (1982) (Atari).bin
CARTRIDGE_TYPE=2
CARTRIDGE_PIGGYBACK_FILENAME=
CARTRIDGE_PIGGYBACK_TYPE=0
CARTRIDGE_AUTOREBOOT=1
CASSETTE_FILENAME=
CASSETTE_LOADED=0
CASSETTE_WRITE_PROTECT=0
RTIME=1
XEP80_CHARSET=
AF80_ROM=
AF80_CHARSET=
COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0
COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0
COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=0
COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2.35
COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=0
COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=0
COLOURS_PAL_SATURATION=0
COLOURS_PAL_CONTRAST=0
COLOURS_PAL_BRIGHTNESS=0
COLOURS_PAL_GAMMA=2.35
COLOURS_PAL_HUE=0
COLOURS_PAL_GTIA_DELAY=23.2
COLOURS_PAL_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=
COLOURS_PAL_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=0
COLOURS_PAL_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=0
ARTIFACT_NTSC=NONE
ARTIFACT_PAL=NONE
ARTIFACT_NTSC_MODE=0
SCREEN_SHOW_SPEED=0
SCREEN_SHOW_IO_ACTIVITY=1
SCREEN_SHOW_IO_COUNTER=0
SCREEN_SHOW_1200XL_LEDS=1
FILTER_NTSC_SHARPNESS=-0.5
FILTER_NTSC_RESOLUTION=-0.1
FILTER_NTSC_ARTIFACTS=0
FILTER_NTSC_FRINGING=0
FILTER_NTSC_BLEED=0
FILTER_NTSC_BURST_PHASE=0
SOUND_ENABLED=1
SOUND_RATE=44100
SOUND_BITS=16
SOUND_BUFFER_MS=0
SOUND_LATENCY=20 -
Also, to add oddness: I download the windows ATARI800 3.1 version. Same result with the truncated years.
Damn, i'm ruining everything i touch! :P
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OK I'M GIVING UP! :D
Looks like everything is just too buggy to work.
I installed from source the non-libretro standalone atari800 emulator. It comes with nifty preconfigured 5200 configuration, and, guess what, THE KEYBOARD IS NOT WORKING, so when i'm asked to choose the cartridge, i'm stuck and have to manually reboot the pi3.
I resumed to give up the ATARI 5200 and shift my attention to the ATARI 800 XL since the games are pretty much the same (i think). Here the libretro emulator is not working BUT the standalone seems somehow in working condition. At least i could start 30% of games and the keyboard works. Here also not every game is working.
So i think that i will give up and use Altirra on my laptop for my 8bit atari necessities. It's very sad, since when i saw the serie ATARI2600 ATARI5200 ATARI7800 in the retropie screen, my heart went BOOOOOOOM!!!!
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OK I SOLVED IT!!!!! :D :D :D
On the Atariage forum i've read that someone had the same problems and solved it by upgrading his hardware from a pi3 to the pi4. On the other hand I downgraded the retropie version to the 4.5.1 and now everything works great. I'm no expert but i can guess that 4.7 is pre-compiled for the pi4 so on a pi3B+ is buggy. The 4.5.1 version of retropie is the last one made explicitly for the pi3. Since all the others emulator works reasonably well, i think i'll stick with it.
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@misterkilgore hi, sorry to necro but I'm having the same issue, how were you able to downgrade? I would like to do the same if possible.
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@tobas I disagree with downgrading. I have a Pi3b+ and have both the a5200 and a800 working flawlessly now based on this fine method.
Go through this and set everything as suggested. It should fix your issues.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/22392/lr-atari800-5200-artifacting-basic-and-other-guidance
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@jamrom2 I followed the instructions but sadly it crashes every time. I can get them to load only sometimes if I mash f1 quick enough on my keyboard to get to the emulator menu. otherwise I'm out of luck.
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@tobas You have to make sure you have a good romset and the correct BIOS name as well as version. There are a lot of BIOS files out there, but I found many of them were bad. I kept trying till I found a set that worked well.
Make sure they are named properly as well. The script that is posted in that thread relies on there being a few BASIC and BIOS files. So make sure you have them. Atari 800/5200 rely on specifics and it is a finiky emulator set to get working. The 5200 being the easier of the two.
Did you at least get the 5200 working? BTW... there are separate build for each Pi version. For all we know, the above user may have built with a Pi4 image. Just confirm that's not your issue. If you did, this will be a lot harder to fix.
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@jamrom2 the weird thing is, I was using the same roms and bios on my old pre-built image and it worked flawlessly. I decided to build a new one using buster and it refuses to work.
the most frustrating part by far is like I said, if I catch it before it crashes by mashing f1 I can load to the emulator menu and hit "load atari program" and it works no problem.
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@jamrom2 so I experimented a bit. it seems that only the [b2] versions will work mostly. but some roms have no solution, the original pitfall for example.
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@tobas as the build changes, so do the emulators, and so do the problems that need to be worked out.
I'd go back and download all new BIOS files, as well as a good known romset like TOSEC. I used that one, and whatever roms didn't work, I Googled till I found a good rom. I was very selective which games I wanted so I limited it to under 400.
I think you'll find following that guide to the letter will get you in the right direction with all new roms and bios files.
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