lr-atari 800 - can it handle Multi disk games in Retropie?

jamrom2

Retropie 4.7.1
RPi3b+
lr-atari800

I have the main single disk games and carts working great. All is working like a charm. Loving the whole a800 environment again.

I just haven't quite figured out how to disk swap... if I can. I combined all mult-disk games into the same named zipped files as it was flooding my game list with too many duplicates. Do they need to be in separate zip files?

How do you swap from disk 1 to disk 2 for games like Bard's Tale, Racing Destruction Set... etc.

I noticed Computer Ambush does not run in lr-atari800 but works fine in Atari800 Win10.

Thanks!

JR

yserra

EDIT: The only official way to swap floppy disks or to use multi-floppy drives in lr-atari800 is to press F1 during a game, then select Disc Management. Unlike other libretro emulators, lr-atari800 doesn't support yet the .m3u playlist but supports to navigate among the RetroPie roms folders.

If you want only one single entry per multi-disk game in EmulationStation, here is a script that automatically puts all the files with the form "(Disk X of X).atr" or "(Side X).atr" or "(Disk X of X)(Side X).atr" in a sub-folder, with the same base name. This script includes in the folder the .m3u playlist too (so you can adapt it easily to other libretro emulators):

#!/bin/bash

for filename in *.atr
do
if [[ $filename == *"Disk"* ]]; then
croppedfilename=${filename//\(Disk*\).atr/}
mkdir -p "$croppedfilename"
mv "$filename" "$croppedfilename/"
echo "$filename" >> "$croppedfilename/$croppedfilename.m3u"
fi
done

for sidename in *.atr
do
if [[ $sidename == *"Side"* ]]; then
croppedsidename=${sidename//\(Side*\).atr/}
mkdir -p "$croppedsidename"
mv "$sidename" "$croppedsidename/"
echo "$sidename" >> "$croppedsidename/$croppedsidename.m3u"
fi
done

Just copy & paste this script in a text editor and save it in the corresponding roms folder with the ".sh" extension (let's say "makem3u.sh"). Then run it:

sh makem3u.sh

With this script, you will open a sublist when you select you multi-disk game in EmulationStation.

jamrom2

@yserra thank you very much for this well detailed process. Wow. Certainly a rainy day project! I'm glad there is a process though. I kinda imagined there would be.

I'll give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes. Thanks again!

yserra

@jamrom2 Well... Actually I just discovered there is something far, far simpler: press F1 key and navigate the RetroPie filesystem.

By the way, if you followed the first script I gave you, it would be much simpler to find the next disk/side because they are all in the same subfolder.

jamrom2

@yserra working the file system doesn't show the other disks, unlike other emus. I tried that before I posted my issue. It shows the loaded disk and the file structure it resides in.

This script you posted should work the issue.

I was going to try the other method, because at this point, I already combined all of my multi disk zip files into single files.

Would you mind reposting that method, that sounded pretty good. I don't mind the work, I just need it to work. LOL.

Thanks,

James

jamrom2

@yserra

Ok, I created the file, placed it in my Atari800 roms folder with the corresponding files in .atr form,

Racing Destruction Set ( Disk 1).atr
Racing Destruction Set ( Disk 2).atr

Opened putty and ran the script.

I get a syntax error word unexpected (expecting "do"). What does that mean?

Thanks

yserra

@jamrom2 I suspect you forgot one of the "do" in the script?

yserra

@jamrom2
"working the file system doesn't show the other disks, unlike other emus."
-> Actually, it does. When you select Disc Management, the file browser puts you in the folder from where you started your game. If you are in a subfolder (or maybe in the virtual folder of a .zip archive, I never tried using zip archive with several .atr inside), you can navigate to other folders, selecting ".."

"It shows the loaded disk and the file structure it resides in."
-> that's interesting. I didn't see this feature on my copy of lr-atari800. From the menu/Disk Management option, I can only see the Linux filesystem of RetroPie, not the Atari XL filesystem. What version of lr-atari800 do you use?

"I already combined all of my multi disk zip files into single files."
-> I'm sorry, I can help you on that. I don't use zip files. Do Zip files behave like a subfolder? If they do, then you don't need my scrip to create a subfolder per multi-disk game.

jamrom2

@yserra

I took a look at this again today.

Can't seem to get this script to work. I placed Racing Destruction Set (Side A).atr and Racing Destruction Set (Side B).atr into my atari800 roms folder along with the script.

I break out of ES and run the script... doesn't work.

"make3u.sh: 15: makem3u.sh: Racing: not found "

Any ideas?

yserra

@jamrom2 yes, you probably mistyped the double quotes...
I would recommend to copy/past the script from a graphic environnement. If you have Windows or a Mac, just open this page in your web browser, copy/past the script in your TextEdit/Notepad tool, then copy by Samba or FTP the resulting text file to your Raspberry Pi.

jamrom2

@yserra still no joy with this. I've done exactly what you said, and the run the script as stated... I'm back to the original error list

makem3u.sh: 5: makem3u.sh: [[: not found
makem3u.sh: 5: makem3u.sh: [[: not found
makem3u.sh: 15: makem3u.sh: [[: not found
makem3u.sh: 15: makem3u.sh: [[: not found

I made sure to unzip the games I choose, and added in "side X" to each named .atr file.

I named the files to this...without brackets...
Racing Destruction Set - Disk 1.atr
Racing Destruction Set - Disk 2.atr

I have a lot of experience with making all these little scripts work but not writing them. I have a total of 43 emus working, including DosBox via .sh scripts as well. So I'm confident in my abilities to work with Retropie and Linux, I'm just not sure what's missing that this isn't working.

I copied it, pasted it... typed it... edited.. checked it... etc. It's exactly as you posted it.

Thanks again...once this is running it will be well worth the trouble. LOL!

yserra

@jamrom2 If you removed the brackets from the file names, then you have to remove the bracket from the script too. :

croppedfilename=${filename//Disk*.atr/}

You know, it's a quick and dirty script, written only to save time with the common format. If you change the format of your filenames, then you have to adapt the script to your format.