Problems running PC Engine/Turbo-CD games even with BIOS

MortalWombat

Hey all, so I recently decided to check out some of these consoles I'd never played on my Pi4 (Version 4.7.3, Last Commit 7 weeks ago [3f5b62ad], system rpi4 [armv71] runing on Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 [buster]... and for future reference, if any of that info is gratuitous for figuring out what system I have, feel free to let me know). These include CD-ROM games, like the Playstation 1, Sega-CD, and the TurboGrafx-CD/CD-ROM².

So far, I haven't had any luck getting any of the Turbo-CD games to run. When I run them--usually using lr-beetle-pce-fast, I think I've tried them all-- I get a screen that says:

PC ENGINE SUPER CD-ROM 2 SYSTEM VER 3.00 PUSH RUN BUTTON

When you do press "run"/the start button, you get a “LOAD ERROR!” Message (alternately, when I hit run on the Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari game, it says "Just a moment...," but the game never loads).

I've tried enabling Verbose Logging in runcommand to elaborate on these errors (prior to doing so, if I'd use F4 to access Terminal and run cat /dev/slm/runcommand.log , I got 2 prompts that said " Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-beetle-pce-fast/mednafen_pce_fast_libretro.so —config /opt/retropie/configs/pcengine/retroarch.cfg “/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pcengine/Double Dragon II - The Revenge.7z” —appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg " ; as you can see it mentioned Double Dragon, but none of the other games that gave me that "Load Error" message)

After I enabled Verbose Logging, a far more extensive screen ran (admittedly it's all kinda Greek to me), but I'm not sure how to save/download these error logs so I could potentially share them, assuming they'd reveal anything (besides that, is there a way to exit this screen WITHOUT having to reboot/using the " sudo reboot " command?).

Is it possible I have the wrong BIOS file, or that the BIOS is in the wrong format?? Currently, I have a [BIOS] Super CD-ROM System (Japan) (v3.0).zip , [BIOS] Super CD-ROM System (Japan) (v3.0).7z , and the syscard3.pce file all placed in the general "bios" folder (largely just because the PC-Engine Doc included here said that the syscard3.pce BIOS is the most compatible with games).

I do see that the Docs file here said "that It is important that the image file (usually .bin) and the CUE file (.cue) match," and it's true that a couple of these 7z's, after I decompress them, ONLY have a .cue file, with NO .bin file (granted, all of these are files that I got off a proper archive-type site, so I'd like to think that they wouldn't have compressed/uploaded them if they had a missing file).

That said, any ideas of why these aren't working? More specifically, HOW do I download/save these error messages, if those will provide further details?? (sorry, I tried Googling/searching that here, but couldn't find anything). Thanks!!

Articles referred to:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/PC-Engine/
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15896/errors-logged-to-dev-slm-runcommand-org/9
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26869/appendconfig-dev-shm-retroarch-cfg/2

mitu

CD games won't work archived, you'll have to unpack them.

I do see that the Docs file here said "that It is important that the image file (usually .bin) and the CUE file (.cue) match," and it's true that a couple of these 7z's, after I decompress them, ONLY have a .cue file, with NO .bin file

Then you have an incomplete game/cd image. Use the proper format .cue + .bin and re-try.

MortalWombat

@mitu yes when I open the 7z files (at least for Gate of Thunder & Double Dragon 2), there's usually a folder that'll contain the large .img file, a .cue, a .ccd., and .sub. Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari just had the .cue file and a large .iso one; the Rondo of Blood folder had 2 .iso's, a .cue, and several .wav files, presumably from the soundtrack. No .bin files were contained in any of them.

What's odd though is after I copied these opened folders into the "pcengine" ROMS folder, for the most part, they seem to work; in the EmulationStation window, they have a pinkish hue indicating a folder, and inside that the game's listed again, and it works if you try to run it (though in the Double Dragon & Gate Of Thunder file, it's listed twice, both versions seem to play the same; not sure if I can delete one of the 2 files though). So basically, the game loads, you get the same "Push Run Button!" prompt, and when you do this time the game loads right away (unfortunately Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari's almost all in Japanese; not sure if there's a patch out there, or way to translate).

The only one that DOESN'T quite work however is Rondo Of Blood; after you hit Run, it loads, you get the Konami logo & sound that accompanies it, however the audio is just non-stop static and pressing the buttons doesn't seem to start the game. The file name comes up as Castlevania - Rondo of Blood (Japan)(SCD)[T-EN by (X - I won't put the name to preserve their anonymity + another name, V1.01][N]. Never played this version of Castlevania before, so I don't know if the original's all in Japanese and this is meant to be some fan-made translation. However the "static" audio is odd, considering all the .wav files that were in the folder (and it seems to be this way regardless of which of the 5 available emulators I use; it just doesn't work on lr-fbneo-tg, lr-fbneo-sgx, and lr-fbneo-pce, and returns to the ES screen).

So, am I OK playing these if they didn't come with .bin files? Can I delete any of the games that have a 2nd file in their folders? Should I assume that the ROBlood ROM I have with the static sounds is just a bad patch?? Thank you in advance.

mitu

@mortalwombat said in Problems running PC Engine/Turbo-CD games even with BIOS:

So, am I OK playing these if they didn't come with .bin files? Can I delete any of the games that have a 2nd file in their folders? Should I assume that the ROBlood ROM I have with the static sounds is just a bad patch?? Thank you in advance.

.wav files are not supported by the emulator, you'd need to either use a .iso or a proper rip of the game, .cue + .bin. The game has an english patch, but the cutscenes I think are still in Japanese.

You can verify any disc rip in .cue format with on Redump.org, Rondo of Blood has 2 data tracks and 20 audio tracks - http://redump.org/disc/29878/.

MortalWombat

@mitu well fortunately I found an alt. version consisting of a .bin and a .cue file that works great (there's also the syscard3.pce bio in the folder, not entirely sure why...).

I guess until I run into other challenges with these (and possibly other CDROM games, although I guess that'll be a question for another thread) is figuring out how to download/save these error message logs (I did have trouble getting Lords Of Thunder to work; though I found another version that did, I'm already anticipating having to interpret the error logs for others), and mainly, if an English translation/patch exists for Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari/River City Ransom.

Based on the links I've found though, this last one seems like an ongoing, unresolved project.
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=29318.0
https://steamcommunity.com/app/422810/discussions/0/135510669595109836/

MortalWombat

For anyone still monitoring this thread, unless I missed it, what's the recommended way of organizing some of these multi-file CD-ROM games in their respective console ROM folders?? Is it advised to just keep every .cue, .bin, .iso etc file in one folder, and go into those folders/select the appropriate files to start the games?? Or do they just leave all the files in the general folder??

Main reason I ask is that I noticed that my Turbo-CD Lords of Thunder game has both a .CCD and .CUE file, and both files load the game (and I certainly don't want to delete one by accident thinking it's a duplicate, since I assume you'd need to keep both for the game to work).

My PS1 Castlevania Symphony of Night ROM on the other hand has 2 bin files and the .cue, with that last one being the only file that shows up in Emulation Station and loads the game.

Is it just all a matter of personal preference? Thanks.

Kreecher

Re: Problems running PC Engine/Turbo-CD games even with BIOS
I realize this is 3 years after this post; but if anyone is still struggling to make CD games work, after trying again and again and downloading the syscard3.pce file from different sources, even though MD5 matched on all, just in case some were corrupt...I finally got it to work by placing the syscard3.pce file in the ROMS folder instead of BIOS. Then, in Emulationstation, I clicked on syscard3.pce, which shows up like a game, and it opened the CD interface. Clicked start, and it began gyrating but didn't fully open. Pressed select and start on my controller to back out and THEN was able to play CD games!

BTW, don't know if this fix will work for emu running on Raspberry Pi. I didn't have issues playing CD games on my Pi 3. But this was the only way I could play PC Engine CD games running Retropie with my Linux Mint x86_64 computer.