BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu

Folly

Works with b-em-xmaster :

AdamBeGood

@folly Is that xmaster as a core name or not?

I don't get the option to select the disk for this game when I select "xmaster". Is there something else I should have installed for this? Arggg

Folly

@adambegood

You don't have to select within xmaster.
Just boot the game from emulationstation.
Then press a key, so you can change the emulator and choose xmaster.
Then launch.
If you don't see this, then you haven't installed the correct module-script.

AdamBeGood

@folly I know this sounds mad, but I can’t select <cmd line> or whatever that option was called with that game. I can with other games on the core, but not this game.

I am using xmaster, yep.

I don’t understand!

Edit: And if I press Ctrl-F12 without altering anything it runs “Twisted”.

Folly

@adambegood said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

@folly I know this sounds mad, but I can’t select <cmd line> or whatever that option was called with that game. I can with other games on the core, but not this game.

I am using xmaster, yep.

I don’t understand!

Edit: And if I press Ctrl-F12 without altering anything it runs “Twisted”.

Do you have these lines in /opt/retropie/configs/bbcmicro/emulators.cfg ? :

xbeeb = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh %ROM%"
default = "xmaster"
xmaster = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xmaster.sh %ROM%"

Do you have these files in /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi ? :
retropie.pkg xbeeb xbeeb.sh xmaster xmaster.sh

AdamBeGood

@folly I don't have xmaster as default but I have those lines, yep:

xbeeb = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh %ROM%"
xmaster = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xmaster.sh %ROM%"
lr-mess-system-bbcb-flop1 = "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/bbcmicro/retroarch.cfg \bbcb /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame -autoframeskip -flop1 %ROM%"
mame-system-bbcb-flop1 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c bbcb -flop1 %ROM%"
mame-system-bbcb-flop1-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c -autoframeskip bbcb -flop1 %ROM%"
lr-mess-system-bbcm-flop1 = "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/bbcmicro/retroarch.cfg \bbcm /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame -autoframeskip -flop1 %ROM%"
mame-system-bbcm-flop1 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c bbcm -flop1 %ROM%"
mame-system-bbcm-flop1-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c -autoframeskip bbcm -flop1 %ROM%"
lr-mess-bbcb-cass = "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/bbcb/retroarch.cfg bbcb /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -cass %ROM%"
default = "lr-mess-bbcb-flop1"
lr-mess-bbcb-flop1 = "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/bbcb/retroarch.cfg bbcb /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -flop1 %ROM%"
lr-mess-bbcb-prin = "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/bbcb/retroarch.cfg bbcb /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS -prin %ROM%"

And yep, I do have those. I can select <cmd line> with other games in xmaster, but not this one (or Prince of Persia I think)! I'll have a look in the morning again...

Folly

@adambegood

Looks good.

Ok, so it works with others, but not with Prince Of Persia, correct.

This game works fine here.

It can be two problems, I think :

Did you use the .ssd file ?
(xmaster doesn't work with .zip)
Do you have spaces in the directory or the .ssd file ?
(I did a fix on the spaces problem, it is updated on github)
(wget the module-script again, and update in RetroPie-Setup or do it faster with the commands beneath without the RetroPie-Setup)

Fast alternative to fix only this problem for now :
(second line does only the configure part, without compiling etc)

wget -nv -O /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/b-em-pico-pi.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/emulators/b-em-pico-pi.sh
sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh b-em-pico-pi configure

AdamBeGood

@folly said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

@adambegood

Looks good.

Ok, so it works with others, but not with Prince Of Persia, correct.

This game works fine here.

It can be two problems, I think :

Did you use the .ssd file ?
(xmaster doesn't work with .zip)

Do you have spaces in the directory or the .ssd file ?
(I did a fix on the spaces problem, it is updated on github)
(wget the module-script again, and update in RetroPie-Setup or do it faster with the commands beneath without the RetroPie-Setup)

Fast alternative to fix only this problem for now :
(second line does only the configure part, without compiling etc)
wget -nv -O /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/b-em-pico-pi.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/emulators/b-em-pico-pi.sh
sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh b-em-pico-pi configure

I've sussed it out (realised when I was in the shower), before I read your message - superb deduction though!

I'd changed the title to "Prince of Persia.ssd" to make it easier to scrape. The spaces stopped the .ssd picking up in the emulator.

Thanks for the script to take out spaces, I only had this for two games though.

Sorry!..

Edit: I'll use your command lines to resolve the issue also, thank you.

Folly

@adambegood

Nice, we improved it on the way !

Now we can play a little bit more.

I should add a help to the module-script.

MrNoHolster

Please could someone help? I’ve installed this as per instructions with the code and installed via Retropie setup so my roms now show up in Emulation Station. However when I run any game it just goes back to the menu. I’ve installed the files in BIOS/mame and have ssd games in the roms/bbc-micro

I’ve tried run command using x-master but no joy :(

Any help much appreciated!

AdamBeGood

@mrnoholster So does X-Master load okay? Have you tried Shift-F12 to run the disk?

Folly

@mrnoholster said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

Please could someone help?

We can help.
We have it working, so it should work for you.

I’ve installed this as per instructions with the code and installed via Retropie setup so my roms now show up in Emulation Station.

Did you use these insructions ? :

However when I run any game it just goes back to the menu. I’ve installed the files in BIOS/mame and have ssd games in the roms/bbc-micro

You are talking here about option 1, the lr-mess/mame, because you need bios files for that one.
Your BIOS files are :

BIOS/mame/bbcb.zip
BIOS/mame/saa5050.zip

Your roms for these older instructions still have to be in :

roms/bbcb/<your_roms.ssd>
roms/bbcb/<your_roms.zip>

When you boot the rom, you have to press a key when the RetroPie load screen comes up.
Now you can select an emulator.
Make sure you select one with the (-flop) option.

I you get a black screen and if it goes back to emulationstation you have to check your /dev/shm/runcommand.log with a texteditor.
Most likely that you can find the problem here.
Most common are the bios files not found.
If you see something like not found tried in, most likely you are missing bios files.

Option 2, with xmaster, should be far easier.
Make sure your roms files are in :

roms/bbcmicro/<your_roms.ssd>

What does your /dev/shm/runcommand.log say ?

MrNoHolster

@folly Thanks for the advice. When running in X-Master I get this error in the runcommand log:

Executing (via xinit): /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/bbcmicro/Elixir.ssd

libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to authenticate
ERROR(/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/b-em-pico-pi/b-em-pico/src/pico/x_gui/x_gui.cpp:663) : failed to create texture
/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh: line 4: 4922 Aborted /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb -disc "$1"
xinit: connection to X server lost

My BIOS files are /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/bbc_acorn8271.zip
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/bbcb.zip
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/saa5050.zip

My .ssd roms are located in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/bbcmicro/

Folly

@mrnoholster said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

@folly Thanks for the advice. When running in X-Master I get this error in the runcommand log:

Executing (via xinit): /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/bbcmicro/Elixir.ssd

libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to authenticate
ERROR(/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/b-em-pico-pi/b-em-pico/src/pico/x_gui/x_gui.cpp:663) : failed to create texture
/opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh: line 4: 4922 Aborted /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb -disc "$1"
xinit: connection to X server lost

In this whole post I only talk about xbeeb and xmaster that come from the b-em fork.
Just to make sure we don't mix up things, othewise it will get too confusing.

I dug a bit into this.
It seems to be that your rpi doesn't support some things.
Which type of raspberry pi are you using?

It also looks like you have a bad compiled binary.

Sadly this is beyond my knowledge.
You could try to install again though, and see if it will work after a second install.
If this doesn't work for you it is sensible to remove it and accept that this version doesn't work for you.
Then it's better to focus only on lr-mess/mame

My BIOS files are /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/bbc_acorn8271.zip
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/bbcb.zip
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/saa5050.zip

My .ssd roms are located in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/bbcmicro/

For the b-em install there is no need to use bios rom files and the ,ssd roms are in the correct place.

Try again to install.

If it doesn't work we move to lr-mess/mame in a later post.

retrofan

Today, I also installed the b-em-pico emulator following your instructions , but I get exactly the same error message.
I tested on Pi 2 and P3 A+, with a fresh latest RetroPie image.
Has anyone successfully run the emulator on P2/3 models, I guess it's not Pi4 only, if it's already made for the Pico version as well.
Maybe someone has an idea, what does this error message really mean and what is the exact installation procedure if we missed something ?

Folly

@retrofan

I have never tested it on the rpi2/3.
But I think it should work.
Did you have a look at your RetroPie log after trying this ?
Unzip the latest/specific one from /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/logs .
Have a look in there and see what is going wrong.
Otherwise you can put it on pastebin.com and link to it in the post.
Don't know if I can fix this, but then I can have a look at the log.

Edit:
I did a quick test on my old RPI3 and I updated RetroPie-Setup.
My RPI3 is still on "stretch" so the b-em package would not compile because it requires a higher version of "cmake".
That said, you must at least run "buster" on your RPI2/3.

retrofan

@folly said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

@retrofan

I have never tested it on the rpi2/3.
But I think it should work.
Did you have a look at your RetroPie log after trying this ?
Unzip the latest/specific one from /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/logs .
Have a look in there and see what is going wrong.
Otherwise you can put it on pastebin.com and link to it in the post.
Don't know if I can fix this, but then I can have a look at the log.

Edit:
I did a quick test on my old RPI3 and I updated RetroPie-Setup.
My RPI3 is still on "stretch" so the b-em package would not compile because it requires a higher version of "cmake".
That said, you must at least run "buster" on your RPI2/3.

Thanks for the reply Folly,

Today I did the whole procedure again from scratch and new micro SD card.
The latest Retropie v4.7.1 with fully updated Raspbian Buster is installed.
Then I ran your script from here and successfully (no errors) installed b-em-pico from retropie_setup.
I got xbeeb (562,092 bytes), xbeeb.sh, xmaster (1,662,108 bytes) and xmaster.sh in the /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico folder, as well as the following content in emulators.cfg
xbeeb = "XINIT: /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xbeeb.sh ROM%"
default = "xbeeb"
xmaster = "XINIT: /opt/retropie/emulators/b-em-pico-pi/xmaster.sh ROM%"
When I start a game from emulationstation, the familiar BBC B startup sound is heard at the very beginning and the emulator window box is briefly displayed, then everything crashes and returns to the emulationstation menu.
In the log file from /dev/shm/runcommand.log, you can see the same error message that MrNoHolster described.
https://pastebin.com/FfKRkbVm
Both xbeeb and xmaster behave the same, on Pi2 and Pi3A +, which I used.
Here are all the relevant files, which may help solve this problem.
https://www3.zippyshare.com/v/riPCv8XI/file.html
I really wanted to try this emulator, especially the BBC Master model, and I hope that it will be possible to resolve this...

Folly

@retrofan

It looks like a problem with xinit, which cannot find the correct resolution.

If I have some time I will upgrade my pi3 and see what happens.

retrofan

@folly said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

@retrofan

It looks like a problem with xinit, which cannot find the correct resolution.

If I have some time I will upgrade my pi3 and see what happens.

Thanks Folly, really appreciate it.

Folly

@retrofan

Seems like I have some problem too.
The match-box isn't used if I boot it from the cli.
Normally I use the desktop environment, so I wasn't aware of this problem.

I tried my older "port" version.
That worked ok.

Can you try that for me ?
It can't open disk files, but it does contain some demo's and a game.

~~My advice is to de-install and remove the emulator version from your RetroPie-Setup to avoid conflicts.~~(edit:seems not nessesary !, both can work alongside each other)

Get the port version with :

wget -nv -O /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/ports/b-em-pico_pi.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/ports/b-em-pico_pi.sh

Then install it in the RetroPie-Setup.

Let me know how it goes.

I emulationstation you have to go to ports !