Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?

[joepauljig]

Hi all,

I have read several guides and posts and have realized how troublesome Atari 5200 roms can be to play. I have spent several frustrating hours trying different things and thankfully today I have successfully loaded and played a 5200 game on my retropie. However, I can't seem to figure out how to get the configuration to save so that the next time I launch the game from emulation station that it boots correctly. I'm still having to go through the manual process to open the emulator screen and manually extract and create the new cart type each time to play the game. Is there a way to save these configs going forward so that doesn't have to be done each time?

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2
Power Supply used: CanaKit 2.5A USB Power Supply
RetroPie Version Used: 4.7.1
Built From: retropie-buster-4.7.1-rpi2_3.img
USB Devices connected: 2 wireless controllers and 1 wireless keyboard
Controller used: SAFFUN SNES Retro USB PC Super Classic 2.4 GHz Wireless USB Controller
Error messages received:

pi@retropie:/dev/shm $ tail -100 runcommand.log 
Parameters: 
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-atari800/atari800_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari5200/Frogger (1983) (Parker Bros).a52" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
[libretro-atari800]: Got size: 336 x 240.
[libretro-atari800]: Got size: 336 x 240.
[libretro-atari800]: Got size: 336 x 240.
[libretro-atari800]: Got size: 336 x 240.
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: line 1263:  1898 Segmentation fault      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-atari800/atari800_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari5200/Frogger (1983) (Parker Bros).a52" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Atari-800-and-5200/
File: (File with issue - with FULL path): I'm not sure which file I'm having issues with.
Emulator: lr-atari800
Attachment of config files: Not sure which files are needed but can provide if requested.
How to replicate the problem:

1. Open Atari 5200 game section in emulation station
2. Select Game
3. Without updating cart type, screen goes black and returns to emulation station atari 5200 games list.
   4 After updating cart type, can manually load game from emulation menu.
4. After saving emulation config from the emulation menu, exit the emulator.
5. Re-launch game again from emulation station atari 5200 games list
6. Game doesn't load, goes to black screen and then back to games list.

Thank you for your help.

[mitu]

AFAIK the emulated Atari model is a core option, which is not saved in the emulator's configuration file. The core options are saved automatically when exiting the emulator.

[joepauljig]

@mitu ,

That was my understanding too but for some reason every time I reload a game that I had "thought" I'd saved a cartridge confifg for, it doesn't load. The only success I have is when I go through the cart selection process all over again and manually load the game from the emulator menu screen.

Thanks

[dankcushions]

@joepauljig said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

@mitu ,

That was my understanding too but for some reason every time I reload a game that I had "thought" I'd saved a cartridge confifg for, it doesn't load. The only success I have is when I go through the cart selection process all over again and manually load the game from the emulator menu screen.

please show the verbose log as per https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first, for a failed one (above log is not verbose) where you think it should have loaded the setting.

[joepauljig]

@dankcushions said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Here's the verbose log:

https://pastebin.com/wUM2aZir

Thanks

[JimmyFromTheBay]

@joepauljig This works: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16556/cartridge-type-code-list-for-atari-5200-games

[joepauljig]

Thanks @jimmyfromthebay,

I did use this list to get the games to load but the changes don't seem to hold.

The next time I try to load a game from emulation station that I've performed this procedure on, it doesn't load and I have to go through all the steps again.

I was hoping that the system would remember the cartridge type and just load directly from emulation station but that doesn't seem to be my experience.

Thanks

[mitu]

@joepauljig said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

Here's the verbose log:

The log doesn't show much - it would have been interesting to see if the core options are saved after you change the model.

Can you also post the atari800 options from /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg ? Run, from the command line

grep atari800 /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg

and post the output.

[joepauljig]

@mitu said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

grep atari800 /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg

Thanks @mitu,

Here's the output of that config file:

pi@retropie:~ $ grep atari800 /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg
atari800_artifacting = "disabled"
atari800_cassboot = "disabled"
atari800_internalbasic = "disabled"
atari800_keyboard = "poll"
atari800_ntscpal = "NTSC"
atari800_opt1 = "disabled"
atari800_opt2 = "disabled"
atari800_resolution = "336x240"
atari800_sioaccel = "disabled"
atari800_system = "5200"
pi@retropie:~ $ 

[mitu]

@joepauljig said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

atari800_system = "5200"

This looks ok. I have the same options - saved as a content-dir options - and the games boot fine.

EDIT: just to make sure, can you update your RetroPie script and included packages (see here) and retry ?

[JimmyFromTheBay]

@joepauljig said in Can 5200 cartridge types be saved for future reference?:

Thanks @jimmyfromthebay,

I did use this list to get the games to load but the changes don't seem to hold.

The next time I try to load a game from emulation station that I've performed this procedure on, it doesn't load and I have to go through all the steps again.

Are you sure you SAVED the patched version rather than just temporarily patching it? Try saving it under a different name and compare the patched version with the original one.

[joepauljig]

Thanks @mitu,

I did run the updates and then rebooted my system. The game I was testing loaded correctly the first time. However, I backed out to emulation station and tried it again and it crashed and went back to the games list like it was before.

I tried it a few more times with the same results so I rebooted the system again to see if that had anything to do with it but it's still not loading.

I appreciate your help. I'm just not sure on this one.

Thanks

[joepauljig]

@jimmyfromthebay,

I tried your suggestion and created the cart with a different name but I'm still getting the same results when I load the renamed game file.

Thanks

[JimmyFromTheBay]

@joepauljig And are the two files different? Exact same filesize down to the number of bytes?

[joepauljig]

@jimmyfromthebay ,

They are different sizes:

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/roms/atari5200 $ ls -lhart *Dig*
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 16K Jul 13 21:52 'Dig Dug (1983) (Atari).a52'
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 17K Jul 13 21:53 'Dig Dug c (1983) (Atari).a52'