Old Computer Appreciation Thread

Zering

@folly Save and load states have always worked,but using hard-core mode with Retroachievements disables load states. This means that without disk saves on lr-bluemsx we're having to rely on passwords. This is what I wanted to look into.

Folly

@zering

Ok, I didn't know that.
Too bad, this isn't a solution after-all.

Well, I keep it in mind.
Perhaps there is somehow a solution.

Btw.
Isn't there something to find on the Retroachievements webside ?

testudo

So glad I found this thread and the reference to using valerino's script to get both FM Towns and Apple 2gs Mame/Mess emulations working.

I have been using both .chd and .cue/.bin files for the FM Towns and have come across a few games that do not fully load. Best I can tell is that those game require 3MB of RAM - Mahou Daisakusen (Hash file specifically states it needs 3MB) & Super Street Fighter II are some examples. Is there any config file or lr-Mess setting that lets you adjust the RAM on the FM Towns emulation?

Folly

@testudo

If you used Valerino's module-script then the extra ram should already be there as it has the option "-ram 96M"
You can check in /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/emulators.cfg if extra ram is added.

Can you let me know if it's there ?

testudo

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@testudo

I you used Valerino's module-script then the extra ram should already be there as it has the option "-ram 96M"
You can check in /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/emulators.cfg if extra ram is added.

Can you let me know if it's there ?

It appears to be:
@Folly
lr-mess-fmtowns = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg fmtowns /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS -ram 96M -cdrm %ROM%"
default = "lr-mess-fmtowns"

Here is the boot screen showing the RAM:
Screenshot from 2021-08-13 17-12-23.png

Folly

@testudo

I just found the solution, by accident, running mame with "-ram 96M" .
It seems 96M is a typo !
Output was :
Cannot recognize the RAM option 96M (valid options are 2M,1M,3M,4M,5M,6M).
Setting value to default 2M

Running mame with an added 6M worked, with :
/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame fmtowns -ram 6M

Can you edit your line and test it.
It would be great if now more games would work now with this edit.

In time I will add fmtowns with added ram in my project in the special systems list.
Have a look in the next link and you will be amazed :-)
It supports both lr-mess and mame :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-and-mame-standalone

You can use this project as a replacement of Valerino's lr-mess module-scripts.

testudo

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@testudo

I just found the solution, by accident, running mame with "-ram 96M" .
It seems 96M is a typo !
Output was :
Cannot recognize the RAM option 96M (valid options are 2M,1M,3M,4M,5M,6M).
Setting value to default 2M

Running mame with an added 6M worked, with :
/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame fmtowns -ram 6M

Can you edit your line and test it.
It would be great if now more games would work now with this edit.

In time I will add fmtowns with added ram in my project in the special systems list.
Have a look in the next link and you will be amazed :-)
It supports both lr-mess and mame :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-and-mame-standalone

You can use this project as a replacement of Valerino's lr-mess module-scripts.

@Folly

Sweet! Modified the emulator config file to 6M and now I can load and play Super Street Fighter II and Mahou Daisakusen. Thank you so much for that find.

I will take a look at the new project. I have been using Retropie/Emulation Station for so long now, that I'm afraid I have forgotten how to use standalone MAME...

Now, is there anyway to add a hard drive as the default setup? I am trying to play Cyberia and from the set-up YouTube videos I found, it looks like I need to add/create a user disk to a hard drive or something.

Folly

@testudo

I have a look if a harddrive setup is possible.

Mame support in my script works about the same as lr-mess.

Folly

@testudo

I had a deeper look into the fmtowns drivers.
These drivers do not support a hard-drive as media directly :

Driver fmtowns (FM-Towns (Model 1 / 2)):
Driver fmtownsv03 (FM-Towns (unknown, V03 L01 00 91/07/09)):

(so you can't add a hard-drive to the fmtowns system you are using now !, but perhaps there is an option to add a hard-drive as slotdevice)

These drivers do support a hard-drive as media :

Driver fmtownsftv (FM-Towns II FreshTV):
Driver fmtownshr (FM-Towns II HR):
Driver fmtownsmx (FM-Towns II MX):
Driver fmtownssj (FM-Towns II SJ):
Driver fmtownsux (FM-Towns II UX):

So if you want to use a harddrive we have to choose and test 1 or more FM-Towns II models.
(I tested the sj version but it's too slow!)

Folly

@AdamBeGood

Reply on your old posts about Alltynex and Mad Stalker.

With the added "-ram 6M" for fmtowns (works good with mame):

Alltynex is working now
Mad Stalker can be loaded now, but it freezes when you want to play
(Can you test your version again of Mad Stalker ?)

Pictures of Alltynex (works also in lr-mess, but has some slowdowns on start):

Pictures of Mad Stalker (it freezes on the second picture) :

Folly

@testudo

I did a test, and indeed, we can add a harddrive as slotdevice.
For adding 1 harddrive the mame command looks like this :

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame fmtowns -ram 6M -scsislot fmt121 -hard1 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/fmtowns/HDD.hd

I checked what extensions are supported on the fmtownssj,
because we don't get an output with fmtowns, as it has not haddrive option in -listmedia.

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listmedia fmtownssj

So next extensions of fmtownssj will probably work on fmtowns too :
.chd .hd .hdv .2mg .hdi

So you can test with making a new line in emulators.cfg for lr-mess adding this part :
-ram 6M -scsislot fmt121 -hard1 %ROM%
(running a harddrive from emulationstation directly)
(if you want to use this, don't forget to add the extensions to the es_systems.cfg)
And if you want to add a cdrom as-swell you should make it like :
-ram 6M -scsislot fmt121 -hard1 <your_harddrive_file> -cdrm %ROM%
(running a fixed harddrive_file and running a cdrom from emulationstation)

I tried 1 hd img, I could see that it was inserted but, on my end, it did not load yet.
Let me know if you have some luck with this.

Folly

@hallieb

Nice ;-)

Seems this thread is beginning to revive again.

With which computers did you grow up ?

AdamBeGood

@folly Hello! I'm sorry I haven't been around. I'll have to read up again on how to update my Pi to test the new extension for Mad Stalker. How is it going anyway? I'm sorry for not being around. Work has been very busy and I haven't played a lot.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Hello! I'm sorry I haven't been around. I'll have to read up again on how to update my Pi to test the new extension for Mad Stalker. How is it going anyway? I'm sorry for not being around. Work has been very busy and I haven't played a lot.

No problem, I understand that people are busy.
I don't have that much time either at the moment.
But I take a peek every once in a while over here.

Forums are quite silent at the moment.
Perhaps the forums will begin to flourish again in autumn or in winter, who knows.

For me, my script is now "finished" and considered stable.
Perhaps I will add things in the future, but I don't have ideas right now.

If you install the front-end you will be able to install fmtowns with the extra 6mb ram from the "special systems" selection.
Or you can just add it manually if you want.

Good luck, if you are planning to try it out again ;-)

testudo

@folly

Rocking FM Towns thanks to your help. Have you tested the Acorn Archimedes yet? I added via the script, but so far only get a an "initializing" screen that is frozen.

Folly

@testudo said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly

Rocking FM Towns thanks to your help.

Did you also use the hard-drive stuff and did it work ?

Have you tested the Acorn Archimedes yet? I added via the script, but so far only get a an "initializing" screen that is frozen.

I just booted the Archimedes aa310 with RISC-OS_310 running lemmings.
It was a successful boot for the first time.

Have a look :

Often "initializing" means that you have missing bios files.
Make sure you have :
aa310.7z
archimedes_keyboard.7z

You have to check the /dev/runcommand.log for bios errors and add the correct bios files in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame.

I installed this system with my script, but you have to add -bios 310 in the runcommand line in /opt/retropie/configs/aa310/emulators.cfg.
Later I will add it to the "special systems" in my script.

I also tried -bios 319, but it didn't work as expected.

Let me know if you get it working.

testudo

@folly

Cheers! I had each BIOS as a separate .zip file and did not have the keyboard rom. Corrected those issues and think I added the -bios310 line correctly, maybe not? Now Making some progress. I can get to the OS boot screen and desktop, but neither the mouse or keyboard input functions.

Screenshot from 2021-08-30 16-49-58.png

Screenshot from 2021-08-30 16-50-01.png

Here are my config files. Any insight on what I have setup incorrectly?

aa310.cfg

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped -->
<mameconfig version="10">
    <system name="aa310">
        <input>
            <keyboard tag=":keyboard" enabled="1" />
        </input>
        <image_directories>
            <device instance="floppydisk" directory="/home/testudo/RetroPie/roms/archimedes/" />
        </image_directories>
    </system>
</mameconfig>t

emulators.cfg

lr-mess-archimedes-A305 = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/archimedes/retroarch.cfg aa305 /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS -bios 305 -flop %ROM%"

lr-mess-archimedes-A310 = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/archimedes/retroarch.cfg aa310 /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS -bios 310 -flop %ROM%"
default = "lr-mess-archimedes-A310"

Did not get the hard drive added to the FM Towns yet. My emulator.cfg is now populated with a lot more entries!!! I am not sure where the added line needs to go. Here's code in the event you can direct me to the correct location:
Finally figured out the FM Towns instructions and can load hard drive images. Got Lemmings 2 and Mad Paradox english translation versions to run!

I imagine adding a Floppy is similar? I tried adding -flop1 and -fdc:0 -flop1 to the emulator.cfg to boot from .hdm files, but errored out after the BIOS boot screen.

Also, is there a way to add a hard drive to the OS when loading a ROM? Cyberia needs to install on a HD and on the how to videos I have seen, there is a hard drive icon on the desktop used as part of the install/loading process.

lr-mess-basename = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch --config /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg -v -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so %BASENAME%"
lr-mess-cmd = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch --config /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg -v -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so %ROM%"
lr-mess-fmtowns = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg fmtowns /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
lr-mess-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-cdrm = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg \fmtowns /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS/mame -autoframeskip -ui_active -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
lr-mess-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-game-specific-cdrm = "/home/testudo/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/retroarch.cfg \fmtowns /home/testudo/RetroPie/BIOS/mame -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/lr-mess/%BASENAME% -autoframeskip -ui_active -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
mame-basename-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c -autoframeskip fmtowns %BASENAME%"
mame-basename = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c fmtowns %BASENAME%"
mame-cmd-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -rompath /home/testudo/RetroPie/roms/fmtowns -v -c -autoframeskip %BASENAME%"
mame-cmd = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -rompath /home/testudo/RetroPie/roms/fmtowns -v -c %BASENAME%"
mame-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-cdrm-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c -autoframeskip -ui_active fmtowns -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
mame-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-cdrm = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -v -c -ui_active fmtowns -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
mame-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-game-specific-cdrm-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/mame/%BASENAME% -v -c -autoframeskip -ui_active fmtowns -ram 6M -cdrm %ROM%"
mame-system-fmtowns_-ram_6M-game-specific-cdrm = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/fmtowns/mame/%BASENAME% -v -c -ui_active fmtowns -ram 6M -scsislot fmt121 -hard1 -cdrm %ROM%"
default = "lr-mess-fmtowns"

Screenshot from 2021-08-30 21-12-00.png

Folly

@testudo

Later we look at "fmtowns".

Let us focus first on Archimendes.

I think you installed the Archimedes 305 and 310 with Valerino's module-script.
Unfortunately this module-script lack's adding mouse support to the system specific core config file.
I think, in the time it was created, they added mouse support manually later on.

I have just updated my script with the Archimedes 305 and 310 and they are using the rom directory aa305 and aa310.
(you have to update the script though !)
I have placed them under the "special systems".
You should use the 310 as it is basically the same as the 305, but it has twice as much memory.
My script should add mouse support for lr-mess.
If not, then we have to look at it.
Mame does mouse support oob.

Install the systems and let me know if it works for you.

testudo

@folly

Progress! I didn't realize the set-up script created a new system/folder "aa310". I kept looking in the "Archimedes" folder that was created using the prior script after updating and saw no changes. Also, had to update the es_systems.config and directed the runcommand from archimedes to aa310 instead of creating a new aa310 system.

<system>
    <name>archimedes</name>
    <fullname>Acorn Archimedes</fullname>
    <path>/home/testudo/RetroPie/roms/archimedes</path>
    <extension>.zip .adf .ZIP .ADF</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ aa310 %ROM%</command>
    <platform>archimedes</platform>
    <theme>archimedes</theme>
  </system>

I can now use mouse and keyboard and actually get games to load. Was able to play Alerion using the native keyboard controls.

One issue encountered so far:

A good sample size of games require more than the default memory.

Screenshot from 2021-08-31 17-17-25.png

Default emulator selected is lr-Mess

mame-system-aa310_-bios_310-game-specific-flop = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/aa310/mame/%BASENAME% -v -c -ui_active aa310 -bios 310 -flop %ROM%"
default = "lr-mess-system-aa310_-bios_310-flop"

Folly

@testudo

Progress indeed !

Too little ram, I saw that issue too with a game.

Perhaps we can just add some ram with something like-ram 4M, but we have to test.

There are more Archimedes systems, for example the A5000 has more ram by default.
Perhaps that's a solution too.

Edit :
aa305 and aa310 don't support -ram 4M

Not a good alternative :
I tested aa5000 and this system should be ok with setting -bios 310 -ram 4M but the emulation is slower than the aa310 because of the higher cpu clock.

a good alternative :
I tested aa440 and aa4401, these systems should be ok with -bios 310 -ram 4Mand emulation is at the same speed as the aa310 because it has the same cpu clock.