Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone

Folly

I read your thread and tried some things but indeed it's not directly within reach to get a proper solution.

For just lr-mame I tried cropping the background and pulling it into perspective with gimp, but then you crop the text from the picture.
Then basically you have to redo the background image and that's quite difficult.

I tried videopin in lr-mess, but could not get it to run.
For this project I want to know if it can be loaded with lr-mess.
Have you tried running the rom in lr-mess ?

Meanwhile I had the artwork for videopin and that worked with mame standalone.
That's why I wanted to add it.
Now it is there, perhaps we won't forget, and later we can try some things again.

This is a combined screenshot of service and normal mode, and if used as a background overlay, you will see that it will be in line with the game. (just test)
So you can use this in gimp an try to make a good overlay that matches this picture.
(Now it could be as easy as just adding a handmade background picture in our artwork zip file and then our script could automatically create the overlay config files.)

JimmyFromTheBay

@folly I've just got it working nicely with the old ugly backdrop. The prettier new backdrop doesn't line up with the old one AT ALL so no luck with that yet. Will post the PNG and settings tomorrow when I'm at the right machine.

JimmyFromTheBay

@jimmyfromthebay Okay, here's the backdrop that works (it looks better onscreen than it does here):

Run it with these settings in your CFG file and all the lights will be in something very acceptably close to the right place:

aspect_ratio_index = "23"

input_overlay_scale = 1.190000

custom_viewport_x = "596"
custom_viewport_y = "0"
custom_viewport_width = "792"
custom_viewport_height = "1084"

This is the prettier backdrop but as you can see it doesn't line up the same as the other one and I'm having a lot of trouble making it fit.

Folly

@jimmyfromthebay

Have you sent the originals, not resized or something like that ?

I tried to push the nice one into perspective but I can't get it to work.
I have to use some other tool.

Here is what it looks like when I place the nice one over the old one.
There is so much difference as you can see in the next picture.

jamrom2

@folly Hi. Not sure you're the one to ask, but I'm trying to get lr-mess-dragon32-cass (and any other version) to work. I have the d32.rom and ddos10.rom (zipped and unzipped) placed in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS per the docs (https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Dragon/). But I keep getting errors in my runcommand.log file that says they are missing.

07NOT FOUND (tried in dragon32)
ddos10.rom NOT FOUND (tried in dragon_fdc dragon32)

[libretro ERROR] d32.rom NOT FOUND (tried in dragon32)
ddos10.rom NOT FOUND (tried in dragon_fdc dragon32)
[INFO] [Environ]: SET_MESSAGE: `¦b07ror: Required files are missing, the machine cannot be run.

[libretro ERROR] Fatal error: Required files are missing, the machine cannot be run.

Do I have them in the right location for the lr-version? Where is dragon_fdc? The docs are really for Xroar which works fine with what I have.

Thank you!

Folly

@jamrom2

Did you use the valerino module-script ?

Edit :
Looked at the name of the valerino's script again it lacks cass.
So you are using an older generated module-script of my script generator.
Then I think you have to put your BIOS file in :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame
I changed it long ago into this so that both mame and lr-mess can use the same bios files.
Second advantage is that the are now seperated from the root BIOS directory.
So you should try that directory.

I checked my emulators.cfg lines and I have dragon32 running with external ram because otherwise some games did't work.
You can install this from the front-end from the special systems with slotdevices.

jamrom2

@folly yes, but I've since switched back over to the correct RetroPie repository. I had issues with updating because his script left me on 4.7.11.

I have a bunch of other emus from the Mess build running without issue. If that matters.

Folly

@jamrom2

Strange, I have updated my post, have a look at that first.
Can you try the other BIOS directory first ?

Check your runcommand.log and look at line 19 containing -rp, after the -rp you will have the path where the bios has to be in.

jamrom2

@folly \t_biosdir: /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS

In line 19 after the -rp the directory is the same as above. Maybe it's my BIOS files? I've pulled a few different one. The ones I have seem to work without issue on Xroar.

here's my runcommand.log I tried two more d32.rom files. still the same.

https://pastebin.com/hvtTZJ0k

Folly

@jamrom2

I will have a look at your log later.

My working bios sha1sums are :
pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/dragon32 $ sha1sum *

f2dab125673e653995a83bf6b793e3390ec7f65a  d32.rom
a8918c71d319237c1e3155bb38620acb114a80bc  ddos10.rom
27a2a6bf5c98fb69e174b927f240973033881826  dragon32.zip
77bb4c81d1078d7bd0b2378bbf831c007e2252ff  dragon_fdc.zip

isidoro80

hi i have installed your script but i have problems. i want to install apfm1000 games. Your script created the folder opt / config / apfm1000 then I put the bios in home / pi / RetroPie / BIOS / mame; I put the zip files of the roms in / home / pi / RetroPie / roms / apfm1000. I tried all the various runcommand launch systems: lr-mess cmd; lr-mess; mame-cmd; etc ... if I try to start a retroarch rom it crashes and I have to force it to close. in the runcommand log file it says WARN ... driver not found .... what is the problem?
i have already installed lr-mess manually before trying your script to play arcadia games. arcadia games work very well. i dont understand why apfm1000 games don't work. the roms are correct.

Folly

@isidoro80

Nice to hear that arcadia works oob for you.

I am not able to test your desired system at the moment.
When I am in the right place I will test it for you.
(over 11 hours, or so)

jamrom2

@folly got it working... your BIOS file list there helped. From there I did a little more searching to find what I needed which was the answer. I needed to create two more .zip files with the names dragon32.zip and dragon_fdc.zip with the files in it listed like this...

dragon32.zip -- contains d32.rom, and ddos10.rom
dragon64.zip -- contains d64_1.rom , d64_2.rom , and ddos10.rom
dragon_fdc.zip -- contains ddos10.rom

This little list might need to be added to docs at some point. I know a lot of these Emus are very finicky as to what they need for BIOS files and how they need to be named.

I created the dragon32.zip file with what is listed above and it boots to a DragonDOS prompt. But no games run.

so... how do the games play? I have a ton of CAS based files. All that happens it the emulator goes to DOS.

Thanks for the help!

JamR

JimmyFromTheBay

@jamrom2

I created the dragon32.zip file with what is listed above and it boots to a DragonDOS prompt. But no games run.

so... how do the games play? I have a ton of CAS based files. All that happens it the emulator goes to DOS.

Thanks for the help!

With a .CAS file you need to load it. Most games will be in machine code so you need to type CLOADM. If you get an "FM ERROR" it was in BASIC, so you'd type CLOAD instead.

Most will autorun on loading, but if they don't you need to type EXEC for machine-code games or RUN for BASIC ones.

HOWEVER, if you're working from a Dragon DOS prompt you may find that games appear to have loaded but then don't run properly. That's because lots and lots of them really don't like the DDOS BIOS. The solution is to edit your EMULATORS.CFG to include this line:

lr-mess-system-dragon32-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/dragon32/retroarch.cfg \dragon32 /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame -autoframeskip -ui_active -ext ram -cass %ROM%"

and run it from that. That should boot from the standard Dragon OS, not the disk one, and your games should work.

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@folly got it working... your BIOS file list there helped.

Nice !

I created the dragon32.zip file with what is listed above and it boots to a DragonDOS prompt. But no games run.

so... how do the games play? I have a ton of CAS based files. All that happens it the emulator goes to DOS.

With mame and lr-mess you have to know how the computer works.
There isn't an autoboot by default. (although there are options that can be added into the commandline)
Read post one from this thread and look at @dmmarti 's google sheet, there you should find how to load the cas files.
And there are other posts on the forum on how to do it.
If you can't work it out then let me know, then I will look for it.
EDIT: Jimmy has already made a post for you.
Remember that the emulators.cfg line he proposes uses the BIOS/mame directory.
And... , as said earlier, you can just install that line from the front-end.
That way you have all emulators.cfg line including the mame and the lr-mess game-specific ones ;-)

I think mine is booting into basic and from there I insert the commands.
Sometimes you have to use the scroll-lock button to go into game-focus-mode.
Otherwise the keys will act as hotkeys.

Thanks for the help!

JamR

Your welcome.
Please upvote post 1, if you think this is a good project ;-)

JimmyFromTheBay

@folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@jimmyfromthebay

Have you sent the originals, not resized or something like that ?

I got both of them from the artwork files on Mr Do's page.

Folly

@isidoro80

I just tested apfm1000 for you.
For me it was the first time and it worked out the box with both lr-mess and mame.
I didn't even need a game.
I just created a dummy file rocketp.zip as a game file and it booted a rocket game by default.
So it should work.
Maybe you have wrong bios files.
I use this one :
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame $ sha1sum apfm*
87fd4de8f8b3d2dbb65eb0d89f43e02a0543d743 apfm1000.zip
But looking at the mame log it seems I have a wrong bios file.
I wants this one within the zip :
apf_4000.rom SHA1(1110a234bcad99bd0894ad44c591389d16376ca4)

Folly

@jimmyfromthebay said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@jimmyfromthebay

Have you sent the originals, not resized or something like that ?

I got both of them from the artwork files on Mr Do's page.

Thanks,

I have tried with the warp transformation with better results.
But I tried lr-mame2003 and after testing my leds are gone, no idea why.
I will try something different, if I have the time.

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

This little list might need to be added to docs at some point. I know a lot of these Emus are very finicky as to what they need for BIOS files and how they need to be named.

Basically, when you download the correct mame bios files the are already named that way.
And... the runcommand.log will give you the "names" of the zip files it's looking for.
You can also use the command mame to list which bios files it needs with, for example :

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listroms dragon32
ROMs required for driver "dragon32".
Name                                   Size Checksum
d32.rom                               16384 CRC(e3879310) SHA1(f2dab125673e653995a83bf6b793e3390ec7f65a)
ddos10.rom                             8192 CRC(b44536f6) SHA1(a8918c71d319237c1e3155bb38620acb114a80bc)

isidoro80

@folly i have only apfm1000.zip. i use rom.zip it's wrong?