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

[bbilford83]

@Folly I think it worked great! At least it seemed like after I updated they downloaded properly and in the right place. Regarding the help lines, I guess the only thing I might add is "Can still remap in MAME menu," though probably everyone who is using this script would know that. I am wondering now if maybe I should've also given you my default.opt file where all it does is map the mame menu to the left analog stick if you wanted to include that too. That way people (like me) who usually don't have a keyboard out could do all the remapping without ever needing one. If you'd like I can add it to the google drive - not a big deal either way.

Glad to have contributed!

[Folly]

@bbilford83

I discovered that we probably need to change the directory structure of your files on your google drive with the konamih and tigerh cfg files.
I want to be able to use only 1 command to download them all (now I use 2).
If, in the future we want to add something then I don't have to add more commands, it would work with the same command and then it's possible to add more in the future without much effort.
Can you make a test-structure like this :
<category>/lr-mess/*.cfg

default.opt "Can still remap in MAME menu"

I can look into that one too.
Just place the file on your drive, somewhere separate from the other opt files.

[Folly]

https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/7136398c4b4e78e60dacc7a72dbcb25ff39180d9

[bbilford83]

@Folly No problem, I just moved them both into the file structure you requested. I added the default.cfg file to the root folder on its own. But if you like the idea of using it, we could just move it into both of the same folders as the button mapping and it will work to change the mame menu toggle to the left analog stick button if you set it up to download with others in the script.

I am sorry I didn't use any of the other handheld systems btw - it would probably be better if it was for all-in-one/jak's/classic too.

[Folly]

@bbilford83 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

@Folly No problem, I just moved them both into the file structure you requested.
I added the default.cfg file to the root folder on its own.
But if you like the idea of using it, we could just move it into both of the same folders as the button mapping and it will work to change the mame menu toggle to the left analog stick button if you set it up to download with others in the script.

I am sorry I didn't use any of the other handheld systems btw - it would probably be better if it was for all-in-one/jak's/classic too.

I just tested and it basically it works great, however since the default.cfg is in the root it will copy it to in /opt/retropie/configs now.
So it is probably better to add the whole directory structure like /opt/retropie/configs and put konamih and tigerh inside.
I think then it will be future proof and it would be possible to add all-in-one/jak's/classic in a later stage too and we could use it for much more files if we discover something.
For nowcan you place the default.cfg in a directory /share so I can look at it without being copied.
Good idea ?

PS
For everyone who wants to use the option :
Download lr-mess configs for better button mapping (+/-1 min.)
Beware it doesn't work correctly right now !
(WIP)

[bbilford83]

@Folly That all makes sense and I have changed the file structure as you requested.

[Folly]

@bbilford83

It has been updated :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/6cf576e38948306d494ee0b71d2aef16591edce1
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/fae77ff20b5f83d21a5c765545080bb4d7074888

[Folly]

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

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

@DTEAM

Here is some news about handheld vfd games :
https://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=97003&page=397

Looks like we need to update our roms in the next version.

Unfortunately, I lost my password and did not leave any information to recover it when creating the account. It was a google account that I opened on the fly.

To do that, I'll have to clone the data to a new account or go back to my notes and try to find that password.

Have you found your password again ?

I am a bit busy with making background overlays for the dual-screen gameandwatch handhelds.
I did gnw_bsweep and gnw_dkong2.
At first it did seem straight forward pasting both top and bottom in a new file.
To some degree that was the case with gnw_dkong2, sadly the others have been zoomed in the regular mame artwork so for these others this means quite some work.
Though, I found a way with gnw_bsweep and I am hoping I can use the same trick with the others.
If you have access again we can add them to the artwork files on google-drive.
I will place the artwork files with newly created Background.png files here :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YkISUXfKsdHvMv6HACwKhsVHBiGGHCjv

It took me quite some time to get the trick needed, so I figured to test the regular artwork of mame again for lr-mess, placing it in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/artwork.
To my surprise some of them worked now (I used 248 now).
I also tried kgradius but that did not work out of the box, making "Screen Focus" the default in the layout did work, so it looks it can be working in the future.
Sadly the frame-rate drops to 40% in kgradius and with gnw_sweep it drops to about 80% (both with frame-skipping 10).

So the conclusion, for now, is that it's not yet suitable for the pi4 as it is too slow to get good results.
So we still have to use "Background overlays" for lr-mess to get the frame-rate to 100% (with frame-skipping 10).

[DTEAM]

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

Have you found your password again ?

Unfortunately no, but I'll create a new account and and a new Google Drive to transfer all those files. I'll keep the actual structure, only the Google Drive link will change.

[Folly]

@DTEAM

Ok, a new one is good too.

[DTEAM]

@Folly
I received an answer from Google. I was able to reinitiate my password. I’m good to continue with my Google drive.

[Folly]

@DTEAM

You are a lucky man.
Nice that we don't have to change all the links in the script and the posts ;-)

I have done 6 handheld backgrounds now, hopefully I can do some more this week.
I also noticed a few missing artwork files like, gnw_pinball (which I added now).
So we should check for more if we can.

[DTEAM]

@Folly

Sure, give me a download link when you are ready and I'll put all those files on the Google drive. I'll be available to do that Wednesday.

[Folly]

@DTEAM

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YkISUXfKsdHvMv6HACwKhsVHBiGGHCjv

Progress :

[DTEAM]

This post is deleted!

[DTEAM]

@Folly
Done!

[Folly]

@duglor said in Creating ES gamelists with media for MAME/lr-mess:

@Folly @DTEAM @testudo Does the Mess-Archimedes work now with .adf (not the amiga type) files such as Hamsters? I have not been able to find a bios file or files that have made it run. :(

Yes, you can use commands to get all information from MAME as MESS is part of this and lr-mess/lr-mame are basically the same source but libretro-cores that run in RetroArch.
For more information on commands you can see here :
https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html

This is an example on how to get information about what media is supported by a default system :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listmedia aa310
SYSTEM           MEDIA NAME       (brief)    IMAGE FILE EXTENSIONS SUPPORTED
---------------- --------------------------- -------------------------------
aa310            floppydisk       (flop)     .mfi  .dfi  .hfe  .mfm  .td0  .imd  .d77  .d88  .1dd  .cqm  .cqi  .dsk  .ima  .img  .ufi  .360  .ipf  .adf  .apd  .jfd  .ads  .adm  .adl  .ssd  .bbc  .dsd  .st   .msa

The .adf format seems to be supported for the archimedes aa310.

Not sure how you run Archimedes but I assume you use this project or the older Valerino approach.
You can find bios roms in mame-merged. (do a google search)
For aa310 you should find aa310.zip and archimedes_keyboard.zip.
When using this project place it in :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame
When using the Valerino module-script, place it in :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS

This command will give the BIOS info of aa310 :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listroms aa310

Or you can find the information in the verbose log, when the are missing, in (after trying to run a game) :
/dev/shm/runcommand.log

[Folly]

@duglor

Try reading the first post and view the animated gif on how to install a particular system.

If you can't figure it out then we are here to help.

Such a help discussion is useful because if something is missing in post 1, for first users, the I can add some useful information.

[duglor]

@Folly Ok- will do--- meanwhile, are you aware of problem where if you load an overlay for the mess-vectrex emulator, it remains there for all further mess programs in different emulators and you have to keep removing the overlay no matter how many times you remove it and save the core file with no overlay in it.
the tmpmess core or whatever it may be called :) Every mess related game (no matter what system) loads up with the armor attack vector game background from Vectrex :p

[Folly]

@duglor

First make your own image, just like @mitu says :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/33443/what-file-tells-the-various-mames-to-use-their-artwork-cfg-files-with-their-matching-name-roms/4