MESS Version?

fdr4prez · 31 Mar 2023, 16:35

@Folly

perfect, thanks.

When i get done with my $dayjob$ for the day, then I will do some testing this evening.

fdr4prez · 1 Apr 2023, 07:08

@Folly

good news.

It all appears to be working.

I chose #16 in the list: "mame-channelf-cart"

Everything we've thrown at it has worked.

And I have wired the original controllers to the GPIO header and used GPIOnext to control them, and that is all working great, too.

I just need to remap the game reset from F3 to the backquote key and we'll be good to go.

Thanks for the hard work on this package. Maybe one day I'll make use of more if it...

Folly · 1 Apr 2023, 07:08

@fdr4prez

Perfect.

Have you also found the retroscraper function ?
You can create a gamelist with media for the channelf games.

Btw :
Interesting that gpionext.
Perhaps I can use that too.
Do you know if "active high" works with gpionext ?

Folly · 1 Apr 2023, 07:49

@fdr4prez

I added descriptions of the runcommands in my first post after the DEMO.
Can you have a look at that ?
Want to know if it's understandable for a beginner.

Folly · 1 Apr 2023, 07:50

This post is deleted!

fdr4prez · 1 Apr 2023, 18:21

@Folly said in MESS Version?:

Have you also found the retroscraper function ?
You can create a gamelist with media for the channelf games.

Thanks. Even on my personal build, just showing the box art, or the cart, is sufficient. So I've never scraped before since the number of systems I play are small enough to manage this. I keep a copy of the roms folder, images folder, and the gameslist.xml files, so if I ever need to rebuild from a fresh retropie install, then it is as simple as copy/paste to the card and I am done.

Btw :
Interesting that gpionext.
Perhaps I can use that too.
Do you know if "active high" works with gpionext ?

There is an optional command to "pulldown", so it sounds like they are pulling up by default.

I didn't need to change anything.

fdr4prez · 4 Feb 2023, 00:08

@Folly said in MESS Version?:

I added descriptions of the runcommands in my first post after the DEMO.
Can you have a look at that ?
Want to know if it's understandable for a beginner.

Thanks.

As a beginner, it would be interesting to know what some of the details of the differences are.

Meaning, I see this in the emulators.cfg file (ignoring the lr-fbneo-chf):

lr-mess-channelf-basename-autoframeskip = "removed"
lr-mess-channelf-basename-frameskip_10 = "removed"
lr-mess-channelf-basename = "removed'"
lr-mess-channelf-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
lr-mess-channelf-cart = "removed"
lr-mess-channelf-game-specific-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
lr-mess-channelf-game-specific-cart = "removed"
lr-mess-cmd = "removed"
lr-run_mess-channelf-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
lr-run_mess-channelf-game-specific-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
mame-channelf-basename-autoframeskip = "removed"
mame-channelf-basename-frameskip_10 = "removed"
mame-channelf-basename = "removed"
mame-channelf-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
mame-channelf-cart = "removed"
mame-channelf-game-specific-cart-autoframeskip = "removed"
mame-channelf-game-specific-cart = "removed"
default = "mame-channelf-cart"

You've explained the "CMD" one, and the "game-specific-cart" sounds self-explanitory, but what the difference between using "basename" and "cart"? What is difference between the "autoframeskip" and the "frameskip_10"?

I know that they are for more advanced things and more likely needed for other systems, so not necessarily needed for Channel F.

Just knowing, for a noob, that you simply should select between these:
lr-mess-channelf-basename
lr-mess-channelf-cart
mame-channelf-basename
mame-channelf-cart

If you want to use one as the default, is there a difference between using "basename" and "cart"?

I've tested using mame-channelf-cart as the default and everything worked, so I will test using the mame-channelf-basename to see if everything still works.

For a default setting, is one more advantageous than the other?

Folly · 2 Apr 2023, 18:48

@fdr4prez

Thanks for the information.

fdr4prez · 4 Apr 2023, 07:53

@Folly

By chance, is there anyway I can get this installed on my Pi0W?

it won't let me install it.. says mame isn't allowed.

Folly · 4 Apr 2023, 17:16

@fdr4prez

From what I can see in the mame module-script the "arm6" cpu isn't supported.
It is probably removed because the pi1/pi0 isn't powerful enough.
So if RetroPie doesn't support mame for pi1/pi0 then there will be no binary to install.

Strange thing is that lr-mess seems to be supported though.
So you can see if you can install the lr-mess binary and hopefully it will run with the correct speed.
However my add-mamedev-systems.sh module-script will not work without "mame standalone" as it uses this to extract data from it,
to generate a module-script,
for the selected system,
somebody wants to install.

You can however try to use the generated module-script from your pi4 and copy that one to your pi0.
Then you can install that one from the exp packages.
Of-course the "mame standalone" runcommand will not work.

Try to search for this file on your pi4 :
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/libretrocores/install-channelf-from-mamedev-system-channelf-cart.sh
Copy it to your pi0 and install it.

There is a possibility to install mame with apt in the CLI.
However, if possible, it will be an old version and the config structure isn't the same as with RetroPie.
So I would not recommend it directly.

I suggest you try lr-mess first.

Another solution could be to install lr-freechaf or lr-fbneo :

lr-freechaf will probably be best choice for the pi0.

fdr4prez · 4 Apr 2023, 21:54

@Folly said in MESS Version?:

lr-freechaf will probably be best choice for the pi0.

For sure this does not work with the newer homebrew. that was tested and rejected.

EDIT: I should note that lr-freechaf seems to be only for 1-player. I was not able to get a second player to be functional. Also, the mapping to the real controller doesn't seem possible - unless I just don't know how to do it.

I will tinker with your other suggestions.

I can understand that the Pi0 is underpowered for most mame/arcade games, but the Channel F can't be that resource demanding.

barbudreadmon · 5 Apr 2023, 17:50

@fdr4prez said in MESS Version?:

I use the standalone Stella, jzintv, coolcv, etc. So is there any reason to use "lr-mess" instead of "mame" for Channel F?

Libretro has a number of interesting features you might find missing while using standalone emulators : shaders, rewind, runahead, netplay, retroachievements, centralized controller setup, ...
However that's only true if the libretro api was properly implemented within the emulator : MAME isn't in that category.

fdr4prez · 5 Apr 2023, 18:39

@barbudreadmon said in MESS Version?:

@fdr4prez said in MESS Version?:

I use the standalone Stella, jzintv, coolcv, etc. So is there any reason to use "lr-mess" instead of "mame" for Channel F?

Libretro has a number of interesting features you might find missing while using standalone emulators : shaders, rewind, runahead, netplay, retroachievements, centralized controller setup, ...
However that's only true if the libretro api was properly implemented within the emulator : MAME isn't in that category.

yes, I know; thanks.

I am not interested in any of those.

Plus, I use the OEM controllers, so i don't use a centralized controller at all.

Unless lr-stella has been updated recently, then it doesn't work for newer homebrew and other controller types don't really work (paddles, driving controller, etc)

Folly · 4 Jul 2023, 11:22

@fdr4prez

I tested a few things on my pi zero with Bullseye.
I tested the standard mame from the raspberry pi os repository.
This version is 0.228 and works and has the most speed when using the full gl video driver.
But you still need to skip 10 frames to get the emulation speed around "100%", though the sound is not that good and the resolution is very low.
Also there isn't a recent mame binary for the pi zero.
I also tested retroarch+lr-mess but couldn't get it to run in a decent speed although lr-mess says that the speed is about "81%".

All in all the conclusion is basically the pi-zero is too slow for this.
Save yourself the time and effort and use a better pi.

Dit you get it running and what is your conclusion ?

fdr4prez · 4 Jul 2023, 19:08

@Folly said in MESS Version?:

Dit you get it running and what is your conclusion ?

I couldn't get anything to run at all. I guess I am just not smart enough to figure out the basics

I tested a few things on my pi zero with Bullseye.
I tested the standard mame from the raspberry pi os repository.
This version is 0.228 and works and has the most speed when using the full gl video driver.
But you still need to skip 10 frames to get the emulation speed around "100%", though the sound is not that good and the resolution is very low.
Also there isn't a recent mame binary for the pi zero.
I also tested retroarch+lr-mess but couldn't get it to run in a decent speed although lr-mess says that the speed is about "81%".

That's more than I could do

All in all the conclusion is basically the pi-zero is too slow for this.

Thanks. I was hoping that the Channel F system will be OK for the Pi0. How resource demanding can this system be?

Channel F works great with AdvanceMAME 3 (advmess) on the Pi0 and Pi3B for the older games, but that is version 0.106 so the newer homebrew don't run.

I saw that lr-mame2016 and lr-mess2016 are available for the Pi0, and that is at 0.174 level, so I installed them on both the Pi0 and PI3B

We suspect that this is new enough for the newer homebrew that need larger memory mapping, that the newer mame/mess supports, but I couldn't get either to run any old/simple Channel F game.

Since lr-mess2016 is an available package to be installed on the Pi0, then i'd hope it would at least run the older games.

again, it just could be that I don't have the BIOS in the right place and not having the correct opt/retropie/configs/channelf/emulators.cfg setting, etc. Anything I put in there would just be a guess on my part.

Save yourself the time and effort and use a better pi.

Thanks. You helped me get it running on the Pi3B, so we are good there and grateful for that. I was hoping to use one of my many Pi0W and Channel F cart as a case. The Pi0W will fit right nicely in there.