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

[Folly]

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

what is the bios i need for that if you know?

Decide what driver you want to use.
Then use the same trick that I told you about fmtowns.
Bios files are found in the mame-merged romset (arcade game bios files + non-arcade bios files)
Cass files can be found in the bbc_cass.zip from mame-sl (sl = softlist = software list)

[Folly]

@duglor

I used bbcb and both games worked.
load command for boffin is :
*TAPE
*RUN

For citadel it is :
*TAPE
CHAIN ""

Use "page-down" to speed up loading in mame. (or space in lr-mess)

[duglor]

@Folly Yep. Both games worked here too! Thanks a ton for your help. If not for you, I probably would not have 4 systems on the pi, and so many games. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DTEAM]

MAME 0.256 is release

New working systems

Addometer Company Addometer Calculator [hap, Sean Riddle]
Lakeside Strobe [hap, Sean Riddle]
Mortal Race [Museo del Recreativo, David Haywood, ClawGrip]
Player's Edge Plus (X000014P+XP000055) Standard Draw Poker [Brian Troha]
Player's Edge Plus (X000127P+XP000038) Deuces Wild Poker [Brian Troha]
Player's Edge Plus (X002004P+XP000038) Double Double Bonus Poker [Brian Troha]
Player's Edge Plus (X002046P+XP000038) Ace$ Bonus Poker [Brian Troha]
Systemhuset / Loproc Conchess Plymate Glasgow Plus (set 1) [Mr. Lars]
Tiger Electronics Finger Bowl [hap, Sean Riddle]
Yamaha DD-9 Digital Percussion [BCM, Devin Acker]

nothing for us
Maybe Tiger Electronics Finger Bowl . Doesn't look easily playable with a gamepad or a keyboard

[Folly]

@DTEAM

Indeed not much new for us.
I will do an easy update of the database or skip updating to 256.

I have compiled some mame binaries for rpi0 / x86 / x86_64.
(rpi0 will only do channelf, apfm1000 and svmu at around 100% for now)
I will probably add them into the "wip test" script.
What do you think, would that be an interesting "addon" ?

I also tried the first lr-mess0255.
Probably something to share too in a future script.
Somehow the progress of lr-mess seems to become very weak.
Added some comments in the pull-request today :
https://github.com/libretro/mame/pull/376

[DTEAM]

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

I will probably add them into the "wip test" script.
What do you think, would that be an interesting "addon" ?

Good idea

[Folly]

Here some information about lr-mame / lr-mess :

• lr-mame / lr-mess source has been updated to 0255
• and compiling for arcade and mess sub-targets has been implemented again

Hopefully everything will work like it did before.

For those who still want to play the arcade games :

• cave's akai katana
• dodonpachi saidojou

Then be sure to make a backup of the lr-mame0251 mamearcade_libretro.so as @HoJo215 described over here.

[Folly]

Some latest news about mame / lr-mame / lr-mess :

All binaries in retropie are now on 0256.
The lr-mame 0256 binary has the issue that vertical (3:4) games, like galaga are somehow wrongly displayed in rotated mode.
The lr-mame 0251 binary did not have this issue.
Not sure yet where to fix or disable this rotation.
The lr-mess 0256 binary has the issue that many handhelds run far too slow.

Hopefully the issues will be solved in the future.
The advice is not to update or certainly backup your old binaries so you can turn back to an older ones.

For now I will not update the script until, hopefully, better lr-mame / lr-mess versions come out.

[Folly]

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

The lr-mame 0256 binary has the issue that vertical (3:4) games, like galaga are somehow wrongly displayed in rotated mode.
Not sure yet where to fix or disable this rotation.

RetroArch has the default core option :
mame_rotation_mode = "libretro"
(choices with older RetroArch are : libretro|internal|none )
Setting rotation mode to internal will fix the problem for a non rotating screen.
( strange but setting it to none doesn't help, it will still rotate )

Newer ReatroArch versions seem to have more options which has been comitted to lr-mame / lr-mess :
mame_rotation_mode = "libretro"
(choices with newer RetroArch seem to be : libretro|internal|tate-rol|tate-ror|none )

The mame2003-plus doc describes the TATE mode :
From the Japanese 縦 (ta-te) meaning "vertical", TATE Mode renders vertical games lengthwise along the display. This mode is intended for use with rotating monitors and portable devices that can make the full use of their viewable area for games which used vertical monitors

Presumably "tate-rol|tate-ror" will force to rotate to 1 specific direction whereas "libretro" depends on the how the game wants to rotate.

Overall this could somehow be an improvement although rotation is now enabled by default in "libretro" rotation mode.

[mitu]

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

Presumably "tate-rol|tate-ror" will force to rotate to 1 specific direction whereas "libretro" depends on the how the game wants to rotate.

More likely the libretro option will obey the video rotation parameters from RetroArch's config (i.e. per-game/system overrides that might rotate the screen)

[Folly]

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

More likely the libretro option will obey the video rotation parameters from RetroArch's config (i.e. per-game/system overrides that might rotate the screen)

Indeed, seems to be a better explanation ;-)

[jamrom2]

@Folly Hi. Been a while, but I'm still hanging around and watching this script continue to develop. I recently (finally) bought a Pi4 for a sensible price and am in the middle of doing a build.

I loaded the mamedev.sh and working with the classich games. Already I see a problem that my Pi3b+ didn't have with the older version of the script I have loaded.

The classich games seem to have issues with the sprites not being displayed properly. I hear sounds, and I can hear that input is accepted, but the screen just loads up with more sprites.

This goes with the lr-mame native mame choices. The games were updated to the mame24* version, so I don't see it as a rom issue. I had the same results with older rom versions I used as well.

Thanks in advance.

[Folly]

@jamrom2

I doubt that it's due to my script.
More likely that it's due to lr-mess on which classich hanhelds will run.
Can you see which versions for standalone mame / lr-mess do you use right now ?
Which "classich" game(driver) are you trying ?
Does the "classich" game(driver) run with standalone mame ?

Edit :
I tried cgalaxn on :

• standalone mame 0256
• lr-mess 0244, 0251 and 0256

cgalaxn failed on all except 0244.
So it's almost certainly an issue with mame / lr-mess or the created 32 bits binaries.
More investigation is needed but it could be that some of these classich games are broken just like others from version 0251.
You can read more about it here.
It explains that a flag for 32 bits binary compilation has been added for version 0257.
Could be that this fixes these issues.
(solved : in the end the rom needed to be updated)

I have place my working lr-mess0244 binary on my google-drive :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q_GykUt8yXsCTrhvL-ihZpAx8Dnj-4AM
(so you can manually replace it if you want and able to)

Edit 2:
I tried cgalaxn on :

• standalone mame 0252 (x86_64 debian 11)
• lr-mess 0255 (x86_64 debian 11)

cgalaxn does indeed correctly work on 64 bits (x86_64).
lr-mess however doesn't run at full speed with this driver but that's a known issue.
(perhaps I used a good updated rom with this test)
(solved : in the end the rom needed to be updated)

Edit 3 :
I tried cgalaxn on :

• lr-mess 0250

My cgalaxn.7z did not work however when I used the new cgalaxn.zip it worked so the romfile has been changed.

[jamrom2]

@Folly I agree. It looks like a lot of stuff seems to be having issues. I even tried the auto-loading option on the Coco2 and Coco3, they seem to either fail on every choice, or add in more characters to the loading command on the screen.

I am away for a few days, but I will test all of this. I'll fall back to the script you posted and see if that works. If it does, I suggest holding back posting any newer versions of the script until the issues are sorted. To simple minds like mine, it looks like the script is the problem when in fact, it's the MAME/MESS core that is screwing up.

Best!

JR

[Folly]

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

I'll fall back to the script you posted and see if that works.

It's no script but a binary of lr-mess.
You don't have to downgrade the script necessarily, just use the older lr-mess binary.
Extract it and place the core in /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess as root user.

[Folly]

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

I even tried the auto-loading option on the Coco2 and Coco3, they seem to either fail on every choice

The cocoe and coco2 drivers are removed in may this year check here.
I still left the extra coco2 lines in for those who use older binaries.
In time the coco2 lines should be removed.
The coco / coco3 lines should be checked.

[jamrom2]

@Folly oh, ok. So how will we play the Coco system games? Will we have to manually input load commands?

[Folly]

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

@Folly oh, ok. So how will we play the Coco system games? Will we have to manually input load commands?

Well you got the old lr-mess binary.
If you are able to use then you should be able to play coco2 it like before.

For newer mame / lr-mess versions probably from 0251 on the "coco 1" and "2" are now both in the coco driver as the commit info says :
Remove cocoe and coco2 drivers.
They existed to have multiple bios options available.
Make available all of the combinations Color BASIC and Extended Color BASIC versions to the coco driver.

In this case it looks like we have to add the specific bios version info to the commandline to be able to simulate what coco2 was able to do.

Ps.
I am still waiting to see how things evolve.
Perhaps we need a version with binary's that is locked on version 0250
(The latest 2022 versions where things were still ok)
Not sure yet how to anticipate on future changes.

[Folly]

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

The classich games seem to have issues with the sprites not being displayed properly.

I just tested cgalaxn again with lr-mess0250 and it failed also.
Then I updated my rom to the newest one and it worked on lr-mess0250 and on lr-mess0256 too.
Used -frameskip10 for both and both worked at acceptable speed
Get it from mame-merged.

Btw. I was able to find some 0250 binaries so I added them on my google drive :
MAME binaries :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_dpVrsTSP7Tii8Lan4SC4U9LD17jYV4v
lr-mame / lr-mess binaries :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q_GykUt8yXsCTrhvL-ihZpAx8Dnj-4AM
(They work on debian11 and should also work on debian10)
(I hope that they are indeed original gcc9 compiled binaries for debian10)

[jamrom2]

@Folly ok on both posts. I'll update my coco and all other bios roms to the latest 250. A lot has changed since the last build I did during Covid.

Same for the classich. I never imagined the rom would be the issue. Usually with bad roms, the emulator just doesn't start.

Thanks for the help. I'll get back to you with the results soon.

JR