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

Folly

All updated to 260.

bbilford83

So this is a super niche question, but does anyone have Super Cassette Vision working on their setup working, and if so are you able to play "Dragon Slayer"? I have been adding it with the script and everything works great except in that one game, no matter what I do I can't get into actual gameplay. The game loads properly and goes into "demo mode" after telling me to hit start, but unlike every other game that tells me to hit start hitting start doesn't actually do anything. I can see from some youtube videos that there are people emulating this properly and I'm at a loss...

Folly

@bbilford83

Indeed, have the same problem.
Tried it on scv_pal and it worked.
Read in the hash (scv.xml) that dragon slayer is a game only for Japan.
Perhaps the reason it doesn't work on the normal "ntsc" version.
Not sure though "pal" is also used in Europe, so very strange.
Perhaps an issue in the driver.
On the other hand, the dragon slayer rom is stated as "not correctly dumped" so that could also be the problem.
In the hash table they are also not sure how much "ram" the cartridge has on board.
Nevertheless it works on scv_pal.

bbilford83

@Folly Thanks very much! I will add it that way.

The only other game I had issues with is prowrest, which seems to be missing audio and running super fast. Did you have problems with that one too and maybe that would also run better on the _pal version?

Folly

@bbilford83

On the pal version everything works slower because of the pal 50Hz refresh frequency (instead of 60Hz for ntsc).
So probably will work better on the scv_pal.

Let me know if that works.

bbilford83

@Folly I am trying to figure out a way to use the scv_pal emulator options to launch games in my scv system. I added the emulator lines to emulator.cfg but when I select it to launch the games it just boots me back to the emulationstation menu. I realize now maybe that is because the system info in es_systems.cfg still says this:
"<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS scv %ROM%</command>"

And it should say "scv_pal" if I had a whole separate system entered for scv_pal. But there must be some way to run it with that emulator selection without creating a whole separate "scv_pal" system in emulationstation, right?

Sorry if this is obvious...

Edit: I also noticed Ton Ton Ball and Wheelie Racer are the same as Dragon Slayer, they load to the launch screens but won't take inputs. I assume svc_pal would fix them too.

bbilford83

Aha nevermind @folly, I figured it out. I had to change the emulator.cfg file to use the right rompath, that was all. I tested all three games and they work on _pal :).

Folly

@bbilford83

Update:
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/107daa8743cc8d75fd06f6702480be78883d82bc

scv_pal will be installed in scv.

bbilford83

@Folly Good idea!

duglor

@DTEAM Can someone walk me through how i get lr-mess-microvision working after an install or do i need lr-mess-2016?

Anyway, there are no instructions on the retropie sites.
What i need to know is if there is a bios file needed? A certain dimension for the visual settings? and how to load and run it?

If this is the wrong place for this, please point me to the correct place! Thanks guys!

Folly

@duglor

Do you use my latest script now ?

bbilford83

@Folly it seems I am full of super-niche questions but I am trying to fully flush out my build with everything possible and hoping you could tell me if something I'm trying to do is possible.

I don't put on any systems that would require a keyboard to be practically playable, but when I discovered the Amiga CD32 I thought that was perfect as I could use it to (accurately) only play Amiga games that it could play since they were all bound to only use the joystick controller. Well, today I discovered the Commodore64 Games System which appears to be basically the same thing, but I have spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out exactly which games/cartridges it could play, as I understand they were specifically released for the system and not just identical to the regular c64 cartridges. I looked at the software list roms and while I see a bunch of c64-variant systems, I don't see "c64gs" as a software list romset. But when I went to your script and looked at the "Commodore upon system names" subset of system names, there is a c64gs there!

So my question is: is there some way to identify the romset that should go with c64gs? I'm not asking where to find it, but rather how to figure out what it should have in it, since there isn't a c64gs software list subset as part of mame.

And while I think it's even more of a stretch, I was also looking into the same thing in the form of the "Zemmix," which I gather was a consolized version of the MSX computer that also controlled without a keyboard. That I can't find any sort of list for though, in the roms or in your script, so I think it might be a lost cause.

I realize it is particularly weird of me to work so hard to get obscure console versions of really-easy-to-emulate pcs working, but it makes sense to me if it's a consoles-only build.

Also, @duglor, I suspect @Folly will give you better help than I could but just be aware after all my recent efforts that there really isn't good artwork for all games to make them playable as they should be for the Microvision. You'll see in above exchanges that I created background artwork for each game (with Folly's help) but it's pretty amateurish and for several games it doesn't work really at all. Until someone comes along who is better in Gimp than me I wouldn't really consider the system fully playable without that art.

duglor

@bbilford83 Ok. Thank you. I can hold off for now on Microvision :D

duglor

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

@duglor

Do you use my latest script now ?

Yes

Folly

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

@DTEAM Can someone walk me through how i get lr-mess-microvision working after an install or do i need lr-mess-2016?

I would not go for the lr-mess2016 it's old and not supported by my script.
So you would need to configure everything by yourself with lr-mess2016.

What @bbilford83 says, pretty much says it all :

Also, @duglor, I suspect @Folly will give you better help than I could but just be aware after all my recent efforts that there really isn't good artwork for all games to make them playable as they should be for the Microvision. You'll see in above exchanges that I created background artwork for each game (with Folly's help) but it's pretty amateurish and for several games it doesn't work really at all. Until someone comes along who is better in Gimp than me I wouldn't really consider the system fully playable without that art.

To add something about lr-mess, there are no overlays at all for RetroArch.

Anyway, there are no instructions on the retropie sites.

You can install microvsn like any other driver.
Just search for microvsn in the DEFAULT section and install it.

What i need to know is if there is a bios file needed?

Indeed, it's not always obvious if a bios file is needed.
After installing a driver and placing the game-roms in a roms folder you can try some of the roms.
If they do not work it's probably because you need a bios file for the driver.
Most of the time the bios file is just named like the driver.
Just search for that name in mame-merged rom set to find that bios file.
If you can't find a solution then check, after trying a game, the /dev/shm/runcommand.log if a bios file is "NOT FOUND" .
You can also use my script and use the "NOT FOUND" option in the "restricted downloads". (look at the search option)
Then you will know what file to search for.
An other manual method to is to see if a driver needs bios files, like this :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listbios microvsn
No BIOS options for system Microvision (microvsn)

You will see that the driver microvsn doesn't need a bios file.

A certain dimension for the visual settings?

I will not explain this as it basically means you should make overlays or artwork.
That would be the best way.

how to load and run it?

Get the microvision.zip file from the mame-sl rom-set and extract them into the microvsn roms folder.
Then you will be able to run the games from emulationstation.

Folly

@bbilford83

Interesting questions about amiga32,c64gs and zemmix.
I will have a look later.

Folly

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

I don't put on any systems that would require a keyboard to be practically playable, but when I discovered the Amiga CD32 I thought that was perfect as I could use it to (accurately) only play Amiga games that it could play since they were all bound to only use the joystick controller. Well, today I discovered the Commodore64 Games System which appears to be basically the same thing, but I have spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out exactly which games/cartridges it could play, as I understand they were specifically released for the system and not just identical to the regular c64 cartridges. I looked at the software list roms and while I see a bunch of c64-variant systems, I don't see "c64gs" as a software list romset. But when I went to your script and looked at the "Commodore upon system names" subset of system names, there is a c64gs there!

So my question is: is there some way to identify the romset that should go with c64gs? I'm not asking where to find it, but rather how to figure out what it should have in it, since there isn't a c64gs software list subset as part of mame.

And while I think it's even more of a stretch, I was also looking into the same thing in the form of the "Zemmix," which I gather was a consolized version of the MSX computer that also controlled without a keyboard. That I can't find any sort of list for though, in the roms or in your script, so I think it might be a lost cause.

I realize it is particularly weird of me to work so hard to get obscure console versions of really-easy-to-emulate pcs working, but it makes sense to me if it's a consoles-only build.

I haven't yet looked much at c64gs, though I will assume it will only use some of the c64_cart.
Mame can output the software list for that system but not sure if it will be 100% correct.
Did it with this command :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware c64gs|grep "software name="

For Zemmix it could be the same thing, using :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware cpg120|grep "software name="

For more info about Zemmix I found these 2 links :

The Zemmix will of-course play games that weren't made especially for it but these ones should not be in the list I recon.
Above command will probably list all, not only the ones especially for Zemmix.

Both hash tables msx1_cart and msx2_cart have info about Korean cartridges.
I think these are basically the cartridges you are looking for.
Somehow the xml's have to be filtered so only the Korean ones are in a list.

The is also a Zemmix-romset-ZUUL romset.
Looking at the list I have doubts if the list of games is 100% accurate.
It is also not a mame romset but can be played with the -cart1 runcommands.

I used the driver cpg120 to install from my script and is installed as "msx2".
In my script I could try to split them up from msx/msx2 to zemmix/zemmix2.
Though I am not sure if this is a good thing.

Folly

@bbilford83

It looks like I can extract the full gamelist from msx1_cart for Zemmix like this :

cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/hash/msx1_cart.xml|grep -v "feature name="|grep -B 2 Korea|grep "software name="|cut -d'"' -f2|tr '\n' ' '
1942k advenkid aliensk aroidk amtruckk antarctk arkanoidk bankpk blockhol bombmank1 bombmank2 brosadv brosadva bbobblek csok cabbagepk wrldopenk castlek cloderunk1 cloderunk2 choroqk crusaderk cyborgz ddayk ddayka david2k dokidokik ddragon drhello eagle5 exerionk exoidez5k f1spiritk fatetris fatetrisa fatetrisb fantzonek fzonek fpoint fpointa galagak gw126 gw126a gw30 gw64 gw64a gw80 gw80a gw90 gw90a gangrobo gangroboa gangrobob gomokunak gberetk gulkavek gyrodinek heavyboxk highwayk hydlide2k hydlide3k hyperol1k hypersp2k theseusk jpwinklek kinnikumk knightmrk knightm2k knucklej koedoli pingpongk kontennk kungfutk l3w legendk legendka loveplus moaihihok gundamk mpatrolk mopirangk mrchink mrdok msxrugbyk msxsoccrk sokobank sokobankz valisk newbogle newboglea newbogleb ninja2 ninjajajk nnprowrsk pacmank pachicomk pengadvk1 pengadvk2 penguinwk poppaqk rallyxk risedungk salamandk scrameggk seikachok skicommk1 skicommk2 skyjagk stepupk strtmast sbioman1 sbioman1a sbioman4 sboy3 sboy3a sboy1 sboy2 sbw1 suprbubl supercol supgam25 slaydockk takameijk1 takameijk2 tetris tetris2 3dragon titipang turmoilk vigilant warpwarpk wonsiin xanaduk yieark yiear2k chimak zaiderk baduk zoom909k zk

And the full gamelist from msx2_cart for Zemmix like this :

cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/hash/msx2_cart.xml|grep -v "feature name="|grep -B 2 Korea|grep "software name="|cut -d'"' -f2|tr '\n' ' '
1942k arknoid2k kingkon2k quarthk srambospk

You can just remove tr '\n' ' ' from the commands to display each game on one line.

Folly

@bbilford83

Seemed like a good idea to separate c64gs from the c64 install and just install it as c64gs :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/46d5966e9de009bae61faea51ddc99199d8ecd00

Created also a separate theme as pull request for @DTEAM :
https://github.com/DTEAM-1/cygnus-blue-flames/pull/11

bbilford83

@folly this is all amazing, thank you! I am confused though about 2 things:

What are you putting the commands into? It looks like command line stuff you'd enter straight into linux but I doubt that's what you're doing here? Sorry, I'm quite an amateur here.
What I don't really understand about the c64gs is I wouldn't think it would use any of the c64_cart roms, because it seems like the games made for it were not standard c64 cartridges, right? I think the games were modified from the c64 versions to not require the keyboard. Unless somehow the emulator modifies the cartridge roms, I don't really get how that would work.

FYI, the Zemmix list you came up with seems right, though I do wonder if there were Korean-released MSX cartridges before/separate from the Zemmix that might be included but not actually work properly (if they required the keyboard). But it is a good start and I could test the games. The Zuul list doesn't match up so probably you are right that something is iffy there.