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

Folly

Seems the bezel syncing problem is sorted out now too.

By testing more bezels I found that most if not all bezels for retroarch/lr-messare are still in sync with the games so that is a really good thing.
Seems astrocmd is the only one up until now.
Could be that perhaps the syncing problem, for that driver, was there from the beginning.
So I changed the artwork file to improve the bezel for mame standalone and also added a bezel picture specifically for lr-mess and added the file over here.
Btw don't use the other files. They were experiments and still backups, I think.
Hope you like what I did.
Can you add it to your artwork folder ?

I am planning on changing where the background and bezel overlays are stored now.
I want to move them from :
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay
to :
~/RetroPie/roms/<system>/media/retroarch/<overlays_or_bezels)

Then the overlays are just as gamelists easier to backup and if needed in the future we can share hem via gdrive just like the gameslist.
Good idea ?

DTEAM

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

Good idea ?

yes sure !

Folly

@DTEAM

Ok, good to know.
Will have a look at it.
Found also that the cheat url also has a https link now.
The old http link still works but I will move to the newer one when I can.
In the proces I will refine the way some variables are handled.

Did you paste the astrocmd.zip in your gdrive ?

bbilford83

Hi @Folly. Just FYI as an update, I'm still working on the XEGS (no keyboard) gamelist as I go through the TOSEC Atari 8-Bit romset, and yesterday I finished through all the "B" games. It was 252 games when I finished testing/adding the MAME romsets for XEGS and Atari800, and now just through the TOSEC B games it's grown to 449. So it's going to take forever, but there are a lot of great games I've added and I'm glad I'm doing it.

Folly

@bbilford83

Great to hear !
Man, I like your persistence ;-)

Ps,
I have tried VideoBrain again, last week.
Btw it is still not working but,
I discovered that if you don't use a joystick the mouse is assigned to the analog controls and when using gladiatr the left gladiator will move to the upper left corner.
Found that in these cases the mouse has to be enable in the mame.ini otherwise the mouse is assigned but not working.
Tried again with my joystick which has analog also.
Now I had some movement.
Just as you described altering the sensitivity does work a bit but doesn't work enough.

DTEAM

@Folly

MAME 0.262 is now available

System for us:
Block Game & Echo Key GA888 [azya52, David Haywood] classich
E-Star Brick Game 96 in 1 (E-23 Plus Mark II) [azya52, David Haywood classich
Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy [hap] New console
Pit-Fighter (Tiger) [algestam, Sean Riddle, hap] tigerh

Some computers and arcade systems are also available . see link above

bbilford83

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

Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy [hap] New console

I have been excited since I heard this was coming in the next version of MAME. Sometime in the next week or two I'll be testing and creating a gamelist for it and will share it in my usual place when I'm done.

Also a TON of new floppy MSX/MSX2/MSX2p games. I can't remember if I was able to get floppies working on Zemmix, I think I was (and the real one could also with some sort of adapter), but when I go back to it I will make sure I look at those too. It will be a long time though before I finish XEGS.

Folly

@DTEAM

Did you have some time to look at the astrocmd.zip artfile I changed ?
Over here :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HQKNcrzR7AC7y4FShFT7N1hr0QHb-Gq1

FYI, I kept the original file in it but changed both bezels connecting ultimately to mame and lr-mess to get them in sync with the latest retroarch etc.
I would appreciate if you could add it to your gdrive if you agree.

Let me know.

Btw nice to see that there is something new to add to 0262.
It will be our 3 years annivesary edition ;-)

Retrodade

@DTEAM this is fun news!
Are the zip names available on these new games?
and are the backgrounds available for them by chance?
Thanks

Folly

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

@Folly

MAME 0.262 is now available

System for us:
Block Game & Echo Key GA888 [azya52, David Haywood] classich
E-Star Brick Game 96 in 1 (E-23 Plus Mark II) [azya52, David Haywood classich
Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy [hap] New console
Pit-Fighter (Tiger) [algestam, Sean Riddle, hap] tigerh

Some computers and arcade systems are also available . see link above

Here are the driver names :
Driver ga888 (Block Game & Echo Key GA888)
Driver brke23p2 (Brick Game 96 in 1 (E-23 Plus Mark II))
Driver ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy)
Driver tpitfight (Pit-Fighter (Tiger))

Ps.
Most mame0262 binaries are added to the gdrive.

Retrodade

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

Driver ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy)

I have updated to the latest MAME emulator version.
but, ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy) just boots back to ES and this in the log

Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -rompath /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame;/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ctvboy -v -c -ui_active -statename ctvboy/"Mr. Bomb" "Mr. Bomb"
Unknown system 'Mr. Bomb'

And here is the retroarch MAME after the update
not showing error but boots back to ES...what am i doing wrong?

Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame/mamearcade_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ctvboy/shigaisen.zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cf

any possible suggestions?

figured i could do the scrapes if I can get it booting.

and Thank you!...not sure why this go around I'm struggling here.I can't even find that backdrop artwork for these .
Block Game & Echo Key classich
E-Star Brick Game 96 in 1 classich
Pit-Fighter tigerh

I'm hoping to get help, I feel so helpless at the moment.

if you could be so kind to help with some direction/input

Retrodade

@bbilford83 does MSX turbo-r work in mame?

bbilford83

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

@bbilford83 does MSX turbo-r work in mame?

I'm actually not sure. I haven't tried MSX turbo-r itself because I was only trying to add systems that didn't need/use a keyboard, but the "consolized" MSX series "Zemmix" includes the Zemmix CPG-120, which as I understand should run most MSX2+ games. Until googling the answer to your question, I always though that was the same as the MSX turbo-R but now see that may not be true.

Folly

@Retrodade

These are the 2 MSX Turbo-R drivers :
Driver fsa1gt (FS-A1GT (MSX Turbo-R, Japan))
Driver fsa1st (FS-A1ST (MSX Turbo-R, Japan))

Testing them reveals that they do not work and get stuck in the boot screen.

Using mame in the the commandline you can extract the information.
Grep is used to filter out the lines beginning with "D" and filtering out the lines with Turbo-R that gives :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listdevices|grep ^D|grep Turbo-R
Driver fsa1gt (FS-A1GT (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)):
Driver fsa1st (FS-A1ST (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)):

With next command you can find out if the driver is good :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listxml fsa1gt|grep emulation=
		<driver status="preliminary" emulation="preliminary" savestate="unsupported"/>
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listxml fsa1st|grep emulation=
		<driver status="preliminary" emulation="preliminary" savestate="unsupported"/>

You see it gives "preliminary", that means the driver will most likely not work.
Mame will give 3 stages in that perspective.
I use last stage "good" which means that it should work and is added to the database with a marker, so for these drivers it will look like this :
Driver fsa1gt (FS-A1GT (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)): @computer@home_system@non-arcade@
Driver fsa1st (FS-A1ST (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)): @computer@home_system@non-arcade@

So if there was a @good@ then the driver would work, you see.
The database with more markers is used by the script and can be found in the directory, if it is already downloaded :
/opt/retropie/emulation/mame/mame0xxx_systems_sorted_info
Otherwise the database files can be found over here :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/tree/main/00-databases-00/mame
It is build up by creating ini files, automatically or manually from DTEAM/Me and mame and progettosnaps.net found over here :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/tree/main/00-databases-00/sorted_info_creation/0XXX
And here :
https://www.progettosnaps.net/index.php

So that is the way things can be categorised or be found in the script.

A short way to see if a driver is good just do :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep Turbo-R
Driver fsa1gt (FS-A1GT (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)): @computer@home_system@non-arcade@
Driver fsa1st (FS-A1ST (MSX Turbo-R, Japan)): @computer@home_system@non-arcade@

bbilford83

@Folly one quick question, probably related to @Eetrodade's struggle to install ctvboy. I remember you said last time that because your script just applies the mame database you don't have to "add" new systems, but I am seeing that it is still only able to apply mame .261 and below (like when you go to select it manually). So I think that is why ctvboy isn't able to be installed yet, no? I obviously have very little understanding of how the script works, but I would assume you have to do something in your updates each time to tell it to apply the newest mame database?

Folly

@bbilford83 @Retrodade

Well, with the script we are still on mame0261 so that uses the 0261 database too.
All the drivers that were announced by @DTEAM are for mame262, one version newer.
I already added some mame0262 binaries that can be installed but the script still uses the older 0261 database.
(note: the original retropie 32bits arm7l gcc8 buster mame binary isn't available yet)
Much is explained about that in my post 1837.
I am waiting for the 0262 progettosnap files to come online, after that I can make a new database and update the script to the new version.

For completely new added drivers in 0262 the script will not show them if you would like to install them, so that is about these drivers :
Driver ga888 (Block Game & Echo Key GA888) (will be categorised as classich)
Driver brke23p2 (Brick Game 96 in 1 (E-23 Plus Mark II)) (will be categorised as classich)
Driver ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy) (will be a standalone driver)
Driver tpitfight (Pit-Fighter (Tiger)) (will be categorised as tigerh)

Referring to post 1837, using these commands won't show any output for these drivers so they aren't in the database, just do it like this :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep ga888
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep brke23p2
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep tpitfight
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep ctvboy

So the script will not show them yet in the list if you would like to install them from the script.

@bbilford83 you are correct in saying that you don't really need to install ga888 and brke23p2 or tpitfight as they will become part of already existing categories.
If you would install them, in the new script, they would be detected as classich or tigerh and that category will be installed.
The only difference will be that these drvers are added in the 0 rom-index 0 and you will be able to download with the restricted part if the rom is online.
However normal usage is not to install these drivers but is to install the category instead (classich or tigerh)
So if you use the 261 script and you have installed the category's already and you use the new mame0262 binary you can just add the roms and they should work.

As explained ctvboy isn't part of the database yet so it is not listed and cannot be installed yet.
If you have the mame0262 binary and you want to try it out the probably the best solution is to add it to the database manually, as root user, like this :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ su
Password: 
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# echo "Driver ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy): @game_console@good@home_videogame@non-arcade@" >> /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# exit

You can check if it's added by doing this :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame0261_systems_sorted_info |grep "ctvboy"
Driver ctvboy (Compact Vision TV Boy): @game_console@good@home_videogame@non-arcade@

Now you would be able to install it from the older 261 script and should work with the mame0262 binary.

For lr-mess it will not yet work because the source is behind and still on 0261.
When that is updated these drivers will also work in theory.
However there is an issue with the arcade and mess lists in the source code so the new pure lr-mame and lr-mess will miss drivers because the lists are not correctly updated.
Therefor I will try to make full libretro mame binaries that can be used as lr-mess and lr-mame so both will have all arcade and non-arcade drivers in them so we don't have an issue with that part.
I will add them to the gdrive so they can be installed from the script.
So we probably have to wait for a few weeks or a month to be able to use them.

Folly

First pictures running Frogger on ctvboy :

DTEAM

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

Did you have some time to look at the astrocmd.zip artfile I changed ?
Over here :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HQKNcrzR7AC7y4FShFT7N1hr0QHb-Gq1

FYI, I kept the original file in it but changed both bezels connecting ultimately to mame and lr-mess to get them in sync with the latest retroarch etc.
I would appreciate if you could add it to your gdrive if you agree.

Let me know.

Btw nice to see that there is something new to add to 0262.
It will be our 3 years annivesary edition ;-)

done!

DTEAM

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

I am planning on changing where the background and bezel overlays are stored now.
I want to move them from :
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay
to :
~/RetroPie/roms/<system>/media/retroarch/<overlays_or_bezels)

Do I have to do something for this on the GDrive with your microvsn and vectrex folders?

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:

I am planning on changing where the background and bezel overlays are stored now.
I want to move them from :
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay
to :
~/RetroPie/roms/<system>/media/retroarch/<overlays_or_bezels)

Do I have to do something for this on the GDrive with your microvsn and vectrex folders?

No, these are backups.
Might use them in the future again, not sure yet.

Btw. Thanks for adding the astrocmt artwork file.