How do I find out MESS commandline options?

Folly

I am missing some info here but I expect you add a joystick every time from the mame UI, right?

You found something about adding -gameio.
Though this slot needs an extra option thats why it will crash if not added.
When you list the apple2 slots from standalone mame with :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listslots apple2
SYSTEM           SLOT NAME        SLOT OPTIONS     SLOT DEVICE NAME
---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------------------
apple2           gameio           compeyes         Digital Vision ComputerEyes
                                  gizmo            HAL Labs Gizmo
                                  joy              Apple II analog joysticks
                                  joyport          Sirius JoyPort
                                  paddles          Apple II paddles

You see what can be added.
Try to add something like this :

-gameio joy

If it is something that should be loaded by default then let me know.
Then I can add it to the script,most likely.

JimmyFromTheBay

@Folly Aha! That stopped it crashing, but it still boots into the monitor screen rather than loading the disk.

Is there no command that lists all the available commandline options for a specific machine?

Folly

@JimmyFromTheBay

You talked about changing the bios, right.
What kind of bios do you select in the mame UI ?

Is it autostart ? :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listbios apple2
BIOS options for system Apple ][ (apple2):
    default          Original Monitor
    autostart        Autostart Monitor

JimmyFromTheBay

@Folly So this is the menu option:

This is what it defaults to:

And this is what I want:

Those are the only two choices.

Folly

@JimmyFromTheBay

Ok will check how to load autostart from the commandline.

Just tried to add :

-bios autostart

That worked.

Edit :
So if you want to boot with autostart and add the joystick by default you need to add :

-bios autostart -gameio joy

Folly

@JimmyFromTheBay

You should read this section if you want to learn more about mame :
https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html

JimmyFromTheBay

@Folly Yeah, I got those from /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -showusage, but they're all generic, nothing for specific cores, even if I added "apple2" before or after "-showusage".

Folly

@JimmyFromTheBay

You can also use this :
https://arcade.vastheman.com/minimaws/machine/apple2

You can use it for others too, just change apple2 into a good other driver.

JimmyFromTheBay

@Folly Ooh, that's exactly what I wanted, cheers 🙂

Folly

@JimmyFromTheBay

I added this to the script :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/a01c5b7bec657fa1eacb86452a58d7c68e38c43c