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

duglor

PC-98

@Folly
Which emulator would i use right now for pc 98 games, not counting the default lr-np2kai emulator? Any lr-mess-pc98 or lr-mame-pc98 or just lr-mame or just mame? Any?

Folly

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

PC-98

@Folly
Which emulator would i use right now for pc 98 games, not counting the default lr-np2kai emulator? Any lr-mess-pc98 or lr-mame-pc98 or just lr-mame or just mame? Any?

I am not sure how good pc98 (pc9801) will run with mame or lr-mess but you can give it a try.
lr-mame is arcade only so lr-mame will not work.
There seem to be more types you can try and there are also pc9821 types.

I am not very active right now with RetroPie and my script these days and I want to spend less time on it.
For now I will update necessary things only.

duglor

@Folly Ok . Thank You.

Folly

Wasn't planning to update the script.
However I discovered some issues due to updates and changes elsewhere.

For instance downloading the cheats was broken due to changes in source website.
The python-modules needed to be updated in order to get retroscraper working again, correctly.
I also detected changes that the regular way to get roms didn't work anymore.
Best way seems to get full sets using the "magnet links" manually.
Therefor I added the option now to create hardlinks from files that are in ~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame.
The idea is to get a whole mame-merged set and place it inside ~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame.
Then you know all bios files are there and so there is no need to link them to another folder.
The categorized roms can be hardlinked from the script now, with or without linking clones.
Hardlinking has it's advantages over softlinking.

What is a Hard Link?
A Hard link acts as a copy (mirrored) of the selected file. It accesses the data available in the original file. If the earlier selected file is deleted, the hard link to the file will still contain the data of that file.

Advantages of Hard Link :

It makes efficient use of disc space by avoiding the unnecessary creation of record blocks.
There is no risk of link breaking as a result of the removal of the actual file(as long as one hard hyperlink survives, the data will persist).
The speed of Hard Links is fast.

Not sure yet when or if I update to a new mame version.
Updating the database takes a lot of time and there don't seem to be very interesting updates in mame so the plan is to skip updating the database until it gets interesting enough.

That is it for now, enjoy !

Edit 1 :
Sadly, Retroscraper still seems to have some issues.
Something for later.
(added an issue : https://github.com/zayamatias/retroscraper-remote/issues/1)

Edit 2:
Good to know :
The hardlinks are only created when the file exists in BIOS/mame.
So you can use your own collection without having invalid hardlinks.

bbilford83

@Folly, I know it's been forever, but randomly today I discovered the existence of a system I had never heard of before, the Elektor TV Games Computer. It seems this is emulated (though "imperfectly") on mame, and I was able to install it with the script. To my surprise, at least from here it seems there were many, many games, but I don't see a software list mame set by that name. Just wondering if you have heard of it or ever gave it a try?

Hope all else is well!

Folly

Hi @bbilford83,

Interesting :-)
I will have a look too, if I can.

Folly

@bbilford83

Doing this command revealed that it can use the vc4000 software list :

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware elektor

(I used the terminal from within Desktop mode and made sure that I could scroll back at least 4000 lines in the terminal)

This wiki shows more info.

Saw that these games will indeed run however the elektor seems to differ from the vc4000 as keybindings concerned.

There don't seem to be software lists for cassettes and quik load.

For quik load I found .tvc files on the internet.
They seem to work but whenever I try to start the game I get some sort of input line or lines.
So you seem to have to find out what key you have to use in order to run the game properly.
Sadly, I did not find yet.

Could not find any cassette files on the internet either.

There are some docs on the internet archive that possibly can explain how you have to use this TVGC.

bbilford83

@Folly thank you! It's interesting, there is a MAME software list set for VC4000 and it has 37 games in it, which seems to match the 40 games (with three unreleased) listed on wikipedia for VC4000. They are all zipped bin files. But even though the Elektor is described as able to run these games with an added "cartridge slot," it seems like the Elektor somehow still had its own games before the VC4000 existed. The wikipedia page for the Elektor says "Many VC 4000 games were adapted versions of TV Games Computer games" which wouldn't make sense if there weren't some (non-cartridge?) games that existed first on the Elektor.

Re: the inputs/mapping, it seems like the Elector controller (which I can't find a picture of) didn't have the "keypad" buttons that the VC4000 had. Probably the better way to go about it is to just install the VC 4000 and try the games that way, but it does seem odd there is no way to play whatever "Elektor-only" games it had.

I'm solo parenting for the week but may try to mess around with this a bit over the next few days.

Folly

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

@Folly thank you! It's interesting, there is a MAME software list set for VC4000 and it has 37 games in it, which seems to match the 40 games (with three unreleased) listed on wikipedia for VC4000. They are all zipped bin files. But even though the Elektor is described as able to run these games with an added "cartridge slot," it seems like the Elektor somehow still had its own games before the VC4000 existed. The wikipedia page for the Elektor says "Many VC 4000 games were adapted versions of TV Games Computer games" which wouldn't make sense if there weren't some (non-cartridge?) games that existed first on the Elektor.

Re: the inputs/mapping, it seems like the Elector controller (which I can't find a picture of) didn't have the "keypad" buttons that the VC4000 had. Probably the better way to go about it is to just install the VC 4000 and try the games that way, but it does seem odd there is no way to play whatever "Elektor-only" games it had.

Good thinking,
Seems like these games aren't added in the software-list.
There are more systems that don't have that.
I think it due to how much time and effort the mame dev's can, are willing and are able to put into it.
Not sure enough, but I think I also read in a doc from the archive that many program listings have been lost over time.

I'm solo parenting for the week but may try to mess around with this a bit over the next few days.

Let me know if you find some more info about this.
Have you found the .tvc to try ?

Folly

@bbilford83

I found quite some stuff.
It seems to be hit or miss.
Search for "elektor amigan".
pro files can be loaded as cart (you might have to rename to bin)
tvc files can be loaded as quik
Helicopter seems to work ok.
Stuff for the enhanced version don't seem to work.

Edit:
There is a list called ess.txt which contains the start adres of the programmes.
For example :
09-D Raster Raster $08C0-$0FFF $0900 E Yes

Found in the doc's that when you press "p" you will view that start adres.
If not then you can enter that start adres.
After that you press the "up" key to start the program.
I had to use another key to get Raster going, not sure yet which one but Raster began to run and I used the "-" key to shoot the green box.

I have made a key-layout picture.
The right part is like a numpad and seems to be used for controlling the directions in a game.
For RocketShooting A=up,2=down,5=left,7=right,6=shoot

This should be the solution to get more working.

Conclusion for me is that you have to read the documents thoroughly to understand this computer in order to play with it.

bbilford83

@Folly Thank you very much for jumping in, doesn't seem as straightforward as I would hope. But I didn't know about the Interton VC4000 before and since that has a mame software list I may try to get that working and add a gamelist to my shared gdrive folder. Seems much more straightforward control-wise too.