Mame 2003 wont start

dankcushions

@dankcushions from the few merged sets I've tried, it's the parent clone that's called. Can't choose. I do non-merged if I have a specific clone I like and then only have that one on the pi. I prefer split sets and filters, but I don't run sdhcs over 32gb so yeah, a picked combo of merged and non-merged works for me.

thanks! personally i have parents only. it's a bit annoying when there's the occasional game (pacman/puckman, moonwalker's broken parent/working clone) where the parent isn't what i want, but it makes things simpler.

i still don't understand why you'd ever want a merged zip on your pi, though, if it always runs the parent. surely in that case you'd just want the parent zip otherwise it's just wasted space??

senkun

@dankcushions argh! I meant a picked "combo of splits and non merged"! For exactly the same reasons as you so i can get rid of puckman split set and just have pacman non merged in there.

I do think it's confusing with the terms merged, non merged and split. I try to remember by picturing this;

Merged - one big family unit, children have no say and not seen, parents decide everything.

Non merged - children have grown up and are independent from parents.

Split - children are trying to be independent but really can't function without parents present.

caver01

You can get away with a custom merge if you are willing to take the time. Open the zip of the clone you like, then drop in the rom files from the parent. Re-zip using the clone's name.

The clone is still played, since your re-zip still has the name of the clone and this is what MAME is told to launch), but the dependencies are included right there inside the zip file, so the game runs as though the parent zip is right next to it.

This little trick has allowed me to play my clones, have the parent files, but NOT have the parent showing up in the list. Seems to be the ideal solution. It doesn't seem to work with FBA though.

caver01

I guess you could also just take a merged rom and rename it to the name of your favorite clone. That should work too, don't you think?

dankcushions

@caver01 said in Mame 2003 wont start:

I guess you could also just take a merged rom and rename it to the name of your favorite clone. That should work too, don't you think?

maybe!

i reworded some of the wiki page regarding sets - hope this clears things up?: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs#step-5--rebuild-a-rom-set

Meneer Jansen

I made a set of non-merged ROMs w/ clrmamepro yesterday night. They do not seem to work w/ libretto-mame2003. I'm beginning to think that the 0.78 ROM set I'm working with ain't even a 0.78 set. Does anyone know how to determine the ROM set you have? And how to determine if you have a merged or -non-merged ROM?

Oh, and by the way, how do I determine which parent my clone needs?

iconrumble

@Meneer-Jansen did you use the correct DAT file to rebuild your set? Any error output from clrmamepro (files missing?)? Did you check the retropie compatibility list?
The best way to check your romset would be to get a 0.78 DAT file from a trusted source and scan your romset for errors...

dankcushions

@Meneer-Jansen said in Mame 2003 wont start:

I made a set of non-merged ROMs w/ clrmamepro yesterday night. They do not seem to work w/ libretto-mame2003. I'm beginning to think that the 0.78 ROM set I'm working with ain't even a 0.78 set. Does anyone know how to determine the ROM set you have?

if you give clrmamepro a 0.78 datfile, and rebuild or scan, it will tell you whether your source is valid or not. the ones that come out the other end WILL be valid if you told it to do the right thing. if it wasn't valid, nothing would come out...

And how to determine if you have a merged or -non-merged ROM?

don't upload it, but have a look in the .zip of an example that doesn't work. does it contain all the files needed? you can work that out by looking for relevant entry in your 0.78 .dat file via a text editor. it will show you all the files needed. if a parent is needed, your unmerged .zip should contain all their zips also.

your set won't be merged unless you told clrmamepro to merge it. downloaded sets are almost always split sets.

Oh, and by the way, how do I determine which parent my clone needs?

i thought you made merged sets? there is no need for the parent.

anyway, read the wiki. look at the compatibility lists. there's a column for parents.

Meneer Jansen

@dankcushions said in Mame 2003 wont start:

@Meneer-Jansen said in Mame 2003 wont start:

I made a set of non-merged ROMs w/ clrmamepro yesterday night. They do not seem to work w/ libretto-mame2003. I'm beginning to think that the 0.78 ROM set I'm working with ain't even a 0.78 set. Does anyone know how to determine the ROM set you have?

if you give clrmamepro a 0.78 datfile, and rebuild or scan, it will tell you whether your source is valid or not. the ones that come out the other end WILL be valid if you told it to do the right thing. if it wasn't valid, nothing would come out...

And how to determine if you have a merged or -non-merged ROM?

don't upload it, but have a look in the .zip of an example that doesn't work. does it contain all the files needed? you can work that out by looking for relevant entry in your 0.78 .dat file via a text editor. it will show you all the files needed. if a parent is needed, your unmerged .zip should contain all their zips also.

your set won't be merged unless you told clrmamepro to merge it. downloaded sets are almost always split sets.

Oh, and by the way, how do I determine which parent my clone needs?

i thought you made merged sets? there is no need for the parent.

anyway, read the wiki. look at the compatibility lists. there's a column for parents.

Thank you all again for the help. The method that I used is the one from here which, I believe, was written by you. The DAT file that I used is from the same Wiki (downloaded a Zip file w/ lots of DAT's in it that are "meant" to use w/ RetroPie). I used the 0.78 DAT.

After the non-merging I ended up w/ a set that is 13.5 GB, the original set is 8.5 GB. So something did happen here... The messages that clrmamepro put out for 4718 ROM's are too many to see or note down for me...

The original "Puckman" (that's the Japanese Namco version of Pac-Man before it was put on the market by Midway) which I consider to be the Mother Of All Pac-Man's now (non-merged) has these ROM files in the zip:

82s123.7f
82s126.1m
82s126.3m
82s126.4a
pacman.5e
pacman.5f
namcopac.6e
namcopac.6f
namcopac.6h
namcopac.6j

Thanks for the tip about the DAT file opening in a text editor. This is what the file MAME_78_for_Mame2003.dat says about puckman:

<game name="puckman">
<description>PuckMan (Japan set 1)</description>
<year>1980</year>
<manufacturer>Namco</manufacturer>
<rom name="82s123.7f" size="32" crc="2fc650bd" sha1="8d0268dee78e47c712202b0ec4f1f51109b1f2a5"/>
<rom name="82s126.1m" size="256" crc="a9cc86bf" sha1="bbcec0570aeceb582ff8238a4bc8546a23430081"/>
<rom name="82s126.3m" size="256" crc="77245b66" sha1="0c4d0bee858b97632411c440bea6948a74759746"/>
<rom name="82s126.4a" size="256" crc="3eb3a8e4" sha1="19097b5f60d1030f8b82d9f1d3a241f93e5c75d6"/>
<rom name="namcopac.6e" size="4096" crc="fee263b3" sha1="87117ba5082cd7a615b4ec7c02dd819003fbd669"/>
<rom name="namcopac.6f" size="4096" crc="39d1fc83" sha1="326dbbf94c6fa2e96613dedb53702f8832b47d59"/>
<rom name="namcopac.6h" size="4096" crc="02083b03" sha1="7e1945f6eb51f2e51806d0439f975f7a2889b9b8"/>
<rom name="namcopac.6j" size="4096" crc="7a36fe55" sha1="01b4c38108d9dc4e48da4f8d685248e1e6821377"/>
<rom name="pacman.5e" size="4096" crc="0c944964" sha1="06ef227747a440831c9a3a613b76693d52a2f0a9"/>
<rom name="pacman.5f" size="4096" crc="958fedf9" sha1="4a937ac02216ea8c96477d4a15522070507fb599"/>
</game>

This seems to be a parent to me. For insatance, for the game puckmania is sys in the DAT file:

Strange it won't work in lr-mame2003 for me. Advance Mame and Mame4All both work for me in RetroPie (be it w/ the proper ROMs!). Might I've set something wrong in Emulationstation? One can alter certain settings after pushing a button or two during the loading of the emulator. I've altered my settings to use the CEA-3 video mode which works for Advance Mame. The standard settings for lr-mame2003 won't work either.

Very frustrating that one cannot test mame2003 on the command line. I think I'll give up and keep on using adv-mame and search the internet for a 0.94 ROM set.

The Mame wiki says that there's a way to let Mame tell you if you've got the right ROM:

mame -verifyroms puckman

That works on my PC but not on my Pi because RetroPie uses "special" (?) versions of Mame. Example of output on my PC:

mame -verifyroms puckman
romset puckman is good
1 romsets found, 1 were OK.

When I do that w/ a "wrong" rom I get:

mame -verifyroms bigkong
bigkong : dk01f7_2532.d5 (4096 bytes) - NOT FOUND
bigkong : dk02f8_2532.f5 (4096 bytes) - NOT FOUND
bigkong : dk03f9_2532.h5 (4096 bytes) - NOT FOUND
bigkong : dk04f10_2532.k5 (4096 bytes) - NOT FOUND
bigkong : dk05f11_2532.l5 (4096 bytes) - NOT FOUND
romset bigkong [ckong] is bad
1 romsets found, 0 were OK.

Meneer Jansen

Example of trying to verify a ROM w/ advmame on RetroPie:

./advmame -verifyroms dkong
Unknown command line option '-verfyroms'

Mame4all seems to support this commandline option, but that still will not tell me if mame2003 has the proper ROMs.

dankcushions

@Meneer-Jansen said in Mame 2003 wont start:

Very frustrating that one cannot test mame2003 on the command line.

yes you can. https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/wiki/Using-the-command-line
although i'm not sure why you'd want to? if you want to see what errors you're getting, look at /tmp/runcommand.log

your rom looks good to me. it's a parent, but since you've made non-merged sets, it's irrelevant - clones are now standalone as they don't need their parents to run. that's the point :)

That works on my PC but not on my Pi because RetroPie uses "special" (?) versions of Mame.

we're talking about versions of mame that are over a decade apart. the libretro versions no longer function in the same way, in any case. still, none of this is needed because you don't need mame to tell you if your roms are valid, and mame2003 functions perfectly.

you are running 3.7, right? if not, you might want to rebuild retroarch from binaries.

Meneer Jansen

@dankcushions said in Mame 2003 wont start:

@Meneer-Jansen said in Mame 2003 wont start:

Very frustrating that one cannot test mame2003 on the command line.

yes you can. https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/wiki/Using-the-command-line
although i'm not sure why you'd want to? if you want to see what errors you're getting, look at /tmp/runcommand.log

your rom looks good to me. it's a parent, but since you've made non-merged sets, it's irrelevant - clones are now standalone as they don't need their parents to run. that's the point :)

That works on my PC but not on my Pi because RetroPie uses "special" (?) versions of Mame.

we're talking about versions of mame that are over a decade apart. the libretro versions no longer function in the same way, in any case. still, none of this is needed because you don't need mame to tell you if your roms are valid, and mame2003 functions perfectly.

you are running 3.7, right? if not, you might want to rebuild retroarch from binaries.

Thanks again for your help. How do I know which version of RetroPie I'm running?

My file /tmp/roncommand.log is empty even when I force to start it w/ the option --verbose from EmulationStation. Anyway, thanks for the tip on how to run Libretto games from the comand line. I uses the following command:

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so --verbose puckman

And get the following error:

RetroArch [INFO] :: === Build =======================================RetroArch [INFO] :: [CPUID]: Features:
Built: Feb 21 2016
RetroArch [INFO] :: Version: 1.3.0
RetroArch [INFO] :: Git: ccb3f73
RetroArch [INFO] :: =================================================
RetroArch [INFO] :: [CPUID]: Features:
RetroArch [INFO] :: Looking for config in: "/home/pi/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg".
RetroArch [WARN] :: SYSTEM DIR is empty, assume CONTENT DIR
RetroArch [INFO] :: Config: loading config from: /home/pi/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so"
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ SET_VARIABLES.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_LOG_INTERFACE.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE mame2003-frameskip:
RetroArch [INFO] :: 0
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE mame2003-dcs-speedhack:
RetroArch [INFO] :: enabled
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE mame2003-skip_disclaimer:
RetroArch [INFO] :: disabled
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ PERFORMANCE_LEVEL: 10.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Content loading skipped. Implementation will load it on its own.
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Found game: puckman [puckman].
RetroArch [ERROR] :: Failed to load content.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Does not have enough samples for monitor refresh rate estimation. Requires to run for at least 4096 frames.

I don't know exactly what that means, but at least I have an error message now. The main error is:

RetroArch [ERROR] :: Failed to load content.

In this error massage the term 'content' may mean 'ROM'...? If I google on this error mess. then I get only posts about iPhones... (woooot?). Still not sure if the prob. lies in Libretto or in the ROM.

dankcushions

you are running 3.7, right? if not, you might want to rebuild retroarch from binaries.

do this. install individual emulators > retroarch from binaries via retropie-setup

Meneer Jansen

P.S. I installed RetroPie in Raspbina via this tutorial:

http://blog.petrockblock.com/2012/07/22/retropie-setup-an-initialization-script-for-retroarch-on-the-raspberry-pi/

Dunno exactly which RetroPie version one gets that way, but I cannot imagine that an older version of RetroPie has problems w/ Libretto.

Meneer Jansen

@dankcushions said in Mame 2003 wont start:

you are running 3.7, right? if not, you might want to rebuild retroarch from binaries.

do this. install individual emulators > retroarch from binaries via retropie-setup

Did it. Rebooted. Same error message.

dankcushions

i have no idea about that way of installing retropie. i've always done it via the image.

rebuild retroarch from source? and also lr-mame2003 (will take about 30 minutes)

struggling to see what the problem could be once those two things are done.

BuZz

Your manual commandline is wrong btw. It expects a full path to the rom zip

You should use the current wiki for reference rather than guides from 2012 btw, but installing retropie on top of raspbian like this should work (it's how the images are generated)

Meneer Jansen

This is driving me completely crazy. I got it working once. Dunno if I started from command line or ES. I saw a stretched Retroarch screen (stretced from 4:3 to 16:9), saw a yellow text message that said something about my joypad. And it started Pacman.

This happend after I also re-installed lr-mame2003 after re-installing retroarch.

Now it don't work anymore, no matter what I re-install. There was also some trouble because I placed a remark in the file /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg (i.e. ). The re-install of lr-mame2003 via retropie-setup.sh seemed to choke on this.

I think my problem lies in config files.

P.S. @Buzz thank you for the tip. But when I replace the term "puckman" by something that doesn't exist then I get an other error. And the command line says RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Found game: puckman [puckman].. So I think it probably found it. Tried the same command w/ full path to puckman.zip. Same error unfortunately.

BuZz

Make sure your retroarch is up to date. There was a compatibility issue between mame2003 and retroarch recently that required a retroarch update (and depending on how you installed). try a "full binary install" to get the latest versions - your retroarch looks old actually.

Meneer Jansen

Darn it! It IS the ROMs.

Just now accidentally started pacman instead of puckman, used the full path to the zip file of the ROM (as @Buzz recomended, thanks by the way) and it works (still stretched from 4:3 to 16:9). But only from the command line. And there are no samples (i.e. no sound when Mario jumps in Donkey Kong). Does not (yet) work from within Emulationstation. But that a question of altering the command with which the emu/ROM is loaded in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg I hope.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to alter the video mode from stretched to "real". And how to convert the ROMs I have to standalone ones (i.e. non-merged). I might try to convert the set again this night...