mame-libretto (mame 2003) and Joust - launch screen weirdness but game plays okay?

wolfgangrumpf · 31 May 2017, 19:15

I finally got around to setting up my Retropie, and I'm just having a few issues with MAME itself. I'm using the latest RetroPie distro, and the mame-libretto emulator for MAME. Most of the games I've installed (making sure they are 2003/0.78 roms) work fine. Joust, on the other hand, gives me a strange symptom on launch. The screen fills with rainbow snow crash, and then proceeds to the game just fine. So the Joust Splash Screen, effectively doesn't seem to be working.

Anyone else seeing this?

mediamogul · 31 May 2017, 19:25

@wolfgangrumpf

It's expected behavior from the original ROM and is present in several Midway games of the era. Once you launch the game, press 'selext+x' to bring up the RGUI an go into the 'quick menu'. From there, select 'reset' and then 'resume'. It should boot normally after that and carry over to consecutive launches.

wolfgangrumpf · 31 May 2017, 19:45

@mediamogul Thanks for the quick response! I tried your suggestion - Quick Menu, Restart (not reset in the menu, but it printed the word reset in the lower left of the screen), then resume - same behavior. Even tried rebooting the Pi, no effect. :(

mediamogul · 31 May 2017, 19:59

@wolfgangrumpf

and then proceeds to the game just fine.

I overlooked that part of your original post. If it's proceeding to the game, then you're good to go. The original ROM/hardware behaved the same way.

wolfgangrumpf · 31 May 2017, 20:08

@mediamogul ahhh, LOL, okay. So really authentic then! Thanks again....

caver01 · 31 May 2017, 20:38

@wolfgangrumpf The way I have understood this symptom is that it needs to find NVRAM in order to actually start the game. At first run, this does not exist (but MAME creates the file for you). That's why a reset at that point works--the file is saved and this time it finds what it needs. Moreover, the game will not do this again the next time--it will launch as you would expect.

I may be a little off with the the technical description, but looking at it this way helps me to understand something close to what is going on under the hood. A few other games do this too. If you ever re-image and need to reload roms, you can hang on to the configuration files that get created and reload those too so this doesn't happen again.

dankcushions · 1 Jun 2017, 09:15

some mame games permit save states, so you could do a save state (select + R bumper) after the load, and then load it (select + L bumper) to skip it. however:

some mame games don't support it - i'm not sure if joust does/doesn't.
it will probably reset any hiscores recorded after your save state.

mediamogul · 6 Jan 2017, 15:24

@dankcushions

I do that for several games and it works very well. Anecdotally, I was disappointed when it wouldn't work with the 'BurgerTime' sequel, 'Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory', as it's a DECO Cassette title that requires a 113 second countdown before it will begin. It feels like it takes forever, but I usually just go grab a cup of coffee and it's ready when I get back.

akafox · 14 Jun 2018, 03:02

Yes I know this is an old thread..but I wanted to this posted for others to see it. With the deco cassette games you can by pass the loading screen using advmame. I can get Burger time to load in twelve seconds as opposed to three minutes or so (estimated times) And yes I know the is a Burger time that is not deco cassette so it loads faster..that is not the point. The point is to load the games that are deco cassette that do not have a non deco version to load faster.

Let the game load normally then press the minus key on the 10-key (or num keypad) you will see a message that says:

Startup time of nnn seconds saved

if you open the advmame.rc file and look at the bottom of it you will see (for example):

cbtime/sync_startuptime 37

you can change the number up to 180..NOT any longer.

this will speed up the loading of deco cassette games. Hope this helps! :D

Just to note..strange that mame wants to be authentic for historical reasons.. (the whole point of mame) but I would think that a nv ram could be used to save the loaded rom..like Street Fighter 3. I mean we don't wait 20 minutes every time it writes once then wait again when we start it shrugs

mediamogul · 14 Jun 2018, 03:58

@akafox said in mame-libretto (mame 2003) and Joust - launch screen weirdness but game plays okay?:

this will speed up the loading of deco cassette games. Hope this helps! :D

Very nice! I'm gonna give this a shot with 'Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory' a little later. Thanks.

akafox · 15 Jun 2018, 23:43

@mediamogul Not a problem! :D

I did notice that version 3.5 doesn't seem to speed up when I set that...1.4 will (the version on my pi)..I have not tried version 3.7 yet.

Also note that this can be done for ANY game that you load in advmame..yes even a PC..

akafox · 15 Jun 2018, 23:55

@mediamogul Sure let me know how it works out :D

mediamogul · 16 Jun 2018, 01:09

@akafox said in mame-libretto (mame 2003) and Joust - launch screen weirdness but game plays okay?:

let me know how it works out :D

It worked great, thanks! On 3.7 I did have to alter the number to 160, otherwise it continued on to speed through some of the game's initial attract mode. This might just stem from changes to the feature between the versions of AdvanceMAME. Regardless, it's really great to see that number counting down so quickly.

akafox · 16 Jun 2018, 18:11

@mediamogul still not working..guess I will have to compile 3.7 sigh
I'll report back