Running Advance MAME with Pi2SCART

A Former User

I'm trying to get Advance MAME working on my system, at the moment it goes through motions but goes back to ES shortly after the boot menu. Tried it with multiple games.

I installed the optional package included in the main image - advmame 3.4, then changed from mame2003 to advmame in ES boot menu
I put a bunch of roms into the ...roms/arcade/advmame/ directory. The roms were rebuilt from 1.84 (merged) into 1.06 (non-merged).
my 4.2 install at the moment runs everything else without problems, I did not change any settings for this attempt apart from the 1)

My question is: should Advance MAME work out-of-the-box, or do I need to delve into the configs? The main difference between the "normal" setups and mine is the Pi2SCART add on and using a CRT TV as a display. I can post additional info if necessary, but would like to just clear that first.

sirhenrythe5th

@arkive i also use AdvanceMame from the start and it should work without any changes in the configs.
Of course you need the right roms and BIOS files but those will run when they are the right ones.

I dont think that the CRT has something to do with it.
I have two PI3s, one connected via HDMI to a LED TV, the other one is connected to a CRT with an ordinary cable and a SCART-Plug which i took from a N64.
There are no differences concerning running AdvanceMame or any other Emulator.
As far as you get a picture when booting up the Pi AdvanceMame will run (and look great on CRT!!! ☺👍) without any Problem.

A Former User

Thanks, appreciate the reply, now I know a bit better how to approach this, starting with retracing some basic steps.

I didn't mean the CRT itself, but the board I'm using (Pi2SCART) to connect to it requires specific changes in the config to make it work. So I thought maybe it affects the Advance MAME, which in turn is supposed to have bit more complex options regarding CRTs.

Out o curiosity, how do vertical shooters look on your CRT, regarding scaling etc? I assume you're playing in horizontal mode, without rotation?

sirhenrythe5th

https://picload.org/image/rpacdpgr/dsc_1248.jpg
https://picload.org/image/rpacdpga/dsc_1249.jpg

I am very satisfied with the display of vertical games using AdvanceMame on a CRT.
This is pretty important for me, because SHMUPs are one of my favourite gamegenre 😊.
As you can see on the pictures above (game running is "Dodonpachi") AdvanceMame stretches the picture a bit.
But not too much so everything becomes weird or something like that.
Imho its perfect, best you can do when playing vertical games on 4:3

A Former User

@sirhenrythe5th Fabulous! That's exactly what I'm looking for...a vertical arcade game centered on a 4:3 TV set. The minor stretches I can live with but atm on my setup vertical games are "fit to screen" ie stretched horizontally, or lose big chunks on top/bottom which is unacceptable. This is why I' trying to get Advance MAME working - heard it scales stuff properly.

Nice TV, I recommend you get some RGB solution instead of composite - quality difference is huge :)

It seems my problem for now has something to do with the rom set - I looked at the runcommand.log and it says "files are missing", which is bizarre - they're all in the zip. ><...hate this rebuilding stuff...

sirhenrythe5th

@arkive which game / romset is it that makes you problems?
Maybe i also run it and i managed to get the roms without using rom-managers by trying to find the right romset from several sources.

Actually i have 565 Romsets running well, without double entrys and NEOGEO (using FBA for those great games 😉).

So as far as your problem-romset is also in my setup i can gurantee that i can be found without merging Romsets with a seperate tool ☺

A Former User

Ah, so you're trying to mix & match - I used this method back in the day, but to be honest it's too much of a hit'n miss. For example there are supposed to be 6166 "active sets" for MAME 1.06...so I need to use a rebuilder. it's not so bad anyway, I did it for mame2003 and others no problem, just bit stumped on this one.

I think I'll leave it for today and go actually play some games ;) Thanks for your help all the same.

sirhenrythe5th

@arkive to be honest: i allready had a complete romsets for Mame as i am addicted to it since i found it back in the 90s (34beta7).
But for a long time i used a WindowsPC for it.

And most of them worked / were compatible to 0.106.
But for those that didn't i searched for the right romset as i dont have a Computer anymore to use CtrlMAME or RomCenter.

Last but not least i dont want to have 6000+ romsets. I just put those in the ROM-Folder that i really like and enjoy to play; there are a lot of great Arcade games out there....but also a lot of crap imho. And i dont know how to play Mahjongg, so at least that makes -500 Romsets for me ☺

A Former User

Heh ,I know what you mean, filtering all the mahjong/adult/etc games can be a pain...but also kind of fun ;)

It's true that even that early MAME sets - which blew my mind back then - were quite cool. But since then lots and lots of awesome games were added and others have vastly improved performance, so if you ever get a good PC again I suggest getting the latest one. It demands a strong PC though...

A Former User

So I managed to get the Advance Mame running. It's nearly great...nearly. The vertical games are now scaled just-about properly - but not quite. They just do not look "pixel perfect". There are also slight artifacts - for example 1941 looks kinda "interlaced", 1942 has some horizontal lines making the scene "float", and they still don't fit the screen 100% proper vertically.

I was reading the docs and it is said I should run advcfg utility. I did, and adjusted some options there, with no visible changes when running the games later. I checked the advmame.rc config and they don't seem to register there. This should appear in advmame.rc after running advcfg

display_mode auto
display_adjust generate_yclock
device_video_clock ?
device_video_format ?

I don't know much about Linux and I'm stumbling in the dark here. I tried doing this using that File Manager from retropie menu, but it's been tough - it only lets me run programs from the windows, I can't do it from command line...I got some old DOS habits, which are probably wrong here.

Any ideas?

CrossCheck

@A-Former-User said in Running Advance MAME with Pi2SCART:

I was reading the docs and it is said I should run advcfg utility. I did, and adjusted some options there"

Sorry to necro this, but I've been searching everywhere - how does one actual run the "advcfg" utility?

Like, what is the sudo command from a terminal window?

How to "run" advancemame, advancemenu or advance config appears exactly nowhere in any of the documentation or in any faq.

Thanks a million.

mitu

@CrossCheck The advXYZ set of utilities (including the emulator) are installed in /opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin - see Advmame. You'll have to run them from a command line, outside of EmulationStation.