@Thorbertha I am amazed you have started this thread. What about this thread you started?
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/5232/i-can-t-get-mame-to-work
You know you need more info from all the replies in there!?

@giventofly I use windows version of emulationstation, and i had a lot of bugs and issues with mame libretro cores so I use a normal version of mame (not libretro version) that matches all my romset, but it's a headhache because you need to specify a lot of path to get it working like expected.

This is my es_systems.cfg:

<system>
<name>mame</name>
<fullname>MAME</fullname>
<path>~.emulationstation\roms\mame</path>
<extension>.7z</extension>
<command>%HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\mameui.exe -inipath %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame -cfg_directory %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\cfg -nvram_directory %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\nvram -input_directory %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\inp -artpath %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\artwork -state_directory %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\sta -samplepath %HOME%.emulationstation\systems\mame\samples -rompath %HOME%.emulationstation\roms\mame "%ROM_RAW%" -waitvsync -triplebuffer -multithreading -throttle -filter -effect triad6</command>
<platform>arcade</platform>
<theme>mame</theme>
</system>

The bios files must be inside the roms folder, so I use the bios files in zip format and roms in 7z format, as you can see on my system config I only use 7z for roms so that way the bios files are hidden on gamelist and I only see the roms.

I hope this helps somebody. Regards.

@gnome73 said in New to Retro Pi - have some questions:

Im a RPi noob so hence why Im posting... have done some searching and the closest thing I found to answering my questions below is something called Attract but it appears to be a full reinstall of the RPi which I've only just got going so am a bit reluctant to do this

welcome! :)

My questions:-

Is there a nicer interface than emulation station ideal for kids? I've seen some youtube videos where there is a very graphical interface when choosing the games and the background wallpaper changes to match the game as you scroll through the list of ROMS - how do I set this up? Also I've seen a youtube clip on the attract mod which shows the ROMs as a grid with the game covers - but dont want to do a full reinstall.

that's attractmode. maybe someone can help you with the install, but i understand that right now it's easiest to use the full image (reinstall)

Also is there a way to go straight to the ROM selection screen and have all ROMs in 1 easy to scroll through list regardless of their Emulator?

it's possible but it would require a LOT of tweaking and file edits.

Is there a way to permanently save high scores from ROMs? I did a search and there was a suggestion to use the latest mame emulator lr-mame2003 (I am Retro Pi 4.1 on a RPi 3). Which leads me onto my next and final question..

lr-mame2003, yes: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/lr-mame2003#high-scores

I tried to run MAME Roms using lr-mame2003 and none would work... upon doing some digging I found that the Neo Geo emulator is used for MAME games? Once i put the MAME Roms in the NeoGeo emulator folder they worked! huh go figure? therefor if I can only run MAME via Neo Geo - will Neo Geo save games?

there's a lot going on here, huh? :) neogeo emulators should save games (why not try and find out?), but if you want to run mame games properly (the neogeo emulators will only run a subset of them), you should have a look at https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

rbff1-181222-230607.png

A bit rusty, but any SNK/Neo Geo fighting game with Joe Higashi in it I can do reasonably well. His play has some similarities to Ken/Ryu, and he has some very impressive close-quarters combos.

@Kristopherson05 That's not what you asked. You asked this:

is there anyway to make my joystick and buttons the arrow keys and escape button?

One solution is to use an Ipac2 keyboard decoder. You have not provided enough information (again) https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

airduel-181222-223748.png

Yes, those twin planes are a pain to take out, but the real death knell comes from the heavily armored boats on round 3. Your game essentially ends after your first life is lost on this round because you won't even be able to defend yourself without full firepower. One of my all-time favorite games, Darius, also suffers from this. While I have cleared the game before, I had to do it on a single life, because once you die, the game is essentially over.

The helicopter is definitely the best choice because you can 'waggle' in place and spread fire over about half the screen.

As far as I can remember the hi-score here is from @GtBFilms : 235110.

The @UDb23 's new Pang overlay made me play it again. And this is my hi-score: 238350 270270 340830

0_1482754851038_pang.png

@RomiBraman the release date should be there. Otherwise you are more than welcome to contribute to the database (www.screenscraper.fr)!

There are many tricks with the UXS to change what media you get. Soon the v2 will be released with huge improvements (so I heard), and making those tricks easier to use.

@herb_fargus Thank you! This is absolutely amazing! Thanks for your hard work putting it together!

@mediamogul

That's a good idea in theory, but you're already running into major issues that could very well be isolated to the VM environment and never even be seen when using an actual Pi.

I think your right. Hopefully I will get a RPi3 Model B for Xmas.

@twd Now the 'backup your data' lesson is one we've all learnt the hard way at some point!

I didn't get as far as the purple goo, but I did check out a YouTube play through to see what to expect next, and someone played through with that goo making the ship totally invisible. I thought at the time, there's no way I am going to make it through that! Seemed a bit weird there was then a whole lot more levels (including 'PRO' mode going through them all again!) when I reckoned most people would have run out of credits getting through that purple goo.

The fact it is meant to be transparent makes a lot more sense!

OK, so this was helpful!

Turns out I had built by romset

Place your lr-Mame2010 ROMs in
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro
Romset Used: .139

The directions said to put both lr-mame2003 and lr-mame2010 in the same mame-libretro folder. So It seems I just need to figure out how to default the emulator to lr-mame2010

@johnes
Broadly speaking if you have a Pi3 the mame-2003 emulator is a good bet with the 0.78 romsets.
If you want to stick with the 0.375b then I'd use lr-imame4all - not least because it will allow all the Retroarch functionality as well as easier controller file config.

If you just want to enable a shader (including the one mentioned in the thread you list above), I would strongly recommend using the inbuilt configuration editor:
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Configuration-Editor

Was definitely more a fan of Space Duel. 4-D Warriors is a bit choppy and hard to figure out what exactly is going on.

spacduel-181220-171209.png

I think I need to turn up the definition on my vector preferences, the little + shaped mines were really hard to see on a small screen.

Solved it.
I opened the config TAB menu of the MAME emulator.

The mapping was messed up for some reason.
Here is how it looked like for the first 4 buttons of Player 1

P1 button 1 = LCTRL or RetroPad1 B (This one is correct)
P1 button 2 = LALT or RetroPad1 Y (This one is also fine)
P1 button 3 = SPACE or RetroPad1 X (This one is supposed to be mapped to LSHIFT)
P1 button 4 = LSHIFT or RetroPad1 A (This one is supposed to be mapped to SPACE)

Buttons 3 and 4 are rightfully mapped as RetroPad X and A, but for some reason, the first values (SPACE and LSHIFT) were switched.
What I did is to edit the value by hand with the keyboard.

If you compare the mapping for the X and A buttons with the MAME retroarch.cfg you will notice the difference.
input_player1_a = "space"
input_player1_x = "shift"

Have no clue why this happened, but it works now. :)

@Twitch0815 Rtype & Rtype 2 crash back to ES with 0.2.97.39 :( (
Rtype works in level 1, from level 2 on crashes. Rtype 2 crashes from level 1 on after some playing..
Tested with CLRMAMEPRO confirmed Roms. LR-FBalpha 2012 runs fluidly, but core does not support savegames :(
Any ideas? I´m on RP4.1

@cyrus Never mind, you have to press TAB in game and then you can configure the buttons

@KevTastic84 can you paste in pastebin.com your /opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg?