Just in case someone stumbles upon this thread while searching, I was able to fix the issue by clearing out my "Nvram" folder. Apparently it had some corrupt data in it.

@byaaah31 The linked topic recommend using the right roms for the emulator you will be using, not the reverse. To find the right rom on google, no need to download from 12 websites, you just need to type the name of the emulator + its version, one of the first links contains all the roms you'll need (the first one in my case). But again, if you are okay without shaders, savestates, rewind, netplay, autoconfig, dipswitches, better sound, ... , using pifba is fine.

A Pi3 with lr-fba does not need overclocking. The slowdowns you see are either:

something that also happens on real hardware when there's too much action going on - part of the charm!

CPU throttling (check the temperature) or undervoltage

some games are programmed to look like they're slowing down (drama effect), it's something bizarrely intentional

@dogeymon Check the docs - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FinalBurn-Alpha/#pifba - you should edit the config file at /opt/retropie/emulators/pifba/fba2x.cfg.
Btw, why don't you give lr-fbalphaa try ? It has support for more ROMs than pifba and you get the RetroArch RGUI for any kind of settings you want.

The problem I had was that I didn't know what the "Insert Coin" mapped to. I discovered (from Google) that it's the SELECT button. Once I knew this, I could edit the retroarch.cfg in the configs/FBA folder and added the following line: input_player1_select = "num5"

Sorted.

Thank you.

PS: I also tried adding input_player2_select = "num6", but it looks like it only accepts P1 setting.

@retrocake said:

what about the game roms make it specific to an emulator? Isn't there a standard, at least for the game roms?

The quick answer to most of your questions is that only the names of roms for arcade emulators are consistent. For example, dkong.zip is Donkey Kong. However, the individual files within the zip, and the binary data within those files--this data changes as the emulators have evolved. It is not true in every single case, but during major emulator changes, the ROMs get updated too.

The best way to describe this is that in the early days, emulators took some shortcuts. For example, early versions of a ROM zip file might be incomplete compared to today. Certain game elements might have been skipped back then, or missed because the early emulator did not need them. Later, as emulators improved, it required that they go back and re-capture the original game chips to get more complete versions of their contents (perhaps an over-simplification, but you get the idea). So, although a specific zip file is named the same from one set to the next, the files inside can change over time to match the improvements of the emulator. Each version of MAME for example, needs to use ROMs that match. This is why you cannot just get "the latest" ROM and expect it to work with an old version of MAME/FBA. Think about this--the same is true for other software. You cannot open an new Excel file using the old version of Excel. But emulators are even more picky since they cannot use older ROMs either because they are expecting the zip file to have everything the new emulator needs to perform accurate emulation.

NeoGeo games are the same, but in addition to the game ROMs, they rely on a NeoGeo zip file which simply has a common set of data that they all need/use. You can think of the NeoGeo BIOS as a parent ROM required for any single game to work properly. Yet, this too is version dependent. In a complete romset that includes NeoGeo games, it will also include the neogeo.zip that matches them.

The short answer is that ROMs, BIOS files and Emulators evolve together over time. Using a specific emulator requires its matching set because you are essentially using software and documents from a snapshot of the development lifecycle, so mixing and matching pieces just doesn't work. However, you can use utilities like CLRMAMEPRO to scan a collection of files from multiple sets and, provided you have all of the pieces, rebuild individual ROM zip files or entire sets using a corresponding .dat file as a reference. The emulators do not do this for you, and using utilities like this is a complicated endeavor, so you are often better off just finding the matching romset for the emulator you are using.

@dankcushions said in Advice on neogeo games in Arcade folder:

or... even better, just use a core override. for example - in fbalpha, set the controls via the RGUI to the way you want, and then save it via quick menu as a 'core override'. that will mean that fbalpha will load that override no matter what folder you launch from, and mame2003 could have its own, independent core override (or having nothing and fall back to the /arcade/retroarch.cfg settings)

@dankcushions - Thank you I figured out how to do core override with the controller and saving it out but doing the same thing for the keyboard/IPAC doesn't seem to work that way. Unless I overwrote the arcade/retroarch.cfg. Which the main goal was to modify FBA IPAC/keyboard settings without affecting the default arcade/retroarch.cfg settings.

I found 2 workarounds that seems to work but was looking to get your feedback. In emulators.cfg I changed the config portion of the launch command to point to the fba/retroarch.cfg and that seemed to allow me to remap fba in another file fully without interfering with the MAME default settings in arcade/retroarch.cfg.

The other method is adding them to the FBA config (different from FB Alpha.rmp) which I had to manually modify as I don't see a save option for that file in RGUI. It seems to work like the core override (for controllers) but you can add keyboard settings/values like changing input_player1_x = "shift", etc.

With the FB Alpaha.rmp (core override remap) it seems to ignore keyboard commands added to it.

But it does seem to allow you flexibility with the Arcade folder to map each emulator the way you want using unique/different keys for each emulator

@tropez get the correct romset version. Nothing else to research https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/arcade

From the Docs there is a link to a Google spreadsheet with compatibility list of the games for the lr-fbalpha emulator. It contains the full name of the game for each rom version. I use CTRL+F in Firefox to open the search bar.

I usually use the base version, as it is the "normal" one (normally). @user50217 Thanks for pointing out this. I was thinking about to reorganize my Neo Geo collection and this is an important information to me. To be more precise, I meant the information about NGH home version of rom and NGM. I thought its only depending on the bios.

Great. I have learned a lot more the last couple of days and feel more comfortable in clrmamepro. Everything is working. Some dat files may have a crc that doesn't match one of the files inside the rom zip, but it works. Also, thanks for that screenshot because you just turned me on to "Hashtab", what a great little utility!

I found that to use neo-geo from the fba core I had to put the "neogeo.zip" inside the roms folder not the BIOS folder as one would assume.

and rbaker is correct you may have a bios problem...best thing to do is to use the Final Burn Alpha emulator itself..not the core or the one for the pi...the "raw"one from the FBAlpha website...make sure to get the correct version.

Look here to see what version of the emulator you are using (0.2.96.71 or 0.2.97.30 or v0.2.97.42)
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/FinalBurn-Alpha

Yeah this is "the hard way" but..the full FBA emulator will give you information you might need to make sure you have what you you need. i.e. name(s) size(s) and correct CRC. BIOSes are a pain in the butt....but that is how it is.
Then you can drop that onto your pi and it should work.

Try dropping it into your folder with your roms first though..or leave a copy in your BIOS folder and have copy in your roms folder..doesn't hurt.

@melvin-fox Appreciate the encouragement.

I've had to reconsider the design and features of the enclosure as I was relying on somebody else to build it and now am unsure on when or if this will happen anytime soon. Using an arcade stick with the Pi was the priority so for now, the Pi will stay as is and outside the initial build (version 1). I'll continue to power it as I always have.

As this is my first arcade stick build and likely to be a temporary solution, it's very low budget. It's currently housed in an cardboard box! I'll look into upgrading it into something more classy once I can establish how much use it's going to get. I received all the parts last week and spent some time on weekend wiring everything up to ensure it was all working.

I'll reconsider the options we discussed here once it's upgraded and decide if an all in one arcade stick/PI solution is the better option. More importantly, if it can be achieved using the few tools I have access to whilst keeping costs to a minimum.

@leatherface looks cool mate, if it was red it match my cab

@edmaul69 Good suggestion. Thanks !
Changed the title.

Oh, nevermind.

A fresh install of UXMLS seems to have solved the problem :-)

as far as i can tell, this behavior can be different depending on the BIOS. load up a neogeo rom for instance, and you will see a retroarch quickmenu >> options entry you can change to a few different button combinations (Holding Start being the default). then take 1942 for example in where holding start does nothing, and you must activate the service mode from retroarch quickmenu > options then restart the core.

also, there is a line in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg

fba-diagnostic-input = "Hold Start"

that might be what you're after.
i'm not 100% certain on all this but i hope it helps point you in the right direction.

@ruckage awesome build and awesome how you made your own controller with neo geo theme.
i have the same arcade stick and would love to print this out also. care to share the templates so i can print them out please. thank you