[Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread

Stuffu

I just noticed that there are some really interesting Amiga CD games but I'm not sure they are supported. or at least how the get them to run. As it seems Amiberry is capable of running HDF files, but they are not a supported file format in RetroPie, the other way around is to use a LHA version of the Amiga CD game, but that just ends up in a black screen.

Has anyone been able to get Amiga CD games running with Amiberry?

gizmo90

I'm trying to get Amiberry installed on my picade running Retropie and have run into an issue with the 'Using Amiberry WHDBooter with RetroPie (Step 2)' section.

At the bottom of the page it states that my Paths catagory should match the one in the photo. However my paths seem completely different, for instance my System ROMs says:
/opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/kickstarts/
and my RetroArch configuration file says:
/opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/conf/retroarch.cfg

However, the actual location of the RetroArch configuration file on my system is:
/Home/RetroPie/configs/amiga/amiberry/conf/retroarch.cfg

I haven't even added the Kickstart ROMs as I'm unsure where to place them now. Does anyone know I should do to resolve this? Have I installed Amiberry incorrectly? Should I point the paths to different locations in Amiberry's Paths section?

Any help greatly appreciated.

nemo93

@Stuffu do you have any names in mind? You're talking titles like OnEscapee or Wasted Dreams maybe? Or instead CD32? The latter does support lha version of the games yet you might lose the redbook (cd-da) audio tracks. I need to do further testing with the former as clearly there are true gems that must be made available to a wide audience.

@gizmo90 you must copy the various Kickstarts under /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ as stated in the doc those might be copyrighted. You'll have to find these by yourself. Once done and copied over the Retropie BIOS directory, Amiberry will create all necessary symlinks. If issue persists please ensure to point Amiberry System ROMS to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ from the emulator GUI. Then check symlinks have been created by looking in the /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Kickstarts/ where you'll see files with *.RTB as extension.

nemo93

All! hope you're doing well. I've been working on bringing back to life the whdload_db.xml file which Amiberry parses to automatically setup the games using best available settings. I've cloned @HoraceAndSpider's repo and updated the file (it's done automatically every 2-3 days now). I even added parameters for "screen centering" yet it's not implemented fully so won't be picked up by Amiberry as we speak.

It would be very nice if you could give it a try. Feel free to share any feedback and to contribute as this file is truly useful to ease Amiga emulation.

All credits must go to @HoraceAndSpider & @midwan for their amazing work and support!

Stuffu

@nemo93 thats absolutely correct. Wasted dreams was actually one of the games I had in mind. I realize that there are some games that are “fairly large” in size...

Stuffu

@nemo93 Really nice that you are looking at the whdload_db.xml. Not sure how it should be implemented but there is one thing that is rather annoying. For instance Barbarian ultimate warrior (From mind so might be named slightly different) won’t start with the current db settings. But at github for whdload dB there is a workaround.

However, if you do a custom config based on that, it will be overwritten when you update the whdload db. It’s hard to keep track of the changes you make so maybe somehow the custom configuration can override the whdload, until the change is implemented at least.

Stuffu

I also want to give a @HoraceAndSpider and @midwan a big thanks for the effort. Also if someone has missed it, there is also the possibility to become a backer.

https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md

nemo93

hello @Stuffu! Ah Barbarian... it's a tough one :-) This one gave me a lot of headache. My proposed fix should work indeed yet as always @HoraceAndSpider is right. The simple straightforward fix is as follows:

Use your current whdload_db.xml or an updated version
Launch Barbarian_v1.1_Palace_1784 with Amiberry (I take it's the one you were talking about in which you could chop your opponent's head :)).
At this point it's likely you'll get straight to Amiberry GUI
Go to the ROM section
Set ROM to Kickstart v2.05 r37.350 (1992)(Commodore)(A600HD)[!].rom (3.1 (A500,A600,A2000) rev 40.63 should also work or any similar to Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.63 (1993)(Commodore)(A500-A600-A2000)[!].rom. Check doc for details about this exact KS.)
Hit the Restart button

You should be good to go! Now if you don't want to do that each time:

Go back to GUI once again
Get to the Configurations section
Git the Save button directly. A new .uae file with the same name (eg. Barbarian_v1.1_Palace_1784.uae) will be created in /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/conf dir. If you close Amiberry and launch the game again, emulator will pick up the uae you just saved instead of XML. It will do so every time from now on.

If you'd like to use the updated whdload_db.xml it's quite easy too. Just download it (right click the link and Save as) and place it into the /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/game-data/ folder. That's all. If there's no uae found for a game then Amiberry will look for the XML.
=> Do BACKUP your existing whdload_db.xml first :-)

I'll check the CD games and report back. It's something I was looking after too!

nemo93

@Stuffu ok here's my feedback about CD and CD32 games with Amiberry.

CD
Amiga CD support is not implemented yet. I don't know if there's any plan to add it at some point. I just got this ticket as reference. There's still a way though to get Amiga CD game to run on Pi via Amiberry. Some nice fellows did manage to pack those games within HDF files. You have to google a bit but if you get your hands on some then try the following.
1. Launch Amiberry.
2. Pick a A1200 config in Quickstart section
3. Go to Hard drives / CD. Add a harddrive file and point to where you've stored the hdf containing your game.
4. Hit Reset

If all goes well you should go straight to the Workbench with a mounted directory named after your game. Double-click on that and on the icon to launch the game. I do confirm I was able to run and play Wasted Dreams. The FMV intro plays absolutely smooth and so the game!

If the above works, enter Amiberry GUI once again, go to Configurations and ensure to save it. That way you could launch the game straight from ES/Pegasus next time by pointing to the .uae instead!

CD32
It's supported no problem. I've tried with Kid Chaos which comes with CD-DA tracks and it works absolutely fine. Ensure to select "CD32" in Quickstart section and point to your cue/iso. As simple as that.

What's left is to run a cue/hdf straight from ES/Pegasus. I'm testing that right now.

Stuffu

@nemo93 Maybe I just tried some bad HDF files before then. Gave up on that after a few tries but will give it a go again!

WHDLoad support won’t be coming I guess. Reached out to the team but it seemed unlikely that anything would happen with CD games. But a workaround is better than nothing :)

nemo93

I do confirm CD games via HDF are working flawlessly. If it doesn't work try with other HDFs. I then launch these via a .uae. If you ask me to I could share such uae. Also to confirm Wasted Dreams and onEscapee are pure gems.

For CD32 there's a trick. There's the -autoload= parameter of Amiberry for running those games. Just ensure to rename your .cue file to the CD32 name found inside the whdload_db.xml.

E.g. let's assume I want to run Chaos Engine CD32:
1. Put all cue/bin files inside my "roms" folder.
2. Then double-check inside the .cue to be sure it points to the corresponding .bin file(s).
3. Take a peek inside the the whdload_db.xml to see what name to chose. This one looks a fine candidate => ChaosEngine_v2.1_CD32.
4. Simply rename the .cue with that name and run Amiberry with it.

$ amiberry -autoload=ChaosEngine_v2.1_CD32.cue -G

Amiberry will launch with CD32 settings already applied. You could check that by entering the GUI. If you're willing to launch straight from ES/Pegasus, simply ensure the .cue extension is added to the systems list.

Stuffu

@nemo93 I would be happy if you shared the .uae :) the CD32 games are WHDloads and works just fine...

McCarthy

Help needed. With my setup no configuration file per game is saved. Every time I want to specify game specific configurations it doesn't give me the option for saving it, it always uses the default configuration file. With previous versions it saved a config file for each game, that doesn't seem to work anymore.

nemo93

hey @Stuffu! sure thing. Here you go => Wasted Dreams uae. Nothing fancy as you'll see.

to all @midwan kindly updated Amiberry's parameters to make it easier to launch CD32 games. Please check this ticket here. In short there are now -model=CD32 and -cdimage=<something>.cue/iso supported. Way easier than my process above! The below should work:

$ amiberry -model=CD32 -cdimage=ChaosEngine_CD32.cue -G

nemo93

hello @McCarthy ! Let's see how and if we could be of assistance here :-) Would you be kind enough to elaborate on the steps you've been through? I'm using configurations a lot recently and it goes well on that front so far. Usually after running the game I'm entering the GUI, head up to Configurations and hit the Save button. Given the emulator already relies on the name of the game file as the uae name that's really all I have to do to save my uae config.

Don't forget to share your exact setup also please.

McCarthy

I have a rpi3 b+ with the latest RetroPie. When I load adf files it doesn't save a unique config file for the game, but when I use Whdload games it works.

Stuffu

@nemo93 said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

hey @Stuffu! sure thing. Here you go => Wasted Dreams uae. Nothing fancy as you'll see.

to all @midwan kindly updated Amiberry's parameters to make it easier to launch CD32 games. Please check this ticket here. In short there are now -model=CD32 and -cdimage=<something>.cue/iso supported. Way easier than my process above! The below should work:
$ amiberry -model=CD32 -cdimage=ChaosEngine_CD32.cue -G

Worked fine with the uae, thanks again. Didn’t get the controller to work though, think we have different setup with joystick/mouse. But it’s a start and I just have to hook up a mouse I guess. There are some fine pieces I’m going to try out :)

nemo93

excellent @Stuffu glad it works. I'm sure you'll figure the controller(s) out. It works here (mouse/keyboard/joy) no issue.

@McCarthy it's not a very good answer to you but any reason(s) you want to stick to ADF instead of WHD packages? I can only recommend packages as it will ease a lot the emulation. If you really needs it you'll have to raise a ticket on Amiberry's Github to seek for a solution (unless someone's else does have the answer!).

baldrick

Hey there all, new member first time poster
Trying to install Amiberry from Source on Pi4
Getting the following:
Error running 'git clone --recursive --depth 1 --branch master https://github/midwan/amiberry
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/amiberry' - returned 128

Any ideas?!

mitu

@baldrick Please open a new topic and add the info requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.