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IR-FBA Not Saving High Scores/Corrupts Game

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fba hiscore.dat dkong dkong.hi ir-fbalpha
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  • SWSboarder13

    I am having issues getting FBA to save high scores. I have two pi's that I have just updated the packages. Both are running Retropie 4.3.2 with one of them having the Hyperpie front end. Both have Ir-fbalpha v02.97.42. I am testing it with Donkey Kong (dkong.zip) in the arcade folder. Since both pi's have the same issue (and I have reflashed one several times), I assume that it is not a fluke.

    I have made sure that the hiscore.dat file is in the correct place (home/pi/retropie/Bios/fba) so everything appears to be in place. Initially, the game runs and creates a "dkong.hi" file (in home/pi/retropie/Bios/fba) upon exit. it also creates a "dkong.nv" file in home/pi/retropie/roms/arcade (not sure why it creates this one).

    When I try to play the game again, it appears to be corrupt and unplayable (the screen flashes with random numbers in the middle and several discolored marios and the rest is black; the sound goes crazy as well constantly makes the "died" sound).

    Going in through ssh, I can delete the "dkong.hi" file and the game will work again for one run and then repeat on exit.

    Removing the hiscore.dat file, the game will not corrupt and can continue to run each time you start it, but of course game scores will not be saved.
    I have tried the new hiscore.dat file and the old hiscore.dat file and neither make a difference.

    Am I missing another setting that I need to select?

    Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

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  • doctorwolf

    Just to confirm, I have run into the EXACT same issue with Mr. Do which I believe is also running through FBA. This is obviously some sort of legit bug with 4.3 and it'd be great if someone did something to fix, as I'm currently holding off on moving from 4.2 to 4.3 because of it.

    0 sirhenrythe5th 1 Reply
  • sirhenrythe5th

    I also noticed that at least NeoGeo Games seem to stop saving highscores, which they did before.

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  • doctorwolf

    Can anyone confirm if this is a known bug that is being worked on or if there is some sort of fix or workaround available? This is really diminishing the value of the arcade games.

    0 caver01 1 Reply
  • Casdha

    I'm glad I just did a backup before updating, as I've run into the same issue. Donkey Kong is unplayable, games like Ms PacMan and Arabian have extra characters below or in the Hi Score which is what lead me to check for high score issues. This does not happen on Retropie 4.2 nor does it happen if you set a problem rom to run from lr-mame2003.

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  • chipsnblip

    could it be misconfigured permissions for the hiscore.dat file?

    ls -l ~/RetroPie/BIOS/fba/hiscore.dat

    -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 216250 Sep 21 06:24 /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/fba/hiscore.dat

    default permission is 644, so try 666

    chmod 666 ~/RetroPie/BIOS/fba/hiscore.dat

    i don't have my retropie set up at the moment to test, sorry. nevermind, i thought the hiscore.dat file needed to be written to, oops.

    but it might be worth checking the permissions for the *.hi files

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  • pjft

    Just out of curiosity, what FBA version is it? And have you per chance reported that in the actual lr-fbalpha repository?

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  • caver01

    @doctorwolf said in IR-FBA Not Saving High Scores/Corrupts Game:

    This is really diminishing the value of the arcade games.

    I beg to differ. Your statement is a bit overly dramatic, don't you think? Certainly, arcade games still have value, as there are nine versions of MAME to choose from. I do agree that a problem with FBA has a big impact, as it is more and more becoming a default emulator for people. I have no doubt this will get fixed if it is properly documented, but there are still other ways to launch arcade games.

    As the title of this post references lr-fba, I assume this means lr-fbalpha. Has anyone experiencing the issue logged the details at the repo like @pjft suggests?

    0 doctorwolf 1 Reply
  • doctorwolf

    @caver01 said in IR-FBA Not Saving High Scores/Corrupts Game:

    @doctorwolf said in IR-FBA Not Saving High Scores/Corrupts Game:

    This is really diminishing the value of the arcade games.

    I beg to differ. Your statement is a bit overly dramatic, don't you think?

    No, I suppose you're right. Losing the previously working ability to retain high scores and replacing it with jarbled text blocks is totally enhancing the value.

    After spending half a year perfecting a collection of specific roms with specific emulators, sifting through "8 others to chose from", in many cases where the game either doesn't work or looks wrong, isn't really a practical option.

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  • Casdha

    I'm wondering how many of us having this problem started out with a pre-made image vs an official release and then trying to update from that. Also, does it only happen to those who update from lets say 4.2 to 4.3 vs a fresh install of 4.3?

    0 pjft 1 Reply
  • pjft

    @casdha At this stage, nobody has even clarified or confirmed what FBA version they're using. It might be a bug with that particular version - I'm still on v0.2.97.39 and that doesn't happen, and based on these reports I have not upgraded.

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  • Casdha

    I started with a pre-built image (not official from here) to get an idea of how everything is set up. I've made a lot of changes and I was hesitant to start from scratch. I've got some extra SD cards now and I'm going to start investigating this. If I find anything definite, I'll share. (edit: the pre-built was 4.2 but I can't tell you exactly as I've updated the scripts and it says 4.3. I didn't run into trouble until I decided to update the packages/cores) Is there a way to see what version you are actually running if you've updated the scripts?

    0 pjft 1 Reply
  • pjft

    @casdha the FBA version shows when you open the RGUI.

    0 Casdha 1 Reply
  • Casdha

    I'm running a fresh scrape now to get back to a standard, I've been doing gamelists, theme and content tweaks manually to learn how to read and edit everything. When its done I'll check. The version of fba I use now has no problems.

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  • Casdha

    info taken from bringing up in-game Retroarch menu

    Clean install and everything updated to 4.3.5 with dkong.zip :
    fba 2.97.42 928a4d6 (not working after hiscore is created)

    Old install :
    fba 2.97.42 1aebd0 (working as intended)

    3 dankcushions 1 Reply
  • dankcushions
    Global Moderator

    @casdha said in IR-FBA Not Saving High Scores/Corrupts Game:

    info taken from bringing up in-game Retroarch menu

    Clean install and everything updated to 4.3.5 with dkong.zip :
    fba 2.97.42 928a4d6 (not working after hiscore is created)

    Old install :
    fba 2.97.42 1aebd0 (working as intended)

    thanks!
    not working commit is: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/commit/928a4d66b9bf80a4ad1652298db30803814017ef

    • this isn't actually latest, so you should update lr-fbalpha from source.

    i think your second commit has a typo, because this url should find it, but no luck:
    https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/commit/1aebd0

    1
  • Casdha

    Yes it was a typo, sorry I left out a letter: 1aebdb0 (working)

    working link 1aebdb0

    0 dankcushions 1 Reply
  • doctorwolf

    V0.2.97.42 2021f2d is the version is shows for me and high scores are not working. Will refresh back to my working build and post last working version later.

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  • dankcushions
    Global Moderator

    @casdha thanks - I think you/someone should log this here: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/issues/new

    Describe the issue and give the working and non-working commits. I would narrow it down ("bisect") to a single commit but not sure when I will get the time :( Maybe this is enough information for the developers.

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  • Casdha

    @dankcushions I would but I gotta have an account for that and I don't have one.

    Additional Information: I just tried this again and installed the core from source and 2.97.42 7332926 is doing the same thing.

    I guess this would be the page fba V 2.97.42 7332926

    Side question, can I just take the core file out of an older image and place it in the folder or are there other files to worry about?

    Edit: I transferred the entire folder "lr-fbalpha" from an old image into a fully up to date one 4.3.7 with the source update mentioned above and it still has the corruption issue.

    I pulled up the in-game retroarch screen and is says 2.97.42 1aebd0 which is the same one that worked previously. If this was all i needed to try then it appears it is something outside of this folder/core causing the issue.

    (casual reader) as for how I did it, if someone wants to know bad enough they will figure it out, I don't want to be responsible for someone messing up their build by following my instructions, these permissions are normally locked to prevent file writing and deleting in this part of the system.

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