8bcraft Project using Pi Zero W Sound Lagg / Gameplay using GBA ROMs

Shay90

Hi all,

My specs are down below.

The issue:
I recently received my PCB device / shell from 8bcraft.com. Its a beautiful little rig. My only problem now is, that when I am running GBA games, some of them lagg at certain points in the game. The 8bcraft device has its own Printed circuit board (PCB) which sits on top of my Pi Zero W. I am using 8GB SD Card. My goal is to play GB / GBC / GBA and some NES / SNES games. It seems to be that when dialect pops up in a game there is severe lagg to sound / picture. Then once the person pops down after speaking in the game, it runs ok.

Has anybody had an issue with sound / game lagg using a Raspberry Pi Zero W? In particular GBA Roms? I remember setting this up on my Pi 3 in anticipation of the 8bcraft device coming, where there was no problem. Is the Pi Zero W just not powerful enough? Could my card be corrupt? Is sound a known problem on GBA Roms on Pi Zero W? Maybe I need to free up some space? Although it's only 200-300 Gameboy/GBC/GBA Roms, which is not a lot of space on an 8GB SD Card.

The things I haven't tried:

A different SD Card
Start Fresh on current card

My Specs:

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero w on 8bcraft device (http://www.8bcraft.com)
Power Supply used: Battery from 8bcraft project. But have tried whilst plugged in also using official RP3 Charger
RetroPie is v4.3
Built From: SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: SNES Controller as part of the 8bcraft device (http://www.8bcraft.com)
Emulator: Mainly GBA. GB & GBC are running OK mostly.
How to replicate the problem: Switch on device. Start up GBA ROM. Warioland, Krazy Racers, Zelda..etc. Note sound is lagging / gameplay lags at some points when music is playing / dialog is playing.
Other things to note: I have about 200 ROMS mixed between GB / GBC / GBA on it at the moment.

herb_fargus

@shay90 well. I'm jealous yours at least works. In my infinite wisdom I broke mine before I even got it working. (Time to learn how to solder fpc connectors!)

But yeah unless you're using standalone gpsp the pi zero is wont to perform somewhat poorly on some gba games.

Shay90

@herb_fargus said in 8bcraft Project using Pi Zero W Sound Lagg / Gameplay using GBA ROMs:

gpsp

Cheers for the reply! I haven't tried anything but the default emulator. And I'm unsure which one that is in Retropie for GBA. I will check when I'm home. I'm probably going to flash a different sd card and put just a few GBA games on it and test it out. It really is unplayable in the current state. More annoying than anything.

I almost broke mine I feel. The connections requrie a good bit of force, and so did the LCD connector. It would be better if it came more assembled in the next version.

herb_fargus

@shay90 I'm not even so much concerned about it being preassembled as much as I am about parts not breaking as much. But it's to be expected with a Kickstarter thing and I knew that when I bought it. Plus it gives me an excuse to try my hand at soldering, making is most the fun for me anyways I hardly play games these days.

My main concern is the fact that the sd isn't accessible without having to disassemble the whole thing, so I ordered this in hopes that it's just the right size:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071N9PGGF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_RZhtAbK7X93XE

It might poke out a little but I guess we'll see. A little carving of the plastic should do the trick.

It's possible that gpsp is the default already for the pi0 build, I don't really remember as it's been a while, lr-mgba may also perform better for some games but it's a bit hit and miss for the power of the rpi 0.

I think I'm going to try the pigrrl once I get this one sorted as it uses a pi3 instead. Or maybe I'll just do a case mod or wait til a newer, more powerful, smaller pi comes out in the coming years.

Shay90

I totally agree. I am more intrigued by the hardware than playing games :D. I intend to bring it on travel trips though to keep me entertained. Some of the GBA games are really good! The ones which I have never played before, because well back then, you had to pay a buck for each game xD

Yeah, I wish the sd card was more accessible. Although the wifi works pretty well for me. I've added / removed ROMs without issue. But in my case I want to replace the sd card, so now I have to disassemble it completely. And I know its going to take a couple of tries to put it back together (in terms of all buttons working mainly). The extension thing is ideal, but I will probably just leave that out for now.

So I checked last night and the emulator which works with all my ROMs is lr-mgba. lr-gpSP didn't work. I tried freeing up some space in case, but I had 4GB free so thats not the issue.

I think starting from scratch is my best bet. I remember during my other project for MAME games, the games lagged when I enabled shaders to give the screen a more retro feel with curvature and lines. As soon as I disabled the shaders, performance was perfect. In relation to this project I changed font sizes and maybe something else I can't remember. Maybe something messed up the config leading to performance issues.

My next tests are going to be:

Try the same sd card (problematic raspiboy) in a RPi 3 and see if ROMs are OK. This will rule out any issue with my GBA ROMs / config / sd card.
Flash new sd card (8gb) with retropie for pi zero, install GBA games and test with raspiboy.

If I still get some lagg in my GBA games after trying a fresh sd card in my raspiboy I will be greatly dissapointed. Raspiboy is perfect for GBA with the triggers on the back, and the games are so good (from childhood).

Pifrrl looks neat! I don't see any links to buy the whole thing, it looks like you have to buy the parts seperatly. I just love the shape of raspiboy and the trigger buttons! It opens up so many possibilities to play GB/GBC/GBA/ NES/SNES and SEGA Genesis games!

Shay90

Still no luck after changing Res / video mode. Will have to try a new sd card and start from scratch.

Shay90

So I flashed a new SD Card (8gb) with the zero image from retropie website. I made the relevant changes to config.txt to make the audio work.

I'm still dissapointed that GBA games don't work without sound lagg. Does anybody have GBA working perfectly on pi zero? If so what are your specs?