PCE-CD (pc-engine) stuck at "Just a moment..." screen

qbical

Greetings all
I am running into an issue getting any turbo-CD games to work. I have went thru every forum post and github posting I can find relating to this, and am still not finding a resolution.

some details:
Pi Model: 3
Power Supply used: 2.5 amp QVS
RetroPie Version Used: 4.3
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: wireless mini keyboard
Controller used: xb360 wireless and/or wired PS3
Error messages received: none, just gets stuck at "just a moment...." screen
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log (if relevant): none
Guide used: github and these forums
File: Trying Loom and Godzilla
Emulator: lr-beetle-pce-fast

I was originally trying on an existing build, but decided to start w/ a fresh new SD card and retropie image just to rule any kind of previous human or config errors.

Steps I took so far:
Found syscard32.pce file and moved it into the Retropie/BIOS folder
confirmed the syscard32.pce md5sum matched what github showed (it did)
confirmed both files names and editing matched exactly
zipped up the .cue and .bin files of the game into one folder
moved zipped game files into Retropie/roms/pcengine folder
boot into retropie, go to PC Engine and launch the game
I get the nice PC Engine Super CD-Rom2 system ver. 3.00 screen
I press the start button as prompted on the screen
The text changes to "just a moment..." and this is where everything stops
I left it in this state for about 20 minutes a few times just to see if there was a long load time, but to no avail.

Additional steps I took that did not work:
Tried to rename Super CD-ROM2 system V3.00 (J).pce to syscard32.pce and use that.
Tried zipping the syscard32.pce file in with the game files.
Tried putting the syscard32.pce file into the pcengine folder.
Copied the .cue and .bin game files in the pcengine folder unzipped

at this point I am totally lost for ideas and any help is much appreciated

edmaul69

@qbical so this is the issue 99% of the time. If you open up the .cue file inside it, it says the bin file name. But the problem is all the caps and lowercase have to match. Even in the .bin/.iso part. If the .bin is named say Dragon’s Lair.bin and inside the .cue file it says DRAGON’S LAIR.BIN You need to rename it Dragon’s Lair.bin inside the .cue file

edmaul69

@qbical plus you need the syscard3.pce to be in the bios file how you had it.

qbical

@edmaul69

I will take a look in there and update the thread. Thank you for the quick response!

qbical

@edmaul69
I confirmed the file name in the .cue matched the .bin file name. At first they didn't, so I was pretty pumped this would fix the issue. However, when I changed the names to match it did not launch. I still end up at "just a moment...."
I re-extracted the game files (Loom specifically) since they all matched name wise just to make sure I didn't miss anything, and still got the "just a moment message". I can exit out of the games with select+start no problem and it makes a .crm file for the game after exiting the program.

Here are the file names:
"Loom [U][SCD][TGXCD1017][LucasArts][1992][PCE].BIN" BINARY - this is what is in the .cue (i even put the .BIN into lower case .bin and that still didn't work. )
Loom [U][SCD][TGXCD1017][LucasArts][1992][PCE].bin - this is the name of the .bin
Loom [U][SCD][TGXCD1017][LucasArts][1992][PCE] - this is the name of the whole zip file

idk what else to try at this point. Not sure if it matters but stupid win8 associated all .cue files with notepad the other night. I am going to change that today, but not sure if that has anything to do with it. I also create the .zip file with windows, would that make any difference?

mitu

@qbical Linux filesystems are case sensitive, so rename
Loom [U][SCD][TGXCD1017][LucasArts][1992][PCE].bin
to
Loom [U][SCD][TGXCD1017][LucasArts][1992][PCE].BIN (notice the uppercase extension), to match the filename in the .cue file.
Retry after this change and see if the game starts. Did you copy the bios file, as @edmaul69 suggested, in the BIOS folder ?

qbical

@mitu

from above (i even put the .BIN extension into lower case .bin and that still didn't work. )

I am pretty sure I tried it both ways, but will try it again. Very possible I missed something. Also, I have not removed the syscard32.pce from the BIOS folder at all. It has stayed in there for everything I have tried. Update to follow

edmaul69

@qbical it is syscard3.pce not syscard32.pce

qbical

@mitu
I just tried changing the .bin to .BIN and that didn't work. I also tried making the .CUE upper case (so they were both uppercase) after that and unfortunately THAT did not work either. I also pulled out the picture files (front, cd, back) so I only had the .BIN and .CUE files in the zipped folder and that did not work either. :(

edmaul69

@qbical also just edit the .cue, inside the .cue and the .bin to just Loom. Get rid of all the garbage so they just look like this. Loom.bin Loom.cue. Gets rid of any possible errors. Can you please paste the entire contents of your cue file?

qbical

@edmaul69
My apologies but that was a typo on my part. I just confirmed the file in the BIOS is correctly named syscard3.pce and it is. I have another file with 32 on my DT that I must have had on the brain while typing out my posts. Sorry for the confusion on that. I kind of wish I had it at 32 though since that would have been an easy fix. hah

edmaul69

@qbical these arent supposed to remain zipped. They will not work zipped. You only use the cue and bin file. And if you renamed the cue file you have to restart emulationstation for it to work. But renaming the cue file does nothing.

edmaul69

@qbical so remove the bin and cue from the zip file, put them on the pi and restart emulationstation. Zip files dont work on cd games for any system.

qbical

@edmaul69

Every step I have tried above I did with and with-out the picture files in the zip folder. Trying to exhaust every option. I also reset the system/emulationstation after each update/try. I read posts that suggested both the files zipped and unzipped so I was not 100% on that. I did not try the unzipped files this last time though. I will add the two unzipped files into the folder and try again. Hopefully that will be the ticket. ty again

qbical

@edmaul69
@mitu

Looks like unzipping them was the trick. Also, changing the lower-case .bin to upper-case .BIN was also something I missed. Thank you both for the quick replies and help.