Folder "Arcade"

sirhenrythe5th

Hi Folks and happy weekend!

Just a short question concerning the folder "Arcade":
do i unterstand that right? - when i put roms there, i can choose via runcommand every Arcade-Emulator for dedicated roms that is installed on the system?
AdvanceMame, FBA and lr-mame?

Edit: btw - what happens when i put FBA-Roms in the NeoGeo Folder as the emulator connected to this folder is FBA?

mitu

@sirhenrythe5th said in Folder "Arcade":

AdvanceMame, FBA and lr-mame?

Yes, every Mame emulator will be added as a supported emulator (i.e. can be chosen from the Runcommand menu) for the arcade folder.

Edit: btw - what happens when i put FBA-Roms in the NeoGeo Folder as the emulator connected to this folder is FBA?

They'll probably work, I don't think there's any special configuration done in RetroPie for that folder. But, there was a recent topic - thanks to @thelostsoul - with a rather nice setup that created a separate config for neogeo vs arcade for FBA - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/19976/why-separate-neo-geo-system-from-arcade.

thelostsoul

Yes, the main difference between Arcade and Mame2003 and FBA folders are the fixed emulators. FBA and Mame2003 have fixed emulators, which you can't change. The Arcade folder is much more flexible, as you can specify a default emulator and on top of that, you also can change the emulator for each rom individually (much like SNES folder behavior). ~~Hopefully this is correct, as this is my understanding of it.~~

I use 3 arcade emulators: FBA, Mame2003 and Mame2010. Roms for FBA goes to FBA folder. Roms for Mame2003 goes to mame-libretro folder. Each game put in that folder will run the game without any questions. But I also have roms for Mame2010 emulator, but there is no folder for it. All Mame emulators use the mame-libretro and I only can have one version of emulator for that folder. So I use the Arcade folder exclusively for Mame2010. I setup the default emulator to Mame2010 and only put roms for that emulator to it. I also could mix that folder with other emulators, but then I need to specify exceptions for those. I don't want do that, as I want a clean single emulator solution for each folder.

The link to my thread which @mitu linked is about Neo Geo. The reason for the topic is, because Neo Geo games on the console (other modes, no coin ups for lives) are different from the arcade (coin up mechanism). That has nothing to do with the Arcade folder btw, it is about FBA vs Neo Geo. Both are using same emulator and bios file. It doesn't matter where you put the games, the single FBA emulator will play them the same. In the menu of the emulator you can change the behavior to Arcade mode or Neo Geo mode, which operates differently. The problems start if you want have different settings in both folders... that's when my thread comes in (linked by mitu).

Edit: After reading my post, it looks like a mess. I don't know if it's clear. Anyway, have fun.

sirhenrythe5th

Thank you both!

I also want to keep the NeoGeo Games separated from the other Arcade-Games further on.
Even if i set the BIOS to MVS and even deactivated continues in all games i share your opinion that it is a special System at least because of the AES.

Great, so i have got a new project 😊
Transfer all my AdvanceMame Roms to the Arcade folder and make Games workable with lr-mame and FBA that AdvanceMame wont start.
BuggyBoy, BeeStorm, Demonfront....dudes, i have a job to to 😊

Thank you 👍😎

thelostsoul

@sirhenrythe5th If you read my thread, then you will see that there are some roms which have a special version for AES. Also some games using the neogeo bios never came out for the console, which I also covered. I wish you a lot of fun. I know how much work this is now ;-), depending on the count of games.

sirhenrythe5th

@thelostsoul i am very excited to read your threads, starting right now.
I did not know that there are special options in NeoGeo-Games depending if you play it on MVS or AES 😮, i play them in Arcade Mode since i started with NG-Emulation in the 90s (NeorageX for Windows)

Over the years i got about 1700 Games running with AdvanceMame on the Pi (no Doubles, various sets of games), so i think of about 20-30 Games that i will hopefully get running by using the Arcade Folder and the runcommand to change the emulator per rom when it is needed.

mitu

@sirhenrythe5th Since most of your ROMs are running with advancemame, you should probably set it as the default for the arcade folder, then add the rest.

sirhenrythe5th

@mitu that was my idea 😊

Just another two questions concerning that:

in the rom folder of AdvanceMame are also other items located, exspecially the highscore-folder.
My idea is to let those folders at their place and delete AdvanceMame from System.es to hide it in Emulationstation.
Do you think this will work, or should i change the paths in the AdvanceMame config-file?
where do i have to put the BIOS-Files? Since some time the NeoGeo BIOS does not have to be in the NeoGeo Folder.
It's ok when it is in the BIOS Folder.
What about i.e. the PGM.zip or the BIOS for the Kaneko super Nova System to get Demonfront and Cyvern running? Put the BIOS Files in the Arcade folder, or the BIOS Folder?

thelostsoul

@sirhenrythe5th said in Folder "Arcade":

where do i have to put the BIOS-Files?

I forgot what was the default behavior, as I changed some settings. I think for all of them you have to put the bios files in the folder of roms. You can put them also in bios folder somewhere else located, but you have to ensure the emulator points to this directory. I did this for FBA, Neo Geo and Mame2010. But for the Arcade folder itself I think it did not work to do a different bios folder, can't remember. You can safely put all bios in same folder as your roms, but then they will show up on the list of playable games.

You can find the files in folder "retropie/opt/retropie/configs" (lookup real configs path on your system). The files you have to look for are "retroarch.cfg". They contain a line, which you can change:

system_directory = "~/RetroPie/BIOS/fba"

I somehow missed the part in your question, that your Neo Geo bios stuff works as intended. Then at least you can experiment with this setting, if it does not work in arcade folder.

sirhenrythe5th

@thelostsoul thank you once again!
If the BIOS Files are shown in the gamelist i would easily hide them before switching to kiosk-mode, so this part should be no Problem. 😊

thelostsoul

@sirhenrythe5th How do you hide them? I wasn't able to hide bios files without touching the gamelist.xml.

sirhenrythe5th

@thelostsoul i can only say: as usual.
I enter the metadata of the entry in the gamelist and set the "hinten" Status to yes.
After switching to Kiosk-Mode they are no länger visible.
This works pretty well, no problems so far 🤔

thelostsoul

@sirhenrythe5th
Yes, I know this way. The problem to me was, because i had a LOOT of scraping the same system again and again (probably done this for arcade games 50 times, probably a lot less :D). So editing it would require doing this again and again, because that setting gets lost with scraping. You could do this with a script. Whatever, if it is working for you, go ahead.

(German Psss: Warum sagst du das nicht gleich das du Deutsch sprichst? ;-))

sirhenrythe5th

@thelostsoul Ach guck mal, ein Landsmann 😊
Ich komme aus Münster/NRW by the way.

50x gescrapt? 😱
Ich scrape gar nicht sondern mache mir echt die Mühe für jedes Spiel ein eigenes tolles Artwork zu suchen.
Hat zwar lange gedauert aber dafür ist mein Setup natürlich ziemlich schön anzuschauen und ziemlich einzigartig.
Könntest du nicht einfach die gamelist.xml backupen, wenn alles so ist wie du es haben willst?
Das zu kopieren geht doch mit Sicherheit schneller.

@topic: Im ersten Schritt habe ich ein paar FBA-ROMS in den NeoGeo Ordner gehauen und getestet.
Laeuft soweit, wenn auch Cyvern zu anspruchsvoll ist (ruckelt zu stark) und BeeStorm den Dienst versagt, probiere ich nachher noch mit dem Japan Set.
Aber alles in allem super, ich mache an der Stelle erst einmal weiter und schaue was geht 😊

Kommt man bei FBA eigentlich auch irgendwie an die Dip-Switches der jeweiligen Spiele?

Gruß und einen entspannten Samstag