PC Engine issues with Retropie 4.4

MechaPilot

Hi all,

I have been using Retropie for the last 5+ years and I am extremely grateful for the work that has been done to make it easier to have emulation on RPI hardware.

With that being said I got the latest official ISOs for my PI3 B+ and Hyperpixel 4.0 from Pimoroni. I just wanted to see fot myself the gorgeous display in action.
PI3 Model B+
latest ISO 4.4 april 14, updated fully with script up to today's release
Power : USB official
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Logitech usb keyboard

ROM images for PC ENGINE: Latest compiled from https://github.com/SmokeMonsterPacks/EverDrive-Packs-Lists-Database

Emulators: lr-beetle-pce-fast, lr-beetle-supergrafx, also tried others that come with Retropie basic installation

Issue: The roms load, If plugged USB SNES Buffalo controller I get the green text on the bottom that is connected and than black screen.

Some ROMS work and run (like Bomberman '93 (USA).pce) other do not (for example Soldier Blade (USA).pce). Also all JAP ROMS do not work.

I have verified that the roms are correct and work without issues on x86 retroarch installation. Same emulation cores.

I have also enabled advanced options in retroarch Retropie and enabled the core downloader and tried downloading the lates beetle pcefast and beetle supergrafix cores. Still no go.

I have also tried 6-7 different versions of syscard3.pce just to be sure, still not working. I also read that the bios is necessary only for CD releases but wanted to verify anyway.

Not sure what is wrong. Basic Retropie ISO from the website + update + verified working roms should work out of the box.

BTW: SNES, MD, GB, GBC roms work flawlessly - all roms without any issues

Any help whatsoever is appreciated, I threw the whole weekend at this thing and read everything I could on both reddit and here but cannof fix it.

quicksilver

@MechaPilot any chance you can hook your pi directly up to a standard 1080p tv display and test? I'm curious if it's a display issue with the hyperpixel screen.

mitu

@MechaPilot said in PC Engine issues with Retropie 4.4:

I have also enabled advanced options in retroarch Retropie and enabled the core downloader and tried downloading the lates beetle pcefast and beetle supergrafix cores. Still no go.

The cores downloaded from the RetroArch site are not guaranteed to work on a RetroPie installation. The correct way is to download the core through the RetroPie-Setup script. But if you're starting the game through Emulationstation, I think the RetroPie emulator cores are used anyway.

Can you post your RetroArch log, with verbose logging enabled through the Runcommand menu, and then post the log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log) to pastebin.com to see if we can spot the error ?
Also, can you check if the ROM checksum is correct on the RetroPie sdcard (not on your PC), just to make sure the ROM has been copied correctly ?

MechaPilot

I could do it but i'd have to reverse the Pimoroni script which disables HDMI out. I am quite sure that the Hyperpixel is not responsible for this. I tried running the roms prior to attaching the LCD and running the script for the drivers. I suspect that something is not right after I have done the update to the 4.4 image

mitu

@MechaPilot said in PC Engine issues with Retropie 4.4:

Soldier Blade (USA).pce

Works without problems on a 4.4 updated installation, using Beetle PCE Fast

MechaPilot

@mitu
here,
https://pastebin.com/gwfJhV80

I'll try the checksums and copy over again the roms, report the results.

MechaPilot

@mitu ok. copied over again the roms. still no go.

mitu

@MechaPilot said in PC Engine issues with Retropie 4.4:

ok. copied over again the roms. still no go.

Yes, but did you run a checksum on one of them ? I don't see any obvious errors in the log file, except for the message

[libretro INFO] Loading /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pcengine/2 PC Engine - A-M/Bikkuriman World (Japan).pce...
[libretro INFO]  Using module: pce_fast.
[libretro INFO]   ROM:       0KiB

If I run the same game, I get a different result

[libretro INFO] Loading /tmp/retroarch/Bikkuriman World (Japan).pce...
[libretro INFO]  Using module: pce_fast.
[libretro INFO]   ROM:       256KiB

The only difference between your configuration and mine seem to be (apart from the log messages)

the ROM I have is zipped.
I don't use a sub-folder (I doubt it makes a difference)
I don't have any shaders.

I'd say to check the ROM file - run a checksum from the RetroPie system and see if the file is ok.

MechaPilot

@mitu
f me... i tried md5sum on the raspberry and on my machine

d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e Bikkuriman World (Japan).pce
7822065caf6c6b5cd8f16189915b4e21 Bikkuriman World (Japan).pce
first above is on RPI
second is on my ubuntu machine with fat32 ext storage that has roms

How would you suggest I copy the files over? Filezilla?

Is this something that happens normally? I took the sdcard from rpi and attached it to my ubuntu machine to just copy files over...

mitu

@MechaPilot Run a fsck on the sdcard partition and see if you get any errors; see if you there any SDcard testing tools (on Linux) that you could run from your Ubuntu system to check if there's anything wrong with the card.

EDIT: you can also zip the ROMs, clear the ROMs folder (pcengine) and unpack them on the Pi.

MechaPilot

@mitu Thank you so much. This solved my problem. I never knew there was such trouble just copying files. And thanks again for the advice, copying over wifi and ssh 10.000 small files is really a bad idea.
:)