new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!)

valerino

hi, i may see if there's some standalone (non-retroarch) bbc emu which compiles and work on rpi, so i may add it.
about using mess, i tried to run some computer/console via mame (last build) but sincerely i fount it really stands its name, a MESS, pun intended! :)

mth75

@valerino

Well, there is beebem ...

http://beebem-unix.bbcmicro.com

This emu is no longer maintained, it runs in a small corner edge, no sound etc ...

valerino

yep, just tried to compile that. seems working (bbc screen appears and keyboard works), but crashes when you attempt to load a disk .... looking into it.

mth75

@valerino said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, sdltrs new version):

yep, just tried to compile that. seems working (bbc screen appears and keyboard works), but crashes when you attempt to load a disk .... looking into it.

Thx!

valerino

this is what i got so far with beebem:

https://github.com/valerino/RetroPie-Setup/commit/3d726402b2e62a6d5881f75481d13ee47d7122ea

it works, games are launched from emulationstation and playable (use F12 to get to the GUI and exit emulator), but no sound and no fullscreen.

i think for 'experimental' may be ok, given the fact even other more 'blasoned' emulator like lr-daphne has no sound as well.

mitu

@valerino said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, and others ):

blasoned' emulator like lr-daphne has no sound as well.

You're confusing it with daphne, lr-daphne had a brief stint of getting off the ground, but never really did.

valerino

@mitu daphne works really well, lr-daphne i managed to get it working, but the folder architecture is a mess and sound was not working. one day, if i have time, i would like to attempt a proper port of daphne to a libretro core (maybe just messing with the current lr-daphne is sufficient)......

valerino

EDIT: this post remain for reference, all updates goes to first post

hi again,
i got some free time so i added proper support for lr-mess running from emulationstation.

this means you can launch i.e. creativision, microbbc, apple, and possibly the other tons of lr-mess supported systems from retropie/es directly.

so far added (this gets updated at every post):

lr-mess-crvision (VTech Creativision, fully working)
lr-mess-apple2gs (Apple II GS, fully working)
lr-mess-apple2 (Apple II/E, fully working)
lr-mess-bbcmicro (BBC Model B, ~~it works if you launch it from the commandline but crashes when launched from emulationstation ... still to investigate, read the script file for more details~~ fully working, overrides runcommand.sh until further investigation)
lr-mess-coco (Tandy Color Computer, fully working)
lr-mess-trs-80 (Tandy TRS-80, Model 3, fully working)
lr-mess-arcadia (Emerson Arcadia 2001, fully working)
lr-mess-dragon32 (Dragon 32, fully working)
lr-mess-adam (Coleco Adam, fully working)

when fully working is specified, it means games can be launched normally from emulationstation as normal in any other emulator.

how it works

basically, you need to first install lr-mess as normal.
take your time, it will take a couple of hours....

then, go on installing my 'fake cores' (it say 'install from source', but really it doesn't, read on!).

basically they just add a retroarch configuration for the given lr-mess system, but internally all depends and run lr-mess itself.

all the magic is then done by https://github.com/valerino/RetroPie-Setup/blob/master/scriptmodules/run_mess.sh, which is what is really launched by the frontend.

all the 'fake cores' of course needs lr-mess installed, or they can't be installed alone.

well, at this point i think every lr-mess system can be added, is just a matter of patience, i will try to add some more in the next days, my goal is to have a retroarch-only rpi :)

i will try to understand what happens with the bbc-micro, seems a sort of panic which happens only when launched from inside emulationstation.

cheers!
v.

mth75

@valerino said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

robbc, apple, and possibly the other tons of lr

Great work mate!

Zering

That is absolutely awesome, thanks for the great work.

valerino

added coco, works really well :)
if someone knows how to autoload cassettes (i.e. in bbcmicro it's shift+F12) tell me :)

roslof

Boy, I spent the last several nights fighting with GSPlus, then perfecting an Apple IIGS gamelist.xml, directories, filenames, screenshots, .gsp files, etc. But now I know that I could probably use lr-mess? :)

Joystick controls don't work for me on GSPlus, so maybe I'll have better luck with lr-mess. Just dreading having to set-up each disk set all over again. :) But really cool that I have a choice now.

game selection.jpg

valerino

glad someone will use it ehhe.

well, couple of weeks ago i decided to clean dust off my rpi4, so i reinstalled retropie and everything else as usual. i wanted to have a PERFECTLY CLEAN system this time, usually my retropies becomes a completely mess with roms scattered all-over, nonworking emus, etc.... this time it HAD TO WORK and BE CLEAN :)

so, i embarked in this 'journey' of having all working with retroarch.
first i practiced with the retropie script system for a couple of days (hence my first posts), but really i wanted to do this: integrate lr-mess, so i can use retroarch for everything (all the standalone cores + lr-mess for the rest).

that's the story behind ehheheheh :)

of course everyone can extend my script, fix bugs, etc.... everything is on my github to be improved !!!!

valerino

@roslof about .gsp files .... unfortunately, it seemed to not work for .gsp. it works with .2mg. i don't know if it's something about the command line, it could easily be.

just look at the script here:

usually it's 'flop1' in all the other scripts i made .... this instead didn't worked, i tried with -flop3 and it did. but maybe there's other options, just look into the mame command line docs!

v.

roslof

Thanks @valerino ,

Not sure how this would work, but I'll eventually look into it (installing lr-mess now via your modified script). The thing is, the .gsp files are indeed specific to GSPlus -- just a configuration file that includes which disks are in which drives + is a hard drive being used, Apple II control panel settings, etc.

The GSP files simply point to the 2mg files (virtual floppies). So if lr-mess only loads 2mg files, it's missing out on all of the various configurations.

Example:

Bubble Ghost can launch straight out... Just add it as a floppy and it boots/plays
Dungeon Master needs the support of a System Disk prior to launching.

So I don't think direct 2mg launches will work with 100% compatibility. There are a bunch of write-ups online about people using MESS for the GS. Will give it a go.

valerino

@roslof i haven't tested it exaustively ... i tried a couple of games and they worked flawlessy.
anyway, to load 2 disks unfortunately (if lr-mess do not support .m3u, which i really doubt....) you don't have many chances i think.

roslof

Going to start here:
https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/49824-can-someone-do-an-updated-apple-iigs-setup-write-up/

valerino

@roslof i think i got the problem. if there's something like a 'dos' disk which you need always inserted in one drive, you can extend my script this way (i'm doing the same now for a script to support trs80, which has this problem aswell):

addEmulator 1 "$md_id" "$_system" "$_script $_retroarch_bin $_mess $_config trs80 $biosdir -flop1 %ROM%"
addEmulator 0 "$md_id-dos" "$_system" "$_script $_retroarch_bin $_mess $_config trs80 $biosdir -flop1 $biodir/trs80-dos.dsk -flop2 %ROM%"

this way, by default it will use the plain version with just one drive. either, you can select (pressing A right in the runcommand.sh screen) the otjer version, which will boot with the DOS disk inserted + the game inserted in the other drive.

unfortunately, this won't solve the disk swapping problem ..... i don't know if it's solvable by some shortcut in lr-mess which allow to swap disks at runtime, i doubt.....

roslof

Yes. You're reading my mind. From what I read, will just need to add more emulators.

Was exactly thinking to use default with "-flop3" (where flop3 and flop4 reference the Apple IIGS 3.5" disk drive, instead of the flop1 and flop2 5.25" drives which typically are for II/IIe/IIc).

As for the multi disc formats, the article I linked above describes how to set-up the right [complex] command-line. Definitely tricky. Hard drive images have to be converted to CHD format, which adds another layer of ugly.

Not a fast project to have each game properly configured -- and as for games with 3 or more floppies (there are several) -- thinking they might not be compatible with lr-mess. Probably can get ~80% full library compatibility if I had to guess.

valerino

@roslof yep, my scripts have their limits :( of course they can be improved, but definitely multi-disk support must be implemented by the emulators .....

really, it's more of a problem of the frontend. my scripts can be changed in 2 minutes to support 2 or more disks, but someone needs to pass the parameters to the scripts .... and this is the frontend (emulationstation, in this case).
you can surely run apple2gs games from command line using -flop1, -flop2, etc... using run-mess.sh. but that won't work from emulationstation, since it passes one disk only to the script.

anyway, from what i see i'm pretty confident i can make scripts for almost every lr-mess system with this technique, its somewhat generic :)