Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess

Metro City

Hi, Is it normal that when I launch a game it gives me a solid white screen?

Folly

If you get a solid white screen then the loading procedure is not correct.
lr-mess probably can't find the bios file or you just don't use or load a .chd game that is in the fmtowns_cd.xml hash table (mame softlist).

I will advice you to use our project here :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-and-mame-standalone

After installing fmtmarty with this project you have better loader options to run your fmtmarty games.

Metro City

@folly thank you very much, I followed the guide you posted and it works now, but I notice that with my PI3B + it slows down, do you think I can solve it with the lr-mess2015 \ 2016? Thanks again

Folly

@metro-city

Nice to hear it's working.

The specs of RPI3B are on the low side for mame and lr-mess.
Besides, fmtmarty and fmtowns are quite demanding systems to emulate, even for the RPI4.

Though there are four things you can try.

Try to use frameskipping :
F11 -> show frameskipping status
F9 -> increase frameskipping from 0 to 10 or auto

You can also try to lower the resolution if possible :
Press a key when the loading dialog comes where you can switch emulators.
Here you will find the video settings that can be changed for the used emulator.

Also try to use regular cue/bin or iso files and load them with the -cdrm runcommand.
This should give you some speed improvement because .chd are compressed files.
So using them will use some more resources from the processor.

Overclock your RPI3 on your own risk, with these settings speed should increase 5% :
arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=5
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
sdram_freq=500
core_freq=500
gpu_freq=400
temp_limit=80
avoid_warnings=1

lr-mess2015 \ 2016 isn't supported by our script.
You would have to make it possible by manually adding these into the emulators.cfg to make use of it.
Though, I doubt lr-mess2015 \ 2016 will run faster.

Metro City

@folly Thanks for the info, I'll do some tests. Listen, I use the N30 pro from 8bitdo and it makes me use the stick instead of the dpad, I found in the options how to change the settings, but do you know how to save in order not to have to repeat the operation again?

Folly

@metro-city

Where did you edit your controller settings ?
In the RetroArch GUI, the lr-mess GUI or the MAME GUI ?

Metro City

@folly ehm I'm not very familiar with these things, using lr-mess I don't see the retroarch menu but the classic blu mame menu.
in game, press "tab" open blu menu mame and fix setting controller, but like retroarch don't see "save or override".

Folly

@metro-city

Ok, you are in the lr-mess menu, changing the controller settings.
You should do it in input(this machine).
(The controller settings done here are on top of the RetroArch controller settings)
When you exit the game these settings are automatically saved, depending on what loader command you used.
The basename and cmd lines will store the config here :
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/fmtmarty/mame/fmtmarty.cfg
The other lines, using the media addon and the run_mess.sh script, will store it here :
/opt/retropie/configs/fmtmarty/fmtmarty.cfg
Once stored all other games will use the saved config.

Using the game-specific loader will not use above config.
If you changed something, using such a loader, it will store the config in a subdirectory with the gamename, and is only loaded when you load that game next time.
It will store it here :
/opt/retropie/configs/fmtmarty/lr-mess/gamename/fmtmarty.cfg

If you want to go back to the default settings you can just delete such a config file.

bbilford83

Hi all,

I know this is an outdated method, and I have been using the great script described here to get various mess systems running. I want to give the Marty a shot, but I am confused as to what exactly constitutes a "Marty" game. I am NOT asking for roms, but from what I can understand, the Marty was backwards compatible with "almost" all FM Towns games - but does that mean both CD and floppy-based games, since the Marty had both drives? And is anyone aware of any list saying which games actually are compatible and which aren't? It also seems there are a few - maybe fewer than 10 - games that were designed specifically for/only compatible with the Marty, but I haven't been able to find what those where anywhere. I'd welcome any tips anyone who has this installed might have.

And sorry if I am asking this in the wrong place - I thought it would be more likely to get Marty-specific attention here. TIA!

Folly

@bbilford83

You can probably find the info, you are searching for, in the mame hash tables.
If you are able to view files from your raspberry pi then you have to look inside this file :
/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/hash/fmtowns_cd.xml
In the hash directory you can also find info of software running on other systems too.

bbilford83

@Folly Thanks, that is a great idea, but I think FM Towns CD is still just the CD games/software that could be run by the FM Towns Desktop computer. From what I've researched it seems that the FM Towns Marty (the "consolized" version of the FM Towns) could run almost all FM Towns software, so probably both fmtowns_cd and at least one of those floppy databases too (the Marty had both a CD and floppy drive). But I can't find anything indicating which games do work on the Marty and which don't, nor anything identifying the Marty-only games that presumably aren't included in any of those database files. Here's a random blurb I found on one site, it should make my confusion clear:

"One problem is that some games would only work on the regular FM Towns, while others would only work on the Marty."

Maybe it's just not out there, but so many years later I had hoped there would be a list out there of all games the Marty can play....

Folly

@bbilford83 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

Also, @folly, if I can ask for one more tip, I have been reading and re-reading your old post before this script about installing the Marty, and also another thread called "Old Computer Appreciation Thread," to try to figure out how to launch the games that require a blank floppy as well as a CD Rom. I created a completely blank file in Notepad++ with the correct mame name for the game, zipped it a zip file of the same name, but that didn't work for me. Do the CHD's have to be named something in particular, or am I possibly missing some other step I can't find?

This is kind of ridiculous but the game I really want to get working is Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego :). I played it a lot as a kid and have managed to get my 6-year-old to like it, and it seems like the Towns version is worlds better than the Genesis/SNES one...

I moved your post here as it seems more related to this thread.
I can't promise you anything, but if I can have a look at it.

Please post the link of the post you are talking about.

bbilford83

@Folly Thank you! I will keep my hopes low :). I think maybe a lot of the games need a blank disk, I found one more already (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

Here is the place I saw you discussing it with others, but I couldn't tell if you had a solution.

Again, I really appreciate this, thanks.

bbilford83

Oh I will also share here, in case anyone ever reads this trying to set it up on a Pi4 for themselves too, that for me most games have pretty terribly audio skipping even with autoframeskip on, but I managed to improve it to nearly perfect by setting the "Main CPU Overclock" option in retroarch to underclock the CPU. I think probably different games will have different ideal setups though. I have it set to 40 and that seems like a good balance - anything higher and most games have at least some audio skipping.

Also this probably will depend on overclock a little.

Folly

@bbilford83

I got Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego running ;-)
In the neo_kobe_fujitsu_fm_towns_2016-02-25-repack_20200803/Fujitsu%20FM%20Towns rompack you will find blank disk image files.
You should use :
[OS] Blank disk (MS-DOS formatted).hdm
And rename it to :
[OS] Blank disk (MS-DOS formatted).mfi
Or to :
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (1993)(Fujitsu)(Jp-En).mfi
(Mame and lr-mess doesn't support the .hdm extension and renaming it to .mfi does the trick.

Just load with the -cdrm loader line and add the .mfi floppy within the TAB-menu in the filemanager and select read-write.
Then just load the second program in the fmtowns windows, as that is the English version.

The name of the image files only matter when you load with the basename loader line.
If you want to use that you have to have the same file/filename as described in the hash table.
Therefor I recommend to just use the -cdrm loader line as it is much easier as the name of the game image doesn't matter.

If somehow it doesn't work then that is because you should install fmtmarty with 6MB ram from the systems with EXTRA options.

PS.
This solution will probably work on all games that use an extra save disk.

bbilford83

@Folly Wonderful news, thank you so much! I will test it out for Carmen and the other games that asked for the disk later tonight.

There were also some games I couldn't get to load at all that, at least in my romset, came with a "boot disk" I couldn't figure out how to use. Perhaps this technique will work the same there? I will report back.

bbilford83

@Folly Hmm, it actually isn't working for me - whenever I add the disk with either name I get a small "error" message on the bottom and nothing else happens. There isn't actually an fmtmarty option with 6gb, but I tried installing the version with extra options that said "floppy support" and that changed the error message to say "error: invalid image." Same with both filenames, again. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Also to clarify, I don't have a "read-write" option in the file manager. It just gives me a choice to pick what I want for the cd room (which is the loaded game), the memcard (blank), and the floppydisk (flop). I was adding it as the floppy disk. I tried it as the memcard too and that gave no error message but didn't help anything.

bbilford83

Sorry for the wall of posts but I figured out what I was doing wrong, and it was dumb. I was downloading the file from within the zip from the place we were both getting it, and that was for some reason creating a bogus file (I should've realized, since it was 0kb!!!). Once downloaded the zip and unzipped it, then put that file in, it worked perfectly :). Thank you again!!!

Now I'm being greedy, but can't hurt to ask - do you know if there's any way to make MAME remember to have that disk inserted so that you don't have to do it every time manually? At least it does remember the folder, but in case someone else was using my setup they obviously wouldn't have any idea what to do :).

On the bright side, I entered my name, solved my first case, got promoted to investigator, and then exited the game. It never once indicated it was saving anything, but when I loaded it a second time and entered my name it recognized me with my promotion, so the "disk" is working as it should! I guess that's a reason to save separate ones for any game that needs it. I guess that's even better than the disk autoloading but it would be nice to just load the game and have it have your save disk up and ready.

Folly

@bbilford83

I think autoloading the cdrom together with a disk is possible.
There are two options :

I think it's possible by making a .cmd file which contains the cdrom and the disk image using the loader line lr-mess-cmd
(sadly the .cmd methode will only work for lr-mess)
(I just tried this methode but I could not get it working)
It probably will also be possible by making an install line in the add-mamedev-systems.sh script so it will be possible to install a loader line that can load both, cdrom and disk image, at once.

If you are up to it to try ?
If so you might be able to add a test line in the add-mamedev-systems.sh script by yourself.
I can help you in the process, good idea ?

bbilford83

@Folly I'm definitely happy to help try it out. I think that may actually be the only way to get the games working that require a "boot disk" loaded along with the CD-rom, because when I try to load the CD rom only with those it just goes to the Marty loading animation and then acts like the drives are all empty. I should share I am a lawyer by my day job and have virtually no technical skills :). But I can stumble along and do my best.