Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess

Folly

Here you will find the mame hash tables (software lists) :
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/hash

Look for the files fmtowns_xxxxxxx.xml.
In there you can find the supported and the non-supported software.

Remember lr-mess is the retroarch libretro core of mame running non-arcade systems.
Therefor the hash tables also apply to lr-mess.

testudo

@duglor said in Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess:

@bbilford83 Does Bubble Bobble or TDF Kaijuu Daikussen work with FMTowns?

Both are working for me. I have them converted to .chd files.

duglor

@testudo I'm still working on this. I'll let you know when i figure it all out. I don't wish for help yet. :D

Retro Arcade Fan

@DTEAM @Folly Hello. I have decided to take a stab at this one and unfortunately like others, can't get these to launch. It returns to ES every time.

I have followed the instructions at the start of this post (even though it is a few years old). I have a RP4 with my own custom image.

I have galaxy force ii (japan).chd in the roms/fmtmarty folder.
I have gforce2.zip in the roms/fmtmarty folder
Inside the gforce2.zip is a blank text file named gforce2.
Inside the bios folder is fmtmarty.7z and is 1,162,579 bytes size and 1,163,264 bytes on disk. (It's not 1,163,004 bytes. I can't seem to find one that is).
I have fmtowns_cd.xml in the bios/mame/hash folder
In the fmtowns_cd.xml, the software name is gforce2 and the disk name is galaxy force ii (japan)
I made the changes to the es_system.cfg, emulators.cfg and retroarch.cfg in the configs/fmtmarty folder

Below is my runcommand.log

Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/fmtmarty/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/fmtmarty/gforce2.zip" --verbose --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
[INFO] [Config]: Loading config from: "/opt/retropie/configs/fmtmarty/retroarch.cfg".
[INFO] [Config]: Appending config "/dev/shm/retroarch.cfg".
[WARN] [GameMode]: GameMode cannot be enabled on this system ("dlopen failed - libgamemode.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.") https://github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode needs to be installed.
[WARN] [Config]: GameMode unsupported - disabling...
[WARN] --libretro argument "/opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so" is not a file, core name or directory. Ignoring.
[INFO] RetroArch 1.10.0 (Git e9e85f3)
[INFO] === Build =======================================
[INFO] Capabilities: NEON VFPv3 VFPv4
[INFO] Built: Jan 30 2022
[INFO] Version: 1.10.0
[INFO] Git: e9e85f3
[INFO] =================================================
[INFO] [Input]: Found input driver: "x".
[ERROR] [Core]: Frontend is built for dynamic libretro cores, but path is not set. Cannot continue.
[ERROR] Fatal error received in: "init_libretro_symbols()"
[INFO] [Core]: Content ran for a total of: 00 hours, 00 minutes, 00 seconds.
[INFO] [Core]: Unloading core symbols..

I appreciate any help possible. Thank you.

mitu

@Retro-Arcade-Fan You have an old version of the launcher, the name of the core is no longer mess_libretro.so, but mamemess_libretro.so.

Folly

@Retro-Arcade-Fan said in Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess:

I have galaxy force ii (japan).chd in the roms/fmtmarty folder.

You are using a plain lr-mess runcommand and therefor the rom you added is not loaded.
Instead it will use the rom filename as "basename" for checking the hash tables (the softlist files).
This procedure is called solftlist loading or basename loading.
lr-mess probably expects the .chd rom file to be placed in the folder :
roms/fmtmarty/gforce2
The .chd file placed in above folder has to match the filename of the file in the hash table.
The blank .zip file can then be selected in emulationstation and the softlist loading procedure will then ultimately find the file if your configuration files are compatible for softlist loading.

mess_libretro.so

I see that you are using the old named mess_libretro.so.
This core name isn't used anymore for quite a while.
If you updated lr-mess lately retroarch can't load the core as it's now called mamemess_libretro.so.
It seems to be the case as your log file isn't that long and I don't see any loading procedures in there.

Of-course you can try above methode and it's really a good way of understanding how both mame and retroarch works.
However running a .chd with a runcommand not using softlist loading loading is in this case much easier so you don't have the need for suggested folders and blank files.
It then will require a media component (-cdrm) for example.
Although adding a media component sounds simpler it's not really the case.
Configurations have to match this type of loading too.
Therefor I made this project which will do all of this for you :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone

Retro Arcade Fan

@Folly Thank you. I will follow the instructions to update and respond back with questions/results. I appreciate it!

duglor

@Folly I have it working fine now. Whew! :D

Only trouble is that it is slow. Do you have any suggestions to speed it up? Thanks Folly!

Folly

@duglor

Great job !
What method did you use to get it working ?
I would like to know and it might be interesting for others too.

Do you use a pi4 ?
Check with F11 how fast it's going in percentage.
With F9 you can alter frameskipping to speed it up a bit.

duglor

@Folly It was very complicated and had lots of random placements and trials. I will soon explain where i have the files and what files, etc. I probably have 3 versions of bios(es) in there and probably half are not needed, but i don't know which ones. lol. The entire set up was very strange with dummy zips and chd files in subfolders and odd bios(es) and an xml file in a strange location. Stay tuned in some days for a very odd writeup on where i placed everything and what i did to make this work.

Retro Arcade Fan

@duglor I look forward to that write up Duglor.

duglor

@DTEAM Is this still the best way to install the fm towns variations at this time? May of 2023? if not, can you point me to a more recent rules version on how to do this?

Folly

@duglor said in Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess:

Is this still the best way to install the fm towns variations at this time? May of 2023?

What is this way, where are you referring to ?
Which variations ?
The best way, what do you want to accomplish what you can't do right now ?
What do you mean by rules ?

duglor

@Folly said in Tutorial: Fujitsu FM Towns Marty with Lr-Mess:

Is this still the best way to install the fm towns variations at this time? May of 2023?

What is this way, where are you referring to ?

The original instuctions in the very post post.

Which variations ?

fm towns - various RAM - autoframeskip
etc

The best way, what do you want to accomplish what you can't do right now ?

a new simpler one shot installation like one of the main packages

What do you mean by rules on how to do this?

instructions on how to do this

Folly

@duglor

Best way is to use my project and learn how to use it properly.

I made an exception for you.
I generated a module-script with my add-systems-mamedev.sh front-end module-script and reduced the generated script.
So it will install only direct lr-mess runcommands for fmtowns with cdrom and 6Mb memory.
You can find it here (it will automatically be "burned/removed" after a week) :
https://pastebin.com/U4u00Vb2

Place it in ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/libretrocores and install it from the experimental packages.

duglor

@Folly Heh. Yes. I'm guilty of being old. I was way better with all this just 7 years ago. Anyway thank you so much once more for your help!!! I'll be using this right away!