How to run MESS (lr-mess) and run Arcadia 2001?

teller

I read in the wiki that MESS can run "Arcadia 2001" games 100% and installed "lr-mess" from the RetroPie-Setup.
Then I’ve followed the setup instructions from the wiki (https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/MESS) but when I load a game it only goes to the RetroArch Main Menu (MAME 0.171) instead of loading the game.

My “mess” roms folder looks like this:
BIOS:
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mess/(arcadia doesn’t need any zipped bios)

GAME ROMS:
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mess/arcadia/
3dbowl.zip
3dsoccer.zip
…

I put this in “es_systems.cfg”:

lr-mess
MESS
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mess
.zip .ZIP
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS lr-mess %ROM%
arcade
mess

and in “emulators.cfg” I put this:
lr-mess=”/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess/mess_libretro.so -–config /opt/retropie/configs/lr-mess/retroarch.cfg %ROM%”
default=”lr-mess”

Thanks for your help!

zerojay

As the script is supposed to do, you also need to make sure that your core is set to allow running through CLI and also using the software ROM list. You absolutely must use the MESS/MAME software lists for all games running through lr-mess.

teller

MAME CLI is enabled and MAME auto media type is turned on in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg:

mess_softlists_enable = "enabled"
mess_softlists_auto_media = "enabled"
mess_boot_from_cli = "enabled"
mame_softlists_enable = "enabled"
mame_softlists_auto_media = "enabled"
mame_boot_from_cli = "enabled"

teller

What kind of MAME/MESS ROM/BIOS version should I use?
0.161 or 0.171?

zerojay

Always use whatever version you are building.

teller

@zerojay Sorry but can you give me an example what you mean with the script as I cannot follow your reply? Do you mean that mame/hash folder in the BIOS directory? Cheers.

zerojay

If you're using the script I wrote, it'll handle the hash directory automatically just fine on its own. Just use ROMs that match the version of MESS/MAME you've compiled.

teller

got it working now! thanks for your help!

d8thstar

@teller

Can you enlighten me on how you got MESS to work? Best I can get is it is stuck on an initializing screen.

teller

check here:
goo.gl/WZIelL

d8thstar

@teller
Right on teller, thanks so much! I was able to get Atari 5200 and vectrex up and running with mess!

I'm curious what systems you have been able to get working? I tried coleco but I can't get anything to start.

One last question if I may. Any idea how to get vectrex overlays to display?

Thanks again for your help!