Old Computer Appreciation Thread

Zering

@mitu Then perhaps we could compromise and detail in the docs a way to manually compile the standalone core? I'm sure there are more than one game ; we just haven't stumbled upon them yet.

mitu

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

Then perhaps we could compromise and detail in the docs a way to manually compile the standalone core?

The standalone emulator doesn't work properly (on the Pi4), so I don't see why I'd encourage its usage.

I'm sure there are more than one game ; we just haven't stumbled upon them yet.

Why not report it as a bug to the upstream Libretro core ? It seems to receive a few updates now and then, while the original emulator is long abandoned.

Zering

@mitu How would we go about doing that?

mitu

@zering File an issue on the Github's project page.

mitu

I've looked at the game and it looks like the option that's not correctly translated by the Libretro core is the 'ROM Version' configuration option. In standalone, it can be set from a range of values, though the default version works with Refight. The libretro core may not initialising this version correctly and the game doesn't properly detect something.

Folly

@mitu

I had a look at it too and had the same experience.

There is a setver (set_version) option (in ROM/MISC) in the standalone version.
When I set to another version I will get somewhat the same error as with lr-quasi88.
So it seems that lr-quasi88 doesn't use a good default version.
Also the setver option isn't included in the retroarch-core-options.
So indeed, a good idea to file an issue.

BTW: (not judging your decision to turn off QUASI88 for the pi4, I understand it's guite old )
If you add -double to the commandline of standalone QUASI88 it will be fullscreen on the pi4(when running from emulationstation from cli).
Running from the desktop needs -full instead.

mitu

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

When I set to another version I will get somewhat the same error as with lr-quasi88.
So it seems that lr-quasi88 doesn't use a good default version.

It might be more than that, I've tested a bit the libretro core with various settings and it still doesn't work. Will have to dig a bit more.

If you add -double to the commandline of standalone QUASI88 it will be fullscreen on the pi4(when running from emulationstation from cli).

In addition to that, you can use -width <x> -height <y> and it will fill-up the screen. -double only doubles the resolution, but it doesn't fill up the screen or centers the image. That might be useful if we're to enable it again.

mitu

I think I may have found the issue with the libretro core.
If anyone is willing to give it a try, replace the repository with my fork in the lr-quasi88.sh file (see here):

rp_module_repo="git https://github.com/cmitu/quasi88-libretro.git fixes"

and re-try a source install. Refight should boot correctly this time.

I only tested on another couple of games, since I don't have many, so I'd be interested to know if affects - negatively - other games.

Folly

@mitu said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

rp_module_repo="git https://github.com/cmitu/quasi88-libretro.git fixes"

Tested : Refight is working with your fix in lr-quasi88 !

Folly

@mitu

So you switched the order of loading the BIOS files, am I correct ?
I will test some more games, seems a big improvement.

mitu

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

So you switched the order of loading the BIOS files, am I correct ?

No, that's not touched at all. The fix just initializes a variable in the code that's incorrectly initialized.

Thanks for testing.

Folly

@mitu

That's really great !
Thanks.

Will let you know if what my findings are.

Folly

@mitu

I have done an intensive check on the pc88 doc.
This is only the first part that is checked by me.
I hope it's usefull somehow ;-)

--

Checklist part 1 for RetroPie pc88-doc 5-3-2021

Weblinks to emulators / BIOS information : OK
pc88 roms folder : OK
Supported extensions : should be OK / tested .m3u OK for lr-quasi88

Checking this note :
NOTE: The standalone emulator (Quasi88) expects the BIOS filenames to be uppercase, while lr-quasi88 accepts both uppercase and lowercase variants.
Checked all variants for lr-quasi88 :

Discoveries while checking :

!The name JYSIO.ROM in doc is wrong and should be JISYO.ROM (checked in runcommand.log)
! Lowercase disk.rom is not recognized
- If disk.rom is used, the MSX /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/DISK.ROM is loaded wich will not work. (checked in runcommand.log)
- n88sub.rom should be used instead of disk.rom
If font roms are used, the names should be : FONT.ROM/font.rom,FONT2.ROM/font2.rom,FONT3.ROM/font3.rom (checked in runcommand.log)
- not checked the font rom files because I don't have them and they don't seem necessary
- they could be added to the list of optional BIOS roms but we don't have sha1sums available (perhaps a future task)

The note in the doc will not cover exactly all information depending on the discoveries.

Quasi88 BIOS roms folder : OK (/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/pc88)
Quasi88 BIOS roms names :

FONT2.ROM,FONT3.ROM can be added as optional but we don't have any sha1sums of these files

Quasi88 BIOS roms sha1sums : same as my setup, 1 is different
(the sha1sum of my N88JISHO.ROM is different, the doc version should also work, so we stick with the doc version)
sha1sums / names (Quasi88) : OK
3b31fc68fa7f47b21c1a1cb027b86b9e87afbfff N88.ROM
d239c26ad7ac5efac6e947b0e9549b1534aa970d N88EXT0.ROM
8528eef7946edf6501a6ccb1f416b60c64efac7c N88EXT1.ROM
b7c8bcea219b77d9cc3ee0efafe343cc307425d1 N88EXT2.ROM
efce0b51cab9f0da6cf68507757f1245a2867a72 N88EXT3.ROM
5b922ed9de07d2a729bdf1da7b57c50ddf08809a N88N.ROM
bb7103a0818850a039c67ff666a31ce49a8d516f N88SUB.ROM
optional :
~~3665db538598abb45d9dfe636423e6728a812b12~~ N88JISHO.ROM (doc => DEEF0CC2A9734BA891A6D6C022AA70FFC66F783E )
82e11a177af6a5091dd67f50a2f4bafda84d6556 N88KNJ1.ROM
7e6591cd465cbb35d6d3446c5a83b46d30fafe95 N88KNJ2.ROM

lr-quasi88 BIOS roms folder : OK (/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/quasi88)
lr-quasi88 BIOS roms names :

! the lowercase names, in the doc, are a combination of normal and alternate names, I suggest we use normal names for all
! disk.rom is not recognized (seems to be an issue of the libretro-core)
font.rom,font2.rom,font3.rom can be added as optional but we don't have any sha1sums of these files
if we want to shorten the doc, we can choose to use the same 'Normal (UC)' names as used for Quasi88, mentioning them only once

sha1sums (lr-quasi88) : OK (Are the same as Quasi88)

mitu

Checking this note :
NOTE: The standalone emulator (Quasi88) expects the BIOS filenames to be uppercase, while lr-quasi88 accepts both uppercase and lowercase variants.
Checked all variants for lr-quasi88 :

Discoveries while checking :

!The name JYSIO.ROM in doc is wrong and should be JISYO.ROM (checked in runcommand.log)

Yes, this is a typo.

! Lowercase disk.rom is not recognized

No, it's recognized.

If disk.rom is used, the MSX /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/DISK.ROM is loaded wich will not work. (checked in runcommand.log)

Yes, I could add a note about it.

n88sub.rom should be used instead of disk.rom

not checked the font rom files because I don't have them and they don't seem necessary

they could be added to the list of optional BIOS roms but we don't have sha1sums available (perhaps a future task)

Since they're optional and I couldn't find any info on what they're using, I chose not to list them. The original emulator says about FONT.ROM:

Normally, this file is unnecessary because the font is automatically generated from the Kanji ROM (1st level). Please prepare this file if you want to use the original font. (However, semi-graphic characters cannot be changed.)

So it looks like having one of the other font ROMs makes them un-necessary.

Quasi88 BIOS roms sha1sums : same as my setup, 1 is different
(the sha1sum of my N88JISHO.ROM is different, the doc version should also work, so we stick with the doc version)

I'll re-check again the N88JISHO.ROM, there must be some DAT file to list it correctly.

if we want to shorten the doc, we can choose to use the same 'Normal (UC)' names as used for Quasi88, mentioning them only once

I added the alternate names mainly because they're also listed in the libretro core documentation. I don't want to confuse users which compare the info from the 2 pages and think that one of them is wrong.

Thanks for the feedback.

Folly

@mitu

Rechecked the disk.rom part again.
You are correct it is recognised if I remove the MSX DISK.ROM.

Zering

You guys are awesome.
I'll try this soon, I've been wanting to try Refight for a while.

mitu

@folly I added the modifications.
I've checked with mame for the correct file checksum on N88JISHO.ROM and it appears they might be different, depending on the machine from where the BIOS file was dumped.

mame -listroms pc8801mc shows identical checksums with the doc
mame -listroms pc8801ma2 shows another checksum. I added it to the list.

Folly

@mitu

Great !
I will have a look at it soon.

Folly

@zering

While testing pc88 games I rediscovered that most games need changing some core options and that's quite a hassle.

Naturally we know we can create game specific core options in the retroarch menu that will create .opt files in /home/pi/.config/retroarch/config/QUASI88/ .
I was thinking we would be able to share those .opt files.
So we don't have to do this work over and over again.

Only trouble is, how do we share these .opt files when the filenames can differ.
My idea is to add a game checksum to the .opt file. Then we could test roms against the checksum and rename the .opt files on the fly.

So perhaps I will take a look at this solution.

Zering

@folly Good idea, or we could simply base ourselves off the most common rom set, which I'm pretty certain we all have anyway.