Old Computer Appreciation Thread

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood

Can't find the iso can you give a hint ?
No joy here, I have given up.

Google "alltynex bootable iso"

Thx !

Found it after a very long search.
I had to break the boot process and run tmenu.
No mouse and joy buttons yet, but looks very nice :

How do you break the boot process?

Mine just worked in the end, after taking a while.

Edit: also, if you have any time and get the chance to take a look at Azure in Neo Kobe, I'd appreciate it. I can't get it to work.

Folly

@adambegood

I have found that with the system fmtowns you get in a loop.
You just press ctrl+c before the little squares come.
Then you type tmenu. <- edit !

If you take the mame line with autoframeskip you have it running almost perfect with almost perfect sound.

With fmtownssj you have 8mb ram instead of 2mb.
It then boots directly into the OS but it's much slower and not really playable in both lr-mess and mame.

AdamBeGood

@folly You are right! It does work well on MAME. I wonder if other FM Towns games with bad sound, like Turbo Outrun, are better on that core.

I actually splashed out a fiver on Alltynex Second on Steam today, as I wanted to try it.

This FM Towns week has been pretty successful for me. That fancy version of Zak McKraken was a really pleasant surprise, and it so good to get Alltynex working. Tomorrow, I will continue to fight with Azure.img!

I want to play it! Seems like there is only one version of it online though from what I can tell, unless it is in these MAME sets I've heard about but am let to locate, but I don't think it will be.

Further Edit: MAME AutoSkip does make Turbo Outrun better, for sure. Other games too.

Folly

@adambegood

Sounds really good.

The advantage with mame is that autoframeskipping works/works better that with lr-mess.
So now we have added it in the script, a whole new world is opening now.

Some kudo's ^^ for @DTEAM for the idea of integrating mame into our script.

AdamBeGood

@folly How familiar are you with creating ISOs?

I thought I could put the Azure files into the Alltynex ISO and then do the break process and just run the executable for Azure from within that.. but if I put those files into the ISO then it won't run. I am confused as to how it knows the difference.

Edit: Also, any hints on finding these .226 MAME CHDs? Mad Stalker Neo Kobe doesn't work for me, and I imagine that is in there. I must be being stupid here, but I can't find FM Towns in any MAME sets I come across, all seems to be arcade-focussed.

Zering

@adambegood I haven't followed everything and I'll need to reread to understand those new discoveries but the mame chds for Mad Stalker do not work.
I don't know if Azure is in the set, I doubt it. I haven't been home lately so not been able to check, I will do today.

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood I haven't followed everything and I'll need to reread to understand those new discoveries but the mame chds for Mad Stalker do not work.
I don't know if Azure is in the set, I doubt it. I haven't been home lately so not been able to check, I will do today.

Hi @Zering - travelling! I'm never away from home, being away is very unusual at the moment..

If you could check that would be good - if Mad Stalker CHD isn't a goer and Azure isn't there, then I guess I will stop looking for .226 as there is nothing I need from it, as far as I know...

Zering

@adambegood I guess you could call it travelling! I work in care, I am never home ^^
I'll check Azure in an hour. In the meantime I'm very confused as to how you guys got Alltynex working...

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood I guess you could call it travelling! I work in care, I am never home ^^
I'll check Azure in an hour. In the meantime I'm very confused as to how you guys got Alltynex working...

In care, this must have been a mad time for you with Covid.

Google "alltynex bootable iso" and get the ISO.

run it with the mame-autoframeskip core
when it runs press Crtl + C once you see text being displayed - start pressing after "Echo Off"
answer Y to the question being asked
type tmenu and press Enter.
click on the box that is presented
double click on alltynex.exp
Enjoy!

Edit: I've tried Mad Stalker from Neo Kobe also - no joy. Just that and Azure evading me now.

Zering

@adambegood Sadly I don't drive (yet) so not so mad! But I have been kept busy since December. Caught covid on my first week of work too ^^
I don't understand where you get that core from?

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood Sadly I don't drive (yet) so not so mad! But I have been kept busy since December. Caught covid on my first week of work too ^^
I don't understand where you get that core from?

Are you learning? I didn't pass until I was quite old (maybe 30 or so).

curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scripts-00/generate-systems-lr-mess_mame-2v0-alpha.sh" | bash -s fmtowns

If you have the latest version of Folly's script and run the above, you should be able to get the MAME version. That is my understanding anyway, Folly is better placed to answer definitively, but I am pretty sure that is right.

You can test the procedure above on the mess-cdrm core anyway, it just runs worse than on MAME. I underclocked and it ran slowly but sound was much better.

Zering

@adambegood I received my provisional license this month, I can't learn currently because of the lockdown but I'm looking at getting a cheap car so my friend can teach me and show me the ropes so I don't get ripped off by driving instructors. I'm 26, I've spent every day I've worked in care regretting not learning ten years ago.

But back to the point (^^) I'll wait for Folly to explain then! It seems easy enough but I haven't been following anything very closely and I'm curious what's been going on.

Edit : Azure is in the MAME chd set. It starts up fine. It runs fine with the CPU overclock set to 55.

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood I received my provisional license this month, I can't learn currently because of the lockdown but I'm looking at getting a cheap car so my friend can teach me and show me the ropes so I don't get ripped off by driving instructors. I'm 26, I've spent every day I've worked in care regretting not learning ten years ago.

But back to the point (^^) I'll wait for Folly to explain then! It seems easy enough but I haven't been following anything very closely and I'm curious what's been going on.

It's a good idea to get someone to teach you, driving instructors are so expensive. Whereabouts do you live? I'm SE London.

Like I say, you can do the testing of the game just fine on the Core you already have - it just doesn't run quite as well. The method is exactly the same for both cores.

Also if you just enter that line:

curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scripts-00/generate-systems-lr-mess_mame-2v0-alpha.sh" | bash -s fmtowns

and then check optional emulators and see if the mame option is there to be installed. It may well just work like that without you having to have the latest version of Folly's script (you may be on the latest already).

Folly

Hi guys,

Well this is what I am doing (and what I have done):
I have done my job today as a postman on the island Vlieland. Now I have to travel 2 hours on the boat and then 40 minutes biking towards home.
I have always done this job part-time from an early age.
But basically I am an electronics-engineer.
So I have also worked in a hospital.
And I have had my own business for 15 years in first-aid education.
Ooopsss 47 with a 20 year old brain ^^.

So now I have some time to answer.

You have to have an updated version of the RetroPie-Setup that has support for external repositories.
It should work with both the original RetroPie-Setup and Valerino's fork.
If you have manually added some module-scripts then most likely your RetroPie-Setup will not update.
Just rename the old Setup and git clone the new one.

Make sure you have installed both mame and lr-mess.

With the curl line you run the 2v0-script online without even downloading it.
You just put the system you want at the end and it will create the module-scripts in the RetroPie-Setup/ext (for external repositories).
It will also install the run_mess.sh (necessary for lr-mess) script of Valerino if it is not present.

Then you install your desired module-scripts in the RetroPie-Setup you will find these at the bottom-end of the experimental-packages. (you can use the end key)

My module-scripts now also contain mame lines as you have noticed.
With this addition I changed the BIOS directory so both mame and lr-mess use the same bios files.
The directory is :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame
Nice thing about this is that these files are now separated from the normal bios files, which is really nice.

Run the game with the line that contains mame, autoframeskip and cdrm.

That should do the trick.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly How familiar are you with creating ISOs?

I thought I could put the Azure files into the Alltynex ISO and then do the break process and just run the executable for Azure from within that.. but if I put those files into the ISO then it won't run. I am confused as to how it knows the difference.

I was also thinking of editing the Alltynex ISO because we had to do ctrl+c.
(Btw.It seems the loop is due to the 2mb memory. Now on my laptop I don't have this problem it boots with 6mb, but don't know why)
I tried to use isomaster to edit the iso, but the iso will not not boot.
It seems, regarding the thread where we downloaded the iso, that you have to use the dos program IPL.com to make the iso bootable again.
Not tried yet, though.

Edit: Also, any hints on finding these .226 MAME CHDs? Mad Stalker Neo Kobe doesn't work for me, and I imagine that is in there. I must be being stupid here, but I can't find FM Towns in any MAME sets I come across, all seems to be arcade-focussed.

Indeed, couldn't find them either.

Folly

I am now working on a front-end module-script which contains the generation-script.
It is still very basic.

You can test the latest by downloading it to the RetroPie-Setup with this cmd :
(edit : updated to test4)

wget -q -nv -O /home/$(ls /home)/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-mamedev-systems.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-workdir-00/add-mamedev-systems-test4.sh

Go to configuration/tools->add
option2 takes about 20-40 seconds to fill with 38000 systems.
If you select a system it will directly try to install it too. !!!

AdamBeGood

@folly Vlieland eh! Sounds like you keep yourself busy with these various jobs! Seems strange to do that job part-time when the travel is so long but I guess someone has to do it, and it's cool that you have to travel by boat regularly.

I'm 39 and work as a Business Analyst for a Financial Company. Very dry.

Interesting on the IPL.com point, maybe I can just put Azure within the existing Alltynex ISO then...

So strange that it is 6mb on your Laptop.. does the game boot automatically on there then?

Edit: I've put Azure within the Allyntex ISO and renamed it to Azure.iso, I am now trying to make it bootable but I am getting an incompatibility message as I am running it through CMD in Windows. Is this IPL program something that has to be run in Towns OS?

My plan is that if I can do the break to get into the Towns GUI, I can just run the Azure file from in there, and maybe Mad Stalker as well.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Vlieland eh! Sounds like you keep yourself busy with these various jobs! Seems strange to do that job part-time when the travel is so long but I guess someone has to do it, and it's cool that you have to travel by boat regularly.

I do this on a regular base, also another island Terschelling.
Only if people have off from work or when they are ill.
So luckily not every day, but it's enjoy-able !

I'm 39 and work as a Business Analyst for a Financial Company. Very dry.

Nice.
Almost forgot, I did also a study for Business Analyst.
But in the end, it wasn't my thing.

Interesting on the IPL.com point, maybe I can just put Azure within the existing Alltynex ISO then...

Perhaps, But we have to find a way to get it bootable.
We should try to run IPL.com in the dosbox.

So strange that it is 6mb on your Laptop.. does the game boot automatically on there then?

I think I run a newer version on that.
But I don't know why just yet.

AdamBeGood

@folly DosBox makes sense. My wife is back now so I have to help her in with the kid. I will try that later on. :)

Your occasional postie job sounds fun!

Edit: I can get into the Towns menu on my Azure.iso now! I just need to navigate a load of Japanese text... The wife wants me upstairs but I want to tinker.

Further Edit: I cannot work out how to get into the folder structure and open Azure though. @Zering tells me that there is a CHD available anyway so maybe a moot point, as I don't need to go down this route anymore. Interesting though.

@Folly IPL.COM does work in DosBox

Zering

@adambegood I have emailed you concerning the Mame CHDs.