Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone

Folly

I doubt that it's due to my script.
More likely that it's due to lr-mess on which classich hanhelds will run.
Can you see which versions for standalone mame / lr-mess do you use right now ?
Which "classich" game(driver) are you trying ?
Does the "classich" game(driver) run with standalone mame ?

Edit :
I tried cgalaxn on :

standalone mame 0256
lr-mess 0244, 0251 and 0256

cgalaxn failed on all except 0244.
So it's almost certainly an issue with mame / lr-mess or the created 32 bits binaries.
More investigation is needed but it could be that some of these classich games are broken just like others from version 0251.
You can read more about it here.
It explains that a flag for 32 bits binary compilation has been added for version 0257.
Could be that this fixes these issues.
(solved : in the end the rom needed to be updated)

I have place my working lr-mess0244 binary on my google-drive :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q_GykUt8yXsCTrhvL-ihZpAx8Dnj-4AM
(so you can manually replace it if you want and able to)

Edit 2:
I tried cgalaxn on :

standalone mame 0252 (x86_64 debian 11)
lr-mess 0255 (x86_64 debian 11)

cgalaxn does indeed correctly work on 64 bits (x86_64).
lr-mess however doesn't run at full speed with this driver but that's a known issue.
(perhaps I used a good updated rom with this test)
(solved : in the end the rom needed to be updated)

Edit 3 :
I tried cgalaxn on :

lr-mess 0250

My cgalaxn.7z did not work however when I used the new cgalaxn.zip it worked so the romfile has been changed.

jamrom2

@Folly I agree. It looks like a lot of stuff seems to be having issues. I even tried the auto-loading option on the Coco2 and Coco3, they seem to either fail on every choice, or add in more characters to the loading command on the screen.

I am away for a few days, but I will test all of this. I'll fall back to the script you posted and see if that works. If it does, I suggest holding back posting any newer versions of the script until the issues are sorted. To simple minds like mine, it looks like the script is the problem when in fact, it's the MAME/MESS core that is screwing up.

Best!

JR

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

I'll fall back to the script you posted and see if that works.

It's no script but a binary of lr-mess.
You don't have to downgrade the script necessarily, just use the older lr-mess binary.
Extract it and place the core in /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mess as root user.

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

I even tried the auto-loading option on the Coco2 and Coco3, they seem to either fail on every choice

The cocoe and coco2 drivers are removed in may this year check here.
I still left the extra coco2 lines in for those who use older binaries.
In time the coco2 lines should be removed.
The coco / coco3 lines should be checked.

jamrom2

@Folly oh, ok. So how will we play the Coco system games? Will we have to manually input load commands?

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

@Folly oh, ok. So how will we play the Coco system games? Will we have to manually input load commands?

Well you got the old lr-mess binary.
If you are able to use then you should be able to play coco2 it like before.

For newer mame / lr-mess versions probably from 0251 on the "coco 1" and "2" are now both in the coco driver as the commit info says :
Remove cocoe and coco2 drivers.
They existed to have multiple bios options available.
Make available all of the combinations Color BASIC and Extended Color BASIC versions to the coco driver.

In this case it looks like we have to add the specific bios version info to the commandline to be able to simulate what coco2 was able to do.

Ps.
I am still waiting to see how things evolve.
Perhaps we need a version with binary's that is locked on version 0250
(The latest 2022 versions where things were still ok)
Not sure yet how to anticipate on future changes.

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

The classich games seem to have issues with the sprites not being displayed properly.

I just tested cgalaxn again with lr-mess0250 and it failed also.
Then I updated my rom to the newest one and it worked on lr-mess0250 and on lr-mess0256 too.
Used -frameskip10 for both and both worked at acceptable speed
Get it from mame-merged.

Btw. I was able to find some 0250 binaries so I added them on my google drive :
MAME binaries :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_dpVrsTSP7Tii8Lan4SC4U9LD17jYV4v
lr-mame / lr-mess binaries :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q_GykUt8yXsCTrhvL-ihZpAx8Dnj-4AM
(They work on debian11 and should also work on debian10)
(I hope that they are indeed original gcc9 compiled binaries for debian10)

jamrom2

@Folly ok on both posts. I'll update my coco and all other bios roms to the latest 250. A lot has changed since the last build I did during Covid.

Same for the classich. I never imagined the rom would be the issue. Usually with bad roms, the emulator just doesn't start.

Thanks for the help. I'll get back to you with the results soon.

JR

jamrom2

@Folly for the ClassicH issue, a rom update solved it. I upgraded eveything to 256, and it all works as it should.

As for the Coco issues, I'll wait and see.

Thanks again!

JR

Folly

@jamrom2

Good to hear that the rom update solved the issue.
I will have a look at coco later, when I can.

DTEAM

@Folly

MAME 0.258 is available

New working systems

Apple Computer Macintosh Quadra 605 [R. Belmont]
Apple Computer Macintosh Quadra 630 [R. Belmont]
Daifugo (Japan) [Takahiro Nogi, anonymous]
Ideal Toy Corporation Sky-Writer: The Electronic Message Sender [hap, Sean Riddle]
Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Splinter Speaks (handheld) [hap, algestam, Sean Riddle, Mr. Do]
Player's Edge Plus (X000444P+XP000038) Standard Draw Poker [Brian Troha]
Silicon Graphics IRIS Indigo R4000 [Patrick Mackinlay]
Wanpaku Safari (J 981109 V1.000) [TeamEurope, MetalliC]

ktmnt2 = Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Splinter Speaks is available for konamih system

Folly

@DTEAM @jamrom2

I am very busy with updating the WIP mamedev.sh script.
I am about to merge the "WIP" and the "WIP TEST" into one script and make it the default script.
I have already added a lot of features to it like :

simple version change so updating will be easier for me
update to 0258 ( waiting for progettosnaps updates )
be able to use older mame databases
add some older mame binaries
install the patched runcommand.sh so extra replacement tokens can be used in the runcommands
if the patched runcommand.sh is not installed use the regular runcommands without extra replacement tokens
add new EXTRA coco lines
still be able to use the older EXTRA coco2 lines when using an older mame version
be able to remove systems or categories that were installed by the script.
reorder some stuff and improve the menu a bit
turning of default rotation for libretro for the runcommands installed by the script
add a patch to install the run_mess.sh of Valerino script separately so when installed the lr-run_mess runcommands are installed if not then they are not
etc.

Hoping to be able to share this soon.

So I want to stop with the add-mamedev-systems.sh script.
The main reason is that generating a module-script and then installing it afterwards make no real sense anymore.
The other thing is that I want to update just one script if possible.
I hope you both agree on that, let me know what you both think.

jamrom2

@Folly Sounds good. List is long, and hopefully it will all piece together nicely.

I agree that using just the mamedev.sh script makes sense, provided this can all work.

Mame is one of those programs that updates so often, it gets confusing unless you're on top of it constantly. Switching versions will often wipe out all the work that was done to make games work a year ago. So hopefully all this will control some of that.

The ultimate goal for the RetroPie version should be to get as many systems working from a "one click" selection as possible, otherwise, you'd have to know tons of load and execute commands considering how many systems can be supported.

I do think there seems to be a bit too many selections of runcommand when the script loads in a system. Are all of them necessary like "game-specific" or lr-run-mess..etc. I'm just curious.

Thanks as always for the dedication and hard work you put into this!

Best,

JR

Folly

@jamrom2 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

@Folly Sounds good. List is long, and hopefully it will all piece together nicely.

I agree that using just the mamedev.sh script makes sense, provided this can all work.

Good to know, indeed it makes much more sense, it's faster and more organised.
It will be the future way to go, I think.

Mame is one of those programs that updates so often, it gets confusing unless you're on top of it constantly. Switching versions will often wipe out all the work that was done to make games work a year ago. So hopefully all this will control some of that.

I hope so too.
Though for the database I can only go back to 0240.
From that point the databases should be quite compatible, hopefully.
I have not made all the databases because it's a lot of work so some of them are missing.
For now there are only a few older binaries.
We have to see how it goes with this idea.

The ultimate goal for the RetroPie version should be to get as many systems working from a "one click" selection as possible, otherwise, you'd have to know tons of load and execute commands considering how many systems can be supported.

I do think there seems to be a bit too many selections of runcommand when the script loads in a system. Are all of them necessary like "game-specific" or lr-run-mess..etc. I'm just curious.

I have now added a install/remove line for the Valerino script.
If it's not installed it will not produce lr-run-mess runcommands anymore.
I am thinking of doing the same when lr-mess or lr-mame is not installed.
Then It would produce only MAME standalone runcommands.
Indeed there are a lot.
About the game-specific, I find it sometimes very handy to create per game input configs.
However I see the need for reducing runcommands indeed.
For now I will let then in, Will have to think about this for future updates.

Thanks as always for the dedication and hard work you put into this!

Best,

JR

Thanks for the feedback.

Best Folly.

jamrom2

@Folly Hi. So far, I've gotten most of the systems I want to run working, except when I get to the Ti99/4a.

I can't seem to get any of the .dsk files to run no matter what version of the runcommand I select.

I downloaded the latest BIOS files for .258 and put them in \BIOS\mame. But I end up with errors that state I'm missing other files.

************ nevermind... I figured it out. I had to copy the superxb.zip (super basic) BIOS from the ti99_cart.zip into the /BIOS/mame folder .

It's working now

duglor

@Folly Is there a simple way to just add lr-vice 128/lr-vice c128?
That's all i need. :)

Folly

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

@Folly Is there a simple way to just add lr-vice 128/lr-vice c128?
That's all i need. :)

lr-vice is off topic.
I would check the core options in retroarch.
You probably have to add 64kb (total 128kb).
I think the types will still be 64/64c.
Otherwise open a new topic.

Folly

It took me quite some time but here is the update of mamedev.sh to 258.00.
I hope everything works as expected.
It has many changes and addons.
Here is the commit info.

jamrom2

@Folly loaded the new script and everything seems OK.

Still can't get the Coco2 to work, according to the log, it's running .258. How do I load the .254 version of mame without altering the .258 version? I'm a little confused as to how this is supposed to work.

Thanks,

JR

Folly

@jamrom2

For now there are 4 routes to take :

1:
The thing is you can't actually use coco2 anymore on 258 because it doesn't exist in that version, it's replaced by coco.
So if you want to run coco with the old coco2 experience on 0258 then you need to install the coco runcommands.
By default it will run with the latest bioses and hardware like the coco2 did.

2:
If you still want to run coco under the emulationstation section (or folder) coco2 then you can copy the runcommands (emulators.cfg) from coco to coco2.
Be sure you did a coco2 install before.
You can do this by selecting an older database first then install coco2 and then replace the emulators.cfg manually.

3:
Downgrade the mame binary to a pre 254 binary (250 for example) and then install coco2.
coco2 can be installed from the EXTRA without changing the database to a prior version as far as I know.
But the DEFAULT coco2 install needs a prior database to be selected in order to install properly.
This can be done by selecting a version from which you know coco2 still worked. So that would be 250 or 254 for example.
If you want to be safe then select a prior database and do every coco2 install (DEFAULT + EXTRAS)

This is still a one way route as there is only 1 mame install.
So your newer 258 mame will be replace by 250 for example.
If you want to backup 258 then do this manually by, for example, renaming /opt/retropie/emulators/mame to /opt/retropie/emulators/mame258 .
(use CLI as superuser and use the mv (move) command)
For the future it would be nice to run multiple versions together.
But first we will have to see if that is something for the future.

Be aware that I did not add older lr-mess binaries.
So running coco2 with lr-mess this way will also need an older lr-mess if not installed.

4:
What is also possible is to add coco2 lines to the EXTRAS so coco will be installed under coco2.
Though it's something I rather not do.
You can check the code if you want it's quite easy to add extra lines, they are just "comma separated values" (CSV).