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

Folly

Hi,

I made a script for it.
I have to improve some things as it is not perfect yet,
but it should works for most games.

I am going to make a repository for it, asap.
I will let you know when it's online.

Paste your .zip game files into the same directory as the script.
Use the terminal.
Go to that script directory.
Be sure the script is executable with chmod u+x 123-pofo-roms.sh
Run it with sudo ./123-pofo-roms.sh
Now it will create .rom files from all .zip files.
Copy these .rom to the roms/pofo directory.

Edit :
This is the repository :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/create_atari-portfolio_roms

Fixed the issue of adding a .com or .exe to the autoexec.bat:

If 1 executable is found, then this file will be added to the autoexec.bat .
if more executable's are found, then you will be asked to type an executable which is added to the autoexec.bat .

DTEAM

@folly
Your script works !!!! great job. Now I have a loading issue :

hd61830.bin NOT FOUND (tried in hd61830 pofo)
Fatal error: Required files are missing, the machine cannot be run.
sdl_kill: closing audio
Enter sdlwindow_exit
Leave sdlwindow_exit

My Bios is pofo.7z from MAME 0.233

NEW EDIT: It loads and it works . I added this Bios hd61830.7z

Folly

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

@folly
Your script works !!!! great job.

Perfect ;-)

NEW EDIT: It loads and it works . I added this Bios hd61830.7z

My setup works also, as you have noticed.
But I saw in the mame log (/dev/shm/runcommand.log) that the "hd61830.bin ROM NEEDS REDUMP".
Can you tell me, do you have the same in your log or do you now have a good dump of hd61830.bin ?

DTEAM

@folly
It looks fine on my side

Starting Software List ':cart_list'
Starting RAM ':ram'
Starting NVRAM ':nvram'
Starting Portfolio ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
Starting Hitachi HD61830B LCD Controller ':hd61830'
Starting Speaker ':mono'
Starting Portfolio ':'
un7z: opened archive file /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame/cheat/cheat.7z
un7z: closing archive file /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame/cheat/cheat.7z and sending to cache
Loading cheats file from /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame/cheat/cheat/pofo.xml
Attempting to parse: default.cfg
Attempting to parse: pofo.cfg
Starting Portfolio
hiscore: config found

I got it from MAME 0.233

Folly

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

@folly
It looks fine on my side

I think you may have overlooked it in the log.

What is the sha1sum of your hd61830.bin ?

This is my output of mame0233 saying also that hd61830.bin is still a bad dump with sha1sum included (mine is the same):

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame $ p7zip -k -d hd61830.7z
.
Extracting archive: hd61830.7z
.
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame $ /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listroms pofo
ROMs required for driver "pofo".
Name                                   Size Checksum
c101782-007.u4                       131072 CRC(c9852766) SHA1(c74430281bc717bd36fd9b5baec1cc0f4489fe82)
c101781-007.u3                       131072 CRC(b8fb730d) SHA1(1b9d82b824cab830256d34912a643a7d048cd401)
c101783-001a-01.u3                    32768 CRC(61fdaff1) SHA1(5eb99e7a19af7b8d77ea8a2f1f554e6e3d382fa2)
hd61830.bin                            1472 BAD CRC(06a934da) SHA1(bf3f074db5dc92e6f530cb18d6c013563099a87d) BAD_DUMP
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/BIOS/mame $ sha1sum hd61830.bin
bf3f074db5dc92e6f530cb18d6c013563099a87d  hd61830.bin

It seems no way around that, for now.

Btw :
I added "Atari Portfolio" to our database selection for the front-end script.
And I added it in the animated gif for the theme cygnus-blue-flames.

DTEAM

@folly
I don't see a baddump message in my .log, but I have the same file. So I suppose I also have a Baddump. Try to open the chess game to compare your log with me.

My hd61830.bin SHA1 : bf3f074db5dc92e6f530cb18d6c013563099a87d

Folly

@dteam

It is what it is, we should not spend too much time on it.

I checked with guichess.rom, I think the same version.

Part of my log looks like this (third line) :

un7z: opened archive file /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/hd61830.7z
un7z: closing archive file /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/hd61830.7z and sending to cache
hd61830.bin ROM NEEDS REDUMP
WARNING: the machine might not run correctly.
Optional memory region ':screen' not found
Optional memory region ':nvram' not found
Starting Portfolio ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Intel 8088 ':u1'
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting palette ':palette'
Starting gfxdecode ':gfxdecode'
Starting Hitachi HD61830B LCD Controller ':hd61830'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Atari Portfolio keyboard ':keyboard'
Starting Speaker ':mono'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting PCD3311 ':pcd3311t'
Starting Atari Portfolio memory card port ':ccma'
Starting Atari Portfolio ROM card ':ccma:rom'
Starting Atari Portfolio expansion port ':exp'
Starting Timer ':counter'
Starting Timer ':tick'
Starting Software List ':cart_list'
Starting RAM ':ram'
Starting NVRAM ':nvram'
Starting Portfolio ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
Starting Hitachi HD61830B LCD Controller ':hd61830'
etc.......

Folly

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

I saw you have used pofo, I also see this "portfolio_rom_card" . What is the connection between these two?

I was again busy in understanding how the slot devices are structured.
It's a real pain in the ass.
Like, for instance nes datach, it can't be listed with the normal -listslots option.
I can only detect it with the -listfull option.

So I did the same with pofo here I found the option you mentioned and more :

portfolio_ccm_slot "Atari Portfolio memory card port"
portfolio_expansion_slot "Atari Portfolio expansion port"
pofo_hpc101       "Atari Portfolio HPC-101"
pofo_hpc102       "Atari Portfolio HPC-102"
pofo_hpc104       "Atari Portfolio HPC-104"
pofo_hpc104_2     "Atari Portfolio HPC-104 (Unit 2)"
portfolio_ram_card "Atari Portfolio RAM card"
portfolio_rom_card "Atari Portfolio ROM card"

Just like with nes it's not real obvious how to load these.

Replied just for the record, as I hope to get an idea on how we can implement these slots into the script.

Folly

@dteam

Trying to find the structure here on how we can use the extended options the correct way so it can be added in the script.
And above all how do we find these options.

In doing so, I searched with :
/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware nes | grep slot

Just like datach(a nes_slot but not listed with mame -listslots nes) I found here also disksys(a nes_slot but not listed with mame -listslots nes) and ofcourse this is also available for famicom (a nes_slot but not listed with mame -listslots famicom) .

In the MAME_0.202_Software_List_ROMs_merged there is also famicom_flop(software_list) just something like nes_datach(software_list) .

So I tried running this manual and it worked with :

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame famicom disksys -flop "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/famicom/famicom_flop/aliens - alien 2 (japan) (proto) [b].fds"

It looks like this :

Folly

@dteam

Just like using running famicom disks I saw also an option of loading famicom cassettes.
I was not sure how to do this, but after a long search I discovered that you need to run Family Basic together with fc_keyboard.
It seems that the cassette recorder interface is part of the famicom keyboard.

I could not find the correct basic bios as stated with this command :
/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware famicom

If you have the famibs30 bios rom the the load line will be :

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame famicom famibs30 -exp fc_keyboard -cass /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/famicom/famicom_cass/hero.wav

Instead I found some .nes basic roms and used one of these .

This is the manual command on how to load the basic and load the cass file :

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame famicom -cart "Family BASIC (V3.0) (J).nes" -exp fc_keyboard -cass /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/famicom/famicom_cass/hero.wav

Quite interesting that this works.
Just type load, go into the menu, press play on tape,after the load type run.

You can read more about it here :
https://www.nesworld.com/fc-familybasic.php

Edit :
#seems the famibs30.zip cannot be found in a mame archive
#famibs30 can be created from an extracted "Family BASIC (V3.0) (J).nes"
#use https://github.com/X-death25/Nes-Extract to extract to a .prg and a .chr
#check the names and sha1sums with output of "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -listsoftware famicom"
#rename and repack the .prg .chr to a zip or 7z

DTEAM

@folly
For Atari Portfolio, i’ll do an artwork with 3 views (complet system, no artwork and zoom) after my vacation.

Folly

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

@folly
For Atari Portfolio, i’ll do an artwork with 3 views (complet system, no artwork and zoom) after my vacation.

Nice, looking forward to it.

Have a nice vacation !

Folly

MAME 0.234 is out !

I added the mame announcements in post one, so we can have a look on the latest improvements of mame.

This is a link to the mame forum with global information about new versions :
link_to_whats_new_in_mame

DTEAM

@folly
Nice animated Demo in your first post !!

Are you comfortable to add a "pull request" for your script on GitHub for the official RetroPie? I think your script is enough completed. Are you agree?

Folly

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

@folly
Nice animated Demo in your first post !!

It does speak much more, that animation, doesn't it. ;-)

Are you comfortable to add a "pull request" for your script on GitHub for the official RetroPie? I think your script is enough completed. Are you agree?

I think it't also quite complete and it's something that should be done in the long run.
But I don't want to get tangled in a pull request in a way that I have to make many changes again to the script before it's accepted.
So in that way I am not that comfortable doing the PR yet.

There was also a thread about @valerino wanting to do it for his fork but it wasn't accepted for several reasons.

Perhaps he can give us some clues why.

DTEAM

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

There was also a thread about @valerino wanting to do it for his fork but it wasn't accepted for several reasons.
Perhaps he can give us some clues why.

Your script is different and covers all systems and you have a menu interface. This is totally a different story.

Folly

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

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

There was also a thread about @valerino wanting to do it for his fork but it wasn't accepted for several reasons.
Perhaps he can give us some clues why.

Your script is different and covers all systems and you have a menu interface. This is totally a different story.

Indeed, you have a point ;-)

I will think about it.

Folly

@BuZz

Hi Jools,

This project is quite matured now and we would like it to take it to the next step of adding it into the original RetroPie-Setup.

I would like you to ask if you can have a look at it, in time.
(take your time, no rush here)

If you feel comfortable with it then I would like to do a pull request for the front-end script only.

Let me know what you think.

BuZz

@folly thanks for your contribution. Is it still a system that generates module files ?

Can you give me an overview as last time I checked it wasn't implemented in a way I could envisage incorporating (generating module files etc)

Folly

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

@folly thanks for your contribution. Is it still a system that generates module files ?

Can you give me an overview as last time I checked it wasn't implemented in a way I could envisage incorporating (generating module files etc)

Thanks for your reply.

It's now evolved as a front-end tool.
Basically you can select all systems that mame/lr-mess supports.
We have added also some manual systems regarding handhelds and systems with extra hardware.

The front-end tool contains a generating part.
So the data of the selected mame system is used to create a module-scripts on the fly.
Per media-type (cas,flop,rom, etc) are generated and a normal one without the media that can be used for .cmd files or the softlist roms.
The front-end will automatically refresh after generating and install the module-scripts on the fly.
If you want to remove them you can do that the normal way.

The major advantage is that you can install for more that 30000 systems.
I think, this would be impossible if you didn't have a generating part.

Another advantage is that the "runcommand-lines" just accept normal file-names just like any other emulator would as there is no need anymore to use softlist-names if you don't want to.

We have also added downloads for :

theme artwork
mame arwork
overlay creation for handhels in lr-mess
gamelists

This is basically the overview on what the tool does.

Just like @DTEAM says in the next post, everything can be found in the first post :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-and-mame-standalone/1
Summarized, it's an amazing piece of work !

How would you envisage incorporating ?