Problem Setting up Atari 5200

dsquared

Hello:

I am trying to setup the Atari 5200 emulator as per these instructions for the lr-atari800 emulator. When I try to play a game, I get a blank screen. The Atari 2600 side is working fine. I have all BIOS's named as per the instructions (including capitalization). I have the /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch-core-options.cfg setup with contents copied and pasted from the instructions. I have tried games in 7z format and in extracted bin files - the result is the same. When I press the "B" button I bring up a blue menu called "Select Carttridge Type" - presumably a lr-atari800 configuration utility.

Pi Model or other hardware: 4B+ 2GB
Power Supply: rechargeable batteries
RetroPie Version Used: retropie-buster-4.6 with Waveshare driver
Retropie -Setup Script: V4.7.11
Built From: Pre made SD Image from here
USB Devices connected: ) GamePi43
Controller used: ) GamePi43
Error messages received:goes by too fast to catch and does not appear everytime
Verbose log (if relevant): See runcommand.log
Guide used: This
File: config.txt?
Emulator: N/A
Attachment 1 of config.txt file: https://pastebin.com/NWzgZwKe
Attachment 2 of runcommand.log: https://pastebin.com/gtPf6h7x
Attachment 3 of retroarch-core-options.cfg: https://pastebin.com/WD1DSCsf

I hope I have provided enough information.
Any suggestions on how to get this emulator working, would be appreciated

jamrom2

@dsquared Hi. first before anything else... Can you open your runcommand.log located in /dev/shm/runcommand.log and post what is says. That will tell you exactly what's wrong.

Let's start there.

dsquared

"Can you open your runcommand.log located in /dev/shm/runcommand.log"

Please see attachment 2 of my original post.

jamrom2

@dsquared sorry...

Very odd... Looks like it's asking for a CDROM device.

[CDROM] No sg devices found and sg kernel module is not loaded.
port(0)=1
port(1)=1
port(2)=1
port(3)=1
Modifier crtl pressed 1

Do you have any roms on .a52 format? Unzip them and try one. Just leave it unzipped for now as it removes the extra step. Try running it and post what it says. The lr-atari800 is tricky to get started and running, buy once it does, it's great.

dsquared

@jamrom2

I loaded an *.a52 game and now I get a blue screen that says

Atari800/OS Emulation Halted
Copyright (c) 1997 David J. Firth
(c) 1990-2013 Atari 800 Development Team
http://atari800.atari.org/
Sorry this program needs a real Atari/OS
Visit the web pages to find out more.

I checked the MD5's of all of the BIOS files and they all match up.

Here is the new runcommand.log https://pastebin.com/ZtPAYzxJ

(It looks familiar)

Thorr69

@dsquared I'm pretty sure that what you need to do is manually define the BIOS files and locations. Even with the modifications that the docs tell you to make, there are some additional that you should do. I recommend you check the advice I gave in this thread:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/23727/atari-5200-not-working-atari800-os-emulation-halted

rkoster

@dsquared

I have tried games in 7z format and in extracted bin files - the result is the same. When I press the "B" button I bring up a blue menu called "Select Carttridge Type" - presumably a lr-atari800 configuration utility.

I MAY be misunderstanding what you are seeing, but just in case:

The Atari 5200 had carts with varying memory configurations. The carts normally have a header that tells the machine how to deal with them. But most ROM dumps strip the headers.

When you get this screen, it means your ROM lacks the header. You have to know which one to select to get the game to boot. Fortunately, the emulator has the ability to replace the header!

There are instructions in my giant Atari guide linked in my .sig.

jamrom2

I'll second this. This was a very good write-up to get an exremely finicky emulator running right. Go through it and take it one step at a time.

I just worked this write-up a few weeks ago... after months of issues with the video not being correct.

Now all is as it should be... just need virtual disk support and this will be an ass-kicking emulator on both a5200 and atari800 side.

dsquared

@thorr69

Hello:

Thank you for replying again. I printed out the thread, read it several times, highlighted what I thought were the important instructions and tried to follow them as best I could, but found them a tad confusing. However, I still haven't got it working.

The process I followed was:

launch an *.a52 game,
wait for it to load a page that is blue and now says "ATARI COMPUTER MEMO PAD" with a white cursor under the A in ATARI.
Hit F1 on my keyboard to bring up a blue screen called "ATARI 800 EMULATOR VERSION 3.1.0"
Scroll down to "SYSTEM SETTINGS" and hit enter
In the "SYSTEM SETTINGS" Menu, On the first line, I change "Machine" to "ATARI 5200"
I hit esc to back out and select "Emulator Settings"
On the "Emulator Settings" menu, I go to "Configure directories" (near the bottom) and add the following directories to the "Directories with ATARI Software" field:
/home/pi/Retropie/roms/atari5200
/opt/retropie/configs/atri5200
and add the following directory to the "Directories for emulator saved files" field:
/home/pi/Retropie/roms/atari5200
I hit esc to back out the "Emulator Settings" menu and select "Save configuration file" and receive message that "configuration file updated" BTW. the last line "Save configuration on exit" is set to "Yes"
I hit esc again to return to the "ATARI 800 EMULATOR VERSION 3.1.0" Menu and select "Exit Emulator"
and return to Emulation Station ATARI5200 section.
Try and launch game again and hit select + X on game pad to bring up Retroarch "QUICK MENU"
Scroll down to "options" and select it
On 2nd line Atari system I select "5200" with the game pad
Hit B on the game pad to back out to "Quick Menu"
Hit B on the game pad to "MAIN MENU"
Select "Configuration file" on "MAIN MENU" by pressing A on the game pad.
Then I select "Save Current Configuration" on the game pad and pressing A
I hit B on the game pad to bring me back to the retroarch "MAIN MENU" and select "Quit Retroarch" by pressing A on the game pad.
I hit start on the game pad to bring up emulation station "MAIN MENU" , select "Quit" and press A with game pad, then select "RESTART SYSTEM" and "YES" with A button on the game pad.

I then try to launch the game (in this case "Defender"). I get the Atari Defender splash screen and the starting screen - where I get my choice of the number of players and difficulty. However, The game pad does not work and none of the buttons do anything. Do I have to also set the game pad in Retroarch?

attachment 1: New /dev/shm/runcommand.log file: https://pastebin.com/J0jreDvL

Thorr69

@dsquared You did exactly what I hoped you would, then. You managed to get the game going properly. Grats! The controls are a different issue, one that I have no experience in. Hopefully another reader will have more for you.

dsquared

@thorr69 thanks for your help. but you have go through this with every game you want to play? - I don't see it worth the time.....

Libation

@dsquared Try starting game, then go to RetroArch (usually Select + X), then Options. Change Atari system to Atari 5200. Back out, go to Controls, then Port 1 Controls. Change Device Type to Atari joystick.

Thorr69

@dsquared The bios directories and such are saved as a Core override (your steps 1-9) so you shouldn't have to repeat that part. Doing what @Libation is suggesting above (which should replace your steps 10+) will likely need to be done per game. Once your game is working, save the configuration as a game configuration. Then you won't have to do it again for that game. Because lr-atari800 covers multiple systems and setups, you have to set up new games individually to a certain extent.

dsquared

@thorr69 "go to RetroArch (usually Select + X), then Options. Change Atari system to Atari 5200. Back out, go to Controls, then Port 1 Controls. Change Device Type to Atari joystick."

I tried this and am unable to change it....

rkoster

@dsquared said in Problem Setting up Atari 5200:

The process I followed was:

launch an *.a52 game,

wait for it to load a page that is blue and now says "ATARI COMPUTER MEMO PAD" with a white cursor under the A in ATARI.

This means that Retroarch launched the emulator as an Atari 8-bit computer.

This means two things:

you have set .a52 as a valid extension for Atari 8 bit computers. I suggest you make .a52 only work for 5200 games.
your retroarch-core-options.cfg file for Atari 5200 doesn't say atari800_system = "5200"

You need to have a retroarch-core-options.cfg for EACH system, Atari 8 bit and Atari 5200, in the appropriate directories. The one for the 5200 should say the above; the other should specify a computer model. Then when you launch a file associated with one or the other, it will launch the core with the right config.

Hit F1 on my keyboard to bring up a blue screen called "ATARI 800 EMULATOR VERSION 3.1.0"

Scroll down to "SYSTEM SETTINGS" and hit enter

In the "SYSTEM SETTINGS" Menu, On the first line, I change "Machine" to "ATARI 5200"

I hit esc to back out and select "Emulator Settings"

On the "Emulator Settings" menu, I go to "Configure directories" (near the bottom) and add the following directories to the "Directories with ATARI Software" field:
/home/pi/Retropie/roms/atari5200
/opt/retropie/configs/atri5200
and add the following directory to the "Directories for emulator saved files" field:
/home/pi/Retropie/roms/atari5200

I hit esc to back out the "Emulator Settings" menu and select "Save configuration file" and receive message that "configuration file updated" BTW. the last line "Save configuration on exit" is set to "Yes"

I hit esc again to return to the "ATARI 800 EMULATOR VERSION 3.1.0" Menu and select "Exit Emulator"

All of this is basically setting up the config files I described above.

and return to Emulation Station ATARI5200 section.
10) Try and launch game again and hit select + X on game pad to bring up Retroarch "QUICK MENU"
11) Scroll down to "options" and select it
12) On 2nd line Atari system I select "5200" with the game pad
13) Hit B on the game pad to back out to "Quick Menu"
14) Hit B on the game pad to "MAIN MENU"
15) Select "Configuration file" on "MAIN MENU" by pressing A on the game pad.
16) Then I select "Save Current Configuration" on the game pad and pressing A

You should not need to do any of this if the config file is set up right.

I hit B on the game pad to bring me back to the retroarch "MAIN MENU" and select "Quit Retroarch" by pressing A on the game pad.

I hit start on the game pad to bring up emulation station "MAIN MENU" , select "Quit" and press A with game pad, then select "RESTART SYSTEM" and "YES" with A button on the game pad.

I then try to launch the game (in this case "Defender"). I get the Atari Defender splash screen and the starting screen - where I get my choice of the number of players and difficulty. However, The game pad does not work and none of the buttons do anything. Do I have to also set the game pad in Retroarch?

You need to set the controller to be Atari Joystick for the core. This is true for both Atari 8 bit and 5200.

Apologies, doing this from memory so I can't go provide working configs...

dsquared

@rkoster said in Problem Setting up Atari 5200:

This means that Retroarch launched the emulator as an Atari 8-bit computer.
This means two things:

you have set .a52 as a valid extension for Atari 8 bit computers. I suggest you make .a52 only work for 5200 games.
your retroarch-core-options.cfg file for Atari 5200 doesn't say atari800_system = "5200"

You need to have a retroarch-core-options.cfg for EACH system, Atari 8 bit and Atari 5200, in the appropriate directories. The one for the 5200 should say the above; the other should specify a computer model. Then when you launch a file associated with one or the other, it will launch the core with the right config.

If you look at my original post I included my retroarch-core-options.cfg file as attachment 3 ( https://pastebin.com/WD1DSCsf).
Doesn't the last line of this file say atari800_system = "5200"? or am I reading it wrong?

Thank you everybody for your help, but I think I am going to give up on the ATARI5200 emulator. It does not appear to be ready for "Prime Time".

Maybe the lr-atari800 package should be moved to experimental packages given the atari5200 emulator need for additional instructions and failure to launch in all cases..... In any event the instructions should be updated when time is available at the very least.

jamrom2

@dsquared Wait... before you give up, as I stated before the A5200 is tricky to get working alongside the A800. Mostly because it's the same core running two separate versions of the emulator by configuration only. So if one thing is not correct... it won't work.

I'll post what I have and change yours to what I have.

In the /opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/atari5200/retroarch-core-options.cfg

change it to what I have here... I know what I have is not what is written in the instructions... but mine is working... so let's start there.

atari800_artifacting = "enabled"
atari800_cassboot = "disabled"
atari800_internalbasic = "disabled"
atari800_keyboard = "poll"
atari800_ntscpal = "NTSC"
atari800_opt1 = "enabled"
atari800_opt2 = "disabled"
atari800_resolution = "336x240"
atari800_sioaccel = "enabled"
atari800_system = "5200"

Make sure in your retroarch.cfg file in the same folder you have the following statement... if not, change it to this.

core_options_path = "/opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch-core-options.cfg"

In the same folder as well...

emulators.cfg

should have the following:
lr-atari800 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-atari800/atari800_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "lr-atari800"

Now one more thing...

In /opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/atari800 copy the lr-atari800.cfg file and rename it to just atari800.cfg. open it and make sure you have the A5200 rom name listed like this...

ROM_5200=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/atari5200.rom
ATARI_FILES_DIR=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari5200

About a week ago, I updated retroarch to the latest build. Shortly after doing that, my A5200 side of the Atari800 emulator failed to load games. I checked everything as I had changed nothing... but I looked at my runcommand.log and it was looking for that config file I just told you about. I have no idea why as it never did before. I did what I just told you to do, and it's been fine since.

Just make sure you have good known a5200 bios rom and all the atari bios roms placed in the bios folder, unzipped. If they are bad, or one is... nothing will work.

Here are the rest of my BIOS names listed.... and location. Google to find them.
ROM_BASIC_A=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/BASIC Revision A (19xx)(Atari)(400-800).rom
ROM_BASIC_B=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/BASIC Revision B (19xx)(Atari)(400-800).rom
ROM_BASIC_C=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ATARIBAS.ROM

Tell me if that helps at all.

BTW... all of my a5200 roms are .bin files and zipped. The need to be a good set otherwise they won't work either... same for the BIOS files.

dsquared

I just tied it out and IT WORKS!!!!! (including all the games in 7z format! Thank- you everybody so much!!!!!!

@jamrom2 said in Problem Setting up Atari 5200:

change it to what I have here... I know what I have is not what is written in the instructions... but mine is working... so let's start there.
atari800_artifacting = "enabled"
atari800_cassboot = "disabled"
atari800_internalbasic = "disabled"
atari800_keyboard = "poll"
atari800_ntscpal = "NTSC"
atari800_opt1 = "enabled"
atari800_opt2 = "disabled"
atari800_resolution = "336x240"
atari800_sioaccel = "enabled"
atari800_system = "5200"

Did this

Make sure in your retroarch.cfg file in the same folder you have the following statement... if not, change it to this.
core_options_path = "/opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch-core-options.cfg"
In the same folder as well...
emulators.cfg
should have the following:
lr-atari800 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-atari800/atari800_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "lr-atari800"

It was like this but I followed your instructions and deleted the old file and replaced it with a new one.

Now one more thing...
In /opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/atari800 copy the lr-atari800.cfg file and rename it to just atari800.cfg. open it and make sure you have the A5200 rom name listed like this...
ROM_5200=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/atari5200.rom
ATARI_FILES_DIR=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari5200

Now we run into a problem. I do not have a directory called "/opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/" only one called "/opt/retropie/configs/" - When I go to the file called /opt/retropie/configs/atari800/atari800.cfg, I have the first line as:

ROM_5200=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/5200.rom

Because my BIOS is called 5200.rom (not atari5200.rom) in my BIOS directory (~/RetroPie/BIOS)) as per the instructions.

About a week ago, I updated retroarch to the latest build. Shortly after doing that, my A5200 side of the Atari800 emulator failed to load games. I checked everything as I had changed nothing... but I looked at my runcommand.log and it was looking for that config file I just told you about. I have no idea why as it never did before. I did what I just told you to do, and it's been fine since.
Just make sure you have good known a5200 bios rom and all the atari bios roms placed in the bios folder, unzipped. If they are bad, or one is... nothing will work.
Here are the rest of my BIOS names listed.... and location. Google to find them.
ROM_BASIC_A=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/BASIC Revision A (19xx)(Atari)(400-800).rom
ROM_BASIC_B=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/BASIC Revision B (19xx)(Atari)(400-800).rom
ROM_BASIC_C=/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ATARIBAS.ROM
Tell me if that helps at all.

BTW... all of my a5200 roms are .bin files and zipped. The need to be a good set otherwise they won't work either... same for the BIOS files.

The BIOS files are good - as I said in the 5th post of this thread I have verified all their MD5 checksums posted on the instruction page.

jamrom2

@dsquared so what got it working? Your bios file name or the changes to retroarch-core-options.cfg. If you change the line for opt1 to "disable" it crashes the emulator. I'm not sure what it's for, but that worked for me.

Also... I don't know that you needed to add in that extra config file like I did. For whatever reason, I had to.

The "/opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/" points to the same folder you used ... I don't know why it is setup this way. It's just a location marker. So you were in the correct folder, I should have removed the "hdmi" from my address.

I'm glad it's working for you. Paitence is really needed with some of these setups.

Now the fun begins... Overlays and shaders. When you're ready for really making it look authentic, let me know.

dsquared

@jamrom2

Ok, now another problem has emerged with the Atari 5200 emulator. When I scrape my game collection - The images and descriptions are not saved. I suspect I need to tweak an emulationstation config file somehow.....

Once again any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.