Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.

Folly

I had a small success.

I can run pac-man-collection-2008.rom (128kb) if I put the Cart Mapper Type on Auto.

As expected, I can't select, for example, COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension, even though I put the files in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Machines/COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension.

Putting another config.ini in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Machines/COL - ColecoVision with different slot information and/or roms could work.
(Up till now I had no success with the opcode Memory Extension settings)

AdamBeGood

@folly Agreed - Pac-Man Collection works... Which is strange, as Cart Mapper Type: Auto is the default isn't it? So that single game seems to be an outlier here, I don't know why that one works and others do not.

All very peculiar.

Folly

@adambegood

I tried the config.ini of COL - ColecoVision w Super Game Module in COL - ColecoVision.
I get a black screen if I run 64kb and 128kb roms.
Though, 32kb titles work with this config.ini .

Perhaps an idea to install the source one.
I saw that the latest commits are from April 2021.
The latest commits, for Coleco, seem to be from 2017 though.

Edit : no luck with the source one either !

AdamBeGood

@folly I think mine was the Source version already... I guess this is one to try at a later date then. Thanks for the effort!

Folly

@adambegood

Your welcome.

btw.
Did you get my mail ?

barbudreadmon

@adambegood said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

Seems peculiar that the only Pi4 emulator for Colecovision doesn't run a large percentage of the games...

I think FBNeo is available and doesn't have those issues ?

AdamBeGood

@barbudreadmon said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

@adambegood said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

Seems peculiar that the only Pi4 emulator for Colecovision doesn't run a large percentage of the games...

I think FBNeo is available and doesn't have those issues ?

Really... That is interesting, I will have a look tomorrow. Thank you!

Folly

@adambegood

I had to install openMSX.
It's now on version 17.
It seems there are functions added.

While testing roms I found that you can force a cartridge type.
The type "ColecoVision Megacart" can be selected.

This could mean that we can play ColecoVision too on openMSX.
Don't know how to, for now, but it's something we can try.

Seems we also can select it and the one with the Super Game Module.

Made me curious and searched for it.
This is what I found :
https://github.com/openMSX/openMSX/issues/1064

Folly

@adambegood

Can't play Black Onyx yet (some key issues) , but it starts !!!
Tested many others and they work, very COOL.
Damn that's NICE !!!

Seems to work ok (mecha-8-2013) :

Seems to work ok (princess-quest-2012) :

Folly

@adambegood
Setting it up, for now :

/opt/retropie/configs/coleco/emulators.cfg (add) :

openmsx-colecovision = "/opt/retropie/emulators/openmsx/bin/openmsx -machine 'ColecoVision' %ROM%"
openmsx-colecovision_sgm = "/opt/retropie/emulators/openmsx/bin/openmsx -machine 'ColecoVision_SGM' %ROM%"

I added the BIOS files like this, seems ok :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/openmsx/machines/colecovision/COLECO.ROM
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/openmsx/machines/colecovision_sgm/BIOS_XP.ROM ( BIOS name has probably changed : check this link )

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

@adambegood
Setting it up, for now :

/opt/retropie/configs/coleco/emulators.cfg (add) :
openmsx-colecovision = "/opt/retropie/emulators/openmsx/bin/openmsx -machine 'ColecoVision' %ROM%"
openmsx-colecovision_sgm = "/opt/retropie/emulators/openmsx/bin/openmsx -machine 'ColecoVision_SGM' %ROM%"
I added the BIOS files like this, seems ok :
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/openmsx/machines/colecovision/COLECO.ROM
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/openmsx/machines/colecovision_sgm/BIOS_XP.ROM

@Folly You legend! You don’t let things go! Superb work, I can’t try this now but I’ll have a good play tomorrow.

Edit: I am at work so haven't been able to test extensively, but it works! Black Onyx works fine for me, and everything else I've tried. Both machines work well! Amazing.

barbudreadmon

@Folly @AdamBeGood Did you check if FBNeo was available for coleco on pi4 ? All those games you mentioned are working wonderfully with FBNeo for me. It might be a solid alternative to openmsx if this one doesn't support all the eye-candy features from retroarch. It requires matching romsets though (the dat file is here)

Folly

@barbudreadmon

Using openMSX was a coincident, otherwise I had tried your method first.
I will check FBNeo soon and report my findings.

Folly

@barbudreadmon

Did a fast try with FBNeo on 4 games, looks pretty good also ;-)
Cheers !

Folly

@adambegood

Looks like we made quite some progress here.

Would be nice if you could make a summarize in your first post on what we discovered in this thread ?

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

@adambegood

Looks like we made quite some progress here.

Would be nice if you could make a summarize in your first post on what we discovered in this thread ?

Let me do this when I am on a computer next, but I’ll do that.

DTEAM

@adambegood

Mame standalone, Lr-Mess and lr-FBNeo are, for me, the best 3 emulators for Coleco. If you are using the FBNeo romset, you will be able to run those emulators and run "Mame Cheat Codes" . Why MAME Standalone: because controllers are really easy to set like you want.

Folly

@dteam said in Colecovision Start-Up Error: Turn Game Off Before Inserting Cartridge or Expansion Module.:

@adambegood

Mame standalone, Lr-Mess and lr-FBNeo are, for me, the best 3 emulators for Coleco. If you are using the FBNeo romset, you will be able to run those emulators and run "Mame Cheat Codes" . Why MAME Standalone: because controllers are really easy to set like you want.

Indeed, we never looked at those emu's from the start,
and for sure, I had to know haha. 😊
But indeed you have good arguments. 👍

cheat codes
easy controller setup

We will look at MAME and lr-mess too.

Folly

I did some tests but it seems some FBNeo roms are still 32kb files, like black onyx.
These files are zipped, so I had no idea this one was 32kb.
So I discovered that this version works also on lr-bluemsx.

I did some tests too with MAME/lr-mess but it seems I used the 32kb version.
So I removed the post I had written about this.

Based on the "thread issue" it seems that perhaps we are, unintentional, drifting away from what the point was.
Running 64kb+ roms on the emulators.

We have to take a second look at this now !

Folly

I have done some FBNeo-romset unpacking to discover the big roms.
The ones with the sgm in the name are big ones that can be tested.

So I tested dlairsgm.zip with FBNeo, and this worked !
Doesn't work when unpacked though !

Also tested this rom with MAME, the rom boots but I get this screen later on :

@DTEAM,
Can you run the 64kb+ games on MAME/lr-mess ?