Help batch running arcade games

luckyluca

I'll get back to you soon, but believe me, you don't want to see my code :)

In the meatime, I noticed that all games create a per-game .cfg file in the corresponding sub core folder, automatically, on exit.

e.g.: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/mame2003/cfg/

Can you remember what option in retroarch.cfg disables this .cfg per-game autosaving, so that .cfg could be saved manually?

Thanks!

dankcushions

@luckyluca

In the meatime, I noticed that all games create a per-game .cfg file in the corresponding sub core folder, automatically, on exit.

e.g.: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/mame2003/cfg/

Can you remember what option in retroarch.cfg disables this .cfg per-game autosaving, so that .cfg could be saved manually?

this is mame's internal .cfg system with the options as set in https://retropie.org.uk/docs/lr-mame2003/#mame-menu - even if you don't go into this menu it will generate the file with the defaults or whatever.

it's nothing to do with retroarch, as such. in a 'finished' libretro MAME core the whole MAME internal menu and corresponding .cfg structure would be disabled and superseded entirely by RA's UI and files, but RA isn't quite as flexible as MAME's internal configuration in some areas...for now, so the two co-exist, slightly awkwardly.

as far as i'm aware you can't disable it the automatic generation of those files, but it causes no harm, unless you go into the MAME menu and change stuff (if so, delete the game.cfg and/or default.cfg as appropriate)

Riverstorm

@luckyluca - No worries on the code. I have some code that I am sure no one could follow and other code that's neat and well organized into functions. If it's something I plan to keep and reuse I try to organize and document. If not I really don't care how it looks! :) If you clean it up to the point you deem it worthy of sharing I would grateful and if not that's ok too.

To add to dankcushions description. The *.cfg files are auto-generated when you run a game. They contain things like the controls (inherited and/or explicit), number of coin mechanisms on the machine (are they individual coin slots or a single "communal" one), number of lives, dip switch settings, etc. They may contain/cover a huge gambit of settings and need to be stored somewhere. They can be modified through the menus but they aren't contained in the F2 operator "service mode".

Under the nvram folder you'll find *.nv files. It contains similar information like coins to start, lives to continue, high scores, etc., depending on the game.

I think the difference is nvram files were meant to be consistent across "boots" similar to how the actual arcade machines worked. Basically a service menu used by an arcade operator to set and store certain settings in NVRAM, i.e., if you played to long or scores were to high...BUMP...that difficultly up (you're using to much electricity and not bringin' enough quarters) or possibly down for a charity event or something. :)

Some of the games I tweak the configurations to what we knew/remember back in the day at the arcade or if you have a machine manual it's handy for setting the dips to the defaults. You can find some online.

If you're just testing games and not locked into any configuration structure or settings I would just go ahead and delete both sets of files when you're done if you prefer to keeps things tidy. You can also delete the hiscore files *.hi located in the "hi" subfolder.

luckyluca

@riverstorm said in Help batch running arcade games:

If you're using the "Arcade" folder, in regards to BIOS files, you can dump all the ROMs from multiple core sets into one zip. Take neogeo.zip for example, just rename the "dups" by appending "_core name" or however you want to track them. It honestly doesn't matter though if you named them 1, 2, 3, etc. You'll have one neogeo.zip to run them all. Then just dump it right in with the ROMs and you're good to go for all games, regardless of the core used.

It seems like the next logical step since you're already combining core ROMs when using the Arcade folder. Why not the BIOS files too!

FBNeo requires a few BIOS files:
bubsys
cchip
decocass
isgsm
midssio
namcoc69
namcoc70
namcoc75
neogeo
nmk004
pgm
skns
ym2608

I was re-reading your post (which I found extremely useful!). I was wondering what you mean exactly with the above:
Are you referring to extract the content of two bios zip files and zip these again merged into a single .zip file, and append, in the case of duplicate rom names, _SOMETHING to differentiate between them, still within the same zip file?

for instance I stumbled across two decocass.zip bioses that differ a lot, one is from fbneo v1.00.01, the other from one of the mame sets.
I'm tempted to take the content of both and put them into a single merged decocass.zip file. Is htis what you meant?

Also, would fbneo prioritise bios files found in the bios folder, or in roms/arcade?

Best
L

Riverstorm

@luckyluca said in Help batch running arcade games:

for instance I stumbled across two decocass.zip bioses that differ a lot, one is from fbneo v1.00.01, the other from one of the mame sets.
I'm tempted to take the content of both and put them into a single merged decocass.zip file. Is htis what you meant?
Also, would fbneo prioritise bios files found in the bios folder, or in roms/arcade?

Exactly, you got it, if the core(s) supports hash matching.

I'm not sure what you mean by prioritize. It's not doing anything fancy. Basically it's looking at the file hashes, for whatever core you're using. It will try and find the correct files at launch. Each core wants a specific set of files per game.

You can play the shell game and name them 1.rom, 2.rom, 3.rom or whatever you fancy and it will always find the correct one! :)

luckyluca

@riverstorm

Probably a tricky question:
I have a bunch of bios files in RetroPie/roms/arcade, used by mame cores.
I also have some legacy bios files in the ~/RetroPie/BIOS folder.

If I put the correct fbneo specific bios files in the ~/RetroPie/BIOS/fbneo folder,

Would fbneo get confused by the (wrong) bios files found in the other folders first?
Do you reckon would Fbneo open them all up and use hashes to find and use correct roms?

Many thanks

Riverstorm

@luckyluca -That's close. It should look in the ROM folder first followed by the BIOS folder, it might be the other way around but it's irrelevant. It's looking for an exact match based on the hash from the code (so you can't force a priority of which BIOS version to use based on search order). Don't worry about confusing it either, it will find the correct file(s) or not based on the "search path".

I like to keep it simple, one neogeo.zip in with the ROMs. I can run FBNeo NeoGeo games, as well as, mame2003-plus NeoGeo games (that require different versions of NeoGeo). It's pretty straight forward just give it a go and do some play testing.

luckyluca

I tested it, location of the bios files shouldn't matter, the correct one appears to be picked up regardless.

luckyluca

@dankcushions
Quick question, what is the difference between .fs and .nv files in the roms/arcade/fbneo folder?

Many thanks!

barbudreadmon

@luckyluca said in Help batch running arcade games:

what is the difference between .fs and .nv files in the roms/arcade/fbneo folder?

Basically the same thing (non-volatile ram to save cabinet settings), just different methods to save them.