Pi Zero arcade issues
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@formulafox said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
I know about the need to match up arcade ROMsets - been through it on my Pi 3, 4, and arcade PC. I've been trying with a MAME2003 (0.78) set, I'll try another one when I have more time.
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@sleve_mcdichael Thank you. Always nice to get some help saving time. ;)
Unfortunately, I've got the same problem happening. The entire unit freezes up if Itry to load a game from that set on mame4all.
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@formulafox from the 0.78 set? yeah obviously that won’t work. a freeze isn’t ideal but it would be an exit if it didn’t freeze.
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@dankcushions I'm having it happen with the 0.37b5 set recommended in the documentation linked by sleve_mcdichael as well.
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@formulafox in that case think it’s time to repost the https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first information for a specific game that’s crashing(including full file path, file name, etc). you won’t be able to get a verbose log for a non-lr emulator like mame4all, but it should still log something in
/dev/shm/runcommand.logwhich you should be able to get at if SSH/SFTP still works during the freeze. if not, try the same file with lr-mame2000 which accepts the same romset and does allow for verbose logging (it may also be a viable alternative if it works fine) -
@formulafox said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
I know you can only go so far on a Pi Zero, but I'm having trouble with games on the level of Galaga '88 or Ghosts 'N Goblins. Only the really, REALLY old stuff -Galaga, Joust, Asteroids- is running at full speed.
Its age is totally unrelated to how fast a game will be emulated
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@dankcushions said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
@formulafox in that case think it’s time to repost the https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first information for a specific game that’s crashing(including full file path, file name, etc). you won’t be able to get a verbose log for a non-lr emulator like mame4all, but it should still log something in
/dev/shm/runcommand.logwhich you should be able to get at if SSH/SFTP still works during the freeze. if not, try the same file with lr-mame2000 which accepts the same romset and does allow for verbose logging (it may also be a viable alternative if it works fine)I'll try to get the log dump info(and a wider sample set of games along with it) when I have time(workweek beginning, not much time available for troubleshooting), but I can already attest that lr-mame200 has the same slowdown issues on all the same games. Plus not displaying the proper aspect ratio(but I know I can fix THAT within the display options, so no actual concern there)
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The wireless on the Pi Zero is giving me grief - it just seems to be some connection instability so I'll try again later, but I can't SSH in at this time. But until I get it worked out I plan to try another ROMset with pifba, however-
THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A REQUEST FOR ROM LINKS. I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR ROM LINKS.
-I cannot find a resource for the recommended ROMset(0.2.96.71) for pifba according to Retropie documentation. Is there another ROMset that is known to work on pifba I could look for?
Apologies if I emphasized my "not requesting ROM links" bit a little too strongly. I know the rules forbid the sharing of such links and I wanted to ensure my inquiry was not misinterpreted.
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@formulafox said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
-I cannot find a resource for the recommended ROMset(0.2.96.71) for pifba according to Retropie documentation. Is there another ROMset that is known to work on pifba I could look for?
This might be one of those cases where you need to start with the full current MAME romset and then filter it to your desired version with a tool like
clrmamepro. See validating, filtering, and rebuilding arcade romsets. -
@formulafox fwiw, fbalpha 0.2.96.71 was based on mame 0.114 romsets
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Been a while, but we had a sudden health crisis(not COVID) in my family that understandably took precedence over this project. Still have not had time to check log files but I did another quick search for FBA 0.2.96.71 sets, but still have not found one(again: NOT requesting ROM links here!), but I have another question in the meantime...
Will 0.2.96.74 work with pifba?
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@formulafox said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
Been a while, but we had a sudden health crisis(not COVID) in my family that understandably took precedence over this project.
:( wishing you and your family well!
Still have not had time to check log files but I did another quick search for FBA 0.2.96.71 sets, but still have not found one(again: NOT requesting ROM links here!), but I have another question in the meantime...
Will 0.2.96.74 work with pifba?
given that it's only a few versions apart most games should work, but as with every romset version release, some games are re-dumped, new games added, and perhaps some prexisting ones renamed, so you'd expect at least a few games within the 0.2.96.74 romset collection to not work in pifba.
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Okay, he's where I stand. The FBA ROMset I inquired about just kicked me back to the menu no matter what game I tried. (it wasn't a complete set, anyway, and was missing a TON of stuff I was interested in)
So I went and ran my ROMs through clrmamepro following the instructions provided earlier, setting up with the recommended mame4all(0.37b5) information. Whole system just crashes when I try to load a ROM with mame4all.
I cannot ssh in to see if it is still running during the black screen, as no matter when I attempt to do so my PC just refuses to recognize that the Pi is on the network.
So I'm at a complete loss where to go from here.
EDIT: Random retry to ssh in got me a "connection refused" error. First time I've gotten any indication that the PC can see the Pi.
EDIT2: HOLYCRAPIGOTIN. Don't know what changed, but I'm in and will hopefully be able to find the logs. I'll make a separate post for whatever I find.
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This post is deleted! -
Okay, I'm going to do MULTIPLE tests to see what we get.
Test 1 - Altered Beast. Black screen freeze. runcommand.log produces the following:
"Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/mame4all/mame "altbeast""
That's allTest 2 - Asteroids. Black screen freeze runcommand.log produces the following:
"Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/mame4all/mame "asteroid""
That's allTest 3 - Galaga. Gets to initial load screen before freezing. runcommand.log produces the following:
"Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/mame4all/mame "galaga""
That's all.I'd do more, but I think we can discern a clear pattern here. I have to run out for a bit so I'll look into verbose logging with lr-mame2000 later.
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@formulafox yeah, it's a bit of coin toss as to whether non-libretro emulators provide anything useful in the logs.
but i'm confused why you'd provide us a lr-mame2000 log? you already said it worked:
I can already attest that lr-mame200 has the same slowdown issues on all the same games. Plus not displaying the proper aspect ratio(but I know I can fix THAT within the display options, so no actual concern there)
however it would at least verify that your romset is indeed correct, and give us a bit of info that we're still missing like full filename plus extension, etc.
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@dankcushions said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
@formulafox yeah, it's a bit of coin toss as to whether non-libretro emulators provide anything useful in the logs.
but i'm confused why you'd provide us a lr-mame2000 log? you already said it worked:
I can already attest that lr-mame200 has the same slowdown issues on all the same games. Plus not displaying the proper aspect ratio(but I know I can fix THAT within the display options, so no actual concern there)
however it would at least verify that your romset is indeed correct, and give us a bit of info that we're still missing like full filename plus extension, etc.
Well, for one thing because a while back you recommended it if the mame4all logs weren't helpful, but more importantly because lr-mame2000 is not working properly. Like I said in the post you quoted, it's having severe slowdown issues with numerous games. It loads, but few games actually run correctly. I would not still be trying to solve this if I was only having the aspect ratio issue.
Anyhow, I've done the verbose logging check with lr-mame2000. I did the previous three games plus Galaga 88 just as a double check. Since we're dealing with the extensiveness of VERBOSE logging, I won't copy/paste. and will instead post a link to a zip file containing the three logs. But first, you'll probably want to know exactly what each game did...
Altered Beast: Ran normal speed during gameplay when no major visual or voiced sound effects were occurring - mild slowdown when such things WERE happening. Audio was glitching out throughout play sessions regardless of game slowdown.
Asteroids: Loaded to main screen but as soon as the "controller configured" messages appeared, I got kicked back to the menu.
Galaga: No issues at all save for incorrect aspect ratio.
Galaga 88: Constantly running slow, incorrect aspect ratio.
I have plenty of other games I can try if you want further info.
Here are the log files: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tzop55xfv6cppn4/runcommandlogs.zip?dl=0
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@formulafox said in Pi Zero arcade issues:
Well, for one thing because a while back you recommended it if the mame4all logs weren't helpful, but more importantly because lr-mame2000 is not working properly. Like I said in the post you quoted, it's having severe slowdown issues with numerous games. It loads, but few games actually run correctly. I would not still be trying to solve this if I was only having the aspect ratio issue.
i don't think it working slowly is not it working "properly" - it's not a recommended emulator for pi 1/0. the mame4all-pi emulator is standalone (libretro cores add a little bit of overhead), which can make a lot of difference for very low power devices like a pi zero, and it's got some specific optimizations - hence we recommend it.
i realise that mame4all-pi crashing, and your bad luck with the pifba romset, leaves you with little choice, but yeah.
that said, the logs can still prove useful, like i said. it looks like there's room for improvement with your setup
[INFO] [Video]: Video @ 960x672[INFO] [Video]: Video @ 1200x900[INFO] [Video]: Video @ 864x672these don't seem quite right - retroarch should default to 640x480 for pi1/0. can you please supply
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfgand/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg?EDIT: also
/boot/config.txt -
@dankcushions https://www.dropbox.com/s/ue5t7hwf7mzbjck/configs.zip?dl=0
Can the resolution really be responsible for slowdown issues? I have raspi-config's resolution set to monitor preferred(it's a 1080P TV), in case that helps.
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Can the resolution really be responsible for slowdown issues?
yes. pis are very memory bandwidth limited and driving a high resolution gives a measurable performance penalty, especially on older pis.
onto your configs:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg- this is non-default. whilst it DOES have the resolution settings i referred to above, it may have some hidden gotchas. you should revert to default by renaming it toretroarch.cfg.bakand renaming/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg.rp-disttoretroarch.cfg/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg- looks fine/boot/config.txthdmi_group=1 hdmi_mode=16you could try
hdmi_group=1 hdmi_mode=4which is 720p
i would also be curious if mame4all-pi suddenly starts working with a reduced resolution.
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