Fairchild Channel F

caver01

@edmaul69 ok, i checked a couple of them real quick:

apple2e.zip
  a2e.cd
  a2e.chr
  a2e.ef
  a2ealt.chr
  disk2_33.rom

apple2ee.zip
  a2ee.cd
  a2ee.ef
  a2eealt.chr

I probably only need these two. Could get away maybe just running the apple2e, but I wanted the enhanced version. It would seem MESS can dig through all zips kinda like mame does with parent roms.

edmaul69

@caver01 advmess doesnt require zip files either for bios or roms. Where are you putting those zips? Are they all going in /mame-advmame/rom/apple2/ folder or are you putting them in /mame-advmame/rom/apple2e and /mame-advmame/rom/apple2ee/ folders?

caver01

@edmaul69 I actually created an advmess folder in the RetroPie configs folder. Then I launched advmess via command line to get an advmess.rc file which ends up next to the AdvMAME.rc file. I edited the advmess.rc and pointed the rom dir to my advmess folder I created. The other relevant path is for image, which is not for pictures but disk images. But this one only really matters is using the file browser within the mess GUI as far as I can tell. Since the launch command specifies the rom explicitly (in the apple2 rom folder in my case) the image dir in the .rc file doesn't really matter.

OneSwitch

@mediamogul Yes, you're right, the controls for Alien Invasion were swapped around for some strange reason (player 2 = player 1 and vice versa). I think the controls were only seen as left-side player or right-side player, so maybe this wasn't a concern back then. Who knows!

I guess this is a wait for an update and hope, but is there any way to get the nice carbon type theme for the Channel F? So the fonts and colours are at least the same? No worries if too fiddly.

mediamogul

@OneSwitch said in Fairchild Channel F:

I guess this is a wait for an update and hope, but is there any way to get the nice carbon type theme for the Channel F?

No need to wait, as there is already support for the Channel F available in Carbon. Start by making a copy of the Carbon theme from /etc/emulationstation/themes/ to /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/themes. That will allow the original to update as time moves on without affecting your changes, but it should be noted that if anything is added or changed to the original Carbon theme, it will need to be updated manually to this new location by repeating this process.

Now that you've made a copy of the theme, all that's really left to do is alter the /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg file with the following information:

  <system>
    <name>channelf</name>
    <fullname>Fairchild Channel F</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/channelf</path>
    <extension>.chf .bin .CHF .BIN</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ channelf %ROM%</command>
    <platform>channelf</platform>
    <theme>channelf</theme>
  </system>

To keep with the alphabetical convention of system arrangement on the carousel, you should sandwich the information in-between the appropriately lettered systems that currently reside on your setup. After that, you can restart Emulation Station and you should be good to go.

edmaul69

@mediamogul i just saw this message about checking alien invasion. I will check in a little bit. However in advmess if you set up a controller config while in a game and save it, it saves a game specific config. ( you can edit that to make a universal config to that system) so if you need it to swap controllers you can edit the controller for that game. But i have never set individual game configs so i can verify how it is. Odyssey 2 is the worst and most annoying when it comes to which controller to use.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

But i have never set individual game configs so i can verify how it is.

I've since tried it and it does indeed work very well. I have the controls switched for that one game, but I'd bet there's at least one or two more that would require it.

Odyssey 2 is the worst and most annoying when it comes to which controller to use.

You ain't lyin'. Intellivision can get a bit harry too, but thankfully jzintv has this nice feature for swapping on the fly. It's especially handy in the game 'Dracula' for when you turn one of the joggers into a zombie and can then control the ghoul by switching to the second controller while Dracula waits in the wings.

edmaul69

@mediamogul i can confirm in advmess 1.4 it is swapped controllers. Now i have to figure out why 3.3 is only booting hockey & tennis bios....

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Ha! It's always something isn't it? We can't have nice things.

edmaul69

@mediamogul found out i had a typo in my emulators.cfg. Just took forever setting up controls in 3.3. I absolutely hate how the newer advmess.rc are read. I cant edit the rc file because it names the keyboards and controllers by weird code names as apposed to keyboard 0 or 1 or joystick 0 or 1 like advmess 1.4. And since i have 2 controllers, 2 keyboards, and an ipac 2 (keyboard 3) it takes a lot to program them all. Ugh that sucked.

mediamogul

@edmaul69 said in Fairchild Channel F:

I cant edit the rc file because it names the keyboards and controllers by weird code names as apposed to keyboard 0 or 1 or joystick 0 or 1

The human readable keyboard designations (I.E. keyboard[0,a]) still work when device_keyboard is set to raw, but it is indeed frustrating that they are coded when set to event or auto. I take it that with your many devices that raw is not an option?

edmaul69

@mediamogul not sure how to change to raw? Yes it worked with my previous settings but it change most of them. However i tried to set up keyboard 1 and i couldnt even boot it. I just added the ipac the other day and only had 1 keyboard set up. I would love to keep it simple but i dont know how to set it to.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

@caver01 clued me into setting device_keyboard to raw in the advmess.rc file. It might not be ideal for your particular arrangement, but once set, all detected keyboards are read as being one and any keyboard settings persist between sessions without MESS constantly shuffling and coding the entries.

edmaul69

@mediamogul it probably wouldnt work for me because of my addition to the ipac 2. Since i added db15 connectors to the ipac i have my genesis, snes, 3 button and 6 button pc engine and neo geo controllers wired up to work on it. Original base was neo geo. Then added extra buttons on extra pins. Then i have a db15 to db9 adapter so all my other controls like nes, atari, channelf master system... work on it. The start button for all the controllers however are wired to escape and select to ctrl. On controllers like the channel f controllers twist left and right are wired to those as it is the only way i could have a universal db9 controller setup. It wasnt an issue when using joysticks but using the ipac now for this throws a monkey wrench in that design and now needing to keep my 2 keyboards and ipac seperate. Although, now that i know the keyboards and ipac code names i could use that to hand work on the advmess file....

caver01

@edmaul69 The real gain for me (using IPAC4) in setting device_keyboard raw in advmame and advmess was that my external keyboard was always just temporary while I was configuring. However, as soon as I pulled the keyboard, they would renumber! That meant all of the keyboard indices saved to the .rc file while I was mapping inputs would be wrong. This was forcing me to manually re-write my mapping to duplicate each one and and the other keyboard indexes to cover all possible keyboards. This was a nightmare. RAW saved the day because it meant that a "J" was a "J" no matter what physical keyboard it came from. And there are plenty of letters to go around, so I never saw the value in keeping the devices separate.

edmaul69

@caver01 for me i have an apple iie that is modified with the pi3. It has the apple iie's keyboard, the ipac 2 and the device that allows me to use a mac m0110/A keyboard all built internally so for me they will never change. I dont want to have to change my icade settings as i want ctrl and esc to be my select and start buttons. And the channel f controllers are the one issue with it.

Hubz

Thanks to this thread got Fairchild Channel F emulated like a champ! Decided to try to add Super Cassette Vision but when I did advmame seems to think it isn't a supported system? Seems strange. What systems have others successfully added? Should I just try to emulate it through lr-mess instead?

edmaul69

@Hubz lr-mess supports less systems. I also had no luck ever getting it to work on any system. I believe it also requires advmame zip files where standalone advmess does not care what roms, rom names and zip/unzipped.

OneSwitch

@mediamogul Many thanks again. Do I need to copy the entire Carbon folder, or just the channelf folder. I had to tweak things a bit to get them working, but you set me on the right path again.

I updated most of the .xml file to reflect the Atari 2600 .xml theme, as it was bright white still. Looks great now. :)

One problem remains, in that the game aspect ratio is 16:9. I can't work out for this emulator how to force 4:3. I'll have a hunt around. I've tried the TAB settings (no luck), and also the launch menu (didn't seem to get one for the way this starts up).

mediamogul

@OneSwitch

Do I need to copy the entire Carbon folder

Yes, you'll need to copy the whole folder.

the game aspect ratio is 16:9

A few display settings to consider in the advmess.rc are:

display_expand 1.0
display_resize integer
display_resizeeffect none