Fairchild Channel F

edmaul69

@herb_fargus @tpr so i figured out the issue. the emulators.cfg file for each individual system needs the correct config. so astrocade would need this:

advmame-3.1 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/3.1/bin/advmess astrocde -cart %BASENAME%"

and the channel f emulators.cfg would need this:

advmame-3.1 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/3.1/bin/advmess channelf -cart %BASENAME%"

you would have to have these for each specific system that advmess plays as they do not work without specifying the correct system that matches the roms. also the -cart needs to be set in it as i have done. Then you need to change the default emulator to advmame-3.1

herb_fargus

@edmaul69 mess is... A mess :p we may eventually get to including the configs in a module. Down the road...

It's the longest standing issue on the issue tracker.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/210

edmaul69

@herb_fargus i would like to see it set up at least for astrocade and channel f as those are systems that only work in advmess at the moment. I would like to know which all systems advmess 3.1 actually supports as i cant find any info on it. I assume it is nowhere as many as standard mame/mess

herb_fargus

@edmaul69 I'd imagine it's actually pretty close to parity with mame/mess

This is the list I found of some stuff.

http://www.progettoemma.net/mess/sysset.php

Don't know til you try I guess

edmaul69

@herb_fargus i have had a 50% fail rate so far. Using the correct mess rom files and images i have gotten atari 7800, channel f, and astrocade working, but i have failed trying to get all apple ii systems to work. A couple others as well but i dont remember which ones.

TPR

@edmaul69 I am TPR from AtariAge. Like I said, I did get it all working again, but with some trial and error (kicking myself for not writing it all down!) All I know is that the old setup didn't work with the newer version of RetroPie until I updated the Retropie setup scripts. Then the "system" would work, but not the ROMs. So I copied over the old version of Advmess into the directory and it worked.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

I got Channel F working last night as well and was surprised to find that there's a theme for it in Carbon. Very keen!

edmaul69

@TPR so if you want it to work with the new one just edit your emulators.cfg in the channel f config folder and add the info i posted. Doing that you can switch back and forth between them since both will be in the config file.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

You might want to consider changing advmame-3.1 to advmame in your instructions above, as the latest version from the setup script is already up to advmame 3.3. Also, I couldn't get %BASENAME% to work, so i switched to %ROM% and it booted right up.

edmaul69

@mediamogul strange. BASENAME works for me and it is what all the advmame configs use as well. Now the issue with advance mame being at 3.3 it means everytime you update advance mame and it changes number, you have to manually change what folder advmess is in in the config file. So if i point to /3.1/bin/advmess you are saying i will have to change the config to look in /3.3/bin/advmess if i update advmame? Ugh. At least my original advmess wont change so i will just stick to that for the 2 systems i use it for at the moment.

mediamogul

@edmaul69 said in Fairchild Channel F:

So if i point to /3.1/bin/advmess you are saying i will have to change the config to look in /3.3/bin/advmess if i update advmame? Ugh.

The path must have been altered to something more neutral. I have /opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess.

edmaul69

@mediamogul that is where i had my original one before the update added 3.1. But i have 3.1 as well. Is there any way to check what version is running?

mediamogul

@edmaul69

/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess -version

Edit: of course your path is currently different.

edmaul69

@mediamogul i have that path. Mine says 1.4. I guess i will have to update and check

edmaul69

@mediamogul so i just updated to 3.3. They did change where it was located. That is good. So my original config works. Awesome.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

I haven't tested it yet as I'm not near my Pi, but I added a -cfg argument to my launch command, pointing to a separate config at /opt/retropie/configs/channelf/advmess.rc that might come in handy when setting things specific to the Channel F system. My emulators.cfg is:

advmess = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess channelf -cfg /opt/retropie/configs/channelf/advmess.rc -cart %ROM%"
default = "advmess"

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Something else to consider is that the Fairchild Channel F has a game ROM built-in (Hockey & Tennis) that can only be accessed when launching the channelf core of MESS without a game. I don't know if this is the best way to solve this, but what I did was to create an empty text file named Hockey & Tennis.txt at /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/channelf/. Next, I altered the Channel F section of /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg to recognize .txt files:

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

Then, I added a launch command to /opt/retropie/configs/channelf/emulators.cfg that will launch without a cart attached:

advmess = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess channelf -cfg /opt/retropie/configs/channelf/advmess.rc -cart %ROM%"
advmess-nocart = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess channelf -cfg /opt/retropie/configs/channelf/advmess.rc"
default = "advmess"

And finally, I restarted Emulation Station, selected 'Hockey & Tennis' from the menu and the set the default emulator for that "ROM" to advmess-nocart in the runcommand menu. After that, you can start a game of Hockey or Tennis by pressing the start button at the "G?" screen after the system fully loads.

There may be a better way, but it's worth having the game available, as it not only completes the library, but also represents one of the most fun 'PONG' clones of the time.

edmaul69

@mediamogul there is a hockey and tennis rom out there. You dont have to do all that

mediamogul

@edmaul69

Can you confirm that it's an actual ROM and boots normally. From what I've seen, the individual game file tends to be the system BIOS file renamed, which won't launch as a cartridge. If you have a working ROM of it, I'll try to dig it up myself.

edmaul69

It is not a bios file. The bios files are 1kb. This one is 2kb like most of the roms. It isnt just a modified txt file either as it has garble in it when viewed in a word program and it was modified on december 24, 1996. And i have played it hundreds of times