Fairchild Channel F

edmaul69

@Everett1954 ok, first thing. look and see if you have a systems.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/. if you dont, copy the one in /etc/emulationstation over to that first location. open systems.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/ and add the channel f system into the file. add this info

  <system>
    <name>channelf</name>
    <fullname>Fairchild Channel F</fullname>
    <path>/opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/image/channelf</path>
    <extension>.bin .BIN .zip .ZIP</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ channelf %ROM%</command>
    <platform>channelf</platform>
    <theme>channelf</theme>
  </system>

then open up /opt/retropie/configs/ and create a folder called channelf. inside that folder create a file called emulators.cfg . inside that add this:

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

just so you know you might have to change the %BASENAME% to %BASENAME%.bin , %BASENAME%.zip or %ROM% to get the games to work.

next you need to open up /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/rom/ and create a folder called "channelf" . inside that channelf folder you need to add these bios':

sl31253.rom
sl31254.rom
sl90025.rom

you need to give all these files a 0777 permission. if you are sftp'ing into the system to add these just right click on these files, choose property and change the permissions to 0777. give the folder 0777 permissions as well. if you do it for the folder you can choose to give all the files in the folder 0777 permissions at the same time.

next you want to open /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/image/ and create a folder called "channelf" . now put your roms in this folder. give the folder and your roms 0777 permissions.

now restart emulationstation and your roms should be in the gamelist now. if they dont boot remember to change the %BASENAME% to try to get them to work.

once you have the roms working if you are in a game press the tab key on a keyboard plugged into the pi. choose controls for this system. now configure the controls. save the controls. you can set the video settings as well. there is 2 save options. do both.

now open up /opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmess.rc

at the bottom you will see the configs you just set. you need to remove the game name from them so it is universal to the entire system. they will start with something like channelf[Hockey]/..... you would need to remove the [Hockey] so it looks like channelf/..... now save the file. then you should be good to go.

Everett1954

Thanks for the instructions, I will give it a go.

OneSwitch

Ditto that. :) Looking forward to trying this asap.

Everett1954

So, I went to the INTV site and found the ultimate emulator files, both a 3.2 and a 4.2 version. They appear to have been setup for Channel F and Astrocade, two systems I am interested in. Now, how do I make a bootable SD card out of they folders/files?

edmaul69

@Everett1954 you dont. You copy those 4.2 files for advmess onto your sd card. Your card doesnt have to be retropie 4.2 to use the admess files on there. You need to follow my guide for setting permissions still

caver01

@herb_fargus said in Fairchild Channel F:

@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

I am finally going to try to get advmess apple2 going tomorrow. I had it running on another distro on a Pi2 before I started playing with RetroPie. That was over a year ago, so I know it can be done.

Here's the supported systems.

OneSwitch

@edmaul69 said in Fairchild Channel F:

to work.
once you have the roms working if you are in a game press the tab key on a keyboard plugged into the pi. choose controls for this system. now configure the controls. save the controls. you can set the video settings as well. there is 2 save options. do both.

You're a genius! Thanks so much, I've got it working brilliantly. Really pleased.

BTW, I had to use

advmess = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmess channelf -cart %ROM%"
default = "advmess"

to get it working on my set-up.

@herb_fargus Perhaps we could get this integrated now into the main set-up? I've got an old Grandstand VEC (aka Channel F) in my loft, and it's a much forgotten and underrated machine. Considering that this works so well (once configured) it would great to get this integrated if possible. Just need an easy method to quit.

mediamogul

@OneSwitch

Just need an easy method to quit.

From the configuration menu (accessible by hitting the 'tab' key) you can map quit to any key or combination of keys. The function can be found under the menu heading 'ui cancel'. I have mine set to 'select+start' to bring it in line with the RetroArch control scheme.

edmaul69

@caver01 i have tried to get apple 2 working but failed miserably. If you get it working on advmess let me know. Btw, just because systems are on the list as working doesnt mean they work good. Some system are really slow on the pi. Also some dont work in advmess

OneSwitch

@mediamogul I worked it out eventually, but thanks again. :)

This might help others trying to work out what control is what (only part done, but a good starting point):

Fairchild Channel F has 5 buttons on the actual console. From left to right these are RESET and buttons 1-4.

CONSOLE CONTROLS:

RESET =
1/TIME/2MIN = P1 START (ENTER)
2/MODE/5MIN = BUTTON 5 (5)
3/HOLD/10MIN = BUTTON 6 (6)
4/START/20MIN = BUTTON 7 (7) ----- USE THIS TO START A GAME

ON-SCREEN PROMPTS:

G? = "GAME? (WHICH GAME WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY?)
S? = "START?"
M? = "MOTION (SPEED)?"
T? = "TIME?"

JOYSTICK (PLAYER 1):

P1 STICK (U,R,D,L) = LEFT-STICK
P1 PUSH BUTTON = BUTTON 1 (e.g. in Doodle = CLEAR PICTURE)
P1 PULL BUTTON = BUTTON 2 (e.g. in Doodle = CHANGE BRUSH SIZE)
P1 ROTATE RIGHT = BUTTON 3 (e.g. in Doodle = CHANGE COLOUR)
P1 ROTATE LEFT = BUTTON 4 (e.g. in Doodle = DRAW/ERASE)

OTHER CONTROLS

QUIT FAIRCHILD MODE = UI CANCEL (e.g. use Escape key/Xbox button)

mediamogul

@OneSwitch

Very informative. I was wondering why player one had more buttons available than player two. Can either you or @edmaul69 confirm that player controls for 'Alien Invasion' are reversed? I've noticed that in the older systems, such as Intellivision, Odyssey2 and even the Atari 2600 that left and right ports can sometimes go either way for player assignment, but in this case, it could be that I'm starting in the wrong mode.

caver01

@edmaul69 said in Fairchild Channel F:

@caver01 i have tried to get apple 2 working but failed miserably. If you get it working on advmess let me know. Btw, just because systems are on the list as working doesnt mean they work good. Some system are really slow on the pi. Also some dont work in advmess

OK, I don't want to hijack this thread too much (I will post the WIP in another) but I wanted to at least mention that I am playing Karateka on Apple2ee in advmess 3.3!

edmaul69

@caver01 please do share. I would love to try it out in advmess. Please list the name of bios files emulars.cfg and everything. Thank you very much.

caver01

@edmaul69 check the other thread I linked for details of my process. As for bios, I dropped a handful of Apple2 variants as zip files, and the collection is covered. I will do a test tomorrow and pull out everything but the apple2ee.zip. If that still launches, I'll list the sub files.

edmaul69

@caver01 cool thank you

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.