Are there FBA or Mame error logs?

h0gg1e

Basically I'm looking for an FBA or Mame error log I can view to see what is missing or what error is given when I try to launch a particular (known working game) and it shows a black screen and immediately goes right back into Emulation Station.

A little background on my issue I'm using retropie 3.6 I've gotten many fba (using lr_fba-next) and mame games (using either lr-mame4all or lr-mame2003) working fine. Now I'm trying to add in a few extra known working games, specifically Demon Front (said to be working on the compatibility list https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rWO7Lm0bTGNpak6J-CPzde0GNIDP0NHDoQdJ6iWosfA/edit?usp=sharing[1] )

I rebuilt my romset via the dat found on the main wiki (https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs[2] )

I've added the rebuilt rom (dmnfrnt.zip and clone dmnfrnta.zip), neogeo.zip, and pgm.zip (ploygame bios) and I just keep getting a black screen.

I have many fba games working with this rebuilt set ... so I don't think it's an issue with the rom ... but that's why I'd like to dig into an error log.

senkun

mmmmmmmmmmm thanks for bringing this up, forgotten all about Demon Front, if it looks and plays like Metal Slug I must have it! Please post if you get it working, gonna dig into this one myself to check. Needs IGM's pgm.zip do you have it in the directory?

Charco

I have it working in FBA.

h0gg1e

@Charco did you build your set off the 0.167 (fba 0.2.97.37) DAT posted on the Managing ROMs wiki?
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

Charco

I had the rom for my RetroArch set up on my Windows laptop and had downloaded it .. [Edited by admin - read the forum rules!]

EDIT: But I never mentioned the site!

h0gg1e

@Charco got it working ... apparently I don't know how to rebuild rom sets :D
your solution worked :D

senkun

@h0gg1e said in Are there FBA or Mame error logs?:

@Charco got it working ... apparently I don't know how to rebuild rom sets :D
your solution worked :D

i've been trying to rebuild with no success, mind sharing the steps you took? which dat file? which romset? any tips will help.

senkun

apparently I don't know how to rebuild roms either.

finally. got the bugger working, if I wasn't stubborn as a mule I'd have given up on this ages ago. I can't remember exactly what I did because I tried so many d@mn things, but I am certain I used the fba 0.2.97.37/38 .dat files, and took dmnfrnt from the 0.172 mame set. plus like I mentioned earlier, you do need IGM's pgm.zip, then rebuilt using clrmamepro.

is it worth all this trouble? if you're a fan of the metal slug series, it is. Very fun, and when the baddies in the game pull their pants down, moon and fart at you, it did make it worthwhile for me.

Charco

@h0gg1e @senkun Glad you got it working, I'd be the same, once I have a notion to play a particular game I keep at it to get it working!

The game is good fun for sure, nice pixel art and pretty hectic in 2 player mode!

senkun

@Charco

Yeah really nice 2D engine that polygame, and rather surprisingly they were a Taiwan game company. Gonna look for more games from IGM.

Is it running at 100% for you? I'm getting quite a bit of lag when things get busy, only managing around 40fps and there's choppy sound issues. I'm using lr-fba-next, what are you running it on?

dankcushions

it's good to know some people read the wiki :)

FYI, have a look at /tmp/runcommand.log after you get crashes in most emulators - that should say the error

Charco

@senkun il-fba-next aswell. I haven't played through it on the Pi 3 yet though, only played with my friend on the Windows version of RetroArch. I will test it and see how it goes.

senkun

@dankcushions :

it's good to know some people read the wiki :)

FYI, have a look at /tmp/runcommand.log after you get crashes in most emulators - that should say the error

it's always my first port of call! very very much appreciated, thank you, and appreciation and thanks also to all the wiki contributors.

senkun

@Charco ahhaha. on a pc it should be smooth as silk. it's playable on the rpi3 but now i'm tweaking to get it as best as it can on a stock config, and then finally overclock the pi and see how much of a difference it will make.

Charco

@senkun Great, let us know how it performs :)

brenthunter2005

Is there a way to (temporarily) display the errors produced on the screen, instead of writing to the log file?

senkun

@brenthunter2005 you can pipe output to another console. but i find it better to output to a logfile to review at leisure anyway as sometimes stdout/stderr is not updated and then when the process is killed all the remaining data is only then written. or maybe it's because I am viewing and logging, then again I am a newbietoallthislinuxiethings.