Unable to get Sega CD games to launch using lr-genesis-plus-gx - SOLVED!

Drignor

Hi folks, I'm having a hell of a time here with my SegaCD games in RetroPie 3.7 on my Pi 3. I can run all of them using lr-picodrive as the emulator with no problem, except for the fact that a lot of the FMV in the games look like crap (often with wrong colors and a lot more graininess than usual). I wanted to try lr-genesis-plus-gx (which I understand is the ideal way to run SegaCD games), but every time I try, the screen just goes black. Doesn't kick me back to the game list, just sits at a black screen. It doesn't appear to be hung because I can exit normally back to the game list and I can even pull up the retroarch menu by hitting select and triangle (ps2 clone controller) on my gamepad. I have all the correct BIOS bins where they are supposed to be and correctly named, but I just can't figure this out. Anyone else see this before?

herb_fargus

@Drignor all 6 of them? The bios will be named differently depending on which emulator you use:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Sega-CD

Also post the contents of /tmp/runcommand.log formatted properly with markdown or with pastebin or equivalent

Drignor

@herb_fargus Yup. got em all in the BIOS folder: bios_CD_U.bin, bios_CD_E.bin, bios_CD_J.bin. Also have the picodrive ones in there as well, but like I said before, picodrive launches fine. Also, I just opened up runcommand.log and it's blank.

Drignor

@herb_fargus Also, I just had a thought here. Would it make any difference if I'm launching from the .cue or the .bin file from the game menu? Right now, I have it set up that the .cue files are shown, and the .bin files are hidden from the game menu. Should I switch it so I'm launching from the .bin, or does that even matter?

herb_fargus

@Drignor it shouldn't matter I wouldn't think. Wouldn't hurt to try. Also wouldnt hurt to try putting the bios in the rom folder too. Also possible there may be something off with your cue sheets or something else. Hard to know

Drignor

@herb_fargus I already tried moving the bios files to the rom directory and that was a no-go as well. I'll try switching the .cue and .bin files around and l see what happens.

Drignor

@herb_fargus Ok, this is interesting. I just completely moved the bios files out of the BIOS folder, and it did the same thing. Normally, if the bios isn't there, it will kick me back out to the game menu, but it's not in this case. It's just still sitting at the black screen until I back out of the emulator. Is there a config file that tells lr-genesis-plus-gx where to locate the BIOS folder and what bios to look for? I was looking at some troubleshooting tips on another forum and they mentioned that, but the location where they said this info was located, I didn't see it.

movisman

Hi there,

I had this issue too for a short while, the majority if not all Sega CD games would not work in lr-genesis-plus-gx, even though I had tried various BIOS files. But all was working ok in Picodrive.

The issue is definitely related to your BIOS files though, because to solve my issue, I ended up trying some region free BIOS files from a Mega/Sega CD 2 for JP, EU and US. Now everything works without a single issue. Maybe lr-genesis-plus-gx is more picky about which BIOS files you use, I really am not sure. I have no idea what the holy grail of BIOS files is for this emulator.

Obviously I cannot post links to the BIOS files, but if you use google to search for something like Sega CD Region Free BIOS Collection this may help. I would try these files from the .7z archive:

us_scd2_930314_regionfree.bin
JP_MegaCD2_22121992_regionfree.bin
EU_MegaCD2_30031993_regionfree.BIN

See how you get on.

Just don't forget to rename them and make sure the extension is in the right case ;)

Drignor

@movisman Rats, tracked down those region free bios, renamed them, dropped them into the BIOS folder and still not working. Is there any other place the BIOS files would be residing other than /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS? Reason I ask is because, just for the heck of it, I removed ALL the Sega CD bioses (sp?) and then tried running a Sega CD game using lr-picodrive and it worked! How would it be running without the bios? This leads me to believe that they may be somewhere else? I dunno, my brain is getting fried.

Drignor

ALRIGHT!!! I figured it out. It WAS the issue with launching .bin files instead of .cue files! For some reason, it didn't like launching the .cue files. I had to go into es_systems.cfg, add .bin to the extensions under the Sega CD section, remove .cue, and voila! It works! Now I only have the .bin files listed in the game menu. Of course, I also had to get rid of the old gamelist.xml for the Sega CD and re-scrape my games, but a small price to pay. Thanks for being a sounding board for me, guys, I appreciate it!

movisman

@Drignor

Hi,

I launch off my cue files with no issue whatsoever in all emulators.
Have you verified the reference to the .bin file is correct in the .cue file (open the cue with notepad or whatever, it's readable) - you'll see what it does? It just calls the .bin file. This .cue file is more useful when there are separate audio tracks in addition to the game .bin, because the .cue file calls all other bin files at the right time and for the correct duration. If you just launch using a .bin you will lose CD audio in a load of games (PSX is a common one, think Mega CD too). Only exception to this is if the ROM just has a single .bin file.

When renaming bin paths inside a .cue, the filename must be absolutely spot on, extension and all. I've seen users have an issue where the .bin extension is referenced in capitals for example, but the actual file has a lower case extension. You need to rename all .bin references in the .cue if they do not match. Alternatively you can rename all the .bins to match the content of the .cue file, either or is OK.

Hope this helps?

Cheers

Drignor

@movisman I see what you're saying, and it makes sense. That's the way it should work. But for some reason, it's not the way it is on my build. I haven't gone plowing through my .cue files, but I assume they are correct because they were launching fine when using lr-picodrive. And I don't have any problems with my audio, either. I'm just wondering if it's because of the disc images I'm using. I downloaded them all from the same place [Redacted] and the strange thing I just noticed is that I don't have any separate bin files for audio tracks, even though a lot of the games I have do use them (Monkey Island, Willy Beamish, etc...), but they still play the audio normally. I'm wondering if these disc images were created in a way that squished all the music directly into one bin file, and maybe that's why I was having my problem? Anyway, don't know, don't care, as long as it's working now, I'm happy. Thanks again!

movisman

@Drignor

I too have used the same 'resource', I think from what I remember if you are just talking about SEGA/Mega CD there is only a .cue + single .bin for most if not all games anyway, even if they have audio tracks. Everything is inside one .bin, but the references to the track start/finish points are stored within the .cue. PSX is the platform where there is a right mix of single and multiple files, Ridge Racer for example has quite a lot and you have to launch from the .cue file for it to work properly.

There must be a simple explanation why you are unable to launch .cue files with lr-genesis-plus-gx, as like I say, mine works absolutely fine. If it does become an issue let me know and I will send you a excerpt of my config so you can compare.

Cheers