5200 emulation: a few ROMs launch, most don't...

LS650

Pi 3,
RetroPie 4.1 with updates
Built From: downloaded image at retropie.org.uk
USB Devices connected: keyboard, iBuffalo USB gamepad and/or Logitech 310 controller
Emulator: atari800 for 5200

As above, I have a Pi 3 running the latest RetroPie 4.1 release with updates. For the most part, the installed emulators, and a couple of extra I've added work very well. However, I find the 'atari800' emu to be problematic. I find that out of about 20 ROMs for the 5200 I've tested, just three or four launch successfully. All other ROMs only display the rainbow Fuji, but not the name or the last 2 digits of the copyright year, and then the emu crashes. I can hit F4 and still check out the menu for configuration, but some ROMs simply won't run.

I've tried using these same ROMs with the KAT5200 emu in Windows 10, and the exact same ROMs all work great. I've watched Youtube videos, read through the wiki articles, etc. to no avail.

I've even grabbed another MicroSD card, installed RetroPie from scratch and did nothing to it except configure a generic gamepad and install the atari800 Emulator as per instructions. The same issues.

I was thinking that maybe these are wonky ROMs - but they all work great with KAT5200..? Even so, I've tried using some completely different ROMs that also work in KAT5200, and they will not launch in atari800.

I'm puzzled as to what is wrong.

mediamogul

@LS650

When the games are launched, you are presented with a screen asking what type of ROM is being used. Usually, there are two options for 5200 carts delineating ROM size. Have you tried using both?

LS650

@mediamogul yes, I have tried the various 5200 offerings shown.

mediamogul

@LS650

That is odd. I have a full 5200 library and I've only ever noticed the occasional game that wouldn't launch. I haven't played anything in over a month, so later this evening I'll fire up a few titles and see how it's performing currently on my end.

LS650

Since a few ROMs do run, I would think it's an issue with corrupted files, but the same files launch just fine with my Windows emulator... :-? Seems very odd.

mediamogul

@LS650 said in 5200 emulation: a few ROMs launch, most don't...:

but the same files launch just fine with my Windows emulator.

It being a different emulator could mean that it's just more tolerant of bad ROMs. Atari800 is admittedly one of the most finicky emulators I've seen.

mediamogul

@LS650

One other important thing I forgot to ask is if you've installed the 5200 BIOS file where it needs to be.

LS650

@mediamogul Yes, and I've tested the BIOS file with the Win 10 emulator. And a few games do run, showing the rainbow fuji copyright page, which I don't think would work if the BIOS file were faulty.

mediamogul

@LS650

I'm on RetroPie 4.1.12 and every game I tried loaded successfully. Before the night is through, I'll update to 4.1.14 and see if anything changes there.

edmaul69

Same as @mediamogul here. The emulator sucks, but as far as loading games i have a very high success rate. Some can load the logo and what not then crash with an error but a lot of times its by choosing the wrong bios.

mediamogul

Just updated to 4.1.14 and all is well on my end. It's a long shot given your particular symptoms, but it's possible that the config file has become corrupt. Deleting it and letting the software create a fresh one on start may help. It's located at /opt/retropie/configs/atari800/atari800.cfg.

LS650

Well, I figured it out, sort of.

Because some ROMs do launch, I figured that the emulator must be set up more-or-less correctly, and the issue lies with the ROMs.
I tried ROMs from two different sites both with my Retropie and with my Win10 setup. The ROMs launched just fine on the Windows machine.

I tried a few ROMs from yet a third site. These ROMs do launch on both platforms. Clearly there is something in the ROM files from the first two sites that the Retropie doesn't like, yet KAT5200 on Windows doesn't care.

Nothing obviously different about the files, so I guess it's just a matter of trying different ROMs until you find files that work.

mediamogul

@LS650

Glad to see it's up and operational.

LS650

Yes, thanks for the advice. There are more advanced systems to emulate, but I played with a 5200 as a teen back in the 80s.
Some of the games may look a bit chunky, but it is one of my personal favorite systems.

mediamogul

@LS650 said in 5200 emulation: a few ROMs launch, most don't...:

Some of the games may look a bit chunky, but it is one of my personal favorite systems.

It was a really impressive system for the time. It had without a doubt the definitive home version of 'Berzerk'. I believe it was able to handle all that speech synthesis with just the on-board components.

edmaul69

@LS650 its nice to see more and more atariage users showing up on here. Im pimpaul69 on atariage.