STICKY: MAME4ALL for Pi

[Jessie]

That just isn't wrking for me. It detects button pesses but ignores my joysticks whereas other emulators work just fine with my encoders.

[welshy]

Jessie
So are you saying when you enter the Tab: Input (General) selecting UP then pressing Return to blank the selection and pushing UP on your Joystick it isn't detected? I do recall pudding mentioning some Joystick for HAT's were not detected (Issue 17 http://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/is ... tail?id=17) but I assumed this had now been addressed. Heres the full Issues List http://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/is ... ells=tiles may be of help.

[itsmedoofer]

Hi,

You are not the only one, it refuses to see my ps3 controller where as advancedmame does.

Reading the link it should have been fixed in the latest version, I've been using a pimame image so may not have the latest will try updating during the week, retroarch is compiling at the moment.

[cacophony555]

Jessie
So are you saying when you enter the Tab: Input (General) selecting UP then pressing Return to blank the selection and pushing UP on your Joystick it isn't detected? I do recall pudding mentioning some Joystick for HAT's were not detected (Issue 17 http://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/is ... tail?id=17) but I assumed this had now been addressed. Heres the full Issues List http://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/is ... ells=tiles may be of help.

The last comment from pudding (sept 17th 2013) is:
"Changes were applied in the latest version. Hat support wasn't added though due to the complications with SDL input support for it."

[Jessie]

I did flash my KADE as a PS3 controller. Fortunatly, I can just reflash my encoder to detect as a different device. Unfortunatly, that means I will have to reconfig all my emulators. I will get back with you after I do that.

[welshy]

Jessie
In that case its probably best to flash your KADE as an XBox360 Controller. I have found that it is compatible with every Emulator on the RPi, including using the D-Pad for directional control.

[Jessie]

I tried a couple of the KADE firmwares before just settling on having it detect as a keyboard. It now works fine, but I haven't tested all scenarios. I need to give it a go with some fighting games to draw a conclusion. I will report back if there is any odd lag or key ghosting otherwise assume all is well.

[encryptor]

I'm ready to use an arcade emulator. I've downloaded pimenu.zip and mame4all_pi.zip. What's next? I'm assuming to unzip the mame4all_pi.zip onto my SD card. Is this an operating system as well? Then maybe unzip pimenu.zip onto the SD card.

[Jessie]

I'm ready to use an arcade emulator. I've downloaded pimenu.zip and mame4all_pi.zip. What's next? I'm assuming to unzip the mame4all_pi.zip onto my SD card. Is this an operating system as well? Then maybe unzip pimenu.zip onto the SD card.

No you will need an OS as well. Raspbian is the easiest to work with.

[jamesh]

Quick question.

A number of the ROMS I have gives errors on trying to run them. I want to cull out all those ROMS from the roms folder that don't work, automagically.

./mame --verifyroms doesn't do anything, just get the list of available options displayed.

Any ideas how I can automatically make a list of ROMS that don't work so I can cull them out?

[Fidelius]

In contrast to Linux, Mame uses a single minus for parameters, not a double minus. For example:

Code: Select all

./mame -verifyroms [rom name]

Only with newer MAME versions we can omit the Rom name, so that MAME will check all our Rom zip files at once. However with older MAME versions, including Mame4all, we need to specify a Rom name or zip file (wildcards are possible, but not the blank * wildcard which would take all files). For example:

Code: Select all

./mame -verifyroms rtype
rtype   : rt_r-h0-.bin   65536 bytes c2940df2 NOT FOUND
 ... 
rtype   : cpu-31.bin     65536 bytes 2bec510a NOT FOUND
romset rtype is bad
1 romsets found, 0 were OK.

So a tool like gawk and the Unix pipe will save us. If all our working and non-working Rom zip files are inside the "roms" folder, we can do this:

Code: Select all

> ls -1 roms | gawk '{system("./mame -verifyroms " $0)}' | gawk '/is bad/' 

This gives us a nice list with all the "is bad" romsets, for example:

Code: Select all

romset bublbobl is bad
romset pipedrm is bad
romset rtype is bad

[itsmedoofer]

@James

Keep in mind that MAME4ALL, AdvancedMAME, FBA will all have different ROM requirements and wont play nicely with each others ROM sets...

I have 3 sets 0.36, 0.106 & latest for the various emulators out there and point the emulator at the set closest to the release it was based on.... I keep these on a network share so precious SD space is not eaten.....

[jamesh]

Thanks all. Not sure of the age of my ROMSET - at least 7 years I think, but at least all the good ones work (except Donkey Kong for some reason)

[welshy]

jamesh
As itsmedoofer suggests, MAME ROM Sets can be problematic! I run seven versions of MAME across various Hardware and multiple ROM Sets. I believe MAME4ALL only runs the USA ROM of Donkey Kong and Popeye only seems to work with the Bootleg version. I read you mentioned having 12GIG of MAME ROMS, that's BIG! Do you have a lot of CHD sets? My biggest is 14GIG, but ONLY because it contains the FireFox LaserDisc CHD (13GIG) which doesn't run in Daphne (But if you read my post it is, hopefully, soon to be compatible with the awesome Williams Star Rider!).

[dclark61]

Hey all;

I recently installed a spinner, which basically works like a mouse on X axis only. Works great with every spinner game I've tested such as Tempest and Arkanoid. Can't get it to work with Mad Planets, though (supposed to spin the ship). There are two "dial" input settings, which are set identically to that in Tempest, not sure if that matters. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[welshy]

dclark61
Mad Planets consisted of a 'Gorf' style Joystick for ship movement/fire trigger and a spinner for shot direction, I believe the Default settings are incorrect and you have to adjust them for correct spinner control, but its notoriously difficult to set up with MAME!

[dclark61]

Editing of the game-specific config file?

I wish they were in text instead of binary.

[welshy]

dclark61
Run Mad Planets and Press TAB; Input (this game), then alter the settings. As I indicated, its difficult to set up and my usual MAME cfg file doesn't work in MAME4ALL!

[dclark61]

So when you say adjusting the settings is notoriously difficult to get the spinner working in Mad Planets, do you mean it's not impossible? If so, do you know how to do it? Thanks.

[encryptor]

I just got Raspbian installed and I'm at the command prompt after login. Where do I unzip MAME4ALL.zip and PIMENU.zip? Thanks!

[welshy]

encryptor
Well you could login (pi; raspberry) and do it all from Console, however, its much easier to go into XWindows and manipulate the files there (login then Type startx).

[bidinou]

Someone asked about Toki ; the main version doesn't work, but the "bootleg" does. It seems a little different from the original though.

Is anyone using mame4all & others with an arcade stick directly plugged to the GPIO pins ? I'm trying to figure out if the latency is less than with my USB keyboard / ipac2 arcade interface (a bit too much to my taste, it makes me lose in shmups (I hope you don't mind if I asked the same question in the fba thread too

[bidinou]

To be more accurate, the working toki version is "tokib".

I now use advancemenu with a mix of mame4all / pifba / retroarch / pisnes... It's getting pretty great.

Also I use MAME4all instead of piFBA whenever possible. The latter if faster but the input latency is better with the former. So for instance, Ddonpach is much more playable (latency) under MAME4ALL, but it's pretty jerky (it's OK when I use the turbo mode).

Not sure it's such a great idea to use the turbo mode, though.

[antiriad]

To be more accurate, the working toki version is "tokib".

I now use advancemenu with a mix of mame4all / pifba / retroarch / pisnes... It's getting pretty great.

Also I use MAME4all instead of piFBA whenever possible. The latter if faster but the input latency is better with the former. So for instance, Ddonpach is much more playable (latency) under MAME4ALL, but it's pretty jerky (it's OK when I use the turbo mode).

Not sure it's such a great idea to use the turbo mode, though.

I often read in this forum that piFBA and piMAME4All push rPi to its limits, and surely it is so... but maybe there could be done still some small improvements (on input latency for example) improve emulation experience?
I'm not a developer, and perhaps for this reason I would not have the right to "criticize", but please interpret my criticism in a positive way: I believe we are really one step away from an "almost-perfect" emulation experience for some systems.
It would be nice if someone decides to go ahead with the development...

[Jessie]

Nothing convinces people to continue development better than cash.