SiriusVI

Unfortunately, I'm not getting any further. With acorn electron, this command automatically triggers the tape to play in mame: "*tape\nchain""""""\n" But I can't figure out how to do the same in apple 2. It's possible that it cannot be done via autoboot_command, since that just passes plain text. Maybe there is a text command that hits "play" on apple2, but I couldn't find one. The other option would be to send specific keys and key combinations. @JoeViking245 taught me that for some apple games, you must: 1. Hold CTRL + B and then press Enter to get into Integer Basic mode 2. Play the tape by pressing F2 3. Typing "LOAD" then press Enter 4. Wait till the process is finished and then type "RUN" and press Enter This can maybe be done via a LUA script. Here are some key combinations: https://github.com/me2d13/luamacros/wiki/List-of-Keys I've tried creating a script file with some code from mame tutorial and loading it with the an apple game, but nothing happens. I don't know if the script is even recognized: https://docs.mamedev.org/techspecs/luaengine.html I've created a plain text file with the code in it as the tutorial specified and then pointed the autoboot_script from the "apple2.ini" to the file, like this: # SCRIPTING OPTIONS # autoboot_command autoboot_delay 2 autoboot_script "M:\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\system\mame\scripts\apple2_cass_autoboot.txt" console 0 plugins 1 plugin noplugin As I said, the effect was that the rom still booted, but nothing happens. Maybe someoe with a little more experience than me can help me how to run a simple script.

Didn't know that. In that case, scratch what I suggested ??

Those certainly are a lot of things to think about. Here are some of my thoughts: 1. Just going by a file's MD5 hash would only be possible for certain closed sets of roms. Couldn't these sets be separated from different roms? Launchbox already has a MAME full set importer, so why not add an importer for, e.g. No-Intro sets, such as: "Import No-Intro Set" Import full set Import one (or more) specific systems Region / Version priorities, and so on. This way, people who have a specific set can import that set. people who have custum sets, just import as usual. 2. Redump and other sets for CD-Systems might be a bit problematic for people like me. I tend to convert all bin/cue roms I have to .chd whenever possible. Depending on what set people use as a basis for converting to chd, different MD5 checksums will be created. But even if people stick to e.g. redump as their basis for converting their games to chd, someone would have to collect all the checksums of these converted games... 3. Computer Systems These are still the cause of lot of headache for me. There doesn't seem to be a clear choice for me on which set to use. For consoles and handhelds it's No-Intro, no question. For CD-Based Systems it's Redump. But for computer systems, I really don't know. Which set would be the basis for a MD5 hash check? There is Mame Software List roms which come in a neat package and are updated regularly, but unfortunatley, games, applications and test programs are all mixed together. ALso roms with different file extensions are grouped together, but sometimes roms with different file extensions need different treatment in order to get them to run with MAME. TOSEC has a its sets neatly organized into games, applications, educational, and so on. Plus it separates roms by different file extension. However, TOSEC seems to have a lot of duplicate roms (with different file extensions) and therefore overall fewer roms than mame at least for some systems. In some cases TOSEC misses a whole categorie of roms compared to Mame. E.g. Mame has Apple II cassette tape roms, whereas TOSEC doesn't seem to have them. Also, I've realized that some TOSEC roms wouldn't run properly whereas the MAME SWL equivalent would, so maybe MAME's dumps are of better quality. There is also the fact that TOSEC has many games that MAME SWL does not have and vice versa. So how would we decide which set is to be used? If you ask me, as a start Launchbox should add the option to import complete No-Intro sets through a separate importer while still giving the option to import roms from other collections.

I've spent hours googleing but found no real solution that works for me, the reason being most likely that I have realy no knowledge of how command lines actually work. I imagine there must be a universal command that tells a commind line to send a specific key combination or function keys. there must be, right? Maybe I don't find anything because the answer is too obvious and the internet is rolling its eyes on me.

I've found other entries in the mame hash files that read "no boot". Thank you! ? Do you know by chance how to send function keys or comminds such as "hold down <CTRL> while pressing <B>" via command line? ?

Thanks @spycat and @kurzih! There wouldn't happen to be a list somewhere, would there? How may games are there that need this method? In the mame ash file I found only 2 games: Thexder v1 (no OS, not self booting) Cribbage King / Gin king v1.01 (no OS, not self booting) Is that all or are there more? (Or did I misunderstand something?)

@spycat Thank you so much. I've included your systems in the chart. Is there any wy to easily distinguish between Dragon 32/64 Basic and Machine Coded games? E.g. do the file extensions differ or is there a clue in the hash file? I may figure out apple2 mself, It's just that I lack some basic skills, such as not knowing how to send a button combination or function keys. If I type: "-autoboot_command F2", it just literally types F2 (which makes sense), so I need a command that tells it to send [F2].

If I use less than 6 I will get an error message, such as: Missing """ (depending on how many quotes I'm missing.) But I might have made another error at some point, I really don't know what I'm doing half the time, haha. I'm still learning. I will be sure to test your versions as well and include them in the chart, although I can only test with RetroArch at the moment, since I don't have Mame Standalone setup. Actually, I'm already stuck trying to autoboot Apple II Cassettes. Some Apple II cassettes require to switch to Integer Basic before you can start the tape and load it. You enter Integer Basic by holding CTRL + B and then press RETURN. Is there a way to send a command like this to mame "Press Return while holding CTRL +B"? Also, how can I do something like "send [F2]"?

That worked, thank you! I've included the command line in the chart =).

I've just realized that I may need to include a separate column for mame in retroarch, since it's a bit more complicated to pass on the autoboot command in retroarch. In fact, I'm stuck and I have no idea how to continue. I'm able to run a game and pass on certain parts of the commands, but not all of them. Here's an example. This is what's inside my "Extra command-line Parameters" for Acorn Electron cassette tapes: "electron -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command *tape\nchain""""""\n -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -cass \"%romfile%\"" Everything boots fine, the delay is set to "2" and on screen I can see that the autoboot sequence is being entered fine until it gets to the quotes. This is what I'm seeing on screen: >*tape >CHAIN This is what I should be seeing: >*tape >CHAIN"""""" As you can see it stops after CHAIN and right before the 6 """""". So it seems like the Extra command line parameters field is unable to pass along the command to type quotes. Does anyone have an idea how I can make this happen? I've tried different variations, all of which lead to the game not launching at all, such as: "*tape\nchain""""""\n" or *tape\n"chain"""""""\n

Hey everyone, over the last few days I've been trying to get various computer systems to work with mame and having games automatically loaded via autoboot command. With the help of @JoeViking245 and @kurzih I was able to get several the Acorn Electron roms to automatically boot when starting a rom via LaunchBox. You can accompish this either by using a command line or by editing the electron.ini in...system\mame\ini\ (if you use retroarch: Example: # # SCRIPTING OPTIONS autoboot_command "*cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*run !boot\n" autoboot_delay 2 autoboot_script Since I'm a total noob when it comes to figuring out working autoboot commands, I thought it would be great to have a thread where we can share and collect autoboot commands (or even scripts) for several computer systems when emulated with Mame. The idea is that anyone who has figured out how to autoboot roms for a particular system can post instructions here and I'm going to add them to the following chart: System Format Command line Mame Standalone Command line Mame RetroArch Aamber Pegasus cart "pegasus -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Aamber Pegasus\" -rom1 \"%romfile%\"" ABC 80 flop abc80 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_delay "3" -autoboot_command "loadhiresinv\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nrun\n" -flop1 every rom needs its own command line, because the file name has to be typed out to boot each individual game. The command line above is an example for booting the game "hiresinv.zip". Also, depending on your machine, you might need to add a couple of ” \n”. Acorn Electron cart "electron -exp romboxp -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -cart1 \"%romfile%\"" cass electron -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_delay "2" -autoboot_command "*tape\nchain""""""\n" -cass "electron -exp plus3,bios=1 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command *tape\nchain\"\"\"\"\"\"\n -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -cass \"%romfile%\"" flop (ADFS) electron -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_delay "2" -autoboot_command "*cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*run !boot\n" -flop "electron -exp plus3,bios=1 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command *cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*run!boot\n -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\"" flop (DFS) = .ssd files electron -exp plus1 -cart1 seds -cart2 ap5 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "*cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*exec !boot\n" -flop some games need *run instead of *exec "electron -exp plus1 -cart1 seds -cart2 ap5 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command *cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*exec!boot\n -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\"" some games need *run instead of *exec rom "electron -exp plus2 -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -rom1 \"%romfile%\"" Apple II Apple IIGS Flop (floppy games that need to boot from OS) apple2gs -skip_gameinfo -flop3 "PATH TO System 6.0.1 DISK IMAGE" -flop4 "apple2gs -flop3 sys601:flop1 -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\" -flop4 \"%romfile%\"" Software list roms must be in the correct folders for this to work. So, in my example, the apple2gs roms should be placed here: “L:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\apple2gs” BBC Micro cass bbcm -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "*tape\nchain""""""\n" -cass floppydisk1 mame bbcb -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_delay "1" -autoboot_command "*cat\n*exec !boot\n" -floppydisk1 D:\mame\roms\bbcb\CastleQuest.zip Comment: Can supply file format as .zip or the unzipped .ssd file Camputers Lynx cass lynx128k -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "mload""""""\n" -cass Dragon 32/64 cass (Basic Games) dragon64 -autoboot_delay 4 -autoboot_command cload\n -cass if emulating the Dragon 32 replace dragon64 with dragon32 cass (Machine Codes Games) dragon64 -autoboot_delay 4 -autoboot_command cloadm\n -cass if emulating the Dragon 32 replace dragon64 with dragon32 Fujitsu FM-7 To my understanding FM7 disks boot right away, so no need for an autoboot for them. cass fm7 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "LOADM”“,,R\n" -autoboot_delay 4 -cass (Note! Same thing with Sharp X1 the ”“ after LOADM are not the same as "", Mame will just quit if it's wrong. And unfortunately this machine does not auto-play the cassette unit automatically so you'll need to play the tape yourself within MAME after you see "Searching" after the autoboot command has been executed.) Matra & Hachette Alice cass alice90 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "cload\n" -cass Memotech MTX512 cass mtx512 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "load""""""\n" -autoboot_delay 3 -cass Oric Atmos / Oric 1 cass orica -autoboot_delay 4 -autoboot_command cload\"\"\n -cass if emulating the Oric 1 replace orica with oric1 Philips VG 5000 cass vg5k -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "cload\n" -autoboot_delay 3 -cass Sam Coupé flop samcoupe -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "\nBOOT\n" -flop1 It might be necessary to add an autoboot delay, such as: samcoupe -autoboot_delay 2 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "\nBOOT\n" -flop1 Sharp X1 cass x1 -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "CHAIN”“\n" -autoboot_delay 9 -cass (You need to be careful with the ”“ they are not "" :D) Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer flop flop (Pac-Man) coco3 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command run\"pacman\"\n -flop1 flop (Donkey Kong) coco3 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command run\"donkey\"\n -flop1 flop (Donkey Kong Remix) coco3 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command loadm\"dkremix\":exec\n -flop1 There is a long wait (over 1 minute) before Donkey Kong Remix opens! flop (Assembly Demo) coco3 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command loadm\"asm-demo\":exec\n -flop1 or coco3 -autoboot_delay 2 -autoboot_command loadm\"asm-auto\":exec\n -flop1 … Directories such as: "L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" must be replaced with your own directories. They must point towards where your bios file(s) for the system in question is located. Do you think this is a good idea? I have started with the Acorn Electron autoboot commands and I hope I didn't make any mistake putting those together?. Feel free to participate by adding to this list.

Thank you once more. So I guess for certain Systems it makes sense to use TOSEC sets instead of Mame SWL. I'll have a look at the apple2 sets as well, since maybe the different methods of loading different tape files is also dependent on file extensions.

I'd love to see the option prioritize the newest revision of a romset, or making the newest revision the standard app. This together with region priorities would enable us to basically create 1G1R sets out of the box.

Yeah well I don't plan on playing any of these games anyway. For me this hobby is all about collecting and building the perfect setup. The reason why I don't want to sort through all of the games separately (which I could do, of course) is that I want to be able to update my collection every once in a while. So when a newer version of mame SWL comes out, I want to be able to use your fabulous SWL importer to import the newly added games and update the existing ones and I don't want to go through the process of dividing up all the games that need a different launching process all over again. If I could set it up once and be done with it, no problem. But since I want to future proof this setup, a script that sorts out at least which kind of floppy is being loaded is necessary. I already have flop, cart, rom and cass in different platforms. A futher separation of platforms such as "floppy 1", "floppy 2", "floppy 3" wouldn't look at all good and (once again) if I were to update my collection I would have to manually sort the different roms each and every time. But it seems there is no solution for this problem at least for now. I've looked into Rocketlauncher, but it wouldn't solve my problem as well, at least not without as much tinkerin as would be required in finding a way to build a lua script. Hmm, I guess I have to take a break from setting up this system for now. EDIT: or maybe switching back to TOSEC at least in these specific cases is an option. TOSEC sorts all its roms according to file extension, therefore I know that the "SSD" set for acorn electron contails only .ssd files, which (seem) to all need the same launching method. The downside here is that I have a hard time finding out which file extensions correspond to which medium (cart, flop, cass), which I need to know in order to write the commandline for mame correctly. Is there an easy way of finding out what different files extensions mean?

I've got carts runnig fine now, thank you. I've been thing how I would go about setting up acorn electron est in Launchbox. My solution for now is to create "Acorn Electron" as a platform category and then have the 4 mame SWL sets (rom, cart, flop, cass) as separate platforms. So far so good. The problem is that different floppy disks need a different way to autoboot and I think that creating multiple platforms for all the different kinds of floppies is not doable. You'd have to separate the Mame SWL floppy roms accordingly and if you want to update the Mame SWL roms, you'd have to do it all over again. So I think the only solution is to create an autoboot script for electron floppies. Now mame needs a ".lua" script to load. I don't have any idea how this can be done. Can you guys help me with this? I've seen some if-then-else scripting over on the rocket launcher forums, like this: }Else If (mameID = "electron") ; Acorn Electron { AutoBootDelay := moduleIni.Read("Settings", "AutoBootDelay","2",,1) ; Read delay from config. AutoBootDelay := " -autoboot_delay " . AutoBootDelay If StringUtils.Contains(romExtension,"\.ssd|\.bbc\|\.img|\.dsd|\.adf|\.ads|\.adm|\.adl") { mediaDeviceType := "flop" autoBootMethod := " -autoboot_command ""*mount 0\n\n\n\n\nch.""""run""""""\n""""" } Else If StringUtils.Contains(romExtension,"\.bin|\.rom") mediaDeviceType := "cart" Else { mediaDeviceType := "cass" autoBootMethod := " -autoboot_command ""*tape\nchain""""""""""""\n"""

Yes I also want to automate as much as possibe. I consider today a big win for me as well. You and JoeViking245 helped me to learn about autoboot commands and a way to launch different types of apple2 tapes (in another thread). All in all a good day, but there is much that needs to be done. I'm also still undecided / unsure which rom set is best for each system. I started with mame software lists for the computer systems, but have recently switched to TOSEC on some systems for various reasons: The big pro of TOSEC is, in my opinion, that there are dedicated lists for games, programs and other types of software, so you can import just games, whereas mame SL also imports all the other programs besides games. For some systems TOSEC seems to have a bigger library than mame SL. On the other hand, there are many games that mame SL has and TOSEC doesn't, and vice versa. May I ask how you guys go about that? Which kind of rom collection do you use for your personal collection? TOSEC, mame SL? Do you mix them up? Do you use a completely different collection? That would be nice to know. I have this weird thing, too, where I'd love to keep everything consistent. I'd rather stick to one particualr rom collection than mixing everything up. It was so easy when I first started this emulation thing with "just" the no-intro sets, but as soon as I started using mame to emulate the first computer system, things got out of hand very quickly ?

I get the "bad program" screen with some games as well. However, these games still launch. Does that mean that these games are ot fully supported by mame yet?

Two of the roms that worked were Blitzkrieg and Alphatron (I used a mix of mame SL roms and TOSEC roms, those two happened to be from the TOSEC set, but they are SSD files.

I figured out how to launch the electron ssd files. You can change the electron bios in Mame using TAB. You can then go to the BIOS part of the mame menue and change it to DFS veriosn. I don't know how this would be included in a commandline, but one can always edit the electron.ini in the mame folder like so: # # SLOT DEVICES # exp plus3,bios=4 the autoboot command stays the same: # # SCRIPTING OPTIONS # autoboot_command "*cat\n\n\n\n\n\n*run !boot\n" autoboot_delay 2 EDIT: The next challenge is of course that you can only have one "electron.ini" file at once. I guess you could always add another copy of retroarch as an emulator for mame systems that need a different bios, but that solution is rather cluncky. Maybe there is a way to load a specific bios through commandline...

That's great. I hope I'll be able to autoload every single system I emulate with MAME / MESS, and when I'm done, I'll probably write up some kind of tutorial on how to get everything running with Mame in retroarch. The thing is I'm really a noob when it comes to figuring out which command lines to use. I basically trial and error myself through this whole thing. I just don't know how someone can figure out that this command is the one to use: "*tape\nchain""""""\n" -cass There probably is some kind of documentation somewhere, maybe some of the more experienced users can help me there.

Coincidentally, I tried "classarc" out as well and it worked with the command line of @kurzih and a delay of 2. I found something interesting in this thread: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=666 "are you reading the wrong type of discs?? ie reading ADFS discs in DFS?? try *DISC to get DFS then *. & try *DR.2 then *. if no luck, then *ADFS *." upon checking the hash files for electron flop I found that classarc is in ADFS, while other games that do not work are in DFS. ADFS is also displayed when booting the electron. So if I understand correctly, we need a command that switches from ADFS to DFS (sorry for my layman's language)

Hmm, I don't see the content of the disk after *cat... I tried with and without "-flop". I don't think I need that, because I have "flop1" in my commandline in retroarch. I didn't need "-cass" to load cassettes. But anyway, I tried both versions. Which games have you tested? Maybe I should try your method on those first. EDIT: I just realized that the "*cat" doesn't appear on screen at all. So I thought that maybe I needed to add an autoboot delay. So I added a delay of "2" and now *cat appears on ycreen, but I get a "disc error 50".

Just tried that, but I get a "no directory" message. Does that mean there is no "!boot" in the disk? If I use electron64 instead of electron, the message reads "searching" instead of "no directory".

Well I haven't had any problems with floppy disks whatsoever and apple2e works fine with all games I've tried that are not cassettes. The issue here is just with cassettes wich seem to require different methods to load, as @JoeViking245 described.

Oh man, I'm an idiot. I was pressing F2. I misread what you wrote. Sorry, it was really late last night... F12 works like a charm. Is there a list of games that require apple2p instead of apple2? EDIT: btw. apple2e works here as well.