SiriusVI

No, there wasn't any prompt. as soon as I pressed <F12> (while holding CTRL, of course), the tape started playing.

@kurzih this is super interesting. I emulate the electron using mame in retroarch. My commandline for launching roms is: "electron -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -cass \"%romfile%\"" -c "config\mame_CLI_ON.cfg" the last part with the -c is for using an alternative config file, so i guess it's not important, so this is basically it: "electron -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -cass \"%romfile%\"" Now, how would I go about adding your autoload command into my existing command line? I've tried this, but it didn't work: "electron -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Electron\" -skip_gameinfo -autoboot_command "*tape\nchain""""""\n" -cass \"%romfile%\"" -c "config\mame_CLI_ON.cfg" Any ideas?

I'm on it Thank you once more so much for your info. I got 3D Star Fire running no problem. I wasn't able to get apple2p working. The rom launches, but there is just a black screen saying Apple II and I can'T type anything.

@JoeViking245 I finally got around to tackeling apple2 cassettes once more. I've followed your instructions and was able to laucnh "Apple Derby" as you suggested in Mame standalone and through retroarch. However, literally every other game I've tried gives me various errors when trying the same method: 1. "ERR" 2. "MEM FULL ERR" 3. "ERR NO END" This happens in MAME standalone and in retroarch. I've researched and found these instructions for the original hardware: 1. Rewind the tape completely. 2. Type the word LOAD at the keyboard. 3. Press the PLAY button on the cassette recorder to start the tape. 4. Press the RETURN key. When you press the RETURN key, the cursor disappears. After 15 or 20 seconds you can analyze your success. If you get the message 7SYNTAX ERROR or ?***SYNTAX ERR, do not adjust the volume, just go back to step 1 and try again. If this keeps happening, try cleaning the cassette recorder heads, or use a different tape. If nothing happens, or if the message ?ERR or ?***MEM FULL ERR appears, reset the computer by pressing CONTROL- RESET. If doing this makes the * command prompt appear, re- start BASIC by pressing first CONTROL-B and then the RETURN key. Next, set the tape recorder volume a little higher and try again. " EDIT: and also this: "At this point, you could either begin entering a BASIC program, or try to load one from cassette. To load from cassette was not always easy; it took time to get the right volume and tone settings on the tape player in order to avoid getting the "ERR" or "*** SYNTAX ERR" message. (And if you didn't have much memory, you might get a "*** MEM FULL ERR" message!) When you got it properly loaded, you could type RUN and see what happened. " Any ideas on how to troubleshoot these errors in Mame?

There is very little information on how to best emulate this system, even though there is a dedicated retroarch core called x1 millennium. The games I have are from the TOSEC set and consist of .d88, .2d., .tap, and .wav files. Here is what I've learned: 1. .tap and .wav files don't seem to work, despite being officially supported. I can get to the bios screen but the games won't start. 2. .d88 and .2d files work as long as the games consist only of 1 disk. 3. Games that consist of more than 1 disk don't work, because I cannot figure out how to mount two disks at the same time. 4. I tried using .m3u files (since that worked with Sharp 68K, but the x1 core does not seem to support .m3u files. 5. I've tried launching the system through mame / mess and it works. Mame enables me to launch multiple disks at the same time, but navigating through the mame menu is inconvenient. 6. I wasn't able to launch tap files through mame / mess. Ideally, I want to be able to use the retroarch core to load multiple disks at the same time and also use the .tap files, since those make up most of the roms. Has anyone managed to ge this system running?

Thank you very much! I've seen the neogeo pack in this thread as well. Is that also part of the Pack#1 or is this something extra?

These Bezels are so amazing, but do you have a list of all your available packs for retroarch? I have a hard time figuring out which packs eyist and which are the most up to date.

I have created m3u lists for the complete TOSEC set for the X68K. If you don't rename the files, all you have to do is have the m3u files in the same folder as the roms and import them into launchbox. If I can host the files anywhere here, I'll do so. Is that possible?

Solved it: in: "X:\RetroArch\system\keropi" there is a config file which allows one to specify the rom directory: StartDir=X:\LaunchBox\Games\Sharp X68000\TOSEC\Sharp X68000 - Games - [DIM] The directory MUST be in quotes: StartDir="L:\LaunchBox\Games\Sharp X68000\TOSEC\Sharp X68000 - Games - [DIM]" I don't know why this is, because even without the quotes the core sets the directory correctly, however it does not mount the rom files.

Hey, sorry for digging up this thread. I use the Px68k retroarch core to emulate this system and I have a question regarding disk swapping through the original px68k menu which can be accessed by pressing the left trigger on your controller. The game I'm testing this with is "Akumajou Dracula". It requires 2 disks. If I boot the game via Launchbox, the game boots, but I need to insert the second disk to actually play it. So I bring up the emulator menu by pressing L2 on my controller. I can see that the first diskis loaded. The line reads: "¥Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 1 of 2).dim" (take note of the yen sign "¥" So I go to the second foppy frive and choose: "Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 2 of 2).dim", Now the line reads: "Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 2 of 2).dim" (no yen sign) However, the game still does not work. I hear the music playing but there is only a black screen. If I hit reset, the same thing happens. I tried reloading the first disk as well, but if I choose "Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 1 of 2).dim" again, the line does not read anymore "¥Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 1 of 2).dim" but "Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 1 of 2).dim" (no yen sign) Now, the system doesn't even boot. So as you can see, if I try to load disks from the emulator menue, the Yen sign "¥" is missing and somehow that seems to mean that the game is not properly mounted. If I launch the game using launchbox, the Yen sign "¥" is there and the game boots. The next thing I tried is m3u playlists and sure enough, if I load an m3u playlist from Launchbox, both disks are properly mounted (with Yen signs) and the game works fine. The lines read: "¥Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 1 of 2).dim" "¥Akumajou Dracula (1993)(Konami)(Disk 2 of 2).dim" The problem is however that there are many games with more than just 2 disks, so I NEED to be able to swap disks using the emulator menu. Does anyone have an Idea what I'm doing wrong here?

So I finally finished downloading of this beast. Took over aweek, due to poor connection speed. I have tried it out and it's really extensive. It has its own system of playlists and categries and I don't know much of an effort it would be to convert it into a setup that could be usable by Launchbox. The Launchbox Platform for these games would be "Web Browser" and then we'd have to convert the playlists to Launchbox playlists.

If you already have the hash files for a whole mame setup, you should already have the xml file for the cdi in place, so you don't need it. In fact you can skip this whole part. You don't need the ini file either.

I don't know of any preexisting list, but I'm really not qualified. I've gotten into this whole emulating Software List thing just a couple of months ago

Yeah, I love the Software List Import Tool as well. The only downside to using Software Lists is that they contain so much software that isn't games that you have to go through all of the files separately once importing is donw. Would be great if there was a way to filter out all the non-games from the software lists.

OMG, that did it. Thank you so much =D. This means, however, that the info here is wrong and needs an update: https://pastebin.com/18W3EbD0

Yeah I'm sorry. I still can't get Aamber Pegasus to work. Same settings as 5200, also cartridge based, cli enabled. It does not work. Any ideas?

I fixed it! Atari 5200 is up and running. The error was in the mame core options. the option "boot from cli" must be "enabled", same as with Apple II. The reason why I left it disabled was that with mame Software List Roms, Atari and other cartridge-based systems work with CLI disabled. So I just thought I didn't need to enable it. Don't know why I didn't think to test this option before. Edit: interestingly enough. This fix does not work for Aamber Pegasus, even with the same settings.

It's pretty easy. Just make sure you Backup your Data folder so you can always go back to your previous setup if something goes wrong.

That's great =D. So let's look at my apple2 games: Apple II game "Alcazar - The Forgotten Fortress" TOSEC name is: "Alcazar - The Forgotten Fortress (1985)(Activision)[48K].zip" containing "Alcazar - The Forgotten Fortress (1985)(Activision)[48K].woz" Mame SL-Name is: "alcazar.zip" containing "alcazar.woz" Both games load fine. I did however look into the a5200 rom set from no intro and the zip files contain ".a25" files, whereas the mame set contails .bin files. So I went and grabbed the TOSEC set for a5200 which also uses .bin files. Sadly, the roms still don't load. I did some more testing and found out that if you rename the TOSEC .zip files the way mame expects them, the games will load just fine even though the files within the .zip files has a different name than the one in the mame set. Edit: I'm almost 100% sure that the error lies at the command line.This works for Apple and all other floppy and cassette systems I've tried: "apple2e -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Apple II\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\"" But the same command line does not work for nay cartridge based system I've tried "a5200 -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 5200\" -cart \"%romfile%\""

Yes I know that it is possible (it was a post by you that put me up to this idea ;)), and I managed to do it with all systems that use floppy disk and cassette images. I'm just wondering why it doesn't also work for cartridge images.

Thank you for answering. Yes it seems to have something to do with mame Software List naming conventions, but this is only an issue for cartdidges it seems. Maybe I explained it badly in my initial post, so I try to simplify it here: 1. I have Apple II roms and Acorn Achimedes roms (from the TOSEC set) which are NOT named correctly (acording to Mame Software List), but mame will still load them if I use the commandline shown above 2. I have Atari 5200 roms and Aamber pegasus roms (from the TOSEC set) which are NOT named correctly (acording to Mame Software List), and mame refuses to load them. 3. As far as I understood, both of you use Software List roms and yes Mame will obviously load any roms which are named correctly acording to Mame Software List So the question ist: why can I load Apple II, Acorn Achimedes and many other disk based systems (with incorrect names), but not Atari 5200, Aamber Pegasus and other cartridge based systems.

Hey everyone, some time ago, I tried to emulate Apple II games with the Mame core of Retroarch and succeded. There was some tinkering involved and lots of help by this wonderful forum. I've since managed to emulate lots and lots of systems using using this method. The basics for how this works can be reviewed here: Let's look at how I got Apple II to run: 1. Get Mame Software List Roms and put them in a folder. 2. You make sure that you copy any extra files that mame requires My Folder is called "Apple II" and looks like this: 3. Go to X:\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\system\mame\ini and edit "apple2e.ini". You need to specify where your roms are: 4. Add a new Retroarch Emulator to your list of emulators and check "Don't use Quotes". 5. Add Apple II as an associated platform, choose mame (no year tags) as your core and use this command line (yes with the double quotes): "apple2e -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Apple II\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\"" This way, the apple roms load fine (in the mame core options, you must turn CLI on for Apple II to work). Now, if this works, why am I complaining? Well, there are some downsides to using Software List Mame roms. First of all, they are named in a way that prevents Launchbox to scrape Metadata, and second, The software List roms include not only games, but also loads of programs and other software that don't work or that I don't need. Recently I've read in this form that Mame actually CAN use roms that are named differently from Software List conventions when using command lines to open them. This interested me so I tried to load Apple II toms from the TOSEC set using the same method as shown above. And what do you know. It works very well. This is great, because sets like TOSEC separate games from other kinds of software and the file names are usable by Launchbox. So what's the problem? The problem is that this method works well with computer systems that use floppy disks or cassettes. It does NOT work for systems using cartridges (-cart). Systems that use cartridges seem to work differently from systems using floppies and cassettes. For example, if I try to emulate Atari 5200 using Software List roms, I don't need t add a corresponding commandline like for Apple II ("apple2e -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Apple II\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\""). Instead, the game will run fine using the mame core without any command line. The same goes for other cartridge based systems like Aamber Pegasus. If I however try to use a different Set, say the no intro set for Atari 5200, the game will not load. For Example, if I load "berzerk.zip", the game will work. If I load "BerZerk (USA).zip", the game will not load. Then I thought, maybe I need that weird command line to be able to use non Software List roms with mame. So I tried: "a5200 -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 5200\" -cart \"%romfile%\"" This however causes Retroarch to crash. So why is this? Why can I emulate floppy based systems like Apple II or Acorn Archimedes, but not cartridge based systems such as Atari 5200 or Aamber Pegasus? I'm not against using Software List roms, I just like to keep things consistent and convenient, but I always have the option of going back to using Software List roms. However, I'm really interested in why this just won't work. It's really bugging me.

Ah thank you I didn't check for additional apps. Works perfectly now. Any way to make the local files the default option?

Thank you so much for this amazing update @Zombeaver. Just one question: How can I integrate the offline Magazines module?

Sounds great. I used to play a fair share of flash games back in the day. I feel like there'd be something missing if it wasn't in my Launchbox collection.