stevaside

Yes, games seem to start fine with the command in command prompt Yes, the list of 459 CDi games shows, double clicking Hotel Mario or any game I have shows errors, I'll upload a screenshot of that one & Tetris..which BTW seems MAME wont even let me take a screenshot with the usual FN + Backspace combo, kept showing a black screen as the image so I wound up using my phn to take a pic ..ughhhhh The "unknown option" error was what LB showed, but now trying to start a game in LB shows an empty command prompt window for half a second before it closes & yes ini path looks exactly like that I just can't believe I made it this far & can actualy play Cdi games, but for some reason not in LB or clicking in MAME app itself. So damn frustrating this console

mame.ini is just in the ini folder Don't see a cdimono1.ini at all, in any folder, I even searched for the file. Closest I found was a cdimono1.cfg file in the cfg folder. I went in the mame.ini file & noticed the rompath listed the software folder , but not the software\cdi where the roms are. I changed it to that thinking that was probably the issue, but no. Get a "error unknown option" message when trying to start a game in Launchbox

Ahhh, knew there was an easier way, but I wound up just scrolling through the list of games on MAME , writing down the file names then naming the folders that....but... I have bigger problems now. I was unable to get the CD-i to play from within Launchbox at all even though I set up the correct MAME as the default emulator. Loading the games from MAME itself wouldn't even work, kept telling me files were missing. That command line method is the only way I can play these games so far...and also the joystick configs I set never seem to save

Ahhh that makes total sense, I didn't put much thought into that lol I've been using MAME for like 16 years, but this is 1st time ever trying it with something other than arcade games. Maybe MESS did it similar, I have used that but AGES ago, so don't rememeber

Well I'll be damned it finally appears to work! Changing the rom path in the .ini alone didn't work, but then creating a subfolder in software called cdi then another within that called hotmario is what did it (And possibly renaming the rom to hotel mario (1994)(philips)(eu).chd instead of hotel mario (1994)(europe).chd that it was titled from the site I downloaded it from had something to do with it as well?) IDK still kinda confusing, why would creating subfolders with certain names need to be done for CDI when most other systems can have all roms dumped in a single folder & load right up? Im going to have to try this with the rest of my CDI CHDs now, but how would I even know what to correctly name the subfolders (Like I did "hotmario" for example)?? Well HUGE thank you for getting me to this point! Also 1 more question can a gamepad be set up with this system? I don't have mine connected ATM, but Hotel Mario seemed to work with the mouse & keyboard. Just thought I read something once that said gamepad on CDI wasn't possible with emulation? Hope that's not the case

Sorry... Looks like it says the CHD can't be found although I put it both in the software & roms folder of MAME. Only difference I can see is this shows a file that has Philips in the name & the one I have doesn't. I also put a duplicate file in there just named hotmario.CHD

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses! I decided to try command prompt again & this is what I got after entering that in

Sorry, not really familiar with running things from command prompt or using powershell. I entered the entire path of MAME64.exe follwed by -v cdimono1 hotmario & got an error

Yes, I even double checked everything. MAME64 from that exact site is what's set up Well IDK that is what I saw. I tried starting game again for the hell of it & another window shows up for like a split second, but I don't see any text this time.

Tried all that & still doesn't work...A window pops up for half a second that says "error: unknown option" Looks like I'm most likely never going to get to try the Philips CD-i, being it's so F******G ridiculous & time consuming to try to get working compared to most other consoles

I was previously trying MAMEUI226, but OK I now have the MAME from that site & there doesn't seem to be an mame.ini file , Certainly not in the ini folder. There's only 2 subfolders in there called examples & presets & nothing in those or any other folder called mame.ini

I was using MAMEUI226 & I already tried renaming it hotmario & still had issues

Yea it rly does sound straightforward, but apparently it's as not as easy as you'd think sometimes. Up until then MAME has always in the past shown cabinet art like I wished if I put cabinet images in the box folder. I only had gameplay checked in screenshots & only box front checked in box priorities, yet every platform gave me random results. Some were fine, some showed clear logos in place of boxes, some double screenshots.....No matter what ALL my image folders were set with the appropriate art. Made no sense, but I just decided to try refreshing all box images in Launchbox for the hell of it & all of a sudden things all finally show the images I want in Big Box including MAME. So guessing something got corrupted somehow & this was all rly nothing of my doing or misunderstanding of the settings (I noticed Group by image/box front in Launchbox for NES was showing box, screenshots & clearlogos for games until the refresh too!)

Ok well I tried it again & this time noticed there was a blank field at the top of the box front priorties that was checked too. So I uncheck it, load up BB again & now see that the NES games are finally displaying how I wanted, Top image = box front, bottom image = Gameplay screenshot. So I feel all relieved only to check other consoles & besides a couple other systems, the majority of everything is a COMPLETE MESS. Arcade is showing videos at bottom, but nothing at the top now. No box art or screenshot...Other systems are randomly showing double screenshots, an extra clear logo image at top & screenshot at bottom, etc etc Ready to rip my hair out now

Just tried it a 6th way that gave 2 screenshots..well mainly that is, until I decided to scroll through other systems instead of the NES I kept testing it on...And I found out that although the NES, TG16 & others show double images, some platforms like Odyssey2 & Visual Pinball throw a bunch of mixed images. As I scroll down those, sometimes it's double screenshots, sometimes it'll show a clear logo up top & a screenshot below & other times it'll show box art & screenshots......No idea of what's going on here, but getting a little tiring going through all this. And just to mention, before I started checking all this all Big Box, I looked at every single image for every platform in Launchbox: Clear logo/screenshot gameplay & box front & they were all correct, none missing) #6 (2 screenshots) BOXFRONT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gameplay SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Screenshot - Gameplay /Box-Front

Okay tried that...actually 5 different ways in priorities settings & no luck at all. All either still showed 2 boxes or 2 screenshots Heres what happened for each combination, the / means checked & they are in order I put them in menu: #1 (Showed 2 box fronts) BOXFRONT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front Screenshot - Gameplay SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gameplay #2 (All box fronts) BOXFRONT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gameplay SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gamplay #3 (All box fronts) BOXFRONT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front Screenshot - Gameplay SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gameplay #4 (2 Screenshots) BOXFRONT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Screenshot - Gameplay #5 (2 Box fronts) BOXFRONT PROPERTIES Everything unchecked SCREENSHOT PRIORITIES: /Box-Front /Screenshot - Gameplay This is real exhausting for something that should ideally be as simple as "Select image type 1, select image type 2" 5 seconds. done

I'm just using the default theme AFAIK with platform images I chose to show in background. MAME is the only one that's currently looking the way I want, (I put marquee images to use in my clearlogo folder for the wheel, cabinets in my box front art folder & videos of each game playing below cabinets) All other systems I wanted the upper image to show box front & lower gameplay screenshots, but instead it shows double box art (as pictured in the NES image)

Okaaay....well I finally got a hold of the updated bios & still can't get this damn console to work. Just about ready to give up. I no longer get the errors about files missing, but I still keep getting these never ending series of popup windows that mention finding a match for the game. I tried to load Hotel Mario & this is what 1st popped up, followed by a sucession of more windows listing games called Marco, Marco Polo all this other crap & after like 5 of those it actually says Hotel Mario, so I click OK & it just skips it & goes to the next window with some other game title that has nothing to do with Mario or CD-i. It will never let me close MAME either, each time it does this I have to go into task manager ??

Just 3: cdi200.rom, cdi220.rom & cdi220b.rom Yes, understand that the bios I have is outdated & missing the other 2 files. I've recently got MAME 0.226 to use for the CDi, but can't find any roms for that version at all. There was a link on archive.org, but it got removed. So I'm still stuck. unable to try the CDi at all. So again, if anyone can PLEASE point me to the updated bios for 0.226 I would greatly appreciate it

Main question I'm hoping to get advice on today, and I know I've managed to get this right in the past, but just cannot figure out at the moment is: How can I choose what images display when going down the game wheels in BB? I want to have the front box art show at top & either gameplay screenshot or video (depending on system) shown at bottom. Only the systems I want videos on are showing how I like, the others all keep showing 2 box front images & no screenshots and for some odd reason 1 shows the clear logos (same as wheel) + the front box art And this isn't extremely important because there are only a couple of the early TRS-80 games I'd like to try, but does anyone know anything about a straightforward way to emulate them?? I've had no luck so far, but I have been using VCC for the "Color Computer" line of games. Really sucks it has no save states though or no clear way to save games. Wish there was a retroarch core or more traditional to console method of emulation for those

Ok thanks. I can't figure out how to navigate that site to d/l roms & looks like archive.org had a 0.226 set but it was taken down...Can't seem to find anything else out there. Forgive me if this isn't allowed here, but could you or someone please point me in right direction with a link? All I want is the updated cdimono1.zip so I can FINALLY try this console out in LB

Well I re added my CDI CHDs to the software folder, followed all the steps you gave me. It looked like it was FINALLY about to start up...and then I get the SAME error message I've been getting. Does this mean the bios I have is missing files or outdated??

Yea I've already seen that video, but just rewatched it anyway..Did everything he showed in it aside from using MAME instead of MESS...well actually I found a site with a new MESS standalone & that didn't work either Same thing. For instance I click on Hotel Mario. 1st a window says "System not found" then when I close that another pops up guessing another game with Hotel in the title, I close that it guesses another & never stops. Won't even let me close out

Ok the conifg was in the .ini folder. It previously had the game folder where the bios was listed, but I erased it & wrote bios;roms Went to the swpath & replaced the software that was there with the folder path of my CDi games.....now it keeps givng me popup windows that it can't find a game & showing me matches that sound like the game on other consoles over & over to the point I have to exit MAME through task manager. Actually did this before too BTW

I wasn't trying to use MAME as a core in Retroarch for CDi if that's what you mean. I was using the standalone emulators as well as MESS. Anyways I just installed the MAME core, set LB to use that & just a quick black screen the MAME & MESS I was using didn't even have a Bios folder, but from what i read you're supposed to place them in their roms folder which I did. Same with Retroarch but I put bios in the systems folder like all the others & forgive me not too familiar with MAME.cfg or what you typed after you mentioned it