stevaside
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Posts posted by stevaside
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21 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:
Do you have a "mame.ini" in your MAME root folder and in your ../MAME/ini/ folder?
No? Good.
Do you have a "cdimono1.ini" in your MAME root folder and/or in your ../MAME/ini/ folder? Hopefully just one in one or the other folders. What does the rompath for it look like? Does it look like the rompath line in your mame.ini?
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
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6 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:
The easiest way would be to have downloaded a MAME Software List CHD's set which will have the folder structure already in place.
Next method is to open the ../MAME/hash/cdi.xml file. Then search for the game(s) in there.
"software name" is the 'short_name' or Folder name you want to use.
"description" is the proper Title for the game.
"disk name" is file_name (minus .chd) in which the rom file should be named.Or... if "you know a guy" you could ask him to make a text file that lists the short_name and file_name (minus .chd) that you could reference. cdi_Names.txt
There's probably somewhere on that internet thing that with some searching you may be able to find them also.
If you are able to do the "easiest way", there's a MAME Software List Importer plugin in the downloads section that can import these into LB/BB for you. But it might be an all or nothing type thing. (Like the MAME Arcade Full Importer built in to LB). That is, if you only have 25 of the 625 entries in cdi, it'll "import" 625 'games'. But you can then 'scan for deleted roms' in LB and it will remove those 600 'missing' games from your Platform.
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
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1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:
This was kind of mentioned previously, but MAME Software Lists [roms] (vs MAME Arcade Machines [roms] vs PS2 [roms]...etc...) are a unique animal.
As you know, MAME uses a shot-name naming convention. i.e. Asteroids is asteroid.zip. Here's why you put them into their own folders... The Arcade Machine rom (file) is named asteroid.zip. The Atari 2600 rom is named asteroid.zip. The ZX Spectrum Cassette rom is names asteroid.zip. See a pattern here?
So I suppose you think of the different Consoles (along with Acrade) that MAME can emulate as different 'Platforms'. Which I imagine is how you'd load them into LB.
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
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1 hour ago, Headrush69 said:
Does your software library have the following directory structure:
Software Directory -> cdi -> hotmario -> Hotel Mario (1994)(philips)(eu).chd
Are both rom and software path set in your mame.ini?
Here is mine as an example:
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
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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
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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
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10 hours ago, Headrush69 said:
Trying run from the command prompt or powershell adding the -v option.
That is verbose mode and should tell us exactly the issue.
Mame64.exe -v cdimono1 hotmario
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
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On 12/19/2020 at 5:30 PM, Headrush69 said:
You're still using the mame64.exe from MAMEDev and not the MAMEUI.exe?
The proper MAME doesn't pop up error windows for messages like that.
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.
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On 12/18/2020 at 6:22 AM, Headrush69 said:
From a command prompt or Powershell, run: mame64.exe -cc to create the Mame.ini or start Mame, go down to save configuration and it will create it.
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
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On 12/8/2020 at 3:45 PM, JoeViking245 said:
I agree. Get the mame64.exe from MAMEDev and use it. Make sure you edit mame.ini with the rompath as previously mentioned. Then start mame64.exe and look for:
At the bottom of the screen you'll see (verify) that it is the cdimono1 romset.Double click that and look for Hotel Mario
And again at the bottom you'll see (verify) the romset.
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
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On 12/8/2020 at 11:52 AM, Headrush69 said:
The proper name is hotmario.
What version of Mame are you using, a different one from the one from Mamedev.org?
I only ask because I’ve never seen pop up GUI messages from standard Mame before.
I was using MAMEUI226
& I already tried renaming it hotmario & still had issues
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On 12/8/2020 at 1:23 PM, neil9000 said:
Well Arcade doesnt use box - front, it uses advertisement flyers, so if you dont have those checked under your box - front priorities then you wont see them. This is why the priorities are there in the first place, you can add/remove as well as reorder them as you see fit. I cant tell you what to select for your specific build, check the image types you want per image type, in the order that you would like to see them. It's quite straight forward, only want to see box front or flyers for arcade and nothing else where a box is supposed to show, then just check those two image types under the Box - Front image priorities and anywhere a box is shown only those two image types will be shown. Same for screenshot priorities, uncheck anything that isnt a screenshot and arrange the remaining screenshot types in the order of your preference.
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!)
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13 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
Number 4 is the correct one, all the others are the opposite of what i said to do. If you are getting two screenshots there that is because you dont have a box - front so its falling back to another image type based on your priorities for your Box - Front priorities.
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
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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 - GameplaySCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Screenshot - Gameplay/Box-Front -
1 hour ago, neil9000 said:
For me that bottom image is the game video snap, so i assume you dont have any videos so its falling back to a image type. So after removing a video i see it displays a Screenshot - Title Screen for me. Looking in my priorities in Launchbox Title screen is my top preference in the screenshot priority section.
So Bigbox is falling back to screenshots if no video and you must have Box - Front checked in that section, and has a higher priority than actual screenshots, why you have done that in the screenshots section i dont know, but you need to either remove Box - Front completely, or move it further down the priority list.
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-FrontScreenshot - GameplaySCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Box-Front/Screenshot - Gameplay#2 (All box fronts)BOXFRONT PRIORITIES:/Box-Front/Screenshot - GameplaySCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Box-Front/Screenshot - Gamplay#3 (All box fronts)BOXFRONT PRIORITIES:/Box-FrontScreenshot - GameplaySCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Box-Front/Screenshot - Gameplay#4 (2 Screenshots)BOXFRONT PRIORITIES:/Box-FrontSCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Screenshot - Gameplay#5 (2 Box fronts)BOXFRONT PROPERTIESEverything uncheckedSCREENSHOT PRIORITIES:/Box-Front/Screenshot - GameplayThis is real exhausting for something that should ideally be as simple as "Select image type 1, select image type 2" 5 seconds. done -
3 hours ago, neil9000 said:
It would probably help people to help you if you specified what theme you are actually using, and also show some images of what you see. Its probably a image priorities issue, but not knowing the theme being used it could be that the theme is programmed to be the way you see it and no other way, but i cant say for sure without the important detail of the theme being used.
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)
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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 ??
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11 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:
What files are in the cdimono1.zip file that you have? If it has 5 files (the 3 .rom files that spycat shows) and the last 2 are cdic.bin and slave.bin, then your roms are from an older MAME set. So you need to have the version of mame64.exe that matches your roms. Never mix rom-set versions and MAME executable versions.
That last MAME revision to use the 5 files [inside cdimono1.zip] I mentioned was revision 0.221. But again, your best bet is to download the MAME executable from MAMEdEv with the same revision of the roms that you have.
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
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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
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1 hour ago, spycat said:
Your bios cdimono1.zip should contain the following files.
cdi200.rom
cdi220.rom
cdi220b.rom
zx405037p__cdi_servo_2.1__b43t__llek9215.mc68hc705c8a_withtestrom.7201
zx405042p__cdi_slave_2.0__b43t__zzmk9213.mc68hc705c8a_withtestrom.7206cdimono1.zip was last updated in June 2020.
A current full MAME (0.226) romset should include this bios. If you just want cdimono1.zip then you can source it from Retroroms.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
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8 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:
@stevaside You can use the MAME 0.226 standalone (vs MESS [but will work also]) to run Phillips CD-i.
For the rompath, what I've found to be the easiest way to this for MAME softlists (aka Software Lists, aka MESS) is... in your MAME main folder, create a new sub-folder called "software" to put all your softlists in. From here, you'll need to follow certain MAME naming conventions, but it's really not that bad. Back to that later...
In your "mame.ini" file (not mame.cfg) which you found in the "ini" sub-folder, set the rompath to "roms;software". The "swpath" I believe is only for softlist images (pictures) and the sort. But go ahead and set that to "software" as well. Also double check you don't have a "mame.ini" file in your MAME root folder AND in the ini sub-folder. (it can happen. just double check
)
The softlist 'short-name' for Phillips CD-i is simply "cdi". And the 'short-name' for Hotel Mario is 'hotmario'. So back to our sub-folders.. for Hotel Mario it will look [something] like (adjust the path to MAME accordingly)
D:\Emulators\MAME\software\cdi\hotmario\hotel mario (1994)(philips)(eu).chdBecause we added "software" to the rompath, MAME knows that if you're launching a softlist rom/game, to 'drill down' in [one of] the rompath folders. In this case, per the command line (cdmono1 -cdrm), it knows cdimono1 fits into "cdi" so it looks there.
For soflist bios [and device] files (cdmono1.zip in this case), I like to place those in the 'software' folder. Thought being keep all the softlist files in one place.
D:\Emulators\MAME\software\cdmono1.zipYou should be good to go now. 1st check that it works in MAME before testing in LB. Though if I didn't forget anything, it shouldn't be an issue.
NOTES:
When I was testing this, my .chd filename had a "[!]" in it. My guess I had it from an older MAME softlist set and it's since been renamed. I removed those 3 characters and it worked fine. So may want to double check that with yours. Shown above is the correct file_name.chd for Hotel Mario.
The "cdi" folder name comes from the MAME hash files. (ref: ../MAME/hash/cdi.xml)
In LB, in your MAME emulator settings, 'check' the boxes for "Don't use quotes..." and "Use filename only..." (which is the default setting for MAME).
CD-i has a bit of a loading time. You'll get the light blue-ish screen for a bit (you can press/hold the "Insert" key, which is MAME's default Fast-Forward key to 'speed it up'). Then at the main screen click
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??
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1 hour ago, bundangdon said:
The only thing I can think is that the names of the games don't match up somehow, but I think I've run out of ideas. And when that happens, I usually start from scratch and try to find the answers from the very beginning. There's a few tutorials out there, and this one may help:
Philips CD-i - LaunchBox Tutorial - YouTube
It's important to note that (in the video) he mentions "MESS" but MAME can be used in its place. And there's another thread which talks about the same topic in great detail:
CD-i emulation - Emulation - LaunchBox Community Forums (launchbox-app.com)
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
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11 minutes ago, bundangdon said:
I wasn't referring to the Retroarch core, as I don't use that one for MAME either. In the mame folder, there should be a mame.cfg file which you may or may not have already. If not, look in the "ini" folder and there should be a cdimono1.cfg file which looks like this when opened:
As you can see from the example above, the "bios" folder and games folders are referenced in "rompath" and "swpath". Hope that helps
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
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14 minutes ago, bundangdon said:
Okay, then make sure you have the correct bios in the appropriate folder also. I think it's cdimono1.zip. And MAME is a little picky about folder locations for bios files. In my case "cdimono1.zip" is in the "bios" subdirectory of MAME with the MAME.cfg looking like this:
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
homepath .
rompath roms; biosI 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
Philips CD-i in Launchbox
in Troubleshooting
Posted · Edited by 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