Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Honestly the Mess core can technically work but good luck figuring it out, if you can figure it out you will be miles ahead of everyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 I would use standalone MESS or MAME for that instead. The MESS core functions, and is doable, but it takes a few more steps. Honestly, it's probably the exact same steps, except that it just needs to be plugged in to different locations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Start with something easy like Genesis or NES. Atari 5200 through the Mess core is literally the worst place to start with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 I found this thread over on the Retroarch forums which is probably the best info you can find. http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5069&highlight=atari+5200 Here is the copy / paste of what to do. What you need: - The 'hash' folder from a MAME install - 'a5200.zip' bios file - Game roms that matches the ones listed in a5200.xml in the 'hash' folder precisely. For example, a Centipede rom must be called 'centiped.zip' and contain the file 'centiped.bin'. What you do: 1. Create a folder in the RetroArch system folder called 'mame' - so system/mame 2. Copy the 'hash' folder to the new 'mame' folder. So you now have system/mame/hash 3. Create a folder in the 'mame' folder called 'roms' - so system/mame/roms 4. Create a folder in the 'roms' folder called 'a5200' - so system/mame/roms/a5200 5. Create another folder in the 'a5200' folder called 'a5200' - so system/mame/roms/a5200/5200 6. Copy the 'a5200.zip' file to system/mame/roms/ or unzip the file in system/mame/roms/a5200/5200 (That's what the documentation says, I did both as well as having a copy of a5200.zip in system/mame/roms/a5200/ for good measure.) 7. Copy the game roms to system/mame/roms/a5200/ 8. Now it should work via the 'MAME' core. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Also, now that I think about it, knowing the way MAME works you'd need to get the special MESS/MAME Software lists for it to work, because MESS in RetroArch takes away a few customization options that is needed in MESS if you don't use software lists. Edit: just saw your second post Monkus, yea essentially you need the software rom package, then it functions just like MAME. However, that is a royal pain in the ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 I'm gonna go through the list of instructions and see if I can get it to work, I am not gonna spend an inordinate amount of time at it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 5 minutes ago, lordmonkus said: I'm gonna go through the list of instructions and see if I can get it to work, I am not gonna spend an inordinate amount of time at it though. The easiest method is just grabbing a software rom pack torrent, downloading only the "a5200" folder, dropping it in the proper location and trying that way. However, we only internalize MAME names, not the Software portion, so it wont work well. This is why the tutorial I did for MESS used a standalone version. You tell MESS where your MAME Roms folder is (if you download a MAME Rom pack it has all the BIOS you need, even for the consoles), then import your games and assign it MESS like a normal emulator, with the proper command line arguments. @reignstumble If you have any questions concerning the tutorial, I am more than happy to answer them for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Yeah I got the 5200 working through stand alone Mess already but I am just gonna see if this even works this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Just another reason why we need to change the default emulator list and the default command line parameters that we auto-populate: The MESS lines in RetroArch are missing the very key a5200 -cart command line portions that tell MESS what system to load and what file extension to look for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 No, don't ditch Retroarch at all, it does an amazing job for most everything but Mess stuff is really awful to get working. You can use it for things like PSP, N64 and Dreamcast but I would recommend stand alones for that. I would also Recommend stand alone Mame for arcade emulation but for all other "normal" consoles Retroarch is arguably the best out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Yea, what Monkus said. PSP, Dreamcast, Arcade and MESS I would use standalones for. Everything else is great in RetroArch. Most of the tutorials on our channel deal with RetroArch in fact. It's one of the best emulators, I think. If you want a down to basics RetroArch tutorial watch the SNES one: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 HOLY SHIT!!!! I got it to work. I will try and do my best to explain it. I used this post here http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4990&p=33726&viewfull=1#post33726 to get it working. follow the folder structure. %RETROARCH_HOME% + - system + - - mame + - - - hash + - - - - a5200.xml + - - - - a5200.hsi + - content + - - mame + - - - a5200 + - - - - a5200.zip + - - - - spaceinv.zip Roms will have to be very specifically named according to the a5200.xml file in the hash/mame folder. Roms also HAVE to be in the \system\mame\roms\a5200\ folder. I tried with the rom in a different folder and it didn't work. Here is a screenshot as proof, though I still wouldn't do it this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Did you not need to specify a5200 -cart? I knew the software rom pack was the key (mostly for the very specific and stupid naming convention), but I never actually bothered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I did not. Nothing special to the command line parameter was needed at all. It is all folder structure and matching file names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Wow, a little more simple than I had anticipated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 The biggest problem though is you cannot just have your roms wherever you want them to be, they have to go in the \content sub folder structure based on the system they are for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I wonder if you put them in a location you wanted and used the a5200 and -cart commands after the -L command if it would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 you mean something like ? -L "cores\mame_libretro.dll" a5200 -cart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Yes. I know you can mix and match commands as I had to do with Super Game Boy and the Bsnes Core, it's just that the order of operations needs to be correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I just tried that command line above with the rom file in another location and no luck. I will work on it a bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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