Quick MAME/MESS Philips CD-I Tutorial (Mame 0.172)

[locvez]

Hi all, Through some experimentation I thought I would write a little tutorial to help others get their MAME/MESS Console emulation up and running. This kinda started earlier today when I pm'ed @Antropus for some assistance in getting MAME setup to run Philips CD-I roms. I was lost and had no idea what I was doing..... Then, somehow....I had some sort of epiphany and I got it working! \o/ The following tutorial can likely be used for all other games in the Software List CHD torrent but I have yet to test any other than the Philips CD-I. I'm also writing this for my own reminder when I come to set it up again and for use with other consoles. So, i'm going to make some assumptions and those are :

That you are have downloaded MAME 0.172 64-bit

Your console BIOS files are located in the folder titled "roms" and you have a file called "cdimono1.7z" (Your CD-I Bios for PAL device - the only one that MAME lists as WORKING)

You have downloaded the "MAME 0.172 Software List CHD" torrent

Your console games are in a folder titles "consoles" and your Philips CD-I files are in "consoles/cdi" and each game has its own folder containing the CHD's

The game we will play is called "Battleship" and it resides in the folder "consoles/cdi/bship"

First thing to do is fire up the old command prompt, navigate to your MAME folder and type the following command without quotes "mame64 -createconfig" - This will create the ini files needed to tell mame where to look for the files. Open mame.ini within the main mame folder and change the following line rompath roms to rompath roms;consoles Save and exit your text editor. From a command prompt, in the mame folder, simply type the following command (without quotes) - "mame64 cdimono1 -skip_gameinfo bship" and after a couple of seconds it will display a message about device accuracy not being 100%, hit any key and it will display a light blue screen for a couple of seconds then show the philips CD-I Menu, if you click "Play CD-I" it will launch your game! yay! Hopefully this is stright forward enough and will help anyone struggling to find their way :) This community is awesome!

[SentaiBrad]

Thank you for posting that, I am certainly not going to cover MESS so I appreciate the time that you put in to this.

[CADScott]

Thanks for that @locvez, will give this a try soon. The Phillips CD-I has been a wasteland for emulation for a long time, would be great to get these games running properly!

[SentaiBrad]

Re-reading the tutorial, it seems like MAME / MESS is really not that much more unintuitive then RetroArch, except for that the ways to do things are more archaic or obtuse to the point of confusion. MAME has lot's of documentation though, and so does RetroArch so I think that is also a key difference. MESS has very little from my past experience (I don't know if it's gotten better). The only thing I think MESS has going for it is that it emulates some systems that have 0 workable emulators for, and the ones that already do have great coverage or RetroArch coverage, MESS emulates poorly compared to the competition. I don't write this as an attack on you, so please don't think I am trying to say anything negative about your post, I actually mean the exact opposite. It is great you wrote this for the exact reason I said in the previous paragraph, stuff like this only helps.

[locvez]

Thanks @SentaiBrad and @CADScott - Just glad I could give a little something back after everything everyone here has done to help me :) I'm also sad that CD-I emulation isn't better than it is but I'm not sure if it was ever that popular :-D I also wish I knew how to make it better but, alas, that task is for someone much smarter than I

[locvez]

@SentaiBrad - I think since MESS merged with MAME things seem to be a whole lot better! Once I got my head around the initial setup, get the bios, figure out the command it was straight forward :) Trying to mess (pardon the pun) with neo-geo right now but it's got a horrible arcade bezel and a tiny screen....no doubt there's a setting somewhere to remove that :D Just got to find it! EDIT - Aha! change the following settings in mame.ini # # CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS # artwork_crop 0 use_backdrops 1 use_overlays 1 use_bezels 1 to # # CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS # artwork_crop 0 use_backdrops 0 use_overlays 0 use_bezels 0

[SentaiBrad]

I still think there are others that can do the job better though, so if you're going for Neo Geo next you might want to check out the Standalone emulators or the RetroArch cores, along side the MAME emulator. Merging was also probably the best thing they could have done too.

[locvez]

Yes, agreed, I was only tinkering :) I'm going to go with the Retroarch cores for everything that I can and neo-geo will be next on my to-do list.

[SentaiBrad]

I'm heading out, but if you haven't already seen the tutorial's if you need help, check out the link in my signature.

[locvez]

Thanks Brad :) Subscribed. Been watching each tutorial as they come out. Excellent job!

[locvez]

Ok, so trying to run this from Launchbox throws up some interesting problems, Launchbox tries to target the .chd file as the rom, even with the command line setup as follows : cdimono1 -skip_gameinfo I have selected MAME as the emulator, pointed it to the mame64.exe, added the above to the command line arguments and it adds "file" to the end of the command, problem is it's trying to run the .chd instead of just bship Perhaps someone can enlighten me to my error? @SentaiBrad (I presume it would be the same issue for MAME CHD's) or @Antropus Thanks in advance!

[SentaiBrad]

Why not edit the game entry to just look at the proper rom file?

[locvez]

Which do you mean? In the mame/consoles/cdi/bship folder is a battleships (eu) etc etc.chd file this is what it's pointing to just now but fails to run In mame/roms there is a cdimono1.7z file (bios)? From command line dos the command to run was mame64 cdimono1 -skip_gameinfo bship This works ok

[SentaiBrad]

If you're double clicking the game in LB and a different file opens, edit the LB entry to point towards the proper file. Unless I am missing something that should work. I am unsure why the command is giving you an error.

[Antropus]

I will get back to my mess module at some point, but here's what I'm populating when it comes to CD-i. It will be painful for you to edit each game and add the correct command line, but I found it very effective when it comes to running most systems. Everything is being added automatically, so there's no sweat on the user's side of things, but yeah, if you are going to do this manually you are screwed :) I will get back to the mess module at some point and make people's lives easier. Here are my settings: -Kris

[Antropus]

Btw, most if not all systems populated on the left fully work or partially work and were all added in a little over half a minute with my program :) There's a movement happening right now about the folks in charge of the support files (catver, series, etc) starting to dedicate more time to the software lists, so I believe that in the future we will have enough information per system to be able to capture more metadata. I know that there's a whole lot of hype surrounding Retroarch, but don't count Mess out. Remember: Mess is now under Mame, the most powerful emulator to ever exist ;)

[SentaiBrad]

Personally I don't buy it, because even MAME is still a pain. Otherwise why need software to parse everything like we do? Don't get me wrong, I love the dedicated from both sides, but RetroArch (I believe) is seriously a lot better at doing the job. MESS emulates more systems, technically speaking, but a majority of those don't really work well or at all. I guess that is more a fault of the emulation scene in generally though not working on less popular systems. With your software MESS might be obtainable for the few systems I would need it for, but that is very few. I hope you don't think I am coming after you or anything with my post, on the contrary. Like I said, I love the dedication you put in to making it workable, I just think there is a problem inherently if that work has to be done.

[Antropus]

I have a totally different take on it. Mame/Mess strive for accuracy and still manage to be very fast and compatible with a TON of different systems. The main objective is to preserve and document hardware/software, period. It was never about making the life of the common user, aka the "avid gamer" who just wants to play it, easier at all, but over the years they developed MANY mechanisms to make it very possible for front-end developers to make stuff playable for their users. You see, I don't think they have any obligation to make it dummy proof at all, but rather strive to develop the best emulator they can, as accurate as possible. Front-end developers NEED to research how the program works and call on themselves the responsibility of making the life of their users easier, that's the main point I'll make. The information is all out there. Other emulators will surely be faster most of the time, because they use a ton of hacks to make things to run faster, because they are developed by gamers for other gamers. They don't care if it's precise, as long as it "plays nice". The Mame/Mess guys are going the opposite direction, removing more and more hacks as their emulation gets more accurate, to the point that some systems run absolutely perfect, especially the arcade stuff. A lot of computers/consoles used similar components and that's what we will start seeing more and more: compatible, accurate systems becoming playable through Mame/Mess. Will it happen overnight? Nope. Mess was added to Mame only a year or so ago. Give it time. -Kris

[SentaiBrad]

There are a lot of emulators out there that are accurate but still a better package. I do think it is on them to put their software in the best possible light and almost 2 decade old mechanics does not do that. MAME is old for anyone that didn't know, and sure I greatly respect the dedication they put in regardless and I know of the accuracy. However, I think it's the entire package that matters. It's part of why LaunchBox exists, to try and group everything together to make it all look as best as we possible can make it to make it one great package. PPSSPP's developers though do both. First it started out with "just get it working", which is where I think most developers for emulators start. Let's just get it working for now. Then over time as things progress 1 speed hack after the other is removed until you are left with bsnes balanced or bsnes accuracy, which are both arguably the best emulation for SNES hands down. It's been since moved in to Higan, but that also had user usability issues with Higan himself ended up making better in the end. If you are going to start to develop something, maybe your specialty is in one area, but I think it's foolish to ignore entire swaths of a community who just want to enjoy their games. Granted, in this case obviously that's where we've stepped in (and you too with Lightspeed), but I think we need to question why they've completely let usability go. If we don't question people or make them reach farther then are we just accepting the fate we get with it? More or less I think what I am getting at is, isn't there a responsibility on the part of the developers for every aspect of the software they are making? Edit: I hope no one takes our conversation as mean spirited, we're just having a friendly debate. At least I think we are. :P

[Antropus]

Not at all. Look, I work in a place where there's a lot of amazing, ground-breaking technology being developed on a daily basis. If you look at the code produced here, it's gibberish, incredibly complicated math and quite frankly, out of this world stuff that no human should have to understand. It's developed by scientists who care more about the science itself than anything else. It's the job of the interface gurus to translate that into something that us, mortals, can use and understand. Your argument goes a little like this "if it's not user friendly it's incomplete and lacking, not worthy of my time", which I believe to be a mistake, because you are missing one of the biggest sources of fun in life: the challenge! I got the job I have by doing, instead of questioning. If I didn't know how to do it, after a lot of research I ended up learning how to do it. That's the main difference: you can choose to be paralyzed when facing something that doesn't quite work the way you want it to or you can make it happen. The whole point of me developing Lightspeed is because in my own little world I believed that LB was lacking some things and took on myself to find a solution for my own needs, later on sharing with a community that deserves the very best, because the community folks are the gears of this giant engine. Passionate, selfless, generous people. Now, I could complain about it non-stop instead, but that would not solve my problem :) Now, Launchbox is a paid product (at least the Premium version) and I would argue that instead of dissing and complaining about an emulator that created this whole little "industry" of retro-emulation and spun a number of front-ends, arcade cabinets, websites, android apps AND Retroarch itself, we should spend more time talking about POSITIVE ways of making things happen for the users. Now for some positive feedback: I watched all your videos and they are incredibly positive and helpful. For some reason I don't feel that same positive energy when it comes to your online interaction with the users though, at least speaking for myself, of course. There's a whole lot of discouragement that comes from you, man, just so you know ;) Lets be positive for a second and believe that there are other ways of doing things. The community will greatly appreciate it. I know I do. Not a personal attack at all and I really hope you don't take it that way. Just a pattern that I've been observing since I registered. Cheers, -Kris