Can't get RetroArch to work at all

[Imgema]

I don't know what i'm doing wrong. I set up my systems using the wizard. I choose RetroArch from the pre-set list. I set the paths to the games i want to associate. And after it's finished, RetroArch crashes immediately without error messages, every time i try to run a game. RetroArch works fine when i use it without LaunchBox. I also managed to make it work with RocketLauncher. So there shouldn't be a problem with itself. I tried to find a tutorial for how to setup RetroArch with LauchBox but i can't find anything :( Edit: I also tried to add MESS and it also doesn't work. Crashes the moment i double click a game.

[Bedwyr]

Imgema said I don't know what i'm doing wrong. I set up my systems using the wizard. I choose RetroArch from the pre-set list. I set the paths to the games i want to associate. And after it's finished, RetroArch crashes immediately without error messages, every time i try to run a game. RetroArch works fine when i use it without LaunchBox. I also managed to make it work with RocketLauncher. So there shouldn't be a problem with itself. I tried to find a tutorial for how to setup RetroArch with LauchBox but i can't find anything :( Edit: I also tried to add MESS and it also doesn't work. Crashes the moment i double click a game.

I found a problem with plugins when I was using the mupen64 core. It got so confusing I had to configure my retroarch install from scratch. Is this for all cores or just specific ones?

[Imgema]

I am setting up my systems alphabetically. So i only tried the first few Atari systems like 2600, 5200 and 7800. Neither work with RetroArch when i launch them through LaunchBox. They run fine if i use RetroArch by itself. I also can't make MESS work. That's like at least a dozen of systems being out of the program, which makes it pretty much pointless really.

[SentaiBrad]

MESS is a MESS, avoid it. In a default install of RetroArch go to the second tab (Settings Tab) and go down to Directory. In here the first line says System / BIOS Dir. Hit enter and change that to your current Installs System folder in the RA folder. If a core requires a BIOS and doesn't know where it is, it will crash. The other idea I have is that you don't have the cores. If you left it default, did you download the cores from the site / get the package of RA with the cores / download the cores in RA in the Online Updater?

[Bedwyr]

I have to ask a couple three questions to figure out where you're at before I can relate what I know. I recommend setting up and isolating a single system before doing others. - Have you edited the Retroarch table on the second tab so that it refers to both the correct folder to access and the correct cfg file? - Is the default cfg edited? - Have you edited the core options file? If so, I recommend trying to delete the core options and letting Retroarch regenerate the file from scratch. - If all three of those don't work, I recommend validating which folders you're getting your default settings, core option settings, and core specific settings from. It's possible you've been trying to make retroarch load and refer to some extraneous cfg copy. (I HATE how Retroarch handle cfg loading and saving; it causes so much counter-intuitive trouble. Be nice if they could just implement a "save now to the same file" feature.) - If that investigation doesn't help, then I'd probably recommend loading a scratch Retroarch install, not changing either the core options or the default cfg. - Then download and load a single sample core, say for the 7800, and immediately set the option "config save on exit" to on and save the config "as" and create the new 7800 cfg. - Then exit the program and restart it, load the 7800 cfg and change the settings you want. Exit to save the config. - Load the program one more time and load the config to verify all your changes saved. - Now re-import your rom files for that system (7800 I assume). Might be worth just doing a subset of them if you have a lot. Then try to configure the system settings to load your cfg file and try to start a game. - Hopefully it starts. If it does, you may want to pause and enter the Retroarch menu and re-check all your settings.

[SentaiBrad]

Don't mess with a config, just use the default one. You don't need a config per system unless you want one. It's why on my post I just said in a default RetroArch install. Also, they do offer save to the same file. First tab, Save to current config is above Save to New Config. If you save to current config with the default loaded that is what it will save your changes too. Again, you don't need to mess with custom configs unless you want specific Filters for specific cores and / or have special controllers that you want to use; for example I use Pixellate on 2D games, and my N64 controller on Mupen64.

[Bedwyr]

SentaiBrad said Don't mess with a config, just use the default one. You don't need a config per system unless you want one. It's why on my post I just said in a default RetroArch install. Also, they do offer save to the same file. First tab, Save to current config is above Save to New Config. If you save to current config with the default loaded that is what it will save your changes too. Again, you don't need to mess with custom configs unless you want specific Filters for specific cores and / or have special controllers that you want to use; for example I use Pixellate on 2D games, and my N64 controller on Mupen64.

Or you think the default control bindings are no good. :) I have custom controls that make quite a bit more sense to me. For instance N64 Z trigger is mapped to the 360's left bumper and the bumpers are mapped to the 360's trigger. Which makes no intuitive sense, so I changed them. Likewise the NES, Gameboy, and GBA have A and B remapped to the 360's X->B and A->A. Left and bottom buttons made more sense as they rest under your finger more naturally.

[SentaiBrad]

Which is perfectly fine when its running. :P For now, keeping it simple is probably best.

[Bedwyr]

SentaiBrad said Which is perfectly fine when its running. :P For now, keeping it simple is probably best.

I take your point.

[Imgema]

SentaiBrad said MESS is a MESS, avoid it. In a default install of RetroArch go to the second tab (Settings Tab) and go down to Directory. In here the first line says System / BIOS Dir. Hit enter and change that to your current Installs System folder in the RA folder. If a core requires a BIOS and doesn't know where it is, it will crash. The other idea I have is that you don't have the cores. If you left it default, did you download the cores from the site / get the package of RA with the cores / download the cores in RA in the Online Updater?

I checked the directories and everything is set up correctly. I also have all the cores RetroArch supports and updated them recently (online updater).

Bedwyr said I have to ask a couple three questions to figure out where you're at before I can relate what I know. I recommend setting up and isolating a single system before doing others. - Have you edited the Retroarch table on the second tab so that it refers to both the correct folder to access and the correct cfg file? - Is the default cfg edited? - Have you edited the core options file? If so, I recommend trying to delete the core options and letting Retroarch regenerate the file from scratch. - If all three of those don't work, I recommend validating which folders you're getting your default settings, core option settings, and core specific settings from. It's possible you've been trying to make retroarch load and refer to some extraneous cfg copy. (I HATE how Retroarch handle cfg loading and saving; it causes so much counter-intuitive trouble. Be nice if they could just implement a "save now to the same file" feature.) - If that investigation doesn't help, then I'd probably recommend loading a scratch Retroarch install, not changing either the core options or the default cfg. - Then download and load a single sample core, say for the 7800, and immediately set the option "config save on exit" to on and save the config "as" and create the new 7800 cfg. - Then exit the program and restart it, load the 7800 cfg and change the settings you want. Exit to save the config. - Load the program one more time and load the config to verify all your changes saved. - Now re-import your rom files for that system (7800 I assume). Might be worth just doing a subset of them if you have a lot. Then try to configure the system settings to load your cfg file and try to start a game. - Hopefully it starts. If it does, you may want to pause and enter the Retroarch menu and re-check all your settings.

Thanks for the suggestions, i will try it when i get the chance and report.

[Bedwyr]

Imgema said I checked the directories and everything is set up correctly. I also have all the cores RetroArch supports and updated them recently (online updater).

Belay what I said and follow Sentai's prescription to deal only with one cfg file, try to get one system working inside Launchbox, and go from there.

[Imgema]

ok i downloaded a fresh copy and had the same problem. However, RetroArch has 2 cores for Atari7800, MESS and prosystem. The default core in the platform tab was mess. I changed it to prosystem and it worked. So MESS core doesn't work just like the standalone version for whatever reason i can't figure out. I suppose i can live with that but i'm pretty sure i will end up with a few unemulated systems because of this (i wanted to use LaunchBox for everything).

[Bedwyr]

You mean you want to use Retroarch for everything? LaunchBox will happily do standalone emulators no problem. Understand the desire to stick with just one though. The only separate one I use so far is Dolphin.

[SentaiBrad]

Then your issue was with BIOS. MESS Requires BIOS, but most systems do. I still stand by what I said though, MESS is a mess, avoid it. If its a BIOS issue you're having though, they need to go in to your System folder, and you need to tell RA where your System folder is per my first post.

[Imgema]

SentaiBrad said Then your issue was with BIOS. MESS Requires BIOS, but most systems do. I still stand by what I said though, MESS is a mess, avoid it. If its a BIOS issue you're having though, they need to go in to your System folder, and you need to tell RA where your System folder is per my first post.

Yeah, i know. Bios directories was the first thing i checked. They are good. I have all the bioses i need in the system folder and triple checked it in the RA settings. Yeah, i suppose MESS is a MESS but this was always the emulator i used in various odd systems. And it's working without any fuss with other frontends like Hyperspin, RocketLauncher or Quickplay. It's just that i liked DropBox more than those and wanted to make it my main program. Thanks for the replies ppl

[Imgema]

Finally, i managed to make MESS run with Launchbox. What it needed all this time was a command line to each system. For instance, i successfully run Astrocade by adding "astrocde -cart" in the command line. I saw this bit in this topic: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/emulation/command-line-parameters-arguments It's still not the RetroArch core, its the standalone MESS emulator instead so i can't use shaders, but that's fine. If anyone wants to use MESS, the above topic should help.

[Jason Carr]

Thanks @Imgema for clarifying that. Just so I'm following correctly, do I need to change the default Retroarch configuration to make this easier? If so, how?

[Imgema]

Jason Carr said Thanks @Imgema for clarifying that. Just so I'm following correctly, do I need to change the default Retroarch configuration to make this easier? If so, how?

Ok, to avoid any confusion let me wrap this up. My original problem was that i couldn't play Atari 7800 games in LaunchBox when i used the RetroArch emulator option. The broblem was that RetroArch was trying to use it's MESS core to run it. I resolved this by going to "manage emulators", then RetroArch, edit and in the associated platforms there was the atari 7800 but with the -L "cores\mess_libretro.dll" command. I changed that to -L "cores\prosystem_libretro.dll" and it worked. I didn't change anything to my RetroArch settings or anything, i just guided Launchbox to use the prosystem core in RetroArch instead of the MESS core. I couldn't make either MESS core or MESS standalone to work through Launchbox. Now a day later i managed to make MESS standalone to work with Launchbox. That's because i wanted more odd systems like Arcadia 2001. So here's what i did. I added the MESS emulator in the list (because it doesn't exist by default) and in the wizard i selected it to be the emulator for Arcadia 2001. At first it didn't work. What i did to fix it was going to "manage emulators" again, then MESS, then "associated platforms". There i added the Arcadia 2001 tab and in the command line tab i added the line arcadia -cart. This way Arcadia games worked in LaunchBox, by using the standalone MESS, but not the MESS core in RA. Obviously, each system has it's own command line in order to work this way. So, in other words, RetroArch MESS core doesn't play any part in this, i use LaunchBox and a standalone MESS. I haven't managed to make the RetroArch MESS core to work with LaunchBox so far. I also haven't managed to make MESS work in RetroArch itself at all. The only thing that makes the MESS core in RetroArch work for me, is RocketLauncher for some reason. Otherwise, i just use the standalone MESS for everything. By the way, the default emulator check box doesn't matter much. In order to change what emulator to use with a system, go to your system tab, select all the roms with alt+A and right click, then edit. This will bring up a new "bulk edit" wizard that allows you to change the emulator to use with these roms.

[SentaiBrad]

Great detail for new people, if anyone else finds this thread. It seems Jason and I need to repeat our selves a lot, so it is refreshing to see someone go through "The Trial" on their own for the most part. ;) That, I applaud you for. Default Emulator only makes a difference when you first import, otherwise yea it doesn't matter too too much. I also never got MESS to work in RA, I also never got it to work on its own either. I know its BIOS system is...... finicky and RA wants them in a specific place, otherwise the command's /should/ still work. I haven't been able to test anything with MESS, I avoid it like the plague. ProSystem is new to RA if I recall, and it fills a small void that was there thankfully. Atari's emulation just doesn't seem to be up to par. More popular systems get more attention sadly. Amiga also suffers.

[Jason Carr]

Gotcha, thanks @Imgema. So it sounds like there's two things to be learned here: one, I need to add MESS with some default settings, and two, MESS in Retroarch would need additional configuration options. Thanks for clearing all that up.