New Famicom Setup Issues with RetroArch

[T_rell]

Issue: Im unable to get Launchbox to launch any of my Famicom games. However, if I use just Nestopia ver 1.47 all my Famicom games launch with no issues. I also made sure the disksys.rom folder is in the RetroArch system folder. It appears I need to make a change to RetroArch so it knows where the games are or something.

If I right click on a game, click edit, then select the Emulation tab, and change from RetroArch to Nestopia the game launches.The main reason i want to use RetroArch is because the Xbox controller all setup and ready to go. Going thru Nestopia I would have to use a seperate program to get it working correctly.

 

Any ideas of what is wrong or any suggestion I can try?

 

 

 

[SentaiBrad]

The disksys.rom file should only be in the System folder, no sub folder. It's also worth checking to see if your path settings are fully correct and that it's looking at the system folder. Otherwise, the other things to check (which are general checks) would be that the core is downloaded, and that the -L command is set up properly. Make sure the core you want to use is denoted in the associated platforms tab as it may default to a core you don't want to use (the defaults are being updated).

[Lordmonkus]

The vast majority of NES and Famicom games should work using the Nestopia core, it's the core I use. The disksys.rom is only for the Famicom Disk System so if your games are not working it is most likely a Launchbox configuration problem.

However it is a very good idea to have the NstDatabase.xml file in your \Retroarch\system folder where your bios are located as well.

Here is the .xml file I have. There is no copyrighted data in this file, it is simply an xml file and not a rom or actual bios.

NstDatabase.xml

[frootloop]

Hi,

I seem to have a similar issue. Have experienced this with Retroarch for NES, GB , GBC. Games don't launch, however, if I edit the game manually and add the appropriate core to the  custom command line parameters, it runs fine. 

Seems to be an issue with which core is called, or the wrong core being detected by Retroarch?

Does Launchbox have a log file I could check?

Thanks!

[T_rell]

51 minutes ago, frootloop said:

Hi,

I seem to have a similar issue. Have experienced this with Retroarch for NES, GB , GBC. Games don't launch, however, if I edit the game manually and add the appropriate core to the  custom command line parameters, it runs fine. 

Seems to be an issue with which core is called, or the wrong core being detected by Retroarch?

Does Launchbox have a log file I could check?

Thanks!

 

This is exactly what I'm experiencing frootloop. You just explained it better.

** Update, So long story short I just rebuilt a clean ver. of Launchbox. I'm not sure why this didn't work the first time but now all of my Famicom ROMs are working

I just went under Tools, Manage Emulators, selected RetroArch, clicked on Edit, then clicked on the Associated Platforms tab, Once I added Nintendo Famicom Disk System with the Default command line Parameters and placed the DiskSys.rom in the correct location. All is Good!! Go Figure.

For me it was L:\LaunchBox\Emulator\RetroArch\RetroArch 1.3.6\system\Disksys.rom**

 

++ lordmonkus - Can you explain why this  NstDatabase.xml is necessary? Also, will other systems need a custom .xml added to the system folder in RetroArch to load properly? If so where can I find these xml's? 

 

Thank You, everyone, that posted!

 

[Lordmonkus]

Sorry I cannot explain why the NstDatabase.xml is suggested. I won't say it is needed because it isn't but it does help with getting more compatibility. There are posts about it over on the Retroarch forums about it.

There are no other cores that I know of that needs any sort of xml files to get full functionality out of them but obviously there are some that need bios files such as the Famicom Disk System.

[frootloop]

5 hours ago, T_rell said:

This is exactly what I'm experiencing frootloop. You just explained it better.

** Update, So long story short I just rebuilt a clean ver. of Launchbox. I'm not sure why this didn't work the first time but now all of my Famicom ROMs are working

I just went under Tools, Manage Emulators, selected RetroArch, clicked on Edit, then clicked on the Associated Platforms tab, Once I added Nintendo Famicom Disk System with the Default command line Parameters and placed the DiskSys.rom in the correct location. All is Good!! Go Figure.

For me it was L:\LaunchBox\Emulator\RetroArch\RetroArch 1.3.6\system\Disksys.rom**

 

++ lordmonkus - Can you explain why this  NstDatabase.xml is necessary? Also, will other systems need a custom .xml added to the system folder in RetroArch to load properly? If so where can I find these xml's? 

 

Thank You, everyone, that posted!

 

Hi T-Rell,

 

When you say you rebuilt LaunchBox, could you be a bit clearer? Did you uninstall and reinstall?

Regards 

 

[Lordmonkus]

@frootloopCould you post a screen shot of your "Associated Platforms" tab ? Because if it is working when you manually add the line in the "Custom Command" box it should be working if your associated platforms window is set up correctly.

[frootloop]

@lordmonkusHi there, I think my associated platforms tab looks right - I actually copied the parameters from there and and pasted it into the custom command-line field. Pic attached.

[Lordmonkus]

I think I might see the problem.

Above in your first screen shot you have the game in the platform "Nintendo Famicom" but in your "Associated Platforms" there is no platform for the "Nintendo Famicom"

Add that platform with the appropriate command line parameters and you should be good to go.

[frootloop]

18 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

I think I might see the problem.

Above in your first screen shot you have the game in the platform "Nintendo Famicom" but in your "Associated Platforms" there is no platform for the "Nintendo Famicom"

Add that platform with the appropriate command line parameters and you should be good to go.

@lordmonkusThat was it! Thank you! 

[Lordmonkus]

No problem The thing to remember is that if a game is working at all just using the emulator then 99% of the time if it's not working through Launchbox it's a simple setup issue. Of course there is always gonna be those really oddball emulators that just don't like anyone and refuse to play nicely, lol.

[T_rell]

2 hours ago, frootloop said:

Hi T-Rell,

 

When you say you rebuilt LaunchBox, could you be a bit clearer? Did you uninstall and reinstall?

Regards 

 

Frootloop,

Correct, I uninstalled and Reinstalled Launchbox. It seems to have resolved all my issues. It was a lot of work but hopefully I learned something this time around

[T_rell]

3 hours ago, lordmonkus said:

Sorry I cannot explain why the NstDatabase.xml is suggested. I won't say it is needed because it isn't but it does help with getting more compatibility. There are posts about it over on the Retroarch forums about it.

There are no other cores that I know of that needs any sort of xml files to get full functionality out of them but obviously there are some that need bios files such as the Famicom Disk System.

Thank you for sharing!

[T_rell]

2 hours ago, lordmonkus said:

No problem The thing to remember is that if a game is working at all just using the emulator then 99% of the time if it's not working through Launchbox it's a simple setup issue. Of course there is always gonna be those really oddball emulators that just don't like anyone and refuse to play nicely, lol.

Thanks again for all the help!

[Lordmonkus]

No problem.

[T_rell]

Sorry to be a pain, but I ran into a similar issue this time with the Nintendo 64. Hoping you guys can take a look and see something I overlooked something. This is the exact same issue I had with the Famicom ROM's not loading. Then once I reloaded a clean version of Launchbox and installed The Famicom ROMS's first everything loaded right up. 

i also tried removing the .cfg file but it didn't seem to make a difference. 

If I load the game with Project64 all titles work, however once I try and load a game using RetroArch nothing opens up. I double checked all my settings in RetroArch and made sure I had the Mupen64Plus emulator downloaded. Not sure what else to try. Many Thanks in advance!!!!

 

[Lordmonkus]

Do your N64 games load when using just Retroarch on it's own ?

Is your Retroarch emulator setup properly in the Emulators window ? You don't have a separate install and pointing to that one by any chance ?

Remove the -c "config\mupen64plus_libretro.cfg" and see if that works.

Try out the GLupeN64 core, it is really nice

[T_rell]

@lordmonkus,

I tried your first suggestion and you were right. My games were unable load up in RetroArch. It appears I had multiple ROM's (same game, different regions) zipped in the same folder. Makes since that RetroArch didnt know what to do. It is interesting that Project64 was able to open these files.

At least now RetroArch was able to load a couple of games. 

So now I'm currently cleaning up my N64 library and will import back into Launchbox. Im sure this will resolve the issue. Again thank you for your help.

 

[Lordmonkus]

No problem.

Yeah PJ64 handles zip files with multiple roms in them, it just grabs the first rom and loads it and that may or may not be the exact rom  you want to use.

I still recommend giving GLupeN64 a try