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Retroarch for arcade games with launchbox


TheClassicalGod

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I know there is a thread from a while back on this same topic, but it didn't resolve the issue i'm having and I figured it best to start a new thread than resurrect and old one with different issues.

So, I have been switching to Retroarch slowly for different consoles. So far, it's streamlined a few things a lot but I since I decided to try to get my arcade ROMs going, it's been nothing but a headache. I don't NEED to use retroarch for arcade games, I guess I just assumed it would work easier since I remember MAME having to launch every game(I don't have many, at least) and configure controls and last I used it, I don't think actual controllers worked, though I could be wrong about that.

I can launch Retroarch, load a core, and load a ROM without much issue. Though some of the ROMs seem to just crash at the first menu. Using Launchbox, however, I am not able to launch anything. I made sure to edit the emulator config and add the Arcade line using -L "cores\mame_libretro.dll" and I tried mame2014_libretro.dll. The standard one seems just flicker like it launched and immediately crashed quietly, while the 2014 one gives me errors.

If the answer to this is just don't bother with Retroarch for arcade games, i'm fine with that assuming there is controller support for MAME these days. Trying to use a PS4 controller, and 360 controller, and a steam controller. That alone is a headache to configure all the time for new stuff. lol

Anyway... any past experiences and thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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The Retroarch Mame core (the latest one without a year in its name) works just fine as long as you have a relatively up to date rom set. The older Mame cores (one with a year in the name) are still problematic.

1 hour ago, TheClassicalGod said:

I remember MAME having to launch every game(I don't have many, at least) and configure controls and last I used it

You can set a "main control" scheme that is the default controller setup and then you can adjust on a per game basis if needed.

1 hour ago, TheClassicalGod said:

I don't think actual controllers worked, though I could be wrong about that.

What do you mean by "actual controllers" ?

1 hour ago, TheClassicalGod said:

while the 2014 one gives me errors.

What sort of errors ? It could be an incompatible rom.

 

I bounce back and forth between stand alone Mame and the RA core for my arcade stuff. Right now they are very comparable with some very minor differences which each person may or may not care about. For example stand alone Mame is easy to have hiscore support but the RA core version I could not get working. I know @Zombeaver uses Retroarch Mame for his arcade emulation where I mainly stick with stand alone.

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Yeah I generally use RA MAME as much as possible, with a few specific games using either RA MAME 2014 (for compatibility reasons) or RA FBA (for other specific issues; primarily audio problems) where necessary. I also have a handful of games where I use MAMEUI (pretty much all of them are lightgun games).

This is what I've got on my audit sheet:

Using MameUI instead of RA MAME
Alien 3: The Gun Lightgun game
Area 51 Lightgun game
Beast Busters Lightgun game
Crypt Killer Lightgun game
Dragon Gun Lightgun game
Forgotten Worlds Weird Controls; in CPS-1
Gauntlet Dark Legacy Unplayable on Retroarch MAME
Gunbuster Weird Controls
Laser Ghost Lightgun game
Lucky and Wild Weird Controls/Lightgun game
Space Gun Lightgun game
Steel Gunner Lightgun game
Steel Gunner 2 Lightgun game
   
Mouse appearance issue in RA MAME (using MAMEUI or RA FBA)
Cotton Boomerang After BIOS; has poor audio as well
Darius  
Darius II  
Die Hard Arcade After BIOS
GP Rider  
Outrunners  
Tenkomori Shooting  
Warrior Blade  
   
Using RA FBA instead of RA MAME
Donkey Kong Awful audio
Explosive Breaker Awful audio
Golden Axe Crashes in RA MAME
GP Rider Double-screen (mouse appearing in RA MAME)
Hotdog Storm Laser audio is too high pitch/loud
Power Instinct Awful audio
Warrior Blade Double-screen (mouse appearing in RA MAME)
   
Using RA MAME 2014 (incompatible with RA MAME)
Aero Fighters Special  
Brave Blade  
Chaos Heat  
Fighters' Impact A  
Night Slashers Works in normal RA MAME but has weird message that pops up saying "af 50 0.313726"
G-Darius  
Psyvariar -Medium Unit-  
Psyvariar -Revision-  
Radiant Silvergun Works in normal RA MAME but mouse appears after BIOS
RayCrisis  
RayStorm  
Shikigami no Shiro  
Strider 2  
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3  
XII Stag  
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I'm pretty sure it's my own fault things aren't running. I kinda cherry picked some ROMs that I used to have a while back that seemed to work ok back then, but I guess don't know. Using the standard MAME program, 9 out of the 10 I tried all told me they were missing files that I don't remember needing in the past. Mostly CPS2 games(MvC, SF3 Alpha, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, etc...). I grabbed alternate regions as well since I wasn't sure which the parent ROM was, but still got errors about files being missing. 

The only thing I got working without issue was the TMNT 4 player arcade game and oddly enough Tekken 1 and Soul Calibur worked, but I guess I can just use the console versions of those since I have the Playstation discs for pretty much all of those. I just prefer the coin-op versions for when I finally get my cab finished and I can just throw a roll of quarters at my kid and tell him he can play whatever he wants until he runs out. lol

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9 hours ago, TheClassicalGod said:

I'm pretty sure it's my own fault things aren't running. I kinda cherry picked some ROMs that I used to have a while back that seemed to work ok back then, but I guess don't know. Using the standard MAME program, 9 out of the 10 I tried all told me they were missing files that I don't remember needing in the past. Mostly CPS2 games(MvC, SF3 Alpha, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, etc...). I grabbed alternate regions as well since I wasn't sure which the parent ROM was, but still got errors about files being missing. 

The only thing I got working without issue was the TMNT 4 player arcade game and oddly enough Tekken 1 and Soul Calibur worked, but I guess I can just use the console versions of those since I have the Playstation discs for pretty much all of those. I just prefer the coin-op versions for when I finally get my cab finished and I can just throw a roll of quarters at my kid and tell him he can play whatever he wants until he runs out. lol

Yeah i would say that it is definitely a qsound issue as i had exactly the same issue. I was using the 0.184 mame set and decided to start using Retroarch mame instead, and none of the street fighter games i tested worked. I found out that this was as Retroarch is using mame 0.186 and as @lordmonkus said some changes were made in that set to the qsound. Once i updated my set to the matching 0.186 set everything was golden again and my roms launched just fine.

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