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anyone get a ".col" rom working? (my other coleco extensions work)


DannyShane

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Hello, I used the colecovision roms from mame 204 SL and they work in mame 204. (their extensions are "1"  "2" "bin")

But that set was missing some good games like "war games" that i used to play all the time, lol.  so i grabbed war games from a site where their coleco vision roms are file extension ".col".  and mame wont load it, and retroarch wont load it either. i have a few .col roms from another place that wont load either.

so im just curious if anyone else happened to use .col roms and if so, what emulator did you use?   

 

below is my setting in mame - and this works with my mame SL roms.

coleco-mame-settings.jpg.eb204455088a325edf48f608e93f904b.jpgand below is my setting in retroarch

coleco-retroarch-settings.thumb.jpg.12c7142b16d2dab112d58700f91f3a4e.jpg

thanks for your time

Edited by Hayata
made the title less broad
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The bluemsx_libretro core should work with those files.  But, in order for that core to work properly you need to get the BIOS files installed in the Retroarch/System folder.  Instructions on where to get those files are on the Libretro doc site: https://docs.libretro.com/library/bluemsx/  If you do not have those installed properly in Retroarch, then the core won't be able to load .col rom files.  I'm not at home right now, so I can't check to see if I also had to enter any command line to get it to work, but I don't believe I had to for the retroarch core, just for stand-alone emulators.

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@CDBlue,  thanks, i had those folders set up already and i double checked just now to make sure i have the bios, and all was good.

@Harryoke,   i was under the impression that mame would only run roms from a mame romset?  im still learning, but ive tried mame, and just tried again and it will not run any of the roms i have that are 'non-mame' and file extension ".col"

:(  sucks because these are the games i used to play.  lol

and as far as troubleshooting, i downloaded one game from two different sites and they both have .col and neither will play in retroarch or mame.  

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Newer versions of MAME will indeed run non-mame roms including .col roms.

You CAN get this to work in the RA version of MAME as well, but the process is way too involved as I understand it, right down to probably having to rename your roms.

I have this working through rocketlauncher, which doesn't require any command lines. The problem is, because I use RL I don't know exactly how to get this working through Launchbox/MAME. But I think I can point you in the right direction.

You have to add a command line to the "Associated Platforms" of the Emulator.

image.thumb.png.1381f165a0d82c7c1fd4a468993cfc60.png

Under Default Command Line Parameters.

However, I've tried a few variations of:

coleco -cart

with no success, so someone who uses Launchbox/MAME will have to fill in the rest. 

EDIT: This would be the website where you get the command line info - I'm not sure how exactly to translate it into launchbox: https://pastebin.com/18W3EbD0

 

 

 

Edited by fromlostdays
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I currently use standalone MAME 0.205 (mame64.exe) to emulate ColecoVision (console media not sw list).
The system's romset aka bios, coleco.zip should contain the two files
colecoa.rom
313 10031-4005 73108a.u2

The Default Command-Line Parameters for LaunchBox are
coleco -cart

When using MAME to emulate ColecoVision, MAME must know via it's configuration settings (ini file) where coleco.zip is.

The actual ColecoVision games can be anywhere, as long as LaunchBox itself is pointed to them.

The games can have the normal ColecoVision naming or be renamed to the MAME short naming, and be zipped or not.
Example:
Miner 2049er Starring Bounty Bob (USA).col
can be renamed as
mine2049.col
both will work with MAME

You can also do things such as zipping a Coleco named game and renaming the zip as the MAME short name.
Miner 2049er Starring Bounty Bob (USA).col zipped as mine2049.zip

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I have Colecovision working using stand alone Mame, I have a separate install of Mame 197 setup specifically for console and computer emulation and I just tested War Games from the No Intro rom set with the .col file extension and it works perfectly fine using the coleco -cart command line parameter.

Also tested with the RA MSX core and it works there too.

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thanks everyone. 

Hey LordMonkus,  I installed a second mame (197 like you mentioned) and now the .col roms work when I launch them from LB using the mame 197.  So thank you very much for that.   

I am curious why it works in 197 and 205 (as spycat says) but not in 204. that was weird.  i figured it could be user error except I have both versions of mame set to use coleco -cart (in Launchbox), and I even copied and pasted the rompath to the new mame197 ini file (from the mame204 ini file).    well that was odd, but either way, thanks for helping me out with this you guys. 

 

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yeah i just copied my rompath from 204 ini to 197 ini.  (because i have two rom folders and didn't feel like writing it all out again. lol).
and i didnt even move the roms.. in LB, i just right clicked and said "launch in mame197". and it worked. 

oh well,. yeah after setting all of this up, im not ever upgrading either until....  mame finishes emulating "the grid"... then i have to upgrade because me and my son used to play that in the arcade so i just "NEED" it. LOL

  

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I had two folders... one was the mame roms, and the other was the mame SL roms.    i put all the bios in the main mame rom folder. 

i was going to put them all in one folder but initially i had read somewhere where the person said not to mix them.  but i dont think it woudl matter if i had mixed them.  but too late now, im too nervous to start messing with them.,lol

 

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FYI, I just got home and tested launching some .col games via retroarch and the bluemsx libretro core... no issues for me there and the games launched just fine for me.  Not sure why that would not work for you, unless the bios/machine files are not where the core expects them to be maybe?  Glad you got it working via MAME at least.

Edited by CDBlue
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thanks, yeah i probably somehow did something with retroarch. i did paste the blue machines and database folders into retroarch again (even though i had them alreayd) and i did check that the bios was there.  i messed aroudn with retroarch so much i migt have messed soething up with the blue msx. 

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MAME arcade roms and software list roms should never be placed in the same folder, as some of these games have identical rom names but completely different internals.

A bit out of my depth here, but I do remember that when MESS was independent of MAME, the various software list roms were supposed to go in folders named after the systems.
I don't know if this applies to the MAME/MESS all in one we have today as I don't use software lists; the simpler console/computer media approach is just fine for me. 

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On 1/21/2019 at 10:39 AM, CDBlue said:

The bluemsx_libretro core should work with those files.  But, in order for that core to work properly you need to get the BIOS files installed in the Retroarch/System folder.  Instructions on where to get those files are on the Libretro doc site: https://docs.libretro.com/library/bluemsx/  If you do not have those installed properly in Retroarch, then the core won't be able to load .col rom files.  I'm not at home right now, so I can't check to see if I also had to enter any command line to get it to work, but I don't believe I had to for the retroarch core, just for stand-alone emulators.

Working for my setup, thanks!

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