First New Platform (ColecoVision MAME)

[Agrajag]

I noticed that ColecoVision is now emulated in MAME (awesome), so I figured I'd give it a shot. I THOUGHT I had this figured out, but apparently not.

1. I created a subfolder under MAME64/roms called /Colecovision and put all the ColecoVision roms there including the zip of the coleco bios roms (all the roms were from my ColEM working set).

2. I added the subfolder to the MAME64 ini file (MAME is working fine running arcade roms): rompath                   roms;roms/Colecovision

3. I added a new Platform called ColecoVision.

4. I edited the Emulator settings under Associated Platforms for MAME to and added a new line: ColecoVision with the Default Command-Line Parameters set to "coleco -cart" (no quotes in field). I also set it to default for that emulator.

5. I then used the batch importer and it ran and added 161 games, the right info and updated the ColecoVision system info. Nice!

Everything looks fine, but then when I launch a game from the list literally nothing happens. No pause, no message, nothing. 

What might I have missed? I'll be doing Intellivision next so I'd like to get this process down. Thanks!

[dragon57]

MAME expects a certain format for the files it reads, so using ColEM format probably won't work. You need to find and try a different set of games which are usually called 'Software List' format.

[Agrajag]

Just now, dragon57 said:

MAME expects a certain format for the files it reads, so using ColEM format probably won't work. You need to find and try a different set of games which are usually called 'Software List' format.

Ah, okay. That explains why MAME64's UI doesn't see them either. Will look around. Thanks.

[spycat]

You can emulate ColecoVision through MAME using either a software list or full rompath direct media calls.

If you're using the roms with the .col extension that ColEm uses then you can use direct media calls.
The ColecoVision Associated Platform Default Command-Line Parameters for LaunchBox are
coleco -cart
and the games can have the normal ColecoVision naming or be zipped or not.
However, the Bios that ColEm uses will not work. You need the system's romset, coleco.zip, which should contain the two files
colecoa.rom
313 10031-4005 73108a.u2

[sundogak]

@Agrajag I have MAME working but use Retroarch core that emulates Colecovision as my primary method (uses the BlueMSX core). May be an alternative if you have RA in your setup.  However, you would need to have the appropriate ROMs in the \Retroarch\system\Machines\ directory to work with the core. 

 

RA keeps the ROMs here. The folder names and paths need to be as noted in screenshot:

COL - Colecovision:  coleco.rom  with CRC 3AA93EF3   << this is the same as the MAME rom "313 10031-4005 73108a.u2" spycat referenced just renamed (same CRC). 

Although cannot attach the ROM, the config.ini in the above listing is attached.  CRC with some Googlefoo will get you there on the ROM for MAME and/or Retroarch. 

config.ini

COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension:  The Retroarch ROM with Opcode is actually the same CRC as above and also named coleco.rom in the folder.  So just duplicated but in separate folder for RA.  The config file is slightly different and also attached (will need to rename back to config.ini). 

config_OPCODE.ini

[DOS76]

I suggest sticking with MAME

[Agrajag]

10 hours ago, sundogak said:

@Agrajag I have MAME working but use Retroarch core that emulates Colecovision as my primary method (uses the BlueMSX core)

Thanks. I'm not an RA fan for a couple of reasons. First, it adds a level of complexity to everything that I'm trying to reduce as, at least for me, I find it entirely unintuitive. Second, it doesn't like my Mayflash F500 very much and that alone is a major issue.

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

Thanks. I'm not an RA fan for a couple of reasons. First, it adds a level of complexity to everything that I'm trying to reduce as, at least for me, I find it entirely unintuitive. Second, it doesn't like my Mayflash F500 very much and that alone is a major issue.

I have the F500, i keep it in dinput mode and Retroarch recognizes it as the mayflash F500 when Retroarch loads.

[Agrajag]

1 minute ago, neil9000 said:

I have the F500, i keep it in dinput mode and Retroarch recognizes it as the mayflash F500 when Retroarch loads.

Good to know. I just switched over to dinput mode so that might be the issue I was having. I'd still be curious to get this all working with MAME for the experience, but certainly won't be looking to spend ages on figuring out what I did wrong, if anything. 

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

Good to know. I just switched over to dinput mode so that might be the issue I was having. I'd still be curious to get this all working with MAME for the experience, but certainly won't be looking to spend ages on figuring out what I did wrong, if anything. 

I use it in dinput mode also for MAME, i leave it plugged in all the time, and it conflicted with normal PC games when in xinput mode as games would default to that rather than my xbox controllers, so i always had to unplug it when playing PC games. Keeping it in dinput mode fixed that as PC games generally look for a xinput device first not a dinput one.

[Agrajag]

2 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

I use it in dinput mode also for MAME, i leave it plugged in all the time, and it conflicted with normal PC games when in xinput mode as games would default to that rather than my xbox controllers, so i always had to unplug it when playing PC games. Keeping it in dinput mode fixed that as PC games generally look for a xinput device first not a dinput one.

GREAT info! That explains some other issues I was having the other day (I just got the F500). So glad I posted....Thanks!

[FlightRisk]

5 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

Thanks. I'm not an RA fan for a couple of reasons. First, it adds a level of complexity to everything that I'm trying to reduce as, at least for me, I find it entirely unintuitive. Second, it doesn't like my Mayflash F500 very much and that alone is a major issue.

Well, not to get into an RA debate since I know it is personal preference, what I found was that it actually reduced complexity for me. Once you learn one UI, I think it is harder to switch, yet they operate very similarly.  But for RA, there is one user interface for everything instead of having to have multiple emulators with completely different looks. You can go to the classic interface, which for some is easier than the fancy graphical interface. Then it looks more like MAME. When you use a front end to access the games with RA and the right core for the emulation, you really only popup the settings portion of the interface to change game settings from within a game. You don't use the load game menu and the launcher. The benefits to me are significant, one place and system for bezels and shaders, one place to universally configure controls across platforms, one user interface for all emulators, it is mostly plug and play. That said, I use RA pretty much exclusively on my Pi setups, but use MAME and RA right now on the Arcade machine with MAME and not an RA MAME core running Coleco  I wanted to be more fluent in the MAME UI, which is why I keep playing around with both. But I could have just picked one or the other, and if it were MAME, learned the other emulators I need.

I think for the F500, you just set the switch to "dinput" and make sure the retroarch.cfg file is set for that and that the Mayflash cfg file is also set for dinput. But sounds like you have it working the way you want without RA.

[FlightRisk]

Funny, while I was taking all that time to type, Neil posted about "dinput"