What are the current ways to emulate the Fairchild Channel F system?

[PurpleTentacle]

I know that RetroArch can do it, but that it's rather tricky (couldn't find details though), and while MESS is also tricky, it's apparently easier to set up for the Fairchild Channel F? Has there been any progress on other methods?

I installed MESS to see if I could do it, but I ran into some issues. Even though I ran MESS, I can't seem to find the mess.ini file. I have the Fairchild Channel F bioses in the /roms/ folder, but since the ini file is missing, I'm not sure how to tell MESS to look for them there (or if I even need to anymore). Also, I want to keep LaunchBox 100% portable, so I assume that there are ways to write out the filepath in the ini file to keep it that way?

 

I'd vastly prefer to use RetroArch for this, since I like making the hotkey commands as universal as possible, but if MESS is much easier, I'll go that route. Just not sure why I can't find the mess.ini file.

[DOS76]

Everything Mess can do MAME can do. To generate a MESS.ini I would think it would be the same method in MAME either config options in the UI and then save config or by using -cc command through the command line.

[PurpleTentacle]

Ok, since I already have MAME setup, I'm giving that a try. I put the Channel F bios in folders that MAME looks for bioses in. I used the command line "channelf -cart", since that what I read to do, and when I try to launch it, nothing pops up. 

 

Just tried launching Pac-Man in MAME (I usually use RetroArch, but I have MAME assigned as a backup for my arcade platform), and it worked, so I know MAME is working correctly. I did try a few other games that didn't work, but I think I just never bothered to put the various bioses in the right directory. 

 

Is there any more to making MAME run Channel F games, other than pointing it to the right bios? I want to troubleshoot this, but I need to make sure that there isn't something else I'm missing before I assume that it's a bios issue.

[DOS76]

can you go to tools manage emulators and edit mame then send over screenshots of both your general tab and your associated platform tab

 

[Lordmonkus]

Setup a 2nd instance of Mame in LB, you want different boxes unchecked for non arcade stuff, uncheck dont use quotes and use file name only.

[DOS76]

Or you can just uncheck them when editing your main MAME build and it shouldn't effect it in anyway what so ever.

[PurpleTentacle]

Whoops, just saw these replies today. 

 

Anyway, here's the screenshots for the entries that I have for MAME. I also had a "MAME Fairchild Channel F" entry separately, so that must have been something I tried in the past (I thought I remember getting the games to work, but I'm probably confusing it with something else). I'm guessing I also tried the command-line parameter "channelf -cart" under the Channel F MAME entry that I made, this is just what I have at this very second, and I'm not going to change anything until you guys say to (just to make it easier for you to know what state they're in right now). 

 

Also, just for reference, when I try starting it up using MAME, nothing happens & nothing is launched. When I launch it with the "MAME Fairchild Channel F" entry, I get a command prompt that pops up really quickly with the file path/name, and it says, "Unknown System". It seems to not recognize the filename, and lists a bunch of alternatives. Does the file name have to match something specific? I uploaded a screenshot of it. It passed by so quickly that I never thought to screenshot it in the past.