Philips CD-i ... how do i emulate this in 2019?

[Z3R0B4NG]

I've found this tutorial from 2016, it is rather outdated.  

MESS has been merged with MAME in the meantime.  
It is 2 years later, did we find a way to play .bin + .cue files by now or is CHD through MESS / MAME still the only option?  

if not, i also found this:

RetroArch...  
http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Philips_CD-i_emulators indicates that there is a libretro core for MAME which is the only recommended emulator there.  
but the wiki does not go into detail which MAME core works (there are multiple) or how to set it up, just a yes this exists checkmark.  
The 3 stand-alone emulators listed there are not recommended, almost 10 years outdated and one is a paid-only beta and has no acceptable (gamepad) input methods (or so the wiki says).  

Arcadepunks has setup instructions for one of their sets where i noticed this picture


This is obviously RetroArch's core options menu, but when i load any of the MAME or the 2 old MESS cores in RA i get no core options at all...  
but "cdrm" seems to be important. The 2016 tutorial video also has -cdrm as a command line option for MESS but since then LaunchBox has been updated and it doesn't look quite like in the tutorial anymore.  

I managed to source a bunch of .cue+.bin and also CHD files.  
I got the cdimono1.zip as well (i've put that in the retroarch/systems/ folder as arcadepunks did )  

...there needs to be some way to get this to work in RetroArch, or at least through MAME.  

So far i got nothing to work at all and i've been scratching my head for a few hours, so my question is simply: how do i emulate Philips CD-i in 2019?  

[sundogak]

take a look at this thread as well for MAME setup.

 

 

[5thWolf]

Yeah that video was great. Just few check boxes to handle in settings for LaunchBox and it should launch it properly if you get all the required files. Mainly the machine/bios files and the proper CHD files.

[Johnny85]

Can confirm it works! Just got CD-i games up-and-running in Mame 215 and Launchbox using the above tutorial and whatever else I could scrounge up around the net. They definitely need to make an updated video for this, took me hours to figure it out with bits and pieces of outdated info from several different sources. The key take-aways for CD-i emulation in Mame are;

1: Import your Phillips CD-i roms into Launchbox (CHD format is preferred for your roms, bin/cue files don't seem to work well. If you already have bin/cue files you can convert them to CHD).

2: Make sure you have correct CD-i bios file (cdimono1) in your Mame > roms folder.

3: Set Mame as your emulator. Make sure to uncheck the three boxes in the 'Emulator edit' tab. 

4: Under 'Associated Platforms' tab add the platform name (Phillips CD-i) and check 'Default Emulator' box.

5: Under 'Default Command-Line Parameters' type 'cdimono1 -cdrm'

Hopefully that's helpful to somebody

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Johnny85

[Brian221]

On 1/11/2020 at 11:27 PM, Johnny85 said:

Can confirm it works! Just got CD-i games up-and-running in Mame 215 and Launchbox using the above tutorial and whatever else I could scrounge up around the net. They definitely need to make an updated video for this, took me hours to figure it out with bits and pieces of outdated info from several different sources. The key take-aways for CD-i emulation in Mame are;

1: Import your Phillips CD-i roms into Launchbox (CHD format is preferred for your roms, bin/cue files don't seem to work well. If you already have bin/cue files you can convert them to CHD).

2: Make sure you have correct CD-i bios file (cdimono1) in your Mame > roms folder.

3: Set Mame as your emulator. Make sure to uncheck the three boxes in the 'Emulator edit' tab. 

4: Under 'Associated Platforms' tab add the platform name (Phillips CD-i) and check 'Default Emulator' box.

5: Under 'Default Command-Line Parameters' type 'cdimono1 -cdrm'

Hopefully that's helpful to somebody

 

Followed these steps almost exactly.  I created a new emulator called MAME-CDi so I could save the different settings and default command line....worked like a charm!  Now I just need to figure out mapping controls.

Used this to convert bin and cue files to CHDs

https://scunster.co.uk/?p=1732#:~:text=An added bonus is that,bin%2C gdi or cue files.&text=Now just run “CUE or,of your games to CHD.

[WInzen]

On 1/12/2020 at 5:27 AM, Johnny85 said:

Can confirm it works! Just got CD-i games up-and-running in Mame 215 and Launchbox using the above tutorial and whatever else I could scrounge up around the net. They definitely need to make an updated video for this, took me hours to figure it out with bits and pieces of outdated info from several different sources. The key take-aways for CD-i emulation in Mame are;

1: Import your Phillips CD-i roms into Launchbox (CHD format is preferred for your roms, bin/cue files don't seem to work well. If you already have bin/cue files you can convert them to CHD).

2: Make sure you have correct CD-i bios file (cdimono1) in your Mame > roms folder.

3: Set Mame as your emulator. Make sure to uncheck the three boxes in the 'Emulator edit' tab. 

4: Under 'Associated Platforms' tab add the platform name (Phillips CD-i) and check 'Default Emulator' box.

5: Under 'Default Command-Line Parameters' type 'cdimono1 -cdrm'

Hopefully that's helpful to somebody

 

this worked for me too with little trouble!

But it does take a while to load and i get a manual splash screen first for playing the cd and its mouse.  Also I get CDI in big letters. 

Can i improve load time and skip the splash screen ?

and How can i remove the "CD-i " ?

see images

thanks!!!