Using MAME (MESS) Retroarch to emulate various systems

[SiriusVI]

I don't know of any preexisting list, but I'm really not qualified. I've gotten into this whole emulating Software List thing just a couple of months ago

[Djronz]

On 4/15/2020 at 4:18 PM, SiriusVI said:

Hey everyone,

some time ago, I tried to emulate Apple II games with the Mame core of Retroarch and succeded. There was some tinkering involved and lots of help by this wonderful forum. I've since managed to emulate lots and lots of systems using using this method. The basics for how this works can be reviewed here:
 

 

Let's look at how I got Apple II to run:

 

1. Get Mame Software List Roms and put them in a folder.

2. You make sure that you copy any extra files that mame requires

My Folder is called "Apple II" and looks like this:
3. Go to X:\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\system\mame\ini and edit "apple2e.ini". You need to specify where your roms are:

4. Add a new Retroarch Emulator to your list of emulators and check "Don't use Quotes". 

5. Add Apple II as an associated platform, choose mame (no year tags) as your core and use this command line (yes with the double quotes): 

"apple2e -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Apple II\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\""

 

This way, the apple roms load fine (in the mame core options, you must turn CLI on for Apple II to work).

 

Now, if this works, why am I complaining? Well, there are some downsides to using Software List Mame roms. First of all, they are named in a way that prevents Launchbox to scrape Metadata, and second, The software List roms include not only games, but also loads of programs and other software that don't work or that I don't need.

Recently I've read in this form that Mame actually CAN use roms that are named differently from Software List conventions when using command lines to open them. This interested me so I tried to load Apple II toms from the TOSEC set using the same method as shown above. And what do you know. It works very well. This is great, because sets like TOSEC separate games from other kinds of software and the file names are usable by Launchbox.

 

So what's the problem? The problem is that this method works well with computer systems that use floppy disks or cassettes. It does NOT work for systems using cartridges (-cart).

Systems that use cartridges seem to work differently from systems using floppies and cassettes. For example, if I try to emulate Atari 5200 using Software List roms, I don't need t add a corresponding commandline like for Apple II ("apple2e -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Apple II\" -flop1 \"%romfile%\""). Instead, the game will run fine using the mame core without any command line. The same goes for other cartridge based systems like Aamber Pegasus.

If I however try to use a different Set, say the no intro set for Atari 5200, the game will not load. For Example, if I load "berzerk.zip", the game will work. If I load "BerZerk (USA).zip", the game will not load.

Then I thought, maybe I need that weird command line to be able to use non Software List roms with mame. So I tried:

"a5200 -rp \"L:\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 5200\" -cart \"%romfile%\""

This however causes Retroarch to crash.

 

So why is this? Why can I emulate floppy based systems like Apple II or Acorn Archimedes, but not cartridge based systems such as Atari 5200 or Aamber Pegasus?

I'm not against using Software List roms, I just like to keep things consistent and convenient, but I always have the option of going back to using Software List roms. However, I'm really interested in why this just won't work. It's really bugging me.

Hi, I'm trying to get BBC b microcomputer (Bbcbp) working through mame retroarch core but I have followed this through several times now and had no luck getting it to run?  I can get it working manually loading the Bbcbp rom through retroarch mame and then mounting a disc into flop 1 and booting it so I know its not an issue with my roms but sadly cannot get this to run via LaunchBox. I have also managed to get it to work via LaunchBox in stand alone Mame using a different guide but sadly I can't see a way to save induvidual game control configs hence I thought I'd try retroarch. 

   I don't really have any understanding of command lines so I'm just trying to copy it parrot fashion and substitute the parts that are relevant to the BBC b. That said I'm pretty sure I've copied/done this correctly but I'm going to conceded defeat for now unless anyone who knows what they are doing can try and get the Bbcbp to work in this way.