Technosys Aamber Pegasus roms wont launch on LB

[GIKAS1]

Hey everyone! Long time lurker in the forum which has helped me immensely with the problems I had over the years with emulation... However I cant seem to find an answer to this issue im having right now so any help is appreciated!

So the problem is that although the games work fine within mame itself I cant seem to make them launch through launchbox.. I suspect it has something to do with the prompt mame gives you when you try to launch a game which lets you select a bios. Is this correct and if yes is there a way to automate this within launchbox? Many thanks in advance!

Edited January 4, 2023 by GIKAS1

[JoeViking245]

I think what you're seeing is actually the 'software parts selection menu'.  You can turn it off in MAME under Miscellaneous Options (change "Skip software parts...." to On).  Remember to select Save Configuration before exiting MAME's Configuration Options menu.

Then for the Command Line Parameters in LB under Associated Platforms (of your MAME emulator) I have:

pegasus %romfile%

I just tested Invaders v1.2 and it started up.  

[GIKAS1]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

I think what you're seeing is actually the 'software parts selection menu'.  You can turn it off in MAME under Miscellaneous Options (change "Skip software parts...." to On).  Remember to select Save Configuration before exiting MAME's Configuration Options menu.

Then for the Command Line Parameters in LB under Associated Platforms (of your MAME emulator) I have:

pegasus %romfile%

I just tested Invaders v1.2 and it started up.  

Many thanks for answering! Even though turning on skip software parts selection menu didnt help me for some reason, turning on skip bios selection menu in the same options menu seems to do the trick (together with the command line command)! Many thanks again for answering!

[JuanFrancisco]

I’m having trouble launching Pegasus as well.  It’s working in Mame 0.185 and an old Mess 0.149 setup and figured I’d get everything migrated over to 0.253.  
 

I tried turning off parts selection and bios selection and using my prior default command line parameters of pegasus -cart1 and a new parameter of pegasus %romfile% but neither works. I can see some slight difference in the screen that flashes with those two different parameters but I can’t read it. 
 

I tried copying the existing 0.185 bios into the 0.253 roms folder as well.  

Two other software list titles are launching fine in my new 0.253 emulator, atom and astrocde.  
 

I'm stumped.  Any thoughts?  Is there a way to get a log of the failed launch screen that disappears before I can read it?  I can just leave it in 0.185 if it comes down to it but that’s admitting defeat.

[JuanFrancisco]

Sorry, one other important note. It does launch through Mame 0.253 independently of launch box. 

[JoeViking245]

10 hours ago, JuanFrancisco said:

Sorry, one other important note. It does launch through Mame 0.253 independently of launch box. 

Copy/Move/Whatever "pegasus.zip" into the same folder as your pegasus_cart ROMs are located.  Edit your MAME emulator in LaunchBox and in the Associated Platforms section, for your Pegasus Platform set the Default Command-line Parameters to

pegasus -rompath %romlocation%

[JuanFrancisco]

10 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Copy/Move/Whatever "pegasus.zip" into the same folder as your pegasus_cart ROMs are located.  Edit your MAME emulator in LaunchBox and in the Associated Platforms section, for your Pegasus Platform set the Default Command-line Parameters to

pegasus -rompath %romlocation%

 

No luck.  I was able to use video to capture the screen that pops up briefly.  I'm going to post that and a few images of my setup in case I'm doing something wrong.

 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, JuanFrancisco said:

No luck.  I was able to use video to capture the screen that pops up briefly. 

Try checking the 2 boxes: Remove quotes and Remove file extension... 

[bundangdon]

On 4/28/2023 at 11:42 AM, JuanFrancisco said:

Sorry, one other important note. It does launch through Mame 0.253 independently of launch box. 

I was wondering about this system too, and tried out what was suggested but it didn't work for me either. Afterwards, I did a little bit of research and found a way that works. For the "Command Line Parameters" enter the following:

pegasus -rom1

My guess is that Mame has gone through some changes with this system/software and the command lines were changed as a result.

[spycat]

I've just tested mine out again on MAME 254 and my original parameters still work. 

pegasus -bios -cart1

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by spycat

[JuanFrancisco]

Thanks everyone!  Two solutions work.  

1.) Use the -Rompath parameter and check the two boxes for quotes and extension. 
 

2.) change use -rom1 instead of -cart1 and leave the two boxes unchecked. 
 

no idea why my original parameters don’t work in this emulator setup. 
 

thanks again, that was driving me crazy. 

[Waveconsolas]

For those who want to launch Aamber Pegasus games directly without having to press their corresponding keys, here is my configuration to launch them directly in case anyone is interested:

1º The roms and the pegasus.zip (bios) file have to go in the mame roms folder and have to point from launchbox to the path:
LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms (I have them unzipped and changed the names)

Spoiler

 

2º In the emulator options (MAME) in the "Details" tab we activate the "Remove quotes" option, the others deactivated

Spoiler

 

3º In the "Associated Platforms" tab in "Default Command Line Parameters" we put this command (I explain it in detail so that it is understood):

pegasus -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" -romimage1 "%romfile%" -inipath .\ini

What the code does is:

• pegasus → Call the MAME Aamber Pegasus system

• -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" → Call rompath which is the path to the roms (by modifying mame.ini you can assign different paths to the roms)

• -romimage1 "%romfile%" → Game to load (for LaunchBox to launch the game)

• -inipath .\ini → Reads configuration files from the MAME ini folder, in this case pegasus.ini

Spoiler

 

4º In each game's settings, on the "Emulation" tab, we activate the "Use Custom Command Line Parameters" box and enter these codes in each game:

• Galaxy Wars:  pegasus -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" -romimage1 "%romfile%" -autoboot_command "\n\n\n\ng\n\n1\n1\n1"
• Hangman:  pegasus -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" -romimage1 "%romfile%" -autoboot_command "\n\n\n\nh\n\nY"
• Invaders v1.2:  pegasus -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" -romimage1 "%romfile%" -autoboot_command "\n\n\n\ni\n\nG"
• Tank v1.2:  pegasus -rp "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" -romimage1 "%romfile%" -autoboot_command "\n\n\nl\n\n\n\n\n\nt"

(I have the Galaxy Wars & Hangman game duplicated, so I can launch them separately. To do this, once you have the three games loaded, load the game again but individually and then change the name)

What the code does is:

• -autoboot_command → Automate game startup

• \n → Enter (line break/waits)

• \n\n\n\n → 4 waits

• g → G key (game name key)

• \n\n → 2 waits

• 1\n1\n1 → 3 times Key 1 (to select game modes)

Spoiler

 

5º We go to the MAME ini folder and create the pegasus.ini file if you don't have it already, it has to look like this (this is to change the UI controls toggle mode when starting the game):

#
# CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
#
readconfig                1
writeconfig               0

#
# UI OPTIONS  
#
ui_active                 1  ; UI activated

What the code does is:

• readconfig 1 → This option tells MAME to read additional configuration files
  When set to 1 (enabled), MAME will look for and load system-specific configurations from .cfg files in MAME's cfg folder

• writeconfig 0 → This option tells MAME NOT to save configuration changes automatically
  When set to 0 (disabled), MAME will not modify configuration files when the emulator is closed, keeping settings intact

• ui_active 1  ; UI activated → When set to 1 (as in this case), starting any game disables the UI Controls Toggle setting

pegasus.ini

Spoiler

 

6º We go to the LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\cfg folder and create the pegasus.cfg file, it should look like this but with your paths:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped -->
<mameconfig version="10">
    <system name="pegasus">
        <image_directories>
            <device instance="romimage1" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
            <device instance="romimage2" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
            <device instance="romimage3" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
            <device instance="romimage4" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
            <device instance="romimage5" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
            <device instance="cassette" directory="D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\roms" />
        </image_directories>
        <input>
            <keyboard tag=":" enabled="1" />
        </input>
        <mixer>
            <audio_effects tag=":mono">
                <effect step="1" type="Filters" />
                <effect step="2" type="Compressor" />
                <effect step="3" type="Reverb" />
                <effect step="4" type="Equalizer" />
            </audio_effects>
            <sound_map tag=":mono">
                <node_mapping node="" db="0.000000" />
            </sound_map>
        </mixer>
    </system>
</mameconfig>

pegasus.cfg

Spoiler

 

If it doesn't work, go to the LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\hash folder and look for the pegasus_cart file and modify the line

<softwarelist name="pegasus_cart" description="Technosys Aamber Pegasus ROM expansions">

for this:

<softwarelist name="pegasus" description="Technosys Aamber Pegasus ROM expansions">

pegasus_cart.xml

Spoiler

 

And with that everything would be ready, I leave a video of how it works:

This is my first contribution to the community. I will be uploading more different platforms to simplify everything. If any moderator or someone thinks this should be a main post, please change it. Thanks to everyone