EACA Colour Genie MAME problem

[GIKAS1]

Hey everyone!

In my constant grind to fill my collection with obscure systems I stumbled upon the EACA Colour Genie computer which can be emulated in mame... However when I try to start certain games that are considered to be playable in mame I get errors while they are loading (for example 3d haunted house if you want to try too) ... I noticed that in the mame usage instructions it states that the games I'm getting errors require 32k of ram at least... Is ram to blame here? And if yes can I increase it somehow? 

Many thanks in advance!! 

Edited April 20, 2024 by GIKAS1

[spycat]

Set your Default Command-Line Parameters as
cgenie -ram 32k -cass

Launch the game.
At the MEM SIZE prompt just press Return.
At the READY prompt type CLOAD and press Return.
Start the tape.
When the tape has finished playing, a new READY prompt shows. Type RUN and press Return.

You can automate things somewhat by using the parameters
cgenie -ram 32k -ab \n\nCLOAD\n -autoboot_delay 1 -cass

[GIKAS1]

11 hours ago, spycat said:

Set your Default Command-Line Parameters as
cgenie -ram 32k -cass

Launch the game.
At the MEM SIZE prompt just press Return.
At the READY prompt type CLOAD and press Return.
Start the tape.
When the tape has finished playing, a new READY prompt shows. Type RUN and press Return.

You can automate things somewhat by using the parameters
cgenie -ram 32k -ab \n\nCLOAD\n -autoboot_delay 1 -cass

I tried the command you sent me and it worked perfectly! Thanks! 

[launchretrogirl2562]

On 4/21/2024 at 9:08 PM, spycat said:

Set your Default Command-Line Parameters as
cgenie -ram 32k -cass

Launch the game.
At the MEM SIZE prompt just press Return.
At the READY prompt type CLOAD and press Return.
Start the tape.
When the tape has finished playing, a new READY prompt shows. Type RUN and press Return.

You can automate things somewhat by using the parameters
cgenie -ram 32k -ab \n\nCLOAD\n -autoboot_delay 1 -cass

@spycat:when I enter this

mame.exe cgenie -ram 32k -autoboot_command \n\nCLOAD\n -autoboot_delay 1 -cass backgamm

I get the first ENTER when the question for MEMORY comes.
However, it never gives the CLOAD command.

Do you know what could be wrong here?

[spycat]

@launchretrogirl2562

I've just tested this with the latest MAME and it's also not sending CLOAD for me. It used to work back in the day.

Remove the -ram 32k parameter and it should now work.

If you want to keep the -ram 32k parameter (it's needed for most utility stuff plus the odd game such as 3D Haunted House) then you can add extra \n commands so that sending CLOAD is delayed until the BASIC prompt is ready for it - 4 should be enough.
cgenie -ram 32k -ab \n\n\n\nCLOAD\n -autoboot_delay 1 -cass

By the way, dsync89 has a cgenie_cass.lua which I switched to using and it works fine, unlike the Bob-Z one which was not a fully stand-alone lua.

Edited 6 hours ago by spycat

[launchretrogirl2562]

Thanks for your response! 😊
YES. I discovered that too (after a but of trial and error) that the ram parameter was causing this.

I already built a bat file that launches everything and sends the correct boot commands.
Including the correct settings for every game.
That way I never have to type anything. Not system, not cload, not ASTRO (to launch astronaut), no BBBBBB, nothing.
Only going to mame UI to press play.

The BAT file can prefer MAME, or it can prefer Retroarch. U can set them in the bat file with a trigger. Or u can adjust it from within launchbox


The lua helped at first but then u still have to enter the correct commands to be able to launch the game.
So i decided to make a bat file which handles all of that for every game in the cgenie xml.
 
When I finish fine-tuning it I will make a thread for it so it won't get lost in separate forum responses.

I'm trying to make several bat files for several systems. They only need minimal adjustmens and are easy for someone else to use. Basically just change the paths to your mame and retroarch.

[launchretrogirl2562]

Never mind my earlier post.
I investigated dsync's script. And I see that in his lua he has configurations for all the games.

my bat script just read them from the cgenie_cass.xml

So different approach with same result😁