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 Tuesday at 05:17 PM 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😁

[spycat]

Yes, it's a very good lua. It works with the -ram 32k parameter, doesn't need an autoboot_delay parameter and fully automates things including tape fast play.
If any Binary games (the ones that use SYSTEM and the game specific text as per MAME's hash info) are not in there, it's easy to edit the lua and add them in.

Your bat scripts sound interesting. I'm thinking about electron tapes where a minority use *RUN instead of CHAIN""
Currently in my electron default parameters I use a lua than sends CHAIN"", and use custom parameters with a lua that sends *RUN instead for a handful of games that require *RUN.
I need to also set custom parameters with a flop lua for my electron floppy games.

[launchretrogirl2562]

@spycat : I have a fully working electron script already.

I wanted to make a dedicated post for that one. But I will send it to you through message. That way u can be my first testcase before I dedicate a new thread to it 😁

 

[launchretrogirl2562]

Oh, I will complete the existing lua dsync did. Will sent it to you when I finish it and will send it to dsync so he can add it to his github
Cause I already have a xml parser that gets all the values, so not too difficult to complete the whole lua with everything in the cgenie_cass.xml

[launchretrogirl2562]

I could only find two from the cgenie_cass that were not added. From the 330 games about 257 need the boot_type sequences,...the rest use the fall back (boot_default) in the lua to load the games.

charedit = create_boot_type_2_sequence,

charset = create_boot_type_2_sequence

but these are probably negligible cause they aren't games. (Character Generator/Editor)

Then one error I think I found in the lua.
It references on line 167 
geniepede = create_boot_type_1_sequence("G"),

In the MAME SL cgenie_cass this game is called 'genieped', so the line should be

genieped = create_boot_type_1_sequence("G"),

<software name="genieped">
        <description>Geniepede</description>
        <year>1983</year>
        <publisher>Ipswich Software Factory</publisher>
        <info name="author" value="R. Hamilton" />
        <info name="usage" value="Type SYSTEM and load with G" />
        <part name="cass1" interface="cgenie_cass">
            <dataarea name="cass" size="3468">
                <rom name="geniepede_part1.cas" size="3468" crc="6a0014d8" sha1="9f6c649b824e303d17cf26ed62310a8fcc9762c1" />
            </dataarea>
        </part>
        <part name="cass2" interface="cgenie_cass">
            <dataarea name="cass" size="5963">
                <rom name="geniepede_part2.cas" size="5963" crc="22634e4f" sha1="e283b8ab4918f0bb6b929f32f42194704bf8fd1f" />
            </dataarea>
        </part>
    </software>

I've added the cgenie_cass.lua here

@dsync89 : can u comment on my observations?

 

cgenie_cass.lua

Edited Wednesday at 01:34 AM by launchretrogirl2562