RetroArch Tiger game.com Emulation Setup

[Special T]

I've found a few older topics on getting Tiger Game.com up and running in Launchbox but they don't seem to work. I tried MAME and RetroArch and I've gotten the best results so far in RetroArch.

The RetroArch core I'm using is mame_libretro

All my roms are individually compressed (zip) and located in the following directory

C:\Users\Special-T\LaunchBox\Games\Tiger Game.com\

That directory also includes gamecom.zip which includes external.bin & internal.bin

None of the games will launch. If I add gamecom.zip as a rom to my Tiger Game.com section of LaunchBox and click the play button, it will load the main Game.com screen at which point I can press the tab key and manually navigate to the roms folder to select a game e.g. Sonic Jam which will cause the system to reboot and load into the correct game.

I'm trying to figure out what command lines to enter to load the game without having to manually click Tab and navigate to it.

Here's my current setup which lets me load directly into the Game.com screen. I've tried modifying the command line parameters but nothing seems to work e.g.

Adding "gamecom -cart1" excluding the quotation marks

Adding "C:\Users\Special-T\LaunchBox\Games\Tiger Game.com\gamecom.zip" including the quotation marks

Adding a combination of the two parameters

Does anyone have any other suggestions I can try?

Edited May 25 by Special T

[sundogak]

Don't move stuff around.  Point to your main MAME rom folder set.  Unless you have a full merged set then you will always run into issues trying to manually reassemble. 

In MAME:

Assuming you have Retroarch working for MAME overall then pointing to the same rom set and using RA as emulator works the same. Below if launch via RA:

 

Edited May 25 by sundogak

[Special T]

Thank you, I appreciate it!

 

That's really odd, I have all my arcade games in a separate folder outside of mame and they work fine. If I move the game.com games into the MAME folder i.e. "MAME 0.265\roms\gamecom" the RetroArch will load them without any issues.

 

Just curious but do you know why the location maters with Game.com games and not arcade games? Is the retroarch/mame core referencing other stuff within the mame folder to load Game.com roms?

[sundogak]

On 5/25/2024 at 2:14 PM, Special T said:

Thank you, I appreciate it!

 

That's really odd, I have all my arcade games in a separate folder outside of mame and they work fine. If I move the game.com games into the MAME folder i.e. "MAME 0.265\roms\gamecom" the RetroArch will load them without any issues.

 

Just curious but do you know why the location maters with Game.com games and not arcade games? Is the retroarch/mame core referencing other stuff within the mame folder to load Game.com roms?

Well, my bad, I didn't read your post carefully.

I am going to backtrack a bit on what said above as just noticed you were talking game.com vs Tiger handhelds. You are specifically referring to game.com games which is a MAME Software List game vs the Tiger handhelds which are in the arcade set. 

Similarly you can set it up as follows to run via MAME and RA. I am using Lostworld Game.com game as example below.  You point to your main MAME software list set for both RA and MAME and then you don't have to move any ROMS around (or combine).  In this case, it now points to the Software List folder Game.com and the rom:

If using MAME then under associated platforms. Note you don't have to use "cart1" if you have properly setup MAME folders with HASH folder and updated.  MAME figures it out by Zip file name using the HASH xml.  Or you can use "-cart1".

 

For Retroarch it is a bit different for Software List games than it is for Arcade.  I setup a separate entry for Retroarch Mess (or software list) emulator to make it easier to work as different check box settings needed. 

Then for Associated Platforms for RA:

This is the entry. Note the spaces and double quotes as is key or won't work.

"gamecom -cart1 \"%romfile%\""

Then you should have ability to launch via RA or MAME. 

As side note, Software List is another layer deep in complexity for RA MAME so my recommendation/preference is to use vanilla MAME particularly for software lists (plus gets goofy on borders/artwork with RA).

Edited May 28 by sundogak
forgot screen snap

[Special T]

Thank you so much. It works perfectly now. I appreciate your help!