Coleco Adam with Retroarch

[MaineBear]

I'm trying to run Coleco Adam roms with RetroArch.  I'm using GearColeco core.  I get the message-- turn off game before inserting cartridge or expansion.   The roms are in .ddp, dsk, bas and .lbr format and unzipped.

ColecoVision roms load fine.

[dragon57]

GearColeco only supports col, cv, bin, and rom extensions. Probably need to find different versions of those roms.

[MaineBear]

I switched to Colem.  Is there a good tutorial that shows how to set it up.  I can get .ddp to load with Launchbox, that's the tapes.  I can't figure how to get it to load .bas, .dsk .lbr.  When I load those through Launchbox it goes to the Adam typing screen.

Thanks for the help!

Edited Tuesday at 01:35 PM by MaineBear

[launchretrogirl2562]

probably not the answer u are looking for but I tend to agree with dragon57, u will save yourself a lot of headache by just looking for different versions of roms.
And sticking to retroarch which does support them.

I also do not think that COLem supports bas files right out of the box.
To be able to launch BAS files, I think u first would have to get in the ADAM BASIC and then run the BAS files with a load command.

Like for instance

LOAD "CAS:[insertnameofbasfilehere]"

As for DSK and DDP

they both should work according to the information

* Coleco Adam emulation is now operational, with keyboard, printer, disk, and tape drives. Use -adam command line or "Hardware | Adam" menu to enable. Requires EOS.ROM and WRITER.ROM files.
* Emulator will load .DSK files into disk drive A: and enable Adam mode.
* Emulator will load .DDP files into tape drive A: and enable Adam mode.

Guess would be something like colem -adam -diska [insert name of dsk file]

 

[MaineBear]

18 hours ago, launchretrogirl2562 said:

probably not the answer u are looking for but I tend to agree with dragon57, u will save yourself a lot of headache by just looking for different versions of roms.
And sticking to retroarch which does support them.

I also do not think that COLem supports bas files right out of the box.
To be able to launch BAS files, I think u first would have to get in the ADAM BASIC and then run the BAS files with a load command.

Like for instance

LOAD "CAS:[insertnameofbasfilehere]"

As for DSK and DDP

they both should work according to the information

* Coleco Adam emulation is now operational, with keyboard, printer, disk, and tape drives. Use -adam command line or "Hardware | Adam" menu to enable. Requires EOS.ROM and WRITER.ROM files.
* Emulator will load .DSK files into disk drive A: and enable Adam mode.
* Emulator will load .DDP files into tape drive A: and enable Adam mode.

Guess would be something like colem -adam -diska [insert name of dsk file]

 

When I click on the box art for the ddp they load, when I click on the dsk I just get a black screen and nothing happens.

How would I change the association to the dsk files so they load with the box art?

Thanks!

[launchretrogirl2562]

You can manually assign the same artwork it has for the DDP file to the DSK file.
Right click the game without artwork -> Edit -> Edit Metadata/Media

Go to setting Media : Images

Here you can assign several fields for the different kinds of artwork.

If u open the game which has the artwork, and u follow the same steps...u can also save the images by right clicking each image and then 'save image as' to a temporary directory.
That way u can easily assign them to another game. Just browse through all the images and save them all to a custom folder.

If you have all the artwork, just go to the Media:images screen again and keep adding images and in that screen in the upper right u can designate the correct type to the image u uploaded (screenshot gameplay, front box, 3D box, clear logo,...etc)

But if they are the same game but just have different names or extensions then u are better to combine the games.
You do this by selecting both games, right clicking and choosing the option to combine them :

 

That, or just delete the duplicate game. There is no need to keep both if they are exactly the same.
Just choose the one that launches better, is easier to launch or by extension has the most support for the emulator u are using.

[MaineBear]

It's not the artwork that I'm having a problem with.

I'm trying how to load the dsk rom with launchbox.  The ddp roms load, the dsk roms don't.  

Sorry if I'm being confusing. LOL.  

[launchretrogirl2562]

have you tried several DSK roms? Cause not all roms will load. There can be bad ports out there.

[launchretrogirl2562]

no worries about being confusing. You are just looking for an answer to a problem.
I'm sorry, I also fiddled around with it but I cannot get DSK images to boot.

Even tried dragging and dropping it like it says on atariage forum 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354237-colem-help/

And I see something loading but nothing more.

Maybe you should post your question also there and if you have an answer then share it here.

 

[launchretrogirl2562]

5 hours ago, MaineBear said:

It's not the artwork that I'm having a problem with.

I'm trying how to load the dsk rom with launchbox.  The ddp roms load, the dsk roms don't.  

Sorry if I'm being confusing. LOL.  

I just configured Retroarch with the MAME core and there the coleco adam disk files load and the games run.

So if you want an alternative for running coleco adam in dsk format then Retroarch would be a good alternative.

And it isn't that difficult to set up.

Basically the same way you set up other platforms which run in mame. Do you know how to configure software list games in retroarch?

[MaineBear]

41 minutes ago, launchretrogirl2562 said:

I just configured Retroarch with the MAME core and there the coleco adam disk files load and the games run.

So if you want an alternative for running coleco adam in dsk format then Retroarch would be a good alternative.

And it isn't that difficult to set up.

Basically the same way you set up other platforms which run in mame. Do you know how to configure software list games in retroarch?

I don't know how to configure software list games.  The only thing I have for mame are arcade roms that I imported and let launchbox set that up.

[MaineBear]

What are the bas roms?  DDP is tape, DSK is disk correct?

[launchretrogirl2562]

Before I explain...do you have a list of games you want to play on coleco adam?
That way I can point you in the right direction to specifically get those games up and running

[launchretrogirl2562]

BAS are smartbasic programs :
SmartBASIC was the built-in programming language on the Adam and BAS files were used to store these programs.

DDP digital data packs, u could call them tapes or cassettes.

DSK is floppy/disk yes.

THey are set up the same way in mame. in Software lists in adam_flop, adam_cass

[MaineBear]

This my list of dks and bas roms.

[launchretrogirl2562]

give me a couple minutes to make you a proof of concept to get some games running in retroarch.
u do have retroarch installed and working?
with the latest mame core downloaded?

[launchretrogirl2562]

For getting Mame Software lists to work there are a couple basic things to get right

In the Retroarch\system folder

Make sure there is a 'mame' folder

in that folder there will be following folders

mame

  hash
  ini
  nvram
  roms
  samples

In the hash folder will be all hash xml files which u can also find when u installed mame in the mame\hash folder
in the ini folder will be your ini files
Each platform has it's own ini file

For coleco adam this will be adam.ini
Never mind why that is...this naming has to be followed and u can easily find online how to name each ini file for whichever platform u want to use

Mame itself also needs its own ini file...that will be called mame.ini

In those two ini files...u can put the paths to your roms.

For your Coleco adam this can be

homepath                .
rompath                   roms

Or if you have your games placed somewhere else can also be

homepath                .
rompath                   roms;"C:\LaunchBox\Games\Coleco ADAM\adam"

If you put your roms someplace else, it is good practice to always keep your files in the same name as MAME is looking for

so Sega ST-V games go in a subfolder called 'stv'
Coleco Adam games go in a subfolder called 'adam'

It does not matter how your main folder is called, just make sure there is always a subfolder with the MAME SL naming

in  retroarch\system\mame\roms  you also need to put in the bios files which mame needs to run Coleco adam files. (or in the folder where you decide to place your roms)

You will also find these in retroarch\system\mame\roms\adam

Once you know how to do it for one software list platform, u basically can configure it for all SL's

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:28 PM by launchretrogirl2562