Namco System 246/256 on the pcsx2x6 arcade fork

[Sbaby]

PREMISE (please read first)
This is just a condensed guide of how I personally got things working from scratch, pulling hints from various people around various community. It is NOT an official tutorial. Some details, file locations and configurations are my own personal choices, so please don't take everything as gospel, I may well have made mistakes, and you're very welcome to correct me; I'll edit the post with any fixes. What I can tell you is that I'm playing every game I've tried beautifully, and it's fantastic.

System: Namco System 246-256

The PCSX2 arcade fork (pcsx2x6) is here:
https://github.com/PS2Homebrew-arcade/pcsx2x6/releases

Game compatibility list here:
https://github.com/PS2Homebrew-arcade/pcsx2x6/issues/9

You'll need to place the following into the appropriate emulator folders (and please don't ask me where to download them):

===PCSX2X6 === GENERAL ===
BIOS, in the "bios" folder:
- r27v1602f.7d
- r27v1602f.8g

=== PER-GAME FILES (including the security dongle), example for Tekken 4 ===
- \memcards\NM00004 TEF3, Ver.D a025671124888a.ps2
- \roms\tekken4\boot.elf
- \roms\tekken4\game.chd
- \roms\tekken4\sram.bin
- \roms\tekken4\tekken4.acgame

Note: personally I keep the .acgame launch file in the same folder as the rom, but many people keep it externally. If you put it somewhere else, you'll need to edit the "subdir" string, in my case it stays empty.

tekken4.acgame:
[game]
name=Tekken 4
gameid=NM00004
platform=246
[data]
subdir=
elf=boot.elf
dongle=NM00004 TEF3, Ver.D a025671124888a.ps2
card=
mediasrc=game.chd
media=DVD
jvsmode=

Another note on the chd: mine is named game.chd, but that's just a rename (I believe) of the official one, which is called tef1dvd0.chd.

Tip: in the emulator's game list you may see some extra entries named "BOOT", these are just the boot.elf files being picked up as games. You can hide them easily: right-click the entry and choose "Exclude from List", or use the type filter by pressing "All Types" and then "Invalid".

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

=== LAUNCHBOX EMULATOR ===
No special configuration needed on my end:
- executable: pcsx2-qt.exe
- command line: -fullscreen -batch

- The file you point to as the "ROM" is the .acgame file (in this example tekken4.acgame), that's what the emulator loads. So the actual launch ends up being: pcsx2-qt.exe -fullscreen -batch "...\roms\tekken4\tekken4.acgame".

I also added a small AutoHotkey line to avoid conflicts with the Space key, for those who play on keyboard (not a joystick), but this is personal:

; --- block ALT+SPACE for the whole session ---
!Space::return

=== AND NOW THE REAL REASON FOR THIS POST ===
WITH LAUNCHBOX :

For closing the emulator I'm currently using:

$Esc::
{
    WinClose, ahk_exe {{{StartupEXE}}}
}

Unfortunately I noticed that, even though it works (the game and emulator close cleanly and I'm returned to LaunchBox), the game does NOT save its ranking/score data, for example Tekken 4 doesn't keep the character usage percentages, or the clear times you set with a character. That data IS retained, however, if I use the official PCSX2X6 home menu and close the game from there (and to be clear: WITHOUT saving a savestate, I'm not talking about save/load states, I don't want them and won't use them).

I also tried binding F12 to the official "Shut Down Virtual Machine" action and calling it from my LaunchBox AutoHotkey script, like this:

$Esc::
{
    Send {F12}
    Sleep 2000
    WinClose, ahk_exe {{{StartupEXE}}}
}

but unfortunately I run into black screens and crashes on exit, which leave the emulator hanging in memory. That's a serious problem, because if I then launch another game I risk ending up with multiple instances running.

So my question is: what's the correct way to close the emulator externally so that the NVRAM / hiscores get written, the same way the standalone exit does, without using savestates? Is there a proper shutdown hotkey, a command-line option, or a recommended close sequence I should use? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Sbaby

[JoeViking245]

6 hours ago, Sbaby said:

but unfortunately I run into black screens and crashes on exit, which leave the emulator hanging in memory. That's a serious problem, because if I then launch another game I risk ending up with multiple instances running.

With F12 set to Shut Down Virtual Machine, the exit script should only need to send that.

$Esc::Send {F12}

If it (for some reason) takes longer than 2 seconds to do-its-thing, you're force closing the app. So may try it as shown above.  I can't play good enough to even get a score. 

You might also ask on the emulator line forums if using the "Shut Down Virtual Machine" hotkey should be saving the scores.  Or try it directly outside of LB.  Play the, get on the scoreboard and press F12.