Homebrew Mame 2003 Plus

[JuanMena]

edit: outdated

 

[Qaztab]

Has anyone managed to get the following games to work properly in Mame 2003 Plus?

Altered Beast - The game looks like it works at a glance, but if you try and play it it's severely bugged and unplayable. I tried all kinds of alternate roms. They either didn't load or did the same thing.

Alien Storm - It tells you to use the astormbl rom, and while this technically loads, you never get to a menu. All you see is player text at the bottom of a black screen.

Xenophobe - In Hexaeco and Wii-Mundo's Mame 2003 Plus, trying to load this with the F core gives you a test pattern in the upper right and locks up the emulator. In the original 1.7.6 F core the game loads but the performance is too slow to really play.

I've been using SDL Wii-Mame for the aforementioned games. They're playable but chugging a bit.

Also while I'm at it, what's the trick to getting SAMPLES to work with games like Donkey Kong? In the mame 2000 core it's pretty easy, just put a samples folder in the same directory as the rom and the samples.zip for that game in the samples folder. This isn't working with 2003 plus.

 

[RunningSnakes]

I am positive Alien Storm loads and plays. I am not home now but ill post again when i have a chance.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Ok.

After testing all 3 games, they all boot/play.

Alien Storm (astormbl.zip) uses Core D
Altered Beast (altbeast.zip) uses Core D
Xenophobe (xenophob.zip) uses Core A




Using samples for 2003+, the path is...

dev/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus/samples


If you want Hi Scores to save, the hiscore.dat path is...

dev/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus

 

[JuanMena]

Altered Beast (altbeast.zip) uses Core D

No slowdown!?!?!1

 

[RunningSnakes]

Altered Beast - Completed 1st level with 2 players at 60 fps with no drops.

Alien Storm - Completed 1st level at 57.2 fps wih no drops.

Xenophobe - Played for 2 minutes at 29.97 fps with no drops.

Must mention, i am running the games through SD.

 

[Qaztab]

Ok.

After testing all 3 games, they all boot/play.

Alien Storm (astormbl.zip) uses Core D
Altered Beast (altbeast.zip) uses Core D
Xenophobe (xenophob.zip) uses Core A




Using samples for 2003+, the path is...

dev/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus/samples


If you want Hi Scores to save, the hiscore.dat path is...

dev/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus

Ok, I got Altered Beast and Alien Storm working. Only the 1.7.6 D core I have will run them correctly. Hexaeco and the Wii-Mundo Mame 2003 Plus D cores load Altered Beast, but it's buggy and kind of broken, and for Alien Storm you can add credits to a black "Press Start" screen, but nothing else happens. Glad to see that these do work, I just have to use this specific 1.7.6 version of the Mame 2003 Plus core.

I mis-stated the core I was using for Xenophobe. You are correct, it's the A core. Again, only the 1.7.6 A core I have will run it correctly. Hexaeco and the Wii-Mundo 2003 Plus cores give you a test pattern in the upper left corner of the screen and locks up the emulator. Unfortunately performance is really struggling in 1.7.6. SDL-Mame runs it better. Oddly Zwackery doesn't have this issue.

Also still can't get the samples to work. I put them in: sd:/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus/samples

I tried just leaving dkongjr.zip in sd:/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus/samples
Didn't work.

I tried unzipping it to: sd:/retroarch/system/mame2003-plus/samples/dkongjr
Didn't work.

I feel like I'm overlooking something extremely simple. Is there a special version of samples for Mame 2003?

 

[RunningSnakes]

There are compatibility issues with Hexaeco inserting credits, journey.zip comes to mind as one of those games.

If you are trying to get samples to work through Hex MAME 2003+, the path is slightly different and IIRC the hi scores save does not work.

I use my own modified versions of HEXAECO and the audio samples do work correctly.

Using Mundo-Wii-Hack, try putting samples in...

dev/private/other/system folder

 

[Qaztab]

There are compatibility issues with Hexaeco inserting credits, journey.zip comes to mind as one of those games.

If you are trying to get samples to work through Hex MAME 2003+, the path is slightly different and IIRC the hi scores save does not work.

I use my own modified versions of HEXAECO and the audio samples do work correctly.

Using Mundo-Wii-Hack, try putting samples in...

dev/private/other/system folder

I figured it out, and I really appreciate your help with this.

The Mame 2000 samples I have that do work with the Mame 2000 core do *NOT* work with the Mame 2003 cores. I had to download another set that was called FB Alpha Samples. Looking at the samples the filenames inside are completely different from each other.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Good news my friend. Glad to hear you have the samples working. Just an extra heads up, the samples simply do not work using FBA arcade core. Wanted to save you the effort and headache.

 

[Qaztab]

Good news my friend. Glad to hear you have the samples working. Just an extra heads up, the samples simply do not work using FBA arcade core. Wanted to save you the effort and headache.

Ok, I have all the SAMPLES working with 1.7.6 cores. I'm hoping you can help me with getting the same SAMPLES to fully work with Hexaeco and Wii-Mundo Hack's 2003 cores.

I can get the SAMPLES to work with Wii-Mundo Hack's A & F cores. I can't get them to work with Wii-Mundo Hack's D core for Sega/Data East. This includes Congo Bongo & Zaxxon. I suspect this is related to similar issues I had with Altered Beast/Alien Storm as it's the same core. If you have it, can you verify that you can get SAMPLES to work with Wii-Mundo Hack's D core?

I can't get any SAMPLES to work with the Hexaeco cores. I tried putting the samples in various retroarch directories I see in the private folder, but nothing seems to be working. None of the samples are working for Hexaeco's A, D & F cores.

I would use 1.7.6 for everything, but the issue with that is that it tends to crash if you try to load a new rom in the same session. You have to unload retroarch completely and reload it to load a new rom. Hexaeco and Wii-Mundo Hack's cores tend to let you load new roms in the same session, a few or more times at least before crashing.

Edit: Also noted that Splatterhouse works in 1.7.6's A core but crashes in Hexaeco and Wii-Mundo Hack's A core.

 

[JuanMena]

I would use 1.7.6 for everything, but the issue with that is that it tends to crash if you try to load a new rom in the same session.

I've personally never had this problem before. Must be something going on with your memory adapter/card... I'm guessing?

The one core that does that to me is Mame2000, but Mame2003+ cores... no, never.

You sure you're using v.0.4? I remember having v.0.3 crashing on me sometimes.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@Qaztab

I urge you to download and use my modified HEXAECO arcade cores. This way we will be working with the same dol files, same folder structures and paths. All samples are working but Splatterhouse is broken.

The RA 1.7.6 Mod cores are superior in almost every way as for compatibility. In fact, the only games i can think of are Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Dig Dug, Galaga that Hexaeco plays better or doesn't have issues where 1.7.6 does have issues.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/9h2hktvgyomdt/RA-SS_Modified

 

[Qaztab]

I've personally never had this problem before. Must be something going on with your memory adapter/card... I'm guessing?

The one core that does that to me is Mame2000, but Mame2003+ cores... no, never.

You sure you're using v.0.4? I remember having v.0.3 crashing on me sometimes.

How do I know which version I have? I downloaded these cores a long time back, and I think from this very thread. The only thing I know is that they're based on 1.7.6.

@Qaztab

I urge you to download and use my modified HEXAECO arcade cores. This way we will be working with the same dol files, same folder structures and paths. All samples are working but Splatterhouse is broken.

The RA 1.7.6 Mod cores are superior in almost every way as for compatibility. In fact, the only games i can think of are Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Dig Dug, Galaga that Hexaeco plays better or doesn't have issues where 1.7.6 does have issues.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/9h2hktvgyomdt/RA-SS_Modified

Ok, this helped. I have SAMPLES for D core working now, plus I can load different roms in the same session without crashing. But now Alien Storm and Altered Beast don't work with this D core and Splatterhouse crashes in the A core. I was looking to make a one stop shop, but it's looking like you need a couple different versions of Mame 2003 Plus for maximum compatibility.

I know what I need to do. I need to bite the bullet and install and tune a Wiiflow configuration. I've been putting that off because it always seemed like a loader program for a loader program to me. Anyway.....

Thank you for your help.

 

[Qaztab]

@RunningSnakes , I just figured out what all the files you have at that download link are separated like they are. You've taken all the RA core sets and separated them out into their own individual directories and boot.dols.

I was looking for something like this. Thank you again.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Yes. WiiFlow Lite is the ultimate front end for Wii. It has a learning curve, but after awhile you will use noting else.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@RunningSnakes , I just figured out what all the files you have at that download link are separated like they are. You've taken all the RA core sets and separated them out into their own individual directories and boot.dols.

I was looking for something like this. Thank you again.

Yes. I made them all stand-alone emulators. I also made forwarder channels for everything if you are interested. Just search RunningSnakes Forwarder Channels.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

With Alien Storm I have only one little issue. Using astormbl.zip and Mame 2003+ 0.4.
As soon as you get hit the energy bar becomes glitched.
Game is still playable though

 

[Qaztab]

Yes. I made them all stand-alone emulators. I also made forwarder channels for everything if you are interested. Just search RunningSnakes Forwarder Channels.

I just played with your SS-Vectrex and I'm kind of giddy. I had it on my list to figure out how to get the overlays working, but you have it all preconfigured already. Nice! I can finally remove Wii-Vectrex.

I feel like I've found a new set of toys. Thanks again.

 

[alfonsovin]

Yes. WiiFlow Lite is the ultimate front end for Wii. It has a learning curve, but after awhile you will use noting else.

Good morning

I have an issue when I exit from a plug-in load with WiiFLow Lite, I get a black screen, power of Wii mote and I must force to power off Wii to reboot. Is there any trick for exiting well arriving to wiiflow again?