Homebrew Question about Mame etc and 240p

[CobraX83]

Hello everyone. I have visited this great site for many years and decided to stop lurking and join.
I had some questions about Mame off the Wii and was hoping I could get some opinions/answers etc.

I got a Sony PVM monitor given to me for free about 8 months ago and had recently modded my SNES etc for RGB. The picture looks stunning...I really like the scanlines. I have Coinops on original Xbox and recently got a Sony widescreen SPF crt tv that I can run up to 1080i. The mame games actually look awesome prob because it is still a crt...but sadly XBOX cant do 240p.

On Retroarch with the PVM 240p looks amazing but I am just curious as far as arcade games go...is there any chance anyone here has got Wrestlefest to work? Is Mame abandoned off the Wii pretty much? I just thought it would have a lot more support seeing that 240p works and the arcade games look awesome off it as do other systems as well. I have pretty much followed along on the scene and have been a Wii owner since day 1 so thanks again to all who contribute to this awesome site!

Also, just thought I would mention. I was mainly interested in Simpsons, both TMNT, and XMEN even...awesome that those actually work. I was surprised the only other one I have always had a craving for and seemed like a lightweight game didnt work ) =

 

[zerofalcon]

There is a branch in libretro MAME 078 (aka 2003) that supposedly builds and works by removing some drivers (games). I tried to compile it long ago but error after error made me quit trying. Toadking (libretro staff) has the knowledge and maybe the binaries if you want to try.

 

[CobraX83]

Thank you for the heads up zerofalcon. I will try and see if I can locate a compiled version. The main thing is though that I imagine it doesn't have a 240p option which to my knowledge is only capable through retroarch, as far as mame. I will have a look around...or may even read how to hook up a cheap pc etc to the PVM for mame. Thanks again

zerofalcon any idea if that version can somehow have 240p implemented into it?

Basically, I am just looking to see if Wrestlefest can somehow be made playable preferably in Retroarch. The sound is there and all the graphics for the overlay and health bar etc show up, but unfortunately the rest of the picture is scrambled.

 

[Wiimpathy]

I posted this in the Cover thread.
The link is dead and my hdd and sdcard crashed recently. And yes, it was a pain to compile(zlib error, adding the drivers...).
Anyway, if you want to test here's another one : mame2003
You have to copy the dol in the /apps/retroarch-wii folder. It's from the master branch. The mini branch is inactive for 2 years now. The good news is all the games you mentioned seem to work.

 

[CobraX83]

Wiimpathy...dude...THANK YOU SOOOO fu*king much! Seriously...You just made me smile so big when I saw it load Wrestlefest up in 240p on my Sony PVM. Thank you again and it is very much appreciated!!!!

Edit* Just did a playthrough and it seems solid. Thank you again! Would it be hard to implement this into the current FBA Arcade core? Either way good looking out with the additional core you linked me to. It works well since I still remain in Retroarch and can set the resolution as opposed to a stand alone mame emulator without that option. ( =

 

[sindrik]

?

 

[CobraX83]

It would be nice to know some of the others this one works with. I tried WWF Superstars and it was a no go. I am also assuming it would be better to try some .78 sets like it says in the readme for better compatibility. When I get back in a bit I can take a look and possibly figure out some others.

 

[zerofalcon]

I posted this in the Cover thread.
The link is dead and my hdd and sdcard crashed recently. And yes, it was a pain to compile(zlib error, adding the drivers...).
Anyway, if you want to test here's another one : mame2003
You have to copy the dol in the /apps/retroarch-wii folder. It's from the master branch. The mini branch is inactive for 2 years now. The good news is all the games you mentioned seem to work.

Thank you Wiimpathy, I thought I'll never test the MAME core on Wii. Can you please share how did you compile it? As you said it was a pain to compile (I tried with linux, windows, different devkitpro rev, etc, no success). Hope I can add some other drivers in the core.

 

[nakata6790]

WHOA... A Mame core for Wii?! Nice! I cannot seem to find any roms for Mame 0.78 however, only found 1 torrent and is not seeded. Also, does this core work with RA 1.0.2 or is 1.2.2 needed (i stick to 1.0.2. cause 1.2.2 always has issues for me)?

Finally, can anyone test some games that work with this core and do not work with fba/neogeo/cps1/cps2 cores? Stuff like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Toki, Outrunners, etc etc.?

 

[CobraX83]

Wiimpathy did already comment on a couple in that link he posted ---> A lot of little games too slow or not compatible in fba seem to work very well. The mortal kombats or nba jam are a bit slow even with frameskip though.

I will see a bit later today what other small games may work though.

 

[Wiimpathy]

It's just a test with a few drivers, a full mame core would be too large. You can see which games are playable in the tiny.mak file.
To compile it, you need zlib in the libogc folder. In the mame makefile, I've added -I$(DEVKITPRO)/libogc/include for the CFLAGS. Then, compile the core normally with make platform=wii.
Add the .a in retroarch /dist-scripts and launch ./wii-cores.sh.
I must admit it's a terrible mess in my libs so maybe I missed something.
The annoying part is adding the drivers+cpu/sound manually. Sadly, the mk and nba jam are slow. However kiki kaikai runs very well.
It's 1.2.2 by the way.

 

[CobraX83]

I can confirm another Konami game Bucky works with the core Wiimpathy posted. I do not believe it worked with the latest FBA core.

 

[templar701]

Awesome Wiimpathy many thanks, it's quite hard to find info on this topic so glad I stumbled across your posts! I got the source files compiling with your help and now I'm trying to push my understanding further. I'm trying a different compile but have run into some errors as described below:

1. Windows XP
2. DevkitPro installed
3. Source files: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro
4. Copied files contained in \deps\zlib\ to \devkitPro\libogc\include in order to prevent zlib compile errors.
5. Inserted CFLAGS += -I$(DEVKITPRO)/libogc/include to line 57 within \Makefile
6. Within \Makefile activated TARGET = tiny at line 6 by removing the #
7. Copied Wiimpathy's supplied file of tiny.mak to the folder \src
8. Entered DOS command: make platform=wii
9. Compile successfully produces: mame078_libretro_wii.a

Then I downloaded https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch and copied the freshly produced mame078_libretro_wii.a to \dist-scripts
Then I altered the \dist-scripts\dist-cores.sh file at line 4 to PLATFORM=wii.
Then at the DOS prompt I entered bash dist-cores.sh which finally produced the DOL core within \pkg\wii
DOL works fine! - if anyone is still having issues hopefully they can follow the above for a good compile run.

I’m now trying to experiment with different drivers, CPU cores etc and seeing what works. I thought I would start by trying to do a full compile of all drivers first and work backwards (even though I appreciate a full compile of all drivers won't run on limited Wii RAM). So I ran the same setup above but did not carry out step 6, so that default uses TARGET = mame so that the mame.mak file is used. Annoyingly it seems to trip up right at the end with this error:

make: execvp: /C/devkitPro/devkitPPC/bin/powerpc-eabi-ar.exe: Bad file number
make: *** [mame078_libretro_wii.a] Error 127

Please see my image attached which shows the failed compile more clearly.

I can’t seem to debug this error as limited information out there.

Perhaps it’s within \src\libretro\libretro.mak because at line 103 AR = $(DEVKITPPC)/bin/powerpc-eabi-ar$(EXE_EXT) references the exe that has failed…???

Would greatly appreciate any pointers Wiimpathy if you have the time of course.

As for the results of my first compile, I tested Mortal Kombat. I know everyone has different expectations but I personally found MK to be just about playable and expected far worse. Experimenting with the frame skip to find a happy balance is best. Different stages seem to suffer more, for example the bridge is the least that suffers from slow down and is nicely playable compared to the others in my humble opinion.

It's just a test with a few drivers, a full mame core would be too large. You can see which games are playable in the tiny.mak file.
To compile it, you need zlib in the libogc folder. In the mame makefile, I've added -I$(DEVKITPRO)/libogc/include for the CFLAGS. Then, compile the core normally with make platform=wii.
Add the .a in retroarch /dist-scripts and launch ./wii-cores.sh.
I must admit it's a terrible mess in my libs so maybe I missed something.
The annoying part is adding the drivers+cpu/sound manually. Sadly, the mk and nba jam are slow. However kiki kaikai runs very well.
It's 1.2.2 by the way.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Not sure about your error. It's strange that it doesn't fail with a tiny build. Have you tried to remove the $(EXE_EXT) var, or maybe hardcode the path for AR in the makefile(s).
A full build is aroud 20 Mo. It's around 19 without neogeo,cps1 but only a black screen here. It's tedious cause you have to delete the corresponding cpu/sound, modify driver.c and other files too.
And which driver should we remove?
Anyway, it'd be cool if someone know which games are supported in mame and not in fba.

 

[sindrik]

?

 

[zerofalcon]

Try Linux instead of Win XP, for me it compiles without errors. I'm in the process to compile all the compatible or playable drivers/boards/games for mame 0.78, as of now, Namco system boards (namco system 1 and namco system 2) are the most problematic and messy ones, fortunately, a lot of these games are available for the Wii VC arcade -japan only- (ie:Splatter House). Mortal Kombat runs perfect for me, no need to enable frame skipping, even with it's original weird fps counter, maybe because I'm using another rom available in the driver.c. Its a tedious process because the wii limited memory forces us to build different binaries below 10 mb or less to load compatible roms properly.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Mortal Kombat runs perfect for me, no need to enable frame skipping

What?! Which rom are you using?

 

[zerofalcon]

DRIVER( mkla4 ) /* (c) 1992 Midway */

 

[templar701]

Thanks guys, Wiipathy I will try your suggestions and re-post. Xerofalcon I will defo give linux a try, it’s been a while but perhaps I’ll give one of those virtual machines a try or failing that build a new box.

In the meantime I tried compiling a tiny build and copied all the CPU, sound and drivers from mame.mak to tiny.mak, which produced exactly the same error as I posted before. From this am I correct in assuming that the only difference between running a full build Vs a tiny build is:

1) it runs either mame.mak or tiny.mak
2) running a tiny build skips over the full list of rom pointers in driver.c and thus you need to define the rom pointers in tiny.mak

I agree it’s a maze of CPU, sound and driver combos in here. I am trying to come up with a systemic way of choosing the right combo of drivers. This site gives CPU, sound chip and driver details for each rom: http://www.progettoemma.net/gioco.php?&game=mk&lang=en The mame documentation also touches on mame drivers and how they link to each rom: http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Game_Drivers i.e. at the end of each driver file there is macro commands that link to the roms.


Mortal Kombat!!

For some weird reason which I cannot explain, MK rom worked much better if I just loaded tmnt rom for a second then immediately loaded MK. Slow down only occurred right before FIGHT, and also the shang tsung scene suffered, but apart from that OK.

However, I can confirm that Xerofalcon is right, mkla4 runs like a dream without loading tmnt first. Many thanks!

I have attached the latest dol build which

contains pointer to mkla4 for near flawless mk1 aracde experience
included is the tiny.mak file I used to build it
it is the latest build where the video option HW Bilinear Filtering works, which makes the graphics look smooth. I wander if this will improve the look for CobraX83's monitor...

 

[Wiimpathy]

Wow, that's great! I wonder what makes such a difference. According to progettoemma.net, it's mkr4 that runs on another hardware.