Mega drive mini modified with retroarch, is blastem core available?

[alexallaround]

Hi! I have already modified my mini, but i cannot find the blastem core for retroarch in a supported file type? Do you know where can i find this one?
Thanks!

 

[SylverReZ]

Hi! I have already modified my mini, but i cannot find the blastem core for retroarch in a supported file type? Do you know where can i find this one?
Thanks!

What file type are you on about?

 

[alexallaround]

What file type are you on about?

Hi! Mega drive retroarch modification is compatible with .so file type. I downloaded the blastem core from retrodev site. There is a lib folder with 3 .so files in the downloaded file, but the core doesn't run..

 

[godreborn]

Hi! Mega drive retroarch modification is compatible with .so file type. I downloaded the blastem core from retrodev site. There is a lib folder with 3 .so files in the downloaded file, but the core doesn't run..

That would likely be source code.

 

[SylverReZ]

Hi! Mega drive retroarch modification is compatible with .so file type. I downloaded the blastem core from retrodev site. There is a lib folder with 3 .so files in the downloaded file, but the core doesn't run..

LibRetro has a guide that shows you how to get it running on a Genesis/Mega Drive Mini: https://docs.libretro.com/guides/install-genesismini/

 

[alexallaround]

i have already installed this modification on my mini, the other cores run fine, but the blastem core (which is not in the list of the retroarch cores that are available in classicmodscloudclassiclibretrostableSegaMegadriveMiniso), doesn't run.

 

[raging_chaos]

You'd get better help by asking KMFDManic directly on the Hakchi Discord, he's been the one testing/improving the Xtreme cores for the minis. I'm pretty sure BlastEm isn't a part of the set because it's accuracy based which means it would require a decent amount of processing power. In almost all cases Genesis Plus and PicoDrive will be the better performers when it comes to the underpowered minis.

https://discord.com/invite/KyTDgJE

If you're using Project Lunar you could try asking on the ModMyClassic Discord but they are pretty dead these days.

https://discord.com/invite/8gygsrw

 

[manks]

Blastem won't run on there because it only supports x86 processors. The soc in the megadrive mini is Arm-based.

 

[raging_chaos]

Manic said back in Jan he was considering adding it to his hub. That's why I say it's probably best to ask him directly incase he has something he's been working on but hasn't released.

 

[alexallaround]

Thank you guys for your advice I am gonna ask on the ModMyClassic Discord as i am using project lunar at present and Manic, in case there is blastem core in his mod and why not change to Hachi.

 

[esmith13]

Blastem won't run on there because it only supports x86 processors. The soc in the megadrive mini is Arm-based.

Not that I have seen a RetroArch arm core of Blastem but the standalone Blastem binary is available for arm in general. Evercade devices have used it for Genesis emulation on armv7 Rockchip SoCs for 2 years.

 

[raging_chaos]

BlastEm was supposedly going to be included in the next release of Project Lunar but Swingflip was getting burned out from the community drama in 2019 and by 2020 he stopped putting out public progress updates. He never uploaded the update to Github. The word is he's quit the scene entirely since he deleted his Youtube videos, I'm not sure if the drama between MMC and the Hakchi team played a role in it but the Hakchi team stopped dealing with the MMC team right before that.

I would still imagine the best bet is to ask KMFDManic like I said before. He's been the one carrying the mini's with his core optimizations (especially PSX) and he's usually on the Hakchi Discord. Very friendly guy.

 

[manks]

Not that I have seen a RetroArch arm core of Blastem but the standalone Blastem binary is available for arm in general. Evercade devices have used it for Genesis emulation on armv7 Rockchip SoCs for 2 years.

That's really interesting, I don't know much about the evercades and it's actually pretty cool to learn that they use Blastem. Is that actually a binary that can be used on other Arm devices?

 

[esmith13]

That's really interesting, I don't know much about the evercades and it's actually pretty cool to learn that they use Blastem. Is that actually a binary that can be used on other Arm devices?

I'm not familiar enough with building binaries from source on Linux to know if it could be used on a 'like' platform without rebuilding it or not. That said, I do use retroarch cores from other armv7 platforms on Evercade with about a 70% success rate. Most failures are due to dependencies either not being present in the Evercade OS or being an incompatible version (usually SDL it the culprit).

If you want to try there are two ways to find out. Hack an Evercade on the latest firmware for the newest release of their Blastem build or buy the newest cartridge that has a genesis rom on it and make a $5 cart reader for your computer. Their builds of both retroarch cores and Blastem are kept up to date internally but every cart ships with the applicable RA cores and Blastem directly on them as well in case you never updated the console - tho I assume bug fixes, if needed, come faster as FW updates than making it to newer carts due to dev and production times for physical carts. Their cart releases this month for example have files dated ~Feb. 2022.