Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[LibretroRetroArc]

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful. I'm loving the GBA emulator. Works wonderfully.

Just two problems. I'm trying Pokemon Emerald on it and everytime I boot it up I get a "you got a corrupted file" message. While it doesn't kill the game, it's kinda annoying seeing it everytime. Theres also a small lag on the audio. Anyway to fix this? It doesn't happen on Visualboy gx (it uses .sav files while RetroArch uses .srm)

That game entry probably needs to be added to VBA Next's built in vba-over list so that saveRAM/flash RAM is properly detected.

'Small lag on the audio' is it falling below 60fps most probably - since there's no frameskipping.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I wasn't trying to sound demanding but if I did, I'm sorry I didn't know Snes9xGx relied on frameskipping, and your goal is to avoid using that at all costs. But like I said about Kirby's Dreamland 3, I'll use Snes9xGx to bypass the problematic levels, and continue on Snes9x Next. You shouldn't have to re-enable pseudo hi-res since very few games used it, the only other game I know that uses it is Jurassic Park, but only when those informative messages pop up from Mr. DNA. I'll live with it, it's not a big deal. The fact it runs as well as it does without the skipping is very impressive, Yoshi's Island runs 60fps, something Snes9xGx struggles with. It was not my intent to stress you out.

Pseudo hi-res is only disabled for Kirby's Dreamland 3 right now (and only when compiling for Wii) - the pseudo hi-res effects are not disabled in Jurassic Park.

BTW - you shouldn't really apologize so much to me - remember, I come from the PS3 scene where drama and users biting the hands that feed them are the norm - so trust me, you're ten times more polite than the usual user I deal with. Luckily I have thick skin

I know, I just don't like inadvertently offending people, but I do have one final question that's not SNES-related. I noticed you mentioned you'll eventually be porting gpSP (or something like that), which is GBA emulator, you mentioned that it would be able to play most, if not all games at full speed?

Yes, even with the interpreter, it should still be faster than VBA. gpSP however lacks mosaic support and Golden Sun 1/2 are known not to work - the main author deserted it after some drama in the PSP scene (original host system for it) but notaz has a very nice fork of it which I fully intend on porting to libretro and consoles (if he doesn't already).

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Also, Mother 3 now runs on VBA Next - ToadKing might or might not update that core so that people can get it to play (it didn't before due to out of RAM issues).

 

[Chido]

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful. I'm loving the GBA emulator. Works wonderfully.

Just two problems. I'm trying Pokemon Emerald on it and everytime I boot it up I get a "you got a corrupted file" message. While it doesn't kill the game, it's kinda annoying seeing it everytime. Theres also a small lag on the audio. Anyway to fix this? It doesn't happen on Visualboy gx (it uses .sav files while RetroArch uses .srm)

That game entry probably needs to be added to VBA Next's built in vba-over list so that saveRAM/flash RAM is properly detected.

'Small lag on the audio' is it falling below 60fps most probably - since there's no frameskipping.

I see. Well, the audio lag isn't anything big. Anything is better then the horrible video lag I was getting with VBAGX that made games hardly playable.

 

[Coto]

I'm surprised that the Wii CPU is better than the CPU of the Xbox1 for emulators - since the original source code for the emulators are more x86 compliant.

Same surprise here - I expected the total opposite when doing these two console ports for this release (0.9.7).

Isn't because you are porting the work already done for the PS3? Both Wii and PS3 CPU are x64.

IIRC X64 evolves from AX,BX,CX,DX x86 (and more) registers. Those are architecture dependent . PPC lives in another world

 

[Hielkenator]

Having trouble with a few roms.
It would be great if someone could confirm they work, and how to set this up.

Marvel vs Capcom. Tried it by merging parent and child roms, no luck. cps2
Hyper Street Fighter cps2
The Punisher cps1

 

[bm123456]

Having trouble with a few roms.
It would be great if someone could confirm they work, and how to set this up.

Marvel vs Capcom. Tried it by merging parent and child roms, no luck. cps2
Hyper Street Fighter cps2
The Punisher cps1

Marvel vs Capcom working here perfect .

but the other two are not working as well.

 

[quepaso]

Is anyone having problems with neogeo games not working? My romset is 100% perfect (clrmame pro with dat file from newest FBA), and it just errors loading neogeo roms. Everything else works fine (cps1/cps2/snes/genesis/nes). I tried multiple neogeo.zips as well. Could my core be bad for neogeo?

 

[Dogway]

Having trouble with a few roms.
It would be great if someone could confirm they work, and how to set this up.

Marvel vs Capcom. Tried it by merging parent and child roms, no luck. cps2
Hyper Street Fighter cps2
The Punisher cps1

MvsC, working here, I needed to add MvsCu.zip as well for making it work.
Hyper Street Fighter cps2 didn't work here, and I don't expect it to work so I leave tests for the end.
The Punisher cps1, I will test now.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, doesn't work here, no matter what. I converted to fba_029726 dat romset, and also loaded sf2eb.zip, and sf2uk.zip, along parent sf2.zip (world). Although I could make them run on fba on PC.

 

[Hielkenator]

Having trouble with a few roms.
It would be great if someone could confirm they work, and how to set this up.

Marvel vs Capcom. Tried it by merging parent and child roms, no luck. cps2
Hyper Street Fighter cps2
The Punisher cps1

MvsC, working here, I needed to add MvsCu.zip as well for making it work.
Hyper Street Fighter cps2 didn't work here, and I don't expect it to work so I leave tests for the end.
The Punisher cps1, I will test now.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, doesn't work here, no matter what. I converted to fba_029726 dat romset, and also loaded sf2eb.zip, and sf2uk.zip, along parent sf2.zip (world). Although I could make them run on fba on PC.

Thank you , got MvC working.
I have to load the mvcu.zip with the mvc.zip present in the same folder.
Great game btw.

 

[Dogway]

I tested the punisher, and had troubles as well with it. Even rebuilding the zip with clrmame. The trick here was to rebuild from a rom which contained files were *.rom (and not something else like .2k, .4a, etc), after rebuilding it gets its proper file extensions, namely .2k, .4a, or whatever was required in the data set. I included both punisher.zip, and punisheru.zip, but I think you only need the former.

With this discover I will test now with sf2.zip, >crossed fingers<
edit: Impossible, I can't find any rom, with *.rom file extension in it. No one I tested worked...

 

[tankberg]

Can someone confirm me if there's more lag using cordless controller? I kinda feel the GC controller to response better but I don't know.

I can feel it too. Got some hard times while trying to perform moves like Shinkuu Hadoukens in SFA. Tried with classic controller and NeoGeo Stick.

 

[Kypiyo]

Can someone confirm me if there's more lag using cordless controller? I kinda feel the GC controller to response better but I don't know.

I can feel it too. Got some hard times while trying to perform moves like Shinkuu Hadoukens in SFA. Tried with classic controller and NeoGeo Stick.

Hi all

Congratulations for this great emulator, I installed it yesterday and i feel this lag too.

For example, i tried the NES mario bros 3, and only with the wiimote responds correctly but if I connect the gamepad pro it shows a delay in controls, is very noticeable when you press jump repeatedly into the air with raccoon costume. If I unplug the gamepad the game works again correctly

My gamepad is not original, but I have the same game (mb3) in vitual console and it works perfect in both the wiimote and the gamepad connected.

Same problem with the other emulators also...

Anyone else have this problem?
With Original gamepad?

 

[nakata6790]

A question, why no love for mednafen's gba core? I found it much faster than vbagx, it supports .zip files, and loads almost instantly.
Also, i know sound like a broken record but please is there a possibility of a forwarder, or it's not technically possible? A simple yes or no, i 'll shut up.

This emu really can become the go to choice for all Wii retro gaming, performance is already amazing thanks to immensely talented folks behind the project, just some choices for the settings and menus (no, i'm not referring to gui, i know this is unnecesary bulk) keep it from being user friendly (or noob friendly, if you prefer) for those who enjoy their Wii (that sounded wrong) along with not computer savvy members of their family (smaller siblings, parents etc. in my case).

Again, huge thanks for this great piece of software

=EDIT=
Punisher works on fbalpha core for me, just make sure to find the correct rom for fba, i't different than the one for mame.
Myselfe, i can't get Xain Sleeva and Snow Bros I to work correctly
Also, from my experience the MAME of each rom is important. I had renamed a few of my roms (lets say sf.zip to street fighter.zip and they stopped working. Once reverted to sf.zip they worked again)

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

A question, why no love for mednafen's gba core? I found it much faster than vbagx, it supports .zip files, and loads almost instantly.

I would be highly surprised if the Mednafen GBA core is faster than VBA Next at this point.

Also, i know sound like a broken record but please is there a possibility of a forwarder, or it's not technically possible? A simple yes or no, i 'll shut up.

If 'forwarder' means - something like Multiman-style 'load ROMs from another app by executing RetroArch and giving it some params', then the answer is yes.

For example, i tried the NES mario bros 3, and only with the wiimote responds correctly but if I connect the gamepad pro it shows a delay in controls, is very noticeable when you press jump repeatedly into the air with raccoon costume. If I unplug the gamepad the game works again correctly

IIRC, Tantric's emulators suffered from similar input lag problems - or at least people having issues with it.

You're playing on a CRT right? I must say that on my LCD TV I've never really found the self-imposed lag to be that bad as to not being able to enjoy it, but wireless controllers and HDTVs are always going to be adding in some input lag of course.

 

[ploggy]

By forwarder he means a channel to load the Emulator directly from the Wii menu.

 

[groose]

If 'forwarder' means - something like Multiman-style 'load ROMs from another app by executing RetroArch and giving it some params', then the answer is yes.

Hi there LibretroRetroArch,

I think most of the people here are asking for the RetroArch "shortcut" in the Wii System Menu that links to the boot.dol on the sd:// or usb:// so they don't have to go through the HomeBrew Channel every time to launch it. We're a lazy bunch!

Then, if we could take things a bit further and have one forwarder (shortcut) for each core (by passing the equivalent of the -L argument on the PC version), it would be even better.

And finally, it seems indeed that some have expressed the wish for single game launch (I assume to mimic the presentation of Virtual Console games) where you would need to specify the core and the rom path.

That sounds like a lot of work (especially if you go with sound and animation like the ScummVM of GX emulator forwarders) but I'm sure some folks with experience in this area can help. (is XFlak still around?)

 

[Coto]

A question, why no love for mednafen's gba core? I found it much faster than vbagx, it supports .zip files, and loads almost instantly.

I would be highly surprised if the Mednafen GBA core is faster than VBA Next at this point.

Also, i know sound like a broken record but please is there a possibility of a forwarder, or it's not technically possible? A simple yes or no, i 'll shut up.

If 'forwarder' means - something like Multiman-style 'load ROMs from another app by executing RetroArch and giving it some params', then the answer is yes.

For example, i tried the NES mario bros 3, and only with the wiimote responds correctly but if I connect the gamepad pro it shows a delay in controls, is very noticeable when you press jump repeatedly into the air with raccoon costume. If I unplug the gamepad the game works again correctly

IIRC, Tantric's emulators suffered from similar input lag problems - or at least people having issues with it.

You're playing on a CRT right? I must say that on my LCD TV I've never really found the self-imposed lag to be that bad as to not being able to enjoy it, but wireless controllers and HDTVs are always going to be adding in some input lag of course.

For some reason HDTVs and composite video signal "builds up" more lag than using component cables, add that a wavebird GC / wiimote (bluetooth seems more responsive than RF) and you got nearly 1/2 sec. of input lag. Some HDTVs like Sony tend to suffer, but LGs or older plasma tvs no (yes, but it isn't that noticeable). (depending on analog decoder?)

A wired GC controller fixes most lag issues

 

[Dogway]

For some reason HDTVs and composite video signal "builds up" more lag than using component cables, add that a wavebird GC / wiimote (bluetooth seems more responsive than RF) and you got nearly 1/2 sec. of input lag. Some HDTVs like Sony tend to suffer, but LGs or older plasma tvs no (yes, but it isn't that noticeable). (depending on analog decoder?)

A wired GC controller fixes most lag issues

I use a Samsung LCD HDReady, plugged through component. I was playing Vampire Saviour in turbo mode Classic Pro Controller, and realised how much I was sucking. It just came up to my mind if it had to do something with input lag, threw a few weak punches and kinda seemed off. Plugged an only few months old unofficial GC controller, to realise it was already broken (I knew I had to purchase the official, actually at the time I was fooled thinking I had bought the official off ebay), left on d-pad, b button, jostick... it felt rusty after a few months not being used, yet it was smooth as silk to win the matches. Back to classic pro, and started to lose again.
I don't know about Tantric's emus, I haven't played such reaction demanding games, probably mario world and donkey kong on snesx9, sonic advance, on vbagx, before buying the component cables...

 

[Kypiyo]

For example, i tried the NES mario bros 3, and only with the wiimote responds correctly but if I connect the gamepad pro it shows a delay in controls, is very noticeable when you press jump repeatedly into the air with raccoon costume. If I unplug the gamepad the game works again correctly

IIRC, Tantric's emulators suffered from similar input lag problems - or at least people having issues with it.

You're playing on a CRT right? I must say that on my LCD TV I've never really found the self-imposed lag to be that bad as to not being able to enjoy it, but wireless controllers and HDTVs are always going to be adding in some input lag of course.

For some reason HDTVs and composite video signal "builds up" more lag than using component cables, add that a wavebird GC / wiimote (bluetooth seems more responsive than RF) and you got nearly 1/2 sec. of input lag. Some HDTVs like Sony tend to suffer, but LGs or older plasma tvs no (yes, but it isn't that noticeable). (depending on analog decoder?)

A wired GC controller fixes most lag issues

Ok, thank you both, I have two different models of GC controllers, I'll prove it this night. I have a LCD 32" TV Samsung with composite video signal, i'll try with components cables too