Hacking The Great Quest for Wiiflow Plugins™ - A call for adventurers!

[RunningSnakes]

Posting what i use & think are the best WFL plugins for several consoles/handhelds.

For arcade (MAME) as @Tetsuo Shima has made very clear, use @Wiimpathy mod cores. Do not bother with Hexaeco cores, they work very well, but there is much compatibility loss.

I am grouping Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000 cores collectively. I prefer using SuperrSonic Hexaeco cores since WFL is being used as the frontend. After using for years, i do not believe the GX stand-alone provides any benefits, please correct me if i misspoke.

Game Boy Color emulators were easily the toughest for me to truly give solid results. I want GB and GBC to be treated separately! Many emulators have initial slowdown when booting up GBC games, but play great FPS (no slowdown dips) during gameplay. Other emulators have no FPS trouble at all, but at the expense of screen-tearing or other troubles.

I consider this a guide to what works best, but it is only my personal opinion from my gaming and testing.

Spoiler

Atari 2600

wii2600
-----

2600 Hexaeco
____________________


Atari 7800

wii7800
7800 Hexaeco (very solid)
____________________


Atari Lynx

WiiMednafen Lynx
-----

Handy Lynx Hexaeco
____________________


Colecovision

wiiColem
____________________


Game Boy

Gambatte Hexaeco
mGBA Hexaeco
-----

FixGB RA Official
Gearboy Hexaeco
WiiMednafen GB
-----

VBA GX
-----

mGBA Official
____________________


Game Boy Color

Gambatte Hexaeco
VBA GX
-----

WiiMednafen GB
Gearboy Hexaeco
FixGB RA Official
-----

mGBA Hexaeco
mGBA Official
____________________


Game Boy Advance

mGBA Official
-----

EmGBA
-----

VBA GX
-----

mGBA Hexaeco
WiiMednafen GBA
-----

VBA-Next Hexaeco
____________________


Famicom Disk System (FDS)

FCEUmm Hexaeco
Nestopia Hexaeco
-----

FCEU TX-GX-RX
WiiMednafen NES
-----

FixNES
____________________


Nintendo NES

FCEUmm Hexaeco
FCEU TX-GX-RX
-----

Nestopia Hexaeco
WiiMednafen NES
-----

QuickNES Hexaeco
FixNES (hope for improvements)
____________________


Super Nintendo

Snes9x TX-RX-GX
-----

SNES Next Hexaeco
SNES Plus Hexaeco
____________________


PCEngine

WiiMednafen PCE
PCE SGFX Hexaeco
____________________


PCEngine CD

WiiMednafen PCE
PCE Fast Hexaeco
____________________


Neo Geo Pocket

WiiMednafen NGP
NGP Hexaeco (very solid)
____________________


WonderSwan

WiiMednafen
-----

WonderSwan Hexaeco
____________________


Virtual Boy

WiiMednafen Virtaul Boy
____________________


Sega 32x

PicoDrive RA (192)
____________________


Sega CD

Genesis Plus GX Hexaeco
GenesiS Plus GX
-----

PicoDrive RA Official
____________________


Sega Genesis

Genesis Plus GX Hexaeco
Genesis Plus GX
-----

WiiMednafen Sega
____________________


Sega Master System

Genesis Plus GX Hexaeco
Genesis Plus GX
WiiMednafen Sega
____________________


Sega Game Gear

Genesis Plus GX Hexaeco
Genesis Plus GX
WiiMednafen Sega
____________________


Sega SG-1000

Genesis Plus GX Hexaeco
Genesis Plus GX
WiiMednafen Sega

I think it is reasonable to believe not much will change given the life of the Wii, but PicoDrive was just released on RA and it is great entry. Gearboy on RA official has palette problems, but the Hexaeco outdated version does not & works well. Hope Fix94 puts more work into FixGB, as it is, it is one of the best GB emulators i never gave a try until recent.

The link below will direct to games i tested for GBA.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/mgba-vs-emgba.578215/

As for GBC games tested...

Alone In The Dark
Cannon Fodder
Dragons Lair
Fish Files
New Addams Family
Tomb Raider
Toy Story Racer

At least a dozen other games were tested that didn't seem to change behaviour among any emulator.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Thank you so much @RunningSnakes for your report.
I agree 100% with you, except for two little things:
PC-Engine CD: last time I've tested it, wiimednafen and Hexaeco had some small stutterings in video and audio that rarely happened (e.g. during boss fights in Castlevania). So, my preference goes to the Retroarch core included in the pack.
GB/GBC: I'm kinda obsessed with the DMG gameboy (it was my first console). I don't like the DMG palettes in Hexaeco, they make my eyes hurt (too bright) and are not even similar to the real thing. My personal preference goes to standard Retroarch (Gambatte) for GB too, with its accurate DMG palette combined with accurate grid scanline it's a joy to play. Never noticed any slowdowns of sorts.

On another subject: has anyone tested the latest stable retroarch, apart from the picodrive core? If it's really stable I'd gladly update the pack with it.

 

[RunningSnakes]

I will have to test the RA official Gambatte, as i will admit, i dismissed that version. Also, PCE is very dear to my old self. My late mother bought me the console in 1990 for my birthday present. I only owned 3 games, Legendary Axe, Keith Courage, Bonks Adventure. Never got another game, too expensive in Iowa USA. A few years later gave the console to a childhood friend, dont remember what the trade was.

The very reason i put WiiMednafen above Hexaeco PCE is, WiiMednafen will allow Turbo button configuration. It is standard on the TG-16 controllers, and Hexaeco-RA do not have the standard controller options.

If you have played Bonks Adventure on PCE-TurboGrafx-16, you know turbo IS required.

 

[NormalMisha]

Firstly thanks for the pack, it's crazy big and extensive (too much so for me actually).

Is the modified genplusgx 1.7.5 dol included with this pack known to crash? I'm using a fresh install of the latest WiiFlow Lite and your plugin pack from this thread.

I tried Sonic The Hedgehog and The Lion King roms. Both cause an immediate crash (DCI error). No crash occurs if I use a different genesis emulator plugin.

I'm pretty sure it must be a bug in the modified dol, but I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned it.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

@NormalMisha I think this must be the reason:

@Tetsuo Shima and everyone else.

It appears that ekeeke has found the issue with using genplus gx plugin when games are on USB. If I recall the latest plugins of genplus gx would crash when using USB HDD but worked fine if on SD. This appears to be fixed here - https://github.com/ekeeke/Genesis-Plus-GX/commit/3eac114065329e29bc99ac9263b3dc6781a73923

this commit is a workaround since the real problem seems to be with the newer devkitppc newlib. @Wiimpathy seems to have noticed that this also poses problems for retroarch. so the problem has to do with wiiflow sending path args with usb1: or usb2:. newlib doesn't like that, it apparently wants just usb:.

Anyway, you can get the latest build of genplus gx wii boot.dol here - https://github.com/ekeeke/Genesis-Plus-GX/tree/master/builds and use it as the genplus gx plugin dol.

 

[Brand Newman]

Good evening everyone, and first of all congratulations for all the efforts you people are putting into keeping our beloved Wiis alive!

I have a small question regarding Hexaeco version of Retroarch, as I met an issue using it with @Wiimpathy 's wonderful FBA modified core for big Neogeo games.

So I noticed that default path for "cache" seems to be different, ("private/other/system/cache"), and since I couldn't find the line to modify in the "settings" file, I changed the folder name accordingly.

But when I boot the exact same rom as I do with the "original" version of Retroarch that Wimmpathy provided, I get scrambled graphics, whereas the sound and HUD remain perfect.

I tried the same files with both software by copying them in both folders, but the problem remains.

Below are some screenshots comparing "original" and "Hexaeco":

With regular Retroarch, the software starts by extracting into Vm:

Then I get these pictures:

With Hexaeco, a "loading" message appears instead:

But then the image is all messed up (as I mentioned, HUD and sound are good):

That's a shame, considering how much better Hexaeco version is...

Has any of you met the same issue, and did you overcome it?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

PS : unrelated, but I don't think the FBA2012 core does NeogeoCD emulation, if any of you could be nice enough to confirm?

 

[gZa]

I had a similar issue, if I recall I think I changed the *.dol file. There were two in the HEXAECO folder;
fba2012_neogeo_vm.dol - did what you describe.
vm_fba2012_neogeo.dol - works fine.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Good evening everyone, and first of all congratulations for all the efforts you people are putting into keeping our beloved Wiis alive!

I have a small question regarding Hexaeco version of Retroarch, as I met an issue using it with @Wiimpathy 's wonderful FBA modified core for big Neogeo games.

So I noticed that default path for "cache" seems to be different, ("private/other/system/cache"), and since I couldn't find the line to modify in the "settings" file, I changed the folder name accordingly.

But when I boot the exact same rom as I do with the "original" version of Retroarch that Wimmpathy provided, I get scrambled graphics, whereas the sound and HUD remain perfect.

I tried the same files with both software by copying them in both folders, but the problem remains.

Below are some screenshots comparing "original" and "Hexaeco":

With regular Retroarch, the software starts by extracting into Vm:

Then I get these pictures:

With Hexaeco, a "loading" message appears instead:

But then the image is all messed up (as I mentioned, HUD and sound are good):

That's a shame, considering how much better Hexaeco version is...

Has any of you met the same issue, and did you overcome it?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

PS : unrelated, but I don't think the FBA2012 core does NeogeoCD emulation, if any of you could be nice enough to confirm?

The neogeo core provided in the Hexaeco pack(fba2012_neogeo_vm.dol) is based off an old neogeo vm core before v5. Since R5 and after, there's better loading times and other game's fixes. The latest build is here :
https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/page-16#post-9007895
Download OLDRETRO, the NEWRETRO is broken as all latest official fba retroarch cores.
This build has just the 1MB fix instead of 512KB in V6.

There's no Wii neogeo-cd core. FBNeo is huge, too accurate and the maintainer don't support Wii. It'd be probably slow anyway?
It's about the same situation for the neocd_libretro core. Well this one could be possible as there's already a wii-u port. There's also a Vita port but they say it's slow with some titles in comments...

 

[Brand Newman]

Good evening @gZa and @Wiimpathy , and thank you for your swift answers.

So, I downloaded the core Wiimpathy gave me the link of, and I can confirm it worked!

Now, that being said, and I guess it's perfectly normal since the core was built with "regular" retroarch, I "lost" the Hexaeco "advantages" by doing so.

The GUI was from normal retroarch, the Gamecube controller took over the Wiimote (I don't know about you, but as long as it's connected, regular Retroarch won't let me use my Wiimote), and the core list was empty except for the neogeo "large roms" core, due to the fact that the core folder wasn't correct anymore (was set to retroarch default folder instead).

I managed to get the core list back by tweaking the options, but turns out that using the neogeo V6 core gives me an experience similar to regular retroarch, whereas choosing another core takes me back to Hexaeco configuration.

It's still a wonder to boot big roms with VM anyway, but since Hexaeco is meant to cut unnecessary features from retroarch to save some memory, I guess it's a bit of a shame I can't have both!

But once again, thank you for your solutions, as well as for giving me comprehensive info about neogeocd emulation not being possible on retroarch (yet): I guess NeoCD Redux Unofficial works well enough (except for SS RPG, sadly), and I take the opportunity to thank Wiimpathy about his great job on NeoCD-Wii back in the days.

I know this console is often seen as a downgraded version of the cartridge one, but NeoGeo CD was my first encounter with the system, and I so much dig some of the arranged orchestrations (Samurai Shodown and Last Blade did wonders), and even the artworks from the loading screens!

Well anyway, thanks again everyone, I wish you all a nice evening!

 

[loquinator3000]

Hey @Tetsuo Shima for the next release you might want to change the casecolor to 111111 for every system that uses cd jewel cases. I updated wiiflow and rhapsodii shima today and those cases are back to having green spines.

From the wiiflow 5.4.9 release notes:
"officially added the clear CD case spine skin image. In your plugin ini file use casecolor=111111"

 

[MrSW]

@loquinator3000 reload cache

 

[loquinator3000]

@loquinator3000 reload cache

Reloading cache worked after setting covercolor to 111111

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Hey @Tetsuo Shima for the next release you might want to change the casecolor to 111111 for every system that uses cd jewel cases. I updated wiiflow and rhapsodii shima today and those cases are back to having green spines.

From the wiiflow 5.4.9 release notes:
"officially added the clear CD case spine skin image. In your plugin ini file use casecolor=111111"

Of course I'm already aware of this, but the new release is still pending because I don't have so much time to work on it and there are still some fixes to do to plugins (incuding the ugly ScummVM situation that's driving me crazy).
Ok, I promise it won't take too long. In the mean time you can manually edit the ini files with covercolor=111111 (casecolor doesn't exist)

 

[NormalMisha]

@NormalMisha I think this must be the reason:

How humiliating. The answer was only a few pages back. Sorry.

I have used the newly built .dol from the developer's code repository and it works fine now. Thanks.

It would be cool to add something like this to your FAQ:

Q: Why do my ROMs that are loaded by genplusgx cause a crash?
A: The old genplusgx's IO library doesn't like being passed "usb1:" or "usb2:" as a parameter. It needs simply "usb:". Replace the existing 1.7.5 dol with a newly built genplusgx dol from [insert link to genplusgx source].
[insert link to fledge's post about the cause of the problem]

Better yet, when you next update the plugins pack, include the new genplusgx dol.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Better yet, when you next update the plugins pack, include the new genplusgx dol.

Yes this is what I'll do. I'm updating other dol's too, like Snes9xGX and TX with the new awesome scanlines.

 

[NormalMisha]

Yes this is what I'll do. I'm updating other dol's too, like Snes9xGX and TX with the new awesome scanlines.

When people talk about modified emulator DOLs for the plugins pack, how/why have the DOLs been modified? Is it because some of them did not support being passed a ROM path? Come to think of it, the not64 DOL does not start the game immediately, it just loads the ROM.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

The only dol's I modified are the Retroarch cores. I edited them with a hexadecimal editor following Wiimpathy's tutorial, to make them save their own configuration files, being forced to mix different RA versions.
A few other plugins had to be modified by other people (Fledge68, Wiimpathy...) to be able to pass the arguments and other things.
However, most of the time DOLs can be used as plugins with no required modification.

the not64 DOL does not start the game immediately, it just loads the ROM.

It's normal behaviour.That was one of the plugins that required some kind of modification at source code level (by Wiimpathy) to work with WFL.
It was not even loading the ROM before. WIISX is working this way too.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

New update:
Plugins Pack rev6 released today!

Spoiler: CHANGES

- Reworked folder structure and rewrote installation instructions to be as complete as possible
- Changed the cover colors to 111111 for plugins with clear cases (jewel cases, cassette cases). Use Wiiflow 5.4.9 or above to show them.
If you're updating from a previous Pack version, reload the cache in Wiiflow or they will be showing up in green color.
- Fixed conflicts in configurations between Fceu GX, RX and TX. Each one is now in a separate folder and saves its own configuration file. Control mappings and save states are working again. They still use a common romspath for games (roms/nes and roms/fds) but you can change it if you want to have them separated
- Same as above for Snes9x GX, RX and TX. Their common romspath are roms/snes and roms/satellaview
- Added Atari XEGS (atari800_libretro and wiixl)
- Added Amstrad GX 4000 (cap32_libretro)
- Added Sega 32X (picodrive_libretro and picodrive_HEXAECO)
- Updated the DosBox plugin to version 1.7x beta4 r4301 dynrec. Huge improvement in performances thanks to Dynamic Recompiler. I've left the old version to be able to edit the mapper files with the Wiimote
- Updated RA-HEXAECO to April 27 2021
- Updated many other plugins to their most recent versions (see dol_versions.txt in wiiflow/plugins)
- Added Retroarch Fuse core for the ZX Spectrum
- Splitted the 'Color' and 'Black & White' versions of Wonderswan and Neogeo Pocket. They are separate platforms now, just like GB/GBC
- Updated platform.ini with the new platforms and flows
- All plugins .ini files are saved with Windows end-of-line, as they should be
- Added a few missing banner sounds. Some are still missing
- Fixed some HEXAECO cfg files that still needed the private folder. Now all paths are pointing to wiiflow/plugins/RA-HEXAECO

 

[NormalMisha]

Thanks, big dog! Not sure I'M brave enough to use it yet.

[...deleted - wrong thread...]

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

@NormalMisha these are questions concerning Rhapsodii Shima and not the Plugins Pack.
Anyway, I'll respond here.
Coverflows are not hardcoded. You can change them as you wish, by going to Wiiflow Settings page 2 --> Adjust coverflow.
Coverflows are stored in an .ini file inside wiiflow/themes_lite/coverflows.
'Default.ini' is for coverflows with the default theme, while 'Rhapsodii Shima.ini' is for coverflows with my theme.

I only recently discovered the bothnands thing. I believe that a background named bothnands.png would work for your case.
TBH, I don't get why someone should need both nands, when you can just put everything on emunand and never use real nand anymore (which btw has a huge limit in space and slowly deteriorates every time you use it).
Well, in all truth, Real Nand would still be used for Wii savegames, but that is so much less wear and tear than making full use of it.