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

[RunningSnakes]

@matto21

Yes the wiituka folder is still located in apps.

The way it was set up, the boot.dol was pointing to /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol.
I left the boot.dol path unchanged only editing path to roms. I did this because of instability of WFL recognizing ROMs/games.

I did not test your example of pointing boot.dol to the apps folder. I will test this multiple ways, SD only, USB only, SD/USB combo.

If you would please inform me your testing methods, are you using SD/USB, only USB, only SD?

I've tried every combination available and want the most reliable solution, which at the moment, is how it is.

I certainly do not want an extra step of setting things up or having unnecessary files and folders.

 

[matto21]

@matto21

Yes the wiituka folder is still located in apps.

The way it was set up, the boot.dol was pointing to /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol.
I left the boot.dol path unchanged only editing path to roms. I did this because of instability of WFL recognizing ROMs/games.

I did not test your example of pointing boot.dol to the apps folder. I will test this multiple ways, SD only, USB only, SD/USB combo.

If you would please inform me your testing methods, are you using SD/USB, only USB, only SD?

I've tried every combination available and want the most reliable solution, which at the moment, is how it is.

I certainly do not want an extra step of setting things up or having unnecessary files and folders.

ok, i try all possibilities

 

[matto21]

the roms in whatever folder you put them start by changing the setting in plugin.ini but you must always have the wiituka folder in the apps
I have everything on HD and putting the roms in the amstrad CPC or DISK folder doesn't change anything

 

[RunningSnakes]

@matto21
Thank you for testing and posting results.

The original rom path is working with only USB exclusive setup, it is also working with SD/USB setup, but not working with SD only setup in my testings.

The ROM path change is required in order for WFL to detect roms/games if end user is using only SD.

However, the wiituka.dol located in /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad is not needed, where as the boot.dol located in /apps/wiituka is required. The boot sequence through WFL is identical regardless if the wiituka.dol is deleted, therefore unnecessary.

@matto21
Could you please test this on your side...
Delete the /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol then replace the wiituka.ini with this .ini,



Thanks

 

[matto21]

@matto21
Thank you for testing and posting results.

The original rom path is working with only USB exclusive setup, it is also working with SD/USB setup, but not working with SD only setup in my testings.

The ROM path change is required in order for WFL to detect roms/games if end user is using only SD.

However, the wiituka.dol located in /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad is not needed, where as the boot.dol located in /apps/wiituka is required. The boot sequence through WFL is identical regardless if the wiituka.dol is deleted, therefore unnecessary.

@matto21
Could you please test this on your side...
Delete the /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol then replace the wiituka.ini with this .ini,



Thanks

are you talking about having wiiflow lite in the SD and without having the HD inserted?

 

[RunningSnakes]

@matto21

Using HDD only on your side.

Using /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol and deleting apps/wiituka/boot.dol works with SD and SD/USB combination. I believe you mentioned the boot.dol is required to be in apps/wiituka folder if using HDD only.

 

[matto21]

@matto21

Using HDD only on your side.

Using /wiiflow/plugins/Amstrad/wiituka.dol and deleting apps/wiituka/boot.dol works with SD and SD/USB combination. I believe you mentioned the boot.dol is required to be in apps/wiituka folder if using HDD only.

i have no boot.dol in wiituka folder

 

[RunningSnakes]

Great. So the latest plugin pack updated wiituka.ini is correct for all setups. Happy to call Amstrad solved.

Thank you for your help my friend @matto21

 

[chrondelta]

Heya, forgive me if there's some sort of thread search feature and i'm not finding it, but I'm having trouble with the databases for NeoGeo Pocket, NeoGeo Pocket Color, Bandai Wonderswan, and Wonderswan Color. The emulation mostly works fine as far as i can tell, but it's not finding game titles from the database or referencing snapshots, just showing the filename. I believe im using the files from the Rev6 fix already, so i'm not sure what's going on here?

Oh, and i had to change some titles for my own setup in the PC Engine CD database because, e.g., "Ranma 1/2" isn't a valid file name it can search for to match up with the database. I might go through all the .inis and make similar changes, like probably replace forward slashes with dashes or something. There's also some other oddities in the PC Engine CD .ini, like "Valis IV 4" being the title for Valis IV. I didn't fix those for now, i could, but i instead named my ROM the weird thing.

The RA-HEXAECO Lynx emulator is fine, but WiiMednafen doesn't actually play Lynx games, just says it has the wrong file format. I'm using the other plugin for now.

Also, can someone clarify the order of operations for building this whole setup? The way I think i did it was:
1. Wiiflow
2. Rhapsodii Shima Plugins Pack rev6
3. Rev 6 fix
4. Rev 7 update
5. Snapshots & databases
6. Rhapsodii Shima
7. Rhapsodii Shima Extras (primarily the Refined Source Menu by C2PO)


Is this the right order?

I know i've also had to changes some plugins to use slightly different paths.
E.g. i changed Turboduo to use as Roms and boxcovers path \pcengine\turboduo instead of \pcengine\cd\turboduo
This keeps pcengine cd and turboduo games separated.

Final question: if i wanted to change some of the sound effects used for the source previews, is there anything i should keep in mind? Or can i just record an .ogg and toss it on in there?

Edit: For the record, my platform.ini file is dated 5/7/2021

Edit 2: I just realized another new version 7 was released 10 days ago... oh heavens help me i hope i am keeping track of everything

 

[chrondelta]

Sorry for the double post, but now i'm copying version 7 over what i currently have. A few notes:

Turboduo_pcefast_RA-HEXAECO.ini currently reads

[PLUGIN]
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}|{device}:/roms/0_HEXAECO_cfg/pcecd.cfg
bannersound=ZZ--Sounds/PCE CD.ogg
consolecoverid=pcengine
covercolor=111111
coverfolder=pcengine/cd/turboduo
displayname=Turboduo (pcefast RA-Hexaeco)
dolfile=RA-HEXAECO/beetle_pce_fast.dol
filetypes=.cue
magic=50434449
romdir=roms/pcengine/tg16
rompartition=0

That ROMdir is obviously wrong, but moreover, i think it's a good idea to separate our PC Engine CD and Turboduo ROMs, so,i have changed it to read as such

[PLUGIN]
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}|{device}:/roms/0_HEXAECO_cfg/pcecd.cfg
bannersound=ZZ--Sounds/PCE CD.ogg
consolecoverid=pcengine
covercolor=111111
coverfolder=pcengine/turboduo
displayname=Turboduo (pcefast RA-Hexaeco)
dolfile=RA-HEXAECO/beetle_pce_fast.dol
filetypes=.cue
magic=50434449
romdir=roms/pcengine/turboduo
rompartition=0

There weren't similar errors in the other two plugins, but i have also altered Turboduo_pcefast_libretro.ini and Turboduo_wiimednafen.ini to have the same "romdir"s and "coverfolder"s.

(I may optionally remove the sound because i dun like it XP)

I'm still interested in making slightly different sounds for SNES and N64 too still.

Otherwise, the V7 pack seems to have fixed at least the database issues i was having previously. I will investigate the other issues too.

Edit: WiiMednafen Lynx still says "unrecognized file format" but the other plugin still works.

Edit 2: ... Now "Arcade" is back to showing the coverflow for DOSBOX, which is something i had fixed this past week, i forget how i did it though.

Edit 3: BlueMSX Wii still seems to not want to play my MSX games. When i load a game from WFL, it brings up the background of BlueMSXWii, where i can see v.1.0.3 in the lower right corner. Then an inset beveled rectangle appears on the screen, and then the screen goes black and im kicked back to WFL.

Edit 4: I've also had a better user experience with this by changing WiiSXRX and WiiSXR .ini's to use .cue files instead of .bin files.

 

[chrondelta]

Figured out why Arcade is showing DOS in the coverflow. (Red is the 5/7/2021 platform.ini, yellow is the one from 2/10/2022)


I have been wrestling with this plugin pack for the past two weeks before i noticed the V7, so sorry about that first post. Plz check issues in above posts.

FINAL NOTES BEFORE BED:
-I found the new Turboduo sound effect; MUCH better.
-the pokemon mini plugin exists now, but i'm not seeing it in the sourceflow?
-Just checked Amiga, that's not playing games still. just showing me a looping image of inserting a floppy into a drive. Games are currently in .zip format
-Odyssey2 emulation doesn't accept Player 1 input. Gamecube port 1 registers as player 2 only.
-Amiga still isn't finding .dsk files. Which is weird because it looks like yall supposedly fixed that?
-BlueMSX Wii, not loading games, whyyyy....
-WiiMednafen lynx plugin saying .lnx games aren't valid, though maybe that's the ROMs i have. Will check later. ANSWERED
(Oh yeah fun fact, the homebrew game Zaku doesn't seem to work on the other Lynx plugin; it shows the bootup screen and then goes black. Who knows if this is fixable)


Perhaps tomorrow, i will try rebuilding the setup by modifying the V7 things with the notes i made above:
(1) the pathing in the turboduo plugins, to be pcengine\turboduo (and also fixing the one that mistakenly points to the tg16 folder)
(2) the PS1 plugins taking .cue instead of .bin files
(3) modifying line 169 of platform.ini to read ##=ARCADE instead of ##=DOS
(4) Database and snapshot changes i made / plan to make so it can better search filenames (specifically, replacing forward slashes with dashes and removing any other invalid filename characters, and renaming some of the snaps to match their game; i also *added* snapshots for a few games and will add some more as i figure out what's "missing")

I will do my best to rigorously document this whole process. I hope i'm not forgetting anything. Thank you for all the work you have all already done, because once this gets setup it's REALLY nice.

 

[fledge68]

Edit: WiiMednafen Lynx still says "unrecognized file format" but the other plugin still works.

iirc wiimednafen requires lynx roms to have headers. here read this - https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-gre...tm-a-call-for-adventurers.563575/post-9191590

 

[Wiimpathy]

As far as I know, PC Engine CD and TurboDuo is the same console : all-in-one PC Engine + CD-Rom.
There are many Nec variants but the differences is essentially due to revisions or region names.
The only weird Nec console which had exclusive games(5?) is the SuperGrafx.

 

[chrondelta]

As far as I know, PC Engine CD and TurboDuo is the same console : all-in-one PC Engine + CD-Rom.
There are many Nec variants but the differences is essentially due to revisions or region names.
The only weird Nec console which had exclusive games(5?) is the SuperGrafx.

The box covers collection has both Turboduo (Turbografx CD) and PC Engine CD jewel cases, and they are different shapes, which is why it is beneficial to keep them separated, so the coverflow looks right. Otherwise you'd have misshapen turboduo boxes being fitted over Jewelcase style shapes. This would keep in line with the Style Choice made for the distinction between PC Engine and TG16, which both get their own folders. So PC Engine in total would have 5 subfolders, which seems Fine for me. Also i just made a big edit to my third post above.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@chrondelta

Regarding Cannonball (OutRun), my platform.ini file was mistakenly used for the Hexaeco path (I use DOS for the path. I'll correct this and update.

For Pokemon Mini, this plugin was added recently but has yet to be added to sourceflow.

Turboduo_pcefast_RA-HEXAECO.ini has been fixed and will be updated.

As for MSX and Amiga. After testing, I am experiencing no issues with either plugin. Both read and boot games correctly. I am only using SD for testing, please inform how you are attempting to boot?
SD
SD/USB
USB

 

[Ripster]

@chrondelta

BlueMSX Wii does load games by usening a correct game.xml and dirlist.xml. The games have to be in the exact order in game.xml aswell. I had a huge conversation with @fledge68 regarding this and we finally mange to get it working after all.

 

[chrondelta]

I am using SD only. Also when i said Amiga isn't finding dsk files, i think i meant to say Amstrad.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@chrondelta

For Amstrad you might have to run the stand-alone emulator first to generate the needed CFG file. Try that, then use WFL plug-in to see if it corrects the issue.

Edit:

You may have to copy/paste the .dol file from the plugins folder to apps/wiituka folder and rename it to boot.dol. This has been a troublesome plugin and still may need to be corrected and updated in the plugin pack.

 

[matto21]

@chrondelta

For Amstrad you might have to run the stand-alone emulator first to generate the needed CFG file. Try that, then use WFL plug-in to see if it corrects the issue.

Edit:

You may have to copy/paste the .dol file from the plugins folder to apps/wiituka folder and rename it to boot.dol. This has been a troublesome plugin and still may need to be corrected and updated in the plugin pack.

i am using amstrad CPC without boot.dol in apps / wiituka folder

 

[chrondelta]

Is there anything special i need to do to get MSX working 'out the box'? I've been pouring over readme files and such and nothing indicates i have done something wrong there.