Problem running MESS games with mame64

[John Simon]

Hi, 

I've been trying to get the a5200, a7800, and Colecovision to run from GameEx using mame64.  I have been able to get the a5200, but the other 2 are not running for reasons I can't explain.  I have been trying debug this from the command line, and it complains that it can't find the colecovision BIOS file.  When I look at the path in the command line and follow it in the file system to the BIOS zipfile, the file that it is complaining about is there....Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is or other things to try?  I will attach a screenshot of the error at the command line and show the location of the file which it says it can't find as well as the config for the emulator if that helps generate any thoughts.  Thanks!  -John

 

MAME Colecovision Debug.pdf

[Tom Speirs]

I had this problem the other day. I fixed it by putting the bios in \MAME\ROMS. Otherwise you can specify the rom path in the command line.

[greatflash]

The problem you have almost answered yourself. These systems need a bios to run. By default these are stored in your mame/mess directory in a subfolder called roms. Seeing you are pointing mame(mess) to a different rom location, they cannot be found. 

Yoy have two solutions. 

Copy the bios file to your rom directory. 

or, Add a semicolon separated second rom path pointing to your mame rom directory  

-rompath / -rp <path>

Specifies a list of paths within which to find ROM or hard disk images. Multiple paths can be specified by separating them with semicolons. The default is ‘roms’ (that is, a directory “roms” in the same directory as the MAME executable).

[John Simon]

Thanks guys, for the quick response!  Your suggestion helped me get past that problem.  Now, I hit 2 separate problems for Coleco and the a7800.  I'm digging around looking for existing answers, but I'll throw them out here in case you have any quick advice.

With Coleco, I now get to the boot screen, but with 4 different behaviors depending on the ROM.  1.) After the boot screen, the screen flickers black and the boot screen comes back.  2.) It gets past the boot screen and to a menu where you select 1-8 for skill and number of players which is non-responsive.  3.) In some cases, I get past the skill/player menu, but it is followed by a series of screens full of garbage.  (similar to what you see during self-test on older machines, but this doesn't end) 4.) an error screen along the lines of something you see when you pull a cartridge out with the console power on.  Do you think these are problems with emulation, or more likely related to a configuration?

Below is a verbose output of what I see with the a7800.  I just realized how to enable this verbose option, so I am still digesting it.  Once thing I came across in another forum was something to do with the emulator needing a header to designate the ROM as a cartridge (as opposed to some other media).  Does this or anything in the trace below shed any light?  Does the fact there is no sign of the .bin file in the trace suggest that there is a missing path and it is not being mounted as a cartridge?

Thanks again!  -John

C:\Emulation\Emulators\MAME\MAME 64 0182>mame64.exe a7800 -cart "C:\Emulation\RO
Ms\MAME\Roms\MAME 0.182 Software List ROMs (non-merged)\a7800\jousteu.bin" -joy
-now -verbose -log

Region ':maincpu' created
unzip: opened archive file roms\a7800.zip
unzip: found roms\a7800.zip ECD
unzip: roms\a7800.zip has no ZIP64 ECD locator
unzip: read roms\a7800.zip central directory
unzip: closing archive file roms\a7800.zip and sending to cache
Starting Atari 7800 (NTSC) ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting M6502 ':maincpu'
Starting Timer ':scantimer'
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting palette ':palette'
Starting Atari MARIA ':maria'
Starting Speaker ':mono'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting TIA ':tia'
Starting MOS6532n ':riot'
Optional memory region ':riot' not found
Optional shared pointer ':riot:finder_dummy_tag' not found
Starting Atari 7800 Cartridge Slot ':cartslot'
Starting Atari 7800 ROM Carts w/SuperGame Bankswitch + RAM + POKEY @ 0x0450 ':ca
rtslot:a78_p450_t6'
Starting Speaker ':cartslot:a78_p450_t6:pokey_450'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting POKEY ':cartslot:a78_p450_t6:pokey450'
Starting Software list ':cart_list'
Starting Atari 7800 (NTSC) ':'
  (missing dependencies; rescheduling)
Starting Video Screen ':screen'
Starting Speaker ':mono'
Starting Speaker ':cartslot:a78_p450_t6:pokey_450'
Starting Atari 7800 (NTSC) ':'
Fatal error: Device Atari 7800 Cartridge Slot load failed: Unspecified error

 

[B2K24]

There was a bug with Coleco which is fixed in current GIT

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/1f5bf4666d603575aaa42dbc77437f3d54652c56

 

As far as your issue with 7800 it's because your command line isn't quite correct.

With softlist loading as I see Software List ROMs (non-merged) in your rompath you don't need to specify a bin file. Instead specify the zip or 7z file itself. Think of it as the exact same way you launch MAME Arcade sets.

 

 mame64 a7800 joustu