[jplaj]

dragonaut92: It’s Retropie’s Graphic User Interface–a menu you can bring up while playing to enter system commands. You can set it up in the config file using a hotkey function, if you’re familiar with that.

[jplaj]

gbouras: The option should exist. Look through your config file. You should be able to set up a hotkey command to open RGUI. If you enter this command when the game prompts you to switch disks, you can find the option to “append disc,” which will let you select the next disk in sequence. Like I said, though, there have been bugs, so let us know if you can’t find the hotkey command in the config file, or if you set it up but it doesn’t work.

[jplaj]

It turns out my problem was a bug that occurred when I upgraded an older version, which seemed to delete RGUI altogether, and I couldn’t open the menu or use hotkey shortcuts. Newer versions haven’t seemed to have this problem (although I don’t think I’ve tried it yet on the newest one…I should probably test that.)

If you’re switching disks correctly (by opening RGUI–check your hotkey commands–and using the append disk function) you should just be able to save over your old file information once you switch to the next disk.

[jplaj]

Looks like about 1%

[jplaj]

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by running “top,” or how to check the CPU while idling.

[jplaj]

kakaost,

Just like you can save states at any time during the game, you can load states at any time as well, as long as the rom is running. I’m not familiar with the savestate_auto_save function that vcolombo mentioned (it might be something from a release I haven’t worked with), but at the very least you should be able to do this manually during the game.

Before trying to troubleshoot the autosave_interval problem, I just want to check to make sure we’re looking at the same thing. The function is a little deceptive; it doesn’t actually save your game. All it does is, if there is an option as part of the game to save to the cartridge, it records that data periodically, rather than waiting until shutdown. So assuming it works correctly, you’ll have to use an in-game save point, record data, wait five seconds, and then it should be saved. If that doesn’t work, let us know exactly what happened.

[jplaj]

There shouldn’t be any need to overclock for any of those systems. They’ll run perfectly on the basic setting.

I’ve only had performance issues with PSX, and overclocking doesn’t seem to help that, so I’d say there’s no need.

[jplaj]

No, it helps. Thanks. Actually, after your last comment I started looking around and changed my es_system.cfg path back to the retroarch folder instead of the mame4-all-pi/mame direction. Once I did that, everything started working perfectly.

I appreciate the information. I figure if I keep making stupid mistakes like that, pretty soon I’ll know the programming inside and out.

Thanks again!

[jplaj]

I didn’t realize there was an option. My command line in es_system.cfg sends me here:

COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/mame

So whichever version of mame is running from that file (again, based off the 1.9.1 image downloaded from this website). Keep in mind, I had to figure that out myself, so it may not be the original path designated for the emulator. Is there a better one to use?

[jplaj]

So I’ve made progress…figured out what I did wrong (copied my es_system.cfg from my old file…1.9.1 has a different path I had to designate).

However, solving that problem, I uncovered a new one. I can now get into MAME on all the old roms that worked on my other system, but it gives me an error message (in MAME, not the raspberry pi log) saying required files are missing, then after a moment it shuts down MAME and brings me back to emulationstation.

Any ideas?

[jplaj]

So I’m about 75% confident that I know what happened and how to fix it. I just need to ask a favor; would someone who has MAME running correctly on the 1.9.1 installation go to their es_system.cfg file and copy their MAME entry to this thread so I can compare it to mine?

Thanks.

[jplaj]

trimmtrabb: This should be the newest version. I ran the upgrade/update on it last night.

gizmo98: I’ve set up the bypass configuration file for PSX so I can use Playstation controllers while still using SNES controllers for everything else. My issue isn’t which controller I’m using (I’ve tested the other three, just to be sure). In fact, every other hotkey function works fine on controller 1 while I’m in Playstation. It’s only the menu_toggle and the disc change functions that get no reaction.

[jplaj]

Tried the new file. No changes at all.

I’m pretty sure my config file is solid, and the problem is somewhere in the installation. Keyboard commands won’t bring up the RGUI menu either. I think it’s simply not part of the program.

[jplaj]

I’ve attached both the main config and the one I use for PSX (note: the difference in file name is only so I could copy them into the same directory. They both have the same name on the SD card), in case that makes any difference. It’s worth noting, though, that RGUI won’t open in any of the RetroArch emulators.

I’m not sure it’s a config issue, though. The menu_toggle and disc_eject/next functions, I added myself. There was no information about RGUI at all in the original file. It did work briefly (as mentioned in the other post) when I updated Retroarch in September, but now there’s nothing.

[jplaj]

c-fu:
Sorry for the late response. I’m having new trouble with this. I’m going to start a new thread.

[jplaj]

Moorens:

I’m not sure what these lines are for:
input_player1_l_x_plus = +0
input_player1_l_y_plus = -1
input_player1_l_y_minus = +1
input_player1_l_x_minus = -0
I don’t have them in my config files (the lines ending in _axis are all I need for the directions), but at the very least they shouldn’t hurt any.

It looks fine, but of course the only real test is whether or not it works when you try to play the game.

Roquen:

I think I may have misunderstood you last time. We may have gotten our wires crossed over the difference between save states and game save files.

Save States are what the emulator does to record your game–like taking a snapshot of what’s going on at any particular moment so it can start from there next time.

Game Save Files are read by the game itself, and function the same as if you were playing with a console and cartridge. The problem many people have is that with RetroPie, you can save in-game, but the Game Save File (should be created in the same folder as the Rom, unless you’ve designated otherwise) won’t be created or update unless you cleanly exit the emulator, which RetroPie has trouble with. This can be fixed using the autosave function, which doesn’t actually save the game, but it does update the Game Save File. This should let you play the game normally, like you want.

However, don’t test this using a Super Mario World or Mario All Stars. There are weird quirks with those two Roms (they often change between player1 and player2 inputs for my controllers between the maps and the levels, for example), and I can’t guarantee that they’ll work properly, even with a short autosave interval.

[jplaj]

moorens –

Not sure what the NES button mapping is, but you can change the numbers from mine:

input_enable_hotkey_btn = 8
input_save_state_btn = 5

input_enable_hotkey_btn = 8
input_load_state_btn = 4

I have it set up so I can hold “select,” and then press “R” for saving (R for Remember) and “L” to load. If you want to use the directional pad instead, just change the “btn” extension to “axis.”

roquen-

I don’t know of any way to sync game saves with emulator save file updates. If you set the autosave interval to a short enough time, though, you won’t notice any difference. I have it set to update the save file every 3 seconds.

[jplaj]

I’ve found it’s a pretty complex problem. You have to have MAME files from the Mame4all romset, but you also need to have files for the same game from different romsets as well, and you can’t rename any of the files or use ES Scraper for MAME. I don’t understand why it works that way, but I’ve found if I change any one of those things, I can’t play the roms anymore.

[jplaj]

I got it working.

I don’t expect that many people will have this problem, but if they do, all I did was update the setup-script, then just re-installed RetroArch (not PSX, like I tried the first time).

For everyone who offered help, thank you!

[jplaj]

I tried it, but still no effect. My other hotkey commands are coded over two lines each and they work fine, so I don’t think the problem is in the hotkey coding.

Someone on another website suggested it may have something to do with the video driver not supporting RGUI, but I’m using the driver he suggested.

Is it possible that for some reason RGUI didn’t get installed in my setup or updates? Is there a way to check to see if it’s even on my SD card?

Thanks.

[jplaj]

Never mind. Figured it out. Apparently the update still has issues with RCA output, but doesn’t shut off the screen completely. Works fine now that I moved it back to my HDMI input.

[jplaj]

If it helps, I found a debug log. Every time I tried to load a game, it generated a message like this:

lvl2: Attempting to launch game…
lvl2: /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 1 “retroarch -L /home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores/gambatte-libretro/libgambatte/gambatte_libretro.so –config /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg –appendconfig /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/gbc/retroarch.cfg /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gbc/Zelda\ -\ Oracle\ of\ Seasons.gbc”
lvl2: Starting SDL…
lvl2: Creating surface…
lvl2: Resolution: 720×480…
lvl2: Created surface successfully!

[jplaj]

Also, if it makes any difference, I’m not sure, but I don’t think the disk_eject and disk_toggle lines were in my config file when I set up the device…I may have found them somewhere else and typed them in manually. Is this possible? Could I be using an outdated version?

[jplaj]

I found those when I first set up PSX, but I’ve never been able to get them to do anything. It seems hit-and-miss which functions work–I can exit the emulator, use savestates, change save state slots, and take screenshots, but ejecting/changing the disk and recording movies gets no reaction at all. I can live without the movies, but the disk swapping is a little more important.

[jplaj]

I’m on 800, and I’d like to bump it up a little more to fix problems with PSX, but I’m not sure about it. The term “overvolting” seems a little intimidating. Could someone explain what that means?

Also, one website said class 10 cards have corruption issues with overclocking. Has anyone had issues with this?

[jplaj]

Update: I figured out the save state problem (my hub actually forces me to use controller 3 as player one), but still not sure about how to read the in-game save file.

[jplaj]

Sending you back to the main menu could mean a lot of things, but I’m not sure what the .cfg file could do to cause that.

Plug in a keyboard, select a rom, and after it sends you back to the menu, hit F4. This will bring up the log, which should list the problem. Tell us what it says.

[jplaj]

jbaker1225,

You helped me before on an issue like the one I’m having now and I want to know if you might be able to help again. I’m missing another menu option on the gpsp GUI, the option for setting the flash rom type to 128k. Are there any updated files I could find to add this option?

Thanks.

[jplaj]

I can vouch for the RetroLink brand controllers as well. Also, since I started using PSX, I bought two of these: http://www.amazon.com/PS2-Playstation-Controller-Adapter-Converter-2/dp/B000YMQGWU/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1373938467&sr=1-1&keywords=ps2+usb+adapter

They’re super-cheap and they work great, if you’ve got the PS2 controllers to use them with.

[jplaj]

Hmm… that’s an interesting scenario. See if you can edit the retroarch.cfg file directly. If you can, read through it; not only can you set up save states, but there’s a long list of neat things you can do, including screenshots and recording videos. You’ll just have to bind them to hotkeys (I have mine bound to select + L, for “load”, and select + R, for “remember”(save)):

input_enable_hotkey =
input_save_state =

input_enable_hotkey =
input_load_state =

Also, I’d have to check this later, but I think you need to add _btn or _axis to each of those functions to tell them whether they’re using buttons or the D-pad.

While you’re there, could you copy and paste your autosave line to this thread? I’d like to see what might be the problem.

Finally, I’m not sure what you mean when you say you got Brave Fencer Musashi working, but it wouldn’t recognize the BIOS. Could you describe your problem in more detail? If PSX doesn’t recognize the BIOS, the game shouldn’t work at all. However, I’ve found that “No BIOS found” doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with the BIOS.

[jplaj]

The power rating could be an issue. I’ve also recently found out that with the hub plugged in, I can’t hot swap controllers. Oddly enough, the joypad index seems to be arbitrarily linked to specific ports on my hub. I did finally get everything to work, but all four controllers must be plugged in when booting, and I ran joyconfig for indexes 0 – 4, but the first time it would only register three of my controllers. I had to reboot with the fourth controller in a different port, then it worked fine.

[jplaj]

The technique in all the tutorials, using:
retroarch-joyconfig -o ~/RetroPie/config/all/retroarch.cfg
–never worked for me.

The only thing I’ve found that works reliably is running retroarch-joyconfig without the write-to-file feature. It’ll run you through the list of buttons. Press them as they come up. There will be more buttons than you have. For the extra ones, hit any button. At the end, it’ll spit out a long list of numerical values. Write these down (pencil and paper).

Then you need to open up ~/RetroPie/config/all/retroarch in a GUI text editor. You can do this on the pi by plugging in a keyboard, hitting F4, then typing:

startx

Open the file manager and browse to the file.

…OR

plug the sd card into a card reader on another computer. Same deal. Browse to the file.

Under the joypad input section, it’ll give you the option to enter in numerical values for all the buttons a controller might have. Get rid of the “#” from all the buttons you have on your controller, then enter the corrosponding numerical value you wrote down on paper.

For a second controller, copy + paste the whole thing right after it, but change the “player1” part of each line to “player2”.

I hope this helps you both.

[jplaj]

Sometimes if you play one game for more than a half hour or so, you can hit start and select, but it won’t exit cleanly. The question is, does the exit emulator bring you back to the emulationstation menu (clean exit) or a black screen with a white dot in the center (failed exit)?

Yes, the autosave interval works within the game and does not require a clean exit.

Unfortunately, I can’t help you with PSX since I’m still trying to get my controller setup working right. However, if anyone else knows about this, I’d be interested to learn, too.

[jplaj]

Hi, thanks for the help. I finally got all the equipment I needed to test this. Here’s what happened.

All equipment I’m using has been confirmed to work individually.

One powered hub.
Two retro-link USB SNES controllers (I’ve been using these ones for months)
Two PS2 to USB adapters
Two PS2 Sony-brand controllers.

I ran the es input configuration with all four controllers running through the hub. The two SNES controllers were used for players one and two. The PS2 controllers were for players three and four. I’m assuming that means they’re indext 0, 1, 2, 3 respectively.

Ran joyconfig once with the SNES controller, once with the PS2 controller. Neither one would work through the hub, so they were plugged in directly to the Raspberry Pi when I did that.

I wrote down the outputs, then manually entered them in retroarch.cfg, with the SNES inputs for players one (index 0) and two (index 1) and the PS2 inputs for players three and four (2 and 3).

I altered the retroarch.cfg file in the PSX folder to read:

input_player1_joypad_index = 2
input_player2_joypad_index = 3
input_player3_joypad_index = 0
input_player4_joypad_index = 1

Here are my results:

All four controllers work in emulationstation, whether running through the hub or plugged into the pi directly.

The SNES controllers work in-game, but only if they were plugged directly into the pi when it boots up. Snes controllers have control over PSX games (which would be fine except for R2 and L2 buttons), despite the change in index. (I even tried overriding the ‘input_player1_btn’ lines to match the PS2 controls)

The PS2 controllers don’t work in-game at all.

[Ideally, I’d like to not have to use the hub at all. I’ll never need more than two players, so I’ll either boot up with the PS2 controllers for PSX, or the SNES controllers for everything else. However, I’m not adverse to using the hub if there are no other options]

Thanks for your help, as always.

[jplaj]

By default, the save files update when you cleanly exit the emulator. You can save the game in-game all you want, but unless you hit the exit emulator combination and it goes cleanly back to the emulation station menu, the progress won’t be recorded.

If this is the case, there’s an easy fix. Get into the retroarch.cfg file (where you set up the controller inputs) and look for:

# autosave_interval =

This will cause the save file to update on an interval of however many seconds you input. Change it to something like:

autosave_interval = 5

This will update the save files every five seconds. The only downside is, if you want to shut down immediately after saving, you’ll have to wait five seconds to make sure it’s updated. So don’t put anything too large in there, or you’ll have to wait three minutes or so.

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