New RetroFE modular installation on EmuMovies FTP

[phulshof]

16 minutes ago, Ghost-Colombia said:

I've started building my own cabinet and came across retrofe and emumovies.  I'm very impressed with the work done on both and currently have the retrofe media pack downloading.  

 

I have no programming experience  (will try to learn some basics to take full advatage of the software eventually) though and had some questions.  

 

When I unzip the files to the retrofe directory am I unzipping to c/retrofe?  Or somewhere else?  Do you have any tips where I can start learning command prompt as it relates to retrofe?  Could steam games be added to the front end?

 

All paths in the media pack are relative, so it does not matter where you place the RetroFE directory. Just unpack the base pack anywhere you want, and unpack everything else from the RetroFE directory created when unpacking the base pack. You don't even need a command prompt; you could simply unpack using Windows Explorer if you prefer. Just move the zip files to the RetroFE directory, and unpack them there directly.

 

Steam games can certainly be added, though since I don't use Steam myself I don't know what the launcher should look like. I'm pretty sure there are people on the RetroFE forums that could give you a hand though.

[Ghost-Colombia]

Why are there 3 versions of Mame?

[phulshof]

Which versions are you referring to?

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[Ghost-Colombia]

.188

.187

and .184

 

also 2 versions of base retrofe

 

Did you just possibly leave these in as options to install older versions of mame or retro?  Or are they all actually needed?

[phulshof]

Ah, yes, that first one. I figured I'd leave them for now in case someone had an older rom set, but you can use just the latest. I'll probably delete the older versions in time.

[BlackTiger78]

Haw You got any plans for update bezels pack for mame ?

[phulshof]

Haw You got any plans for update bezels pack for mame ?

I normally update the bezels once per month; I've just been a tad too busy this one. [emoji3]
Anything in particular you're missing?

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[B2K24]

Thanks phulshof for providing all these packs. I'm confused about a few things in getting this running.

My current MAME setup functions with many different front-ends as well as command-line, so I'm all ready to go with complete sets.

I'm using windows 10 X64 and my MAME path is J:\MAME

My rompath in mame.ini is J:\MAME ROMs (T7Z-Merged);J:\MAME CHDs;J:\MAME Software List ROMs (T7Z-Merged);L:\MAME SOFTWARE LIST CHDs

I've extracted RetroFE to location J:\RetroFE

I wish to use my current MAME as it is without using the MAME 0.188 emulator package

 

I don't seem to have a menu.txt and the folder named launchers.windows is an empty folder. How exactly do I tell RetroFE where my mame folder is and where my roms are at?

 

[phulshof]

8 hours ago, B2K24 said:

Thanks phulshof for providing all these packs. I'm confused about a few things in getting this running.

My current MAME setup functions with many different front-ends as well as command-line, so I'm all ready to go with complete sets.

I'm using windows 10 X64 and my MAME path is J:\MAME

My rompath in mame.ini is J:\MAME ROMs (T7Z-Merged);J:\MAME CHDs;J:\MAME Software List ROMs (T7Z-Merged);L:\MAME SOFTWARE LIST CHDs

I've extracted RetroFE to location J:\RetroFE

I wish to use my current MAME as it is without using the MAME 0.188 emulator package

 

I don't seem to have a menu.txt and the folder named launchers.windows is an empty folder. How exactly do I tell RetroFE where my mame folder is and where my roms are at?

 

 

When it comes to MAME arcade games, RetroFE doesn't need to know where your roms are. As long as you launch MAME, and your mame.ini file is configured correctly, it should work just fine.

If you unpack the MAME art pack you should not only get the MAME artwork (without the videos; that's a separate package), but also a Windows launcher. Simply edit that launcher (launchers.windows\mame.conf if I'm not mistaken), and change the path to MAME. If collections\Main\menu.txt doesn't exist yet, just create one, and add the collections you want to show (e.g. Arcade) on separate lines. You can add the MAME bezels to your MAME emulation folder (default in the artwork subdirectory) if you'd like to use those as well.

 

That's basically it really when it comes to setting up MAME with your current installation. The MAME art pack uses an include.txt file to define which games should be shown in the menu. As an alternative, you could point to your MAME roms directory in the collections\Arcade\settings.conf file, and only show the games for which you have the roms.

 

There's also a MAME sub collection pack you could unpack. It will simply create sub collections for MAME (Cave, CPS I-III, Neo-Geo MVS), using all the art and launcher settings from your MAME (Arcade) collection.

 

Let me know if you run into any trouble, and be sure to include your log.txt file so I can have a closer look. :)

[B2K24]

Thanks so much! Doing those steps enabled MAME games to show along with artwork in RetroFE. Thanks so much for the quick reply.

 

I just need to get the keys set to my N64 pad and I'll download the packs for the other systems as well to see if it can handle other simple systems with software lists.

 

Thank You again

[B2K24]

I've extracted all the packs and everything is looking really good. Having a minor issue getting software lists working on windows however. I know I've read that you use Linux, so I'm aware of that.

It looks like from the log RetroFE is sending the following to MAME:

[2017-09-19 18:14:39] [INFO] [Launcher] Attempting to launch: "J:\MAME\mame64.exe" snes -cart ""

when it needs to send only the machine + setname

mame64 snes ctrigger

 

It looks like "%ITEM_FILEPATH%" should be something else, but I am unsure what to put there.

contents of Super Nintendo Entertainment System.conf

executable = J:\MAME\mame64.exe
arguments = snes -cart "%ITEM_FILEPATH%"

 

[B2K24]

Here's my full log if it helps...

log.txt

[phulshof]

This is always a good place to start looking: http://www.retrofe.nl/wiki/doku.php?id=launchers

For SNES software lists, you could use

arguments = snes "%ITEM_NAME%"

There are a few issues you'll encounter though:

1. Your ROM names will not match the names in the include.txt, so you'll have to delete the include.txt file, and point to the software list rom directory in your SNES settings.conf file.

2. Your ROM names will not match the information in the XML file, so you'll lack all the additional information. You should download the corresponding software list XML from the RetroFE site.

3. Your ROM names will not match your art, so you'll have a LOT of art renaming to do...

As an alternative, you could also just download the HyperSpin 1.0 ready cart set that contains all the matching ROM files. That set also contains the files for most of the other art sets I put on the FTP.

[phulshof]

MAME 0.191 files have been added.

[BlackTiger78]

Hello

Are You planing to update bezels mame pack to lastest version, its quite old for now ?

[phulshof]

Hello
Are You planing to update bezels mame pack to lastest version, its quite old for now ?

What updates are you expecting? I'm in the process of converting Krakerman's latest work (though not exactly my style), but are you missing other ones?

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[BlackTiger78]

Hello

There are many titles updated by Krakeman in lastest months, ireally would like to test in mame

 

for example: Jail Break, Punch-Out! , Exerion, iron horse and many others

I dont have knowledge to convert them to mame, thats why im asking...

[phulshof]

30 minutes ago, BlackTiger78 said:

Hello

There are many titles updated by Krakeman in lastest months, ireally would like to test in mame

 

for example: Jail Break, Punch-Out! , Exerion, iron horse and many others

I dont have knowledge to convert them to mame, thats why im asking...

 

Fair enough. Yes, I'm working on them, but there were over 100 of them, so it takes a bit of time (which I seriously lack at the moment), but I'm getting there. :)

[BlackTiger78]

No problem i a wait. Its glad to hear thats the project isn't dead.

 

[phulshof]

32 minutes ago, BlackTiger78 said:

No problem i a wait. Its glad to hear thats the project isn't dead.

 

They should be up now; I think I'm up to date with Krakerman's work at the moment. There's a few new sources of bezels that I need to take a look at to add them to the set as well.

The project certainly isn't dead, but the bartop I'm having built for myself will contain a 4:3 monitor after all, so I won't be using them. That slightly lowers my priority for working on them rather than spending time working on RetroFE. In addition, I'm working on some MAME code to allow for default artwork to be loaded, so all games can use a default art set if none is available for that particular game.

[BlackTiger78]

My future bartop is on the way to, got 28' crt tv, control panel, computer on 15khz mode, but have no time to working on this project. Small steps

But main pc i used t play vertical games, because playing vert games on horizontal tv setup i bleeeh  ;p and decent bezels are really great idea

or im looking for better solution maybe you know any ?? Im using groovymame and i prefer native resolution.

Can you share  who else making bezels ?? Im using Yours compilation, some from OrionAngels and still have hope that John M will be back

[phulshof]

35 minutes ago, BlackTiger78 said:

My future bartop is on the way to, got 28' crt tv, control panel, computer on 15khz mode, but have no time to working on this project. Small steps

But main pc i used t play vertical games, because playing vert games on horizontal tv setup i bleeeh  ;p and decent bezels are really great idea

or im looking for better solution maybe you know any ?? Im using groovymame and i prefer native resolution.

Can you share  who else making bezels ?? Im using Yours compilation, some from OrionAngels and still have hope that John M will be back

 

28" for a bartop? I think you'll damage your eyes considering the distance you'll be sitting from the monitor. :)

I designed some default bezels for a 10:16 cocktail setup, with full-screen single player vertical games, in the past, but I've since then abandoned that project. I generally use standard MAME though (self-compiled no-nag that is).

There's a number of people creating bezels, including OrionAngels. Krakerman's very active, Derek Moore creates some new ones from time to time, and of course we've had several people on the HyperSpin forums creating them in the past, like AlexDC and Ashurax. There's also a few people on the RetroPie forums whose names I can't remember right now. I basically grab them where I find them, after asking the authors for permission to add them to the set. In some cases I can automate the whole adding process via scripting, but more often than not I have to do it by hand.

[phulshof]

RetroFE base pack updated to version 0.8.14.

[B2K24]

Thanks so much for your continued work and support to provide these packs. It's very nice of you to take your time in doing this.

Very much appreciated :)

[KushielAOC]

First of all, thanks for all the work it looks amazing. I have everything up and running but when I select a game it just makes a fire sound and doesn't go anywhere. I've tried several systems, sorry if I seem kind of naive but I came from Lakka, but I wanted a little more pizazz when I make an arcade cabinet and this is looking beautiful but so far has no functionality for me. 

EDIT: Silly me, I finally found the Readme file because I was blind apparently. I thought it came with ROMS. Trying to find a bigger pack than I had previously since you have so many more titles than I do... But that brings up a new problem, where do I put the roms once I have them? I tried creating folders in the collections named roms but the only one that opened was Alex the kid on Genesis and then every game after that opened Alex as well...