Mess setup in Retroarch

[reznnate]

The setup of Atari 5200, Atari 7800 (before Prosystem core was fixed) and Mattel Intellivision with the Mess core was quite painful.

Mess requires very specific bios files in very specific places and everything must be named exactly right.    I couldn't find anything like this in the PC HSPIN community so I renamed everything by hand.    (BTW, I haven't bothered with any other systems) 

 

A few tips...

1. Need to set/define a 'system' rom folder for retroarch in settings->Directories

2. Inside that system folder, you need a '<system>/mess2014/hash' folder with the various hash files that ship with MESS (binaries).

3. In the case of Atari 5200, the Rom folder must be named ../a5200 and the Bios files must be placed in ../a5200/a5200 subdirectory

4. In the case of Intellivision, the Rom folder must be named ../intv and bios files placed in ../intv/intv.    A few of these rom files were tricky to identify (stic.zip, contains ro-3-9503-003.u21 file, and a few other(s)

 

The rest is just 'work'...modifying all the media files and dbase to match rom naming convention.   For those interested (and still reading this...), send me a msg here and I'll point you at some helper files from my setup.  Clarify if you want 5200, intv, or both.

[BiZzAr721]

Thanks. Sounds good, but seems like something I'll put on the back burner for a while. My wife wasn't too happy last time when I spent countless time renaming and organizing all the CD system roms. 

[Gotthat]

Thank You for the info. I have been having the hardest time getting Atari 5200 running. 2600 and 7800 work fine but 5200 is a pain. so any help is welcome as I am new to setting up systems

[reznnate]

Sent you a link to my data files as an example

[Sting]

Hi Rez, please can you me these helper files??? Sorted A5200, just need intv please

Edit: Can't get it to load through Hyperspin :/

[juggleking]

Hello,

 

Could you send me the link to ? I would like to play the intellivision games , ... would like to jump more then 30 years back in time. ( without spending a year on configuration in retroarch ).

 

Thanks,

[badhemi]

So far I got

Atari 5200

Intellivision

Mattel Aquarius

Channel f

Arcadia 2001

Bally Astrocade

Creative Mega duck

Watara Supervision

Entex Adventure Vision

[Pouteur]

Hi reznate.

Can you send me alink of your data files ?

Thank you ?

[ninja2bceen]

The setup of Atari 5200, Atari 7800 (before Prosystem core was fixed) and Mattel Intellivision with the Mess core was quite painful.

Mess requires very specific bios files in very specific places and everything must be named exactly right. I couldn't find anything like this in the PC HSPIN community so I renamed everything by hand. (BTW, I haven't bothered with any other systems)

A few tips...

1. Need to set/define a 'system' rom folder for retroarch in settings->Directories

2. Inside that system folder, you need a '<system>/mess2014/hash' folder with the various hash files that ship with MESS (binaries).

3. In the case of Atari 5200, the Rom folder must be named ../a5200 and the Bios files must be placed in ../a5200/a5200 subdirectory

4. In the case of Intellivision, the Rom folder must be named ../intv and bios files placed in ../intv/intv. A few of these rom files were tricky to identify (stic.zip, contains ro-3-9503-003.u21 file, and a few other(s)

The rest is just 'work'...modifying all the media files and dbase to match rom naming convention. For those interested (and still reading this...), send me a msg here and I'll point you at some helper files from my setup. Clarify if you want 5200, intv, or both.

can you post an example or you mess system folder?

[Sting]

Here you go

system.zip

[ninja2bceen]

Thanks but I think this is your mame folder and not mess?

[Pouteur]

Thanks sting, now i can use :

 

GX 4000

WATARA SUPERVISION

ATARI 5200

BALLY ASTROCADE

INTELLIVISION

CREATIVE MEGA DUCK

ARCADIA 2001

ADVENTURE VISION

CASIO PV 1000

[ninja2bceen]

So do you just drop the system folder in your set up and select name then or mess?

[Sting]

So do you just drop the system folder in your set up and select name then or mess?

Which version of MAME are you using??? MAME and MESS are now combined, so MESS is no longer a separate app/core so everything MESS used to do is now in MAME

[ninja2bceen]

Ahhhh ya 169 that is probably my problem this whole time, I have a mess folder!

[ninja2bceen]

so I dropped your system folder in mine and it launches the emulator finally but to a black screen when I launch a sage sg1000 game. why for the black screen?

[Sting]

so I dropped your system folder in mine and it launches the emulator finally but to a black screen when I launch a sage sg1000 game. why for the black screen?

A black screen and doesn't load??? Have you set your system folder as BIOS directory also???

[ninja2bceen]

Ah yes my bios directory wasn't mapped. In pointed it to the system directory but still get a black screen. for what its worth, I just am using gigapigs retro arc set up, I've never gotten this thing to work in general. Is there a tutorial to get retroarc running in general? there are several obscure systems that will only work through retro arch so I'm at a stop until I can figure this out

[Sting]

Watch this, and then let me know if it's still not running I'm using the (MAME) core for sg1000, is that the core your using or the (Genesis/Pico) cores???

[rambo32]

The guides on this forum have been awesome, thank you to all involved. Reznatte I was able to get up Atari 5200 with your setup but I thought I would try intellivision on my own, I went

through all the trouble of renaming everything including the all media but for the life of me I cant get it working. If you still have your intv files could you send them my way?

[rambo32]

Disregard, finally got it going

Now if only I could figure out how to get past the loading screen in PCFX

[thatman84]

What was the issue with Intellivision?

[rambo32]

Bios, now to try and figure out the controls

[badhemi]

Bios, now to try and figure out the controls

should be easy

[phantasy]

5200 and Mattel Intellivision are indeed quite tricky.  So I tried the instructions at the start of this post, but things aren't working, so I am missing something. This thread makes it tricky to know when people are talking about RetroArch and when MESS, or even a newer MAME/MESS combo build. Can we clarify a few things as this is a great tutorial that deserves more of a step by step:

 

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the "ideal" emulator(s) to use for Atari 5200 with the best compatibility?

2. What is the "ideal" emulator(s) to use for Mattel Intellivision with the best compatibility?

 

Steps:

1. Need to set/define a 'system' rom folder for retroarch in settings->Directories  (CHECK - Mine was set by default to 'settings' as a RetroArch root subfolder)

 

2. Inside that system folder, you need a '<system>/mess2014/hash' folder with the various hash files that ship with MESS (binaries).

(CHECK - Assuming in RetroArch still, I created the following subfolder directories:

 

RetroArch\system\Mattel Intellivision\mess2014\hash  (intv.hsi, intv.xml, and intvecs.xml within)

RetroArch\system\Atari 5200\mess2014\hash (a5200.hsi, and a5200.xml within)

 

ALSO, to cover all grounds on misinterpreting the instructions:

 

RetroArch\system\system\mess2014\hash (a5200.hsi, and a5200, intv.hsi, intv.xml, and intvecs.xml within)

 

3. In the case of Atari 5200, the Rom folder must be named ../a5200 and the Bios files must be placed in ../a5200/a5200 subdirectory

4. In the case of Intellivision, the Rom folder must be named ../intv and bios files placed in ../intv/intv.    A few of these rom files were tricky to identify (stic.zip, contains ro-3-9503-003.u21 file, and a few other(s)

 

 

CHECK on both steps. I renamed my roms folder as follows with my bios files in the last directory and my actual roms one subfolder prior of the same name:

 

Z:\Games\Mattel Intellivision\intv\intv

Z:\Games\Atari 5200\a5200\a5200

 

I downloaded system.zip and extracted all (mainly it is the hash folder needed- I'm not there yet on the Donkey Kong stuff within) to:

 

Z:\HyperSpin\Emulators\MAMEUIFX 0.175.1

 

and, again in case I misinterpreted I also copied the system.zip contents to:

 

Z:\HyperSpin\Emulators\MESS 159

Z:\HyperSpin\Emulators\MESS 176

Z:\HyperSpin\Emulators\MAME177_32

 

Directly in 32 bit latest RetroArch (separate from HS), I've made progress in that it now "sees" my Intellivision and 5200 roms... but crashes instantly after loading one (even after manually selecting a core first).

MameUIFX and non GUI 32bit MAME 177 - I have set extra rom paths to both newly created bios folders and still no love from MAME.

MESS - If I find the system from the search bar, mount a cart, then load it, both systems work, but compatibility is scattered.

 

NEARLY THERE!!!

1. Should bios files be renamed to anything like bios.bin or bios.a52 etc?

2. What emulator combination are people using? To get the others to work, I can switch to 64bit Win7, Linux or whatever.

3. Unless a specific need to switch emulators or on a certain game, I like the minimalist approach to just MAME/MESS/RetroArch as much as possible if compatibility is good.

 

 

I'd be happy to ignore the setup of (and lay rest to the need for) the single purpose emulators:

 

Mattel Intellivision:   Bliss, jzIntv, Nostalgia

Atari 5200:              Atari++, Jum52, Rainbow

 

I hope this thread leads to a definitive guide to these two systems!