Nostalgia 5.0 (Intellivision) error in Rocketlauncher/Hyperspin

[drjea2010]

Hey all...you were such great help with my last issue I thought I'd try again.

I grew up having a Mattel Intellivision. Thought it would be fun to add to my cabinet (running Windows XP). I've read a TON and am stuck. Here's where I am:

I've tried BOTH Nostalgia 5.0 and 4.0. Both emulators work fine on their own, outside RL/HS and games can be loaded and played. The issue is when I try to launch a game through Rocket Launcher games tab OR in the Hyperspin wheel. First, I get a windows popup that says "Unable to load game from file." Then after I clear that out, I get the blue box from RL/HS that says "There was an error waiting for the window 'ahk_class NostalgiaGameClass'. Please check you have the correct version emulator installed for this module...." (you all know the rest. Then, the Nostalgia 5.0 interface itself opens up. I suppose I could just run it like this, but it defeats the purpose of all the fun displays, videos, artwork, customizability and ease of access having it in RL/HS.

I've triple checked every conceivable setting. I'm at a loss.

I don't know if it has something to do with the game file names (I used Don's Hyperspin tools to rename them all to the appropriate HS ready file names) or something else with the AHK that I still have yet to learn. My hunch is it is something simple, but I'm at a loss.

(Additional note....I had a prior issue with Nestopia working for NES and never could get it to work, so started using Retroarch for NES without issue. The same line of thought, I tried using "Mess" for Intellivision and, first...what a....mess....Mess is. Confusing and above my pay grade, but I got it figured out, though when I went to load a game the screen went black and then would flicker ever-so randomly with a flash of color. Even with the proper setup there, I couldn't get anything to load in Mess. I'm really hoping the Nostalgia fix is an easy one).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Happy new year!

[Spawk]

You had the right idea, Intellivision runs fine in RA... but you should use the "FreeIntV" core:

[drjea2010]

Thanks for this. But I'm not using Retroarch; I'm trying to get Nostalgia emulator working through RL/HS? I've read online that people have gotten it to work. Is there a reason I couldn't?

(Also, I should note I did try using Retroarch one time for another system--I currently have it for NES--and I couldn't figure out how to set UNIQUE controller mappings for the different systems, and it drove me crazy, so I've tried to keep Retroarch dedicated to only NES).

OR....can you point me to a very clear, basic, step by step instruction on how to set up multiple unique controller mappings PER SYSTEM in Retroarch? Then that would probably solve my problem (if Nostalgia is a no-go in RL/HS....such a simple interface, that Nostalgia).

[dark13]

9 hours ago, drjea2010 said:

Thanks for this. But I'm not using Retroarch; I'm trying to get Nostalgia emulator working through RL/HS? I've read online that people have gotten it to work. Is there a reason I couldn't?

(Also, I should note I did try using Retroarch one time for another system--I currently have it for NES--and I couldn't figure out how to set UNIQUE controller mappings for the different systems, and it drove me crazy, so I've tried to keep Retroarch dedicated to only NES).

OR....can you point me to a very clear, basic, step by step instruction on how to set up multiple unique controller mappings PER SYSTEM in Retroarch? Then that would probably solve my problem (if Nostalgia is a no-go in RL/HS....such a simple interface, that Nostalgia).

Open a game and press F1, controls, set the key. You can then save per core configuration and per game configuration. From this point of view RA rocks, still have to understand why you can't set run ahead configuration on games (usually 2 frame ahead is ok, some games need 4 frame ahead).

 

[drjea2010]

22 minutes ago, dark13 said:

Open a game and press F1, controls, set the key. You can then save per core configuration and per game configuration. From this point of view RA rocks, still have to understand why you can't set run ahead configuration on games (usually 2 frame ahead is ok, some games need 4 frame ahead).

 

Thanks Dark, I'll try this. I really wish Nostalgia would work as I want it to. Any idea(s) on why that isn't working, or how to fix that?

[dark13]

Honestly I'm using RA for lots of systems, you can use CRT shaders and reduce input lag with run ahead. Just try battle garegga or galaga88 on MAME and on RA's FBneo core with run ahead at 4 frame to understand the difference. Not using Vsync is a good solution too but you will have screen tearing.

[drjea2010]

53 minutes ago, dark13 said:

Honestly I'm using RA for lots of systems, you can use CRT shaders and reduce input lag with run ahead. Just try battle garegga or galaga88 on MAME and on RA's FBneo core with run ahead at 4 frame to understand the difference. Not using Vsync is a good solution too but you will have screen tearing.

I'm doing this in RA now. I've got the core, loaded it, and trying to start a game but get an error telling me my exec.bin and grom.bin aren't in the right place. So I put them in the "system" folder in my RA in Windows and now I"m not getting that error, but I am still getting the windows "send error report" pop up and the screen does nothing when I try to start a game? When I click "don't send error report" the emulator closes. What am I missing now? (To be clear, I'm doing this all outside RL/HS right now; just trying to get RA to load the game through the emulator itself. No dice....help!).

[drjea2010]

Here is a quick snap of the readout before the error pops up. Anything telling here?

Also, I tried it on a second, different computer....this time after loading the core and then trying to load a game, it acted like it wanted to start but then RA just closed/went away. The 2 .bin files are indeed in place. No error on my second (non-gaming) machine....just closes RA down entirely.

[dark13]

Try if the game works launching it directly from RA.
In RLgui set the core and the config folder.
I've not tested latest RA build, still on RA 1.9.6

[drjea2010]

I don't have a config file specific to Intellivision in the configuration folder of RA? Do I need one? How do I make/ get one? Not sure what to point to there...

[drjea2010]

Ok, it loads oddly through RL. So weird. But now after hitting F1 and going to controls... how in the world do I remap each key? I don't see how to clear or remap? I know I've done it before but can't recall....

[drjea2010]

Maybe the bigger question is how in the world do you map the buttons and make those decisions in RA? The intellivision has such a weird control and not many of the options in RA sync up cleanly with that.... another reason I wish Nostalgia would work. 

[dark13]

Yeah, intellivision core seems to miss input mapping. Maybe a RA folder dedicated to intellivision might be a good idea, just configure keys from general setting.

The good thing is in RA with select you can change joystick port and RB pops up the keypad. It's a shame, Puae and Vice cores have wonderful per game input mapping option.
 

[drjea2010]

Forgive my denseness.... still slowly learning this all. 

Can you lay out clearly, steps how the RA folder and key mapping you mention would be done? What to do? I'm unclear about how/ where to configure keys. (Also, in that circumstance it still wouldn't map neatly onto what the Intellivision controller was, right? Such a complex control). Can you clarify here for me? 

And I don't know anything about the 2 other cores you mention? 

I did find a button on my cabinet coded to pulling up the Intellivision controller and I could then joystick to the button I wanted. Clunky but worked. Is that what you mean? 

[dark13]

yeah, it is made to use the keypad, not enough buttons to map them all

You can change general input mapping from here

[drjea2010]

Thanks for all this help. But I'm still curious---DARK13 and SPAWK--any guesses why Nostalgia wouldn't work through RL and behaves as I describe? I know I've read others have had success running it, so there has to be a way!

[Spawk]

My only guess is that maybe the Nostalgia emu has been updated since the module was written? The module expects the windows title class name to be "NostalgiaGameClass". There are freeware programs that will tell you what the title class name of all running programs are. I use one called WinLister to verify newer emulators that get updated all the time. You may also want to check the Rocketlauncher forums for an updated module.

[drjea2010]

On 1/1/2022 at 11:03 PM, Spawk said:

My only guess is that maybe the Nostalgia emu has been updated since the module was written? The module expects the windows title class name to be "NostalgiaGameClass". There are freeware programs that will tell you what the title class name of all running programs are. I use one called WinLister to verify newer emulators that get updated all the time. You may also want to check the Rocketlauncher forums for an updated module.

Thanks. I didn't see anything that stood out on the RL forums, at least to me. I wonder if I'm maybe using an old(er) version of RL with an older module name? I found something on the RL forums that just called it "Intellivision." But I'm worried if I update my RL and/or HS that I will run into other issues with currently working emulators/games. 

[Spawk]

It's almost impossible that you are using an old RL. Only the modules ever get updated, and even then you have to manually get them from the forum. Nobody at RL is maintaining them anymore, most are just uploaded by users making their own edits.

HS is just an FE. It just displays art and sends the game name to RL. If 1.5.1 runs when you click on it in XP, then you are fine there.

If nobody else on the RL forums is complaining about it not working, or has posted an updated module, then it must be something on your specific setup.

[drjea2010]

On 1/4/2022 at 12:54 PM, Spawk said:

It's almost impossible that you are using an old RL. Only the modules ever get updated, and even then you have to manually get them from the forum. Nobody at RL is maintaining them anymore, most are just uploaded by users making their own edits.

HS is just an FE. It just displays art and sends the game name to RL. If 1.5.1 runs when you click on it in XP, then you are fine there.

If nobody else on the RL forums is complaining about it not working, or has posted an updated module, then it must be something on your specific setup.

It would work without that "class" issue mentioned above. It works in Retroarch, but I prefer the mapping in Nostalgia. Drawing a blank here. Anything else? 

[drjea2010]

Ok, I took a break from this issue and am now returning to it. I dug deeper and found this error message in my module info/notes:

"Invalid CRC, module might have been tampered"

I haven't messed with it at all, but I can't for the life of me figure out where--in the vastness of cyberspace--I can find a NEW, CORRECT Nostalgia.ahk (or even whatever it says above it was looking for) that will work. Can anyone help by pointing me in the right direction? Where would I find this, or anything I can do to fix this error? Thanks in advance!

Upon doing some more looking, if someone could just send me their Nostalgia.ahk v. 2.0.1 for Nostalgia 5.0, I would be deeply grateful. I'd swap it out and hopefully everything would be working finally.

[Spawk]

The module was written for that version. If it's green in RLUI then it is an official unedited module. See how my PCSX2 module is red, I made changes to it so it could load CHD files.

You can click the 2x yellow pages (circled above) to see the module notes. These will usually have set-up tips in them.

That last line may apply to you if you happened to try and run Nostalgia from another location previously... so it keeps trying to load settings from an old install?

[Spawk]

If you post an RL log I can take a quick look and see if I notice anything.

In RLUI set the log to "troubleshooting":

 

Then try to run a game one time.

It will create a log here:

Take that log and upload it to pastebin.com (do not paste directly into a post, it is too long to scroll through here).

It will create a link and you can share the link here.

** turn off troubleshooting when finished as it will slow down loading in general.