paulace50

April 10, 2023

Just got my copy of the game, and it's really well done. I wanted to thank Steve (is it?) and whoever else was involved in bringing this game to fruition. It's not only fun to play (tough!), and beautiful visually and sonically, but all the details around the game are well thought out and executed - the box looks fantastic, the overlay is great and of high quality, the instruction booklet is very professional-looking. It seems a little pricey when you're paying for it, but when something is done this well, I don't mind spending the money - someone should be paid for doing good work - haven't regretted it one bit. How lucky are we that folks are still making new games this good for this 40-year old system? - Vectorblade, any of Tuts' games, the VecFever (if you can get one), and now Vyrzon! We're lucky to have so many talented people interested in the Vectrex.

Thanks for an incredible game! Hope you make some money off it so you'll do it again!

April 25, 2022

I'm fine with an additional charge for a right-thumbed controller. But whether the pad is on the right or left, I'll still want 2 of them if possible.

Thanks!

April 24, 2022

I'd like to buy 2 when they're available.

If your engineer decides that it's feasible to make versions with the pad on the right as well, I'd prefer 2 of those (right-thumbed).

January 25, 2022

I hadn't heard anything in a long time - just wanted to make sure I'm still on the list for a deluxe controller.

I'm not a facebook guy, so hopefully I'll hear something here.

Thanks,

Paul

September 9, 2021

I'd love to buy one of the custom sticks you mentioned. Could you put me down for 1?

January 8, 2017

Thanks for putting this out there, Joe....you got the music and sound effects just right! Good job!

January 2, 2017

Scanlines just make all retro-games taste better.

I agree...love them little lines. I don't know about the hardware that creates scanlines (unless you mean a CRT). This is a little off-topic, as it doesn't really apply to the Intellivision emulator, but if you guys run MAME on the pi, there's a British fellow named John Merritt who's taken fantastic photos of arcade machines that make great overlays/bezels. If you like the authentic look of scanlines, check out those overlays...they're impressive!

December 22, 2016

Paulace, you are a life saver. That worked perfectly on my setup with just a few minor tweaks. Thanks a ton!

Glad I could help, Meatball - I've been helped alot by others in here...trying to pay it back. Coolcv is a great emulator! And I really like the Logitech controllers for playing these games on the pi. I'm more of an Intellivision guy, so I use those controllers for the intv, but for everything else, these Logitech controllers are great. I've switched over to the F710's - the wireless version of the F310 - and they work great too. Same keymapping as the F310's so I don't have to change anything - and no wires!

And cdn2a - welcome to the club! Configuring the controllers is usually the hardest part - just be patient. I haven't figured out how to map a two-button exit from coolcv either...unless I use an Intellivision flashback controller. There's a hackfile and software for that controller that ouputs a button "5" (normally an unused button) when "6"+"Enter" are pressed together, so you just tell coolcv that exit is button "5"...and then it exits the emu when you press "6" and "Enter". I'd imagine those Colecovision flashback controllers could do the same thing if you had a couple of those. Ask nanochess about a 2-button exit. He knows a thing or two about this emulator.

December 21, 2016

In re-reading that last post, I think the part about the scanlines could be confusing. I meant that I added scanlines to all the retroarch emu's...not the intellivision or coolcv, since those aren't retroarch emu's. But for all the others, I do like the scanline look. And then there are overlays....uh boy!

December 21, 2016

First and foremost, thank you so much for all the hard work on this emulator, I love it so far and looking forward to playing lot's of my favorite childhood games once I get everything working. Was hoping someone might have an idea why I'm running into some challenges trying to get a USB controller to work with CoolCV as part of a RetroPie installation. The hardware is a Raspberry Pi 3 and a Logitech F310 USB controller. I know I need to edit the coolcv_mapping.txt file as described in the RetroPie Wiki and I think I've get it set correctly, but what the codes I'm adding to the mapping file doesn't seem to be working in emulator. I pulled the SDL joystick codes using a Windows CoolCV install and one of the controllers and for reference, these are the codes I got for the controller (the section in the () is what coleco action I was hoping to map to the F310.)
A = JOY0_10 (Left Button)
B = JOY0_11 (Right Button)
X = JOY0_12 (Keypad 1)
Y = JOY0_13 (Keypad 2)
Dpad Up = JOY0_0 (Up)
Dpad Dn = JOY0_1 (Down)
Dpad Lt = JOY0_2 (Left)
Dpad Rt = JOY0_3 (Right)
Back = JOY0_5 (Pause)
Start = JOY0_4 (Exit)
Back + Start (Reset)
Lt Bump = JOY0_8 (Keypad 3)
Rt Bump = JOY0_9 (Keypad 4)
I've left most of the mapping file at the normal defaults and only tweaked the info for a few of the keys that I want so I can at least get a game running, play and exit the emulator from the controller. Here's my

current coolcv_mapping.txt file (I'm not including the whole file, just the key parts).
' CoolCV mappings for Colecovision controllers to keyboard and joystick
up_1 key1073741906 joy0_0
right_1 key1073741903 joy0_3
down_1 key1073741905 joy0_1
left_1 key1073741904 joy0_2
left_button_1 key32 joy0_10
right_button_1 key109 joy0_11
button3_1 key1073741939
button4_1 key1073741939
key1_1 key49 joy0_12
key2_1 key50 joy0_13
key3_1 key51
key4_1 key52
...
...
key_exit key1073741939 joy0_4
key_pause key1073741884 joy0_5
key_reset key8 joy0_4 joy0_5
Right now I have the mapping file both in /home/pi/ and /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/coleco directories but none of the controls I've set are working. I can't get any keypad input (I can still start a game with a keyboard by pushing the related # key), the left analog stick does move the character Left/Right/Up/Down correctly (D-Pad doesn't do anything) and the only buttons on the controller that do anything are the X/Y which move the character Left and Right respectively.

Anyone have any thoughts on what I might be missing, it's gotta be something stupid...

I'm using the same controller and it works just fine with coolcv. I've attached my coolcv_mapping.txt file. See if that helps. I have it set so that the L shoulder button is keypad 1 and the R shoulder button is keypad 2. Exiting is from the Logitech button in the center of the controller (button 8, as retropie sees it). Feel free to change around what you need, but hopefully this will get you started.

If you're not sure how the buttons on your F-310 are actually seen by retropie, run: jstest /dev/input/js0 That will show you how your buttons are numbered. I've attached a pdf file that shows how mine are seen by the pi.

coolcv_mapping.txt

F310 buttons.pdf

December 20, 2016

Thanks. Only thing is, I want to use the newest retropie (4.1) from the official site. How does the 3.5 zip file affect those newer 4.1 files? Is it safe to overwrite the 4.1 files with the 3.5 files in the zip, or is that a bad idea? I'd hate to mess up a brand new installation of retropie. Is there some new stuff in the 4.1 files that might get overwritten by older copies?

OK, it had to be done. I loaded up retropie 4.1 on a pi2 I had lying around to see what's new on 4.1. You know you were all wondering. I'm using the INTV flashback controllers with 2 vision-dapters. jzintv is included in the build, but I couldn't get the included jzintv to run MsPacman, so I replaced it with a copy of jzintv that Byte Knight sent me, changed the permissions of jzintv to 0755, and then it worked perfectly.

- I put the same hackfile I've been using (the one from David's website) in: opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv

- I put ecs.bin, exec.bin, grom.bin and ivoice.bin in: /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS

- I changed /opt/retropie/configs/intellivision/emulators.cfg to read:

jzintv = "/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/bin/jzintv -p /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS --kbdhackfile=/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv/hackfile.cfg -z1366x768,16 %ROM%" default = "jzintv"

(I used "-z1366x768" since I'll be using a 720 TV. Change it to "1920x1080" if needed....or "-z1 -x1" if you want that ole 4:3 ratio.)

And voila! Intellivision works like a charm...pause, reset and exit all work. And the games look perfect at 16x9....all the emulators look sharp as a tack! They were so clean, I had to add scanlines - speaking of which, you can put in by adding the 3 lines below to the file: /opt/retropie/configs/"system"/retroarch.cfg

video_shader = /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/shader/crt-pi.glslp

video_shader_enable = true

video_smooth = false

Just make sure you put them above the #include..... line. Pick another shader if you don't like "crt-pi.glslp"

- If you want to start adding overlays to the intellivision, they go in: /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/downloaded_images/intellivision/ (create the last folder, if it's not there)

- If you want to start changing the look of the game menu, go to: /etc/emulationstation/themes/carbon/carbon.xml (I made my overlays much larger and moved them around a bit - got rid of most of the other text as well)

I'm also running, libretro-mame (2003), nes, snes, vectrex, colecovision (coolcv), neo-geo, atari 2600, pc engine and kodi - they all work very smoothly. The only hitch so far is that I am able to use the 6+enter combination to exit any of those emulators, but the 4+clear and 5+0 combos don't work. They all work in jzintv, but only the exit combo works in all the emulators. I'm poking around in the main retroarch.cfg file, but haven't found the magic key yet. David is helping me fiddle around. In response to the quoted query, some folders have moved around in this version to the extent that I didn't think I could just copy over David's files to retropie 4.1, so I've just been changing files manually. But I think he's getting itchy to do an update...

And on that note, I just wanted to thank everyone at this forum for all the help I've been graciously given the last two years as I've built about 5 of these things for nephews, nieces and friends, and gotten the software up and running from versions 2.1 on up to the current 4.1. In particular, intvdave, Byte Knight, mthompson and mckafka99 - you guys have all been hugely helpful and generous with your time and advice and it's greatly appreciated. It's a really helpful community that's been a necessity when dealing with this fun/frustrating project! Many thanks to everyone!

June 18, 2016

Hey Dave,

So glad to hear you're finally gonna let this thing out into the wild! I'm looking forward to trying to hit that fast pitch! It'll have to be the ROM for me as my INTV hardware has been broken for years.

January 8, 2016

hi all!

I have been trying to add the colecovision emulator to my retropie setup and I am having no luck at all. Everything else works wonderfully and like it should. but it is not allowing me to add anything to the emulators folder. when I use samba shares or access the pi through the network on my linux box, the opt folder does not come up at all. If I read the micro sd card directly, I can see and open the folder, but I cant make any changes or change the permissions. What the heck am I doing wrong here??

by the way Im running a Rpi2 with retropie version 3.2.1

Tif

Hi Tif,

I'm not all that familiar with linux, but on my windows 7 machine, I'm using WinSCP to access the pi2. I had to find the option in WinSCP that let me see hidden files and folders and check that before some folders would show up...maybe that's what's happening with not being able to see the opt folder? Hopefully, you'll be able to figure out how to view the opt folder - it's gotta be there somewhere.

Once you can see all the folders, this should help you get coolcv running:

- create a folder called "colecovision" in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

- create a folder called "coolcv" in /opt/retropie/emulators

- download the coolcv emulator for the pi (version 0.6.2) here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/240800-coolcv-emulator-for-mac-os-x-linux-windows-and-raspberry/page-1

- unzip coolcv_pi to the folder you just created - set its permissions to 0755

- add these lines to es_systems.cfg (etc/emulationstation/es_system.cfg):

<name>colecovision</name>

<fullname>ColecoVision</fullname>

<path>~/RetroPie/roms/colecovision</path>

<command>/opt/retropie/emulators/coolcv/coolcv_pi %ROM% </command>

<platform>colecovision</platform>

<theme>colecovision</theme>

</system>

- save the file you just edited

- make sure you have some roms in the colecovision folder

- Restart the pi

- Hopefully, coolcv will run then - run one game...

- Look for a file called "coolcv_mapping.txt" in /home/pi

- In that file you can edit the controller configuration for coolcv.

December 19, 2015

Problem solved! The file Byte Knight has works well. The trick to getting it to work is to set the permissions of the file to 0755. When I copy files over, I was setting the permissions to 7777 (I use WinSCP). In other progams, you may be setting the permission to 755.

Dave, you amaze me... I was doing the same thing with the permissions....I'll try it now. Holy cow - that fixed it! Thank you, and ByteKnight and pimpmaul. I knew the hive brain could figure it out.

December 19, 2015

If you are trying to run "jzintv-1.0-beta-x86_64-linux.zip" on the raspberry pi it's not compatible. That one is meant for x86-64 computers, and the Raspberyy Pi uses a completely different CPU. I'm not sure what Jzintv version retropie uses but you might be able to get the latest source code of jzintv and compile it on the raspberry pi. If any jzintv switches and settings change you'd have to update that too. Does Ms. PacMan work with newer versions of jzintv and not older versions?

I did try to run that version on the pi, and that explains why that one didn't work (thanks). I'm a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to compiling, so I'm going to have to leave that to smarter folks here than me. I don't think it's an issue with how old the version jzintv is...sounds like it's just some basic problem with that one ROM. MsPacMan works fine on Nostalgia, but of course, the pi doesn't run that.

December 19, 2015

All you need is the correct version of the jzintv file. No other files on the Raspberry need to be updated. Intvnut made some modifications to his emulator but it does not seem to have made it to the lastest Retropie image (3.2.1).

Byte Knight has a version working on his RetroPie (I think it is 2. but I have not had success running it in 2.6 or 3.2.1. Both of us are using a RPI2. Others have had success.

Maybe Intvnut will chime in here and let us know the status of his emulator fix. And if we are really lucky, maybe post the latest source files so we can compile it on our Raspberry.

Thanks Dave - Byte Knight was kind enough to send me his copy of jzintv that he said worked for him, but I couldn't get it to work for me either. But it's good to know I just have to replace that one file. I'm sure the group mind here will come up with a solution. So pimpmaul69 - MsPacMan works for you on all those pi's? Wonder what you're doing differently than the rest of us?

December 19, 2015

Has anyone been able to get Carl Mueller, Jr's "Ms PacMan" working on the pi2? I'm using retropie 3.2. I know it's an issue with jzintv, and I've tried downloading the latest jzintv (for linux) from the spatula-city site and swapped it with the jzintv already on the pi (/opt/retropie/emulators/jzintv), but no games work when I do that...just get kicked out to the main menu again. Is it more complicated than just swapping one file? I swapped out the whole "bin" folder from the downloaded version, with the same results.

November 18, 2015

Thanks intvdave! I was hoping you'd get around to doing that!

November 15, 2015

I don't know about winscp, but some FTP programs either show or don't show hidden files depending on the preference settings. Cyberduck is like that.

Yeah, I'll poke around in WinSCP's settings and see if there's a way to make hidden files/folders visible. Maybe if you do all this stuff from the command line, everything's visible, but call me a sissy - I'm not that comfortable with the command line.

But it sure is nice to be able to put my own art and game descriptions in when I feel like it!

November 14, 2015

I haven't tried out the 3.2 disk image yet, but if you find your answer, please post it here. It would be great to have that info documented.

OK, found what I was looking for: But they seem to be in hidden folders, maybe? (I'm using WinSCP to transfer files and I found them by doing a search in WinSCP for *.xml files...then looking for gamelist.xml files. Then clicking on "Focus" to get to it in the WinSCP browser.) Anyway, the locations for the relevant folders are:

gamelists: /home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/ (then it's by system)

scraped images: /home/pi/emulationstation/downloaded_images/ (again, by system)

The trouble was that when I looked in /home/pi/ there was no ".emulationstation" folder, so maybe it's hidden normally - that dot before the name probably means something. Like I said, I used WinSCP to find it, named my images, dropped them into the downloaded_images folder for the system I was working on, then added entries to the gamelist.xml file (typing carefully), and saved everything...worked!

November 14, 2015

I'd like to manually put some boxart or overlay art in RetroPie 3.2. In 2.6, you dropped the graphics files in /home/pi/.emulationstation/downloaded_images/emuX, edited the gamelist.xml file to point to that image, and voila!...it showed up. Anyone know where the gamelist.xml files are now. I supposed if I can find those, I can figure out where to put the images.

November 14, 2015

Not yet. I'll add it to my list of requested features.

Thanks nanochess....you're doing great work with the emulator! It's soooo nice to have Colecovision on my Pi again!

November 14, 2015

I do have a question, though: In the coolcv_mapping.txt file, I can assign anything to any key, which I love..but can I assign an action to a simultaneous 2-key press? Not a big deal, but I'd just like it to be consistent with the other emulators in which I have to hit my "start" and "select" buttons at the same time to exit.

November 14, 2015

nanochess, I have been testing CoolCV using RetroPie. I would exit out of Emulation Station and run CoolCV from the command line. This is when I noticed the sound break up and where I saw the messages I mentioned before.

I just setup CoolCV to run from Emulation Station and the sound is good. I tried several games and they all played well and the sound was good.

I also played around with selecting different video resolutions. If someone wanted the wide screen feel, I would suggest 640x480 (I have a 1080p TV). 720x480 takes up more than the screen.

I still need to test the roller controller and the Ultimate Interface.

I can second that - been running it through Emulation Station on a Pi2 overclocked 800 MHz on a 1080P screen, and sound and video are both smooth. Great program!

November 8, 2015

I believe when running ES and launching games you are running as the PI user. If you drop out of ES to the command prompt you will be dropped as the PI user I believe. Changing the ownership and permissions as I described has always resolved those permissions errors I have received in the past when trying to launch other games/emulators. I am also running the latest version of coolcv. I would double check the folders and make sure owner/permission match those of other emulators you are able to launch. Also might have to check the owner/permissions on the coolcv_pi file itself.

Thanks mckafka99 - I think you're right - there is a difference when I look at the coolcv folder using "ls -l" from the command line. I've been using WinSCP to create files and folders as root, and thought that took care of the permission issue, but apparently not. Anyway, you've pointed me in the right direction, and I'll try to figure out how to change what I need to change by looking at linux or pi sites. I don't want to waste folks' time here with this part of it. I appreciate your helpfulness, though! If I get coolcv running, I'll make a $ contribution to nanochess.

10 minutes later - got it working...thanks mckafka99! It's a beautiful-looking emulator. I'll send some money nanochess' way. Thanks for your patience.

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Posts posted by paulace50