Gamestation Pro

[just_lou]

I did the upgrade, but it did not move SD Cards ROMs into subfolders like in the video. I guess I have to do it manually. Other than that, the upgrade process was painless.

[SoulBlazer]

The upgrade was also painless for me also.

The e-mail that My Arcade sent out includes a link to the video giving step by step instructions on how to do it.

Here's the major things that got updated, for those who might have been on the fence of buying one:

 

WHAT'S NEW:

• Game instructions added for each Atari game.
• Updated game list menu navigation.
• Aspect ratio updated for certain Atari arcade games.
• Enhancements for microSD card.
• FAQ added to the SETTINGS menu.

BUG FIXES:

• Optimization for improved performance.
• Audio now plays through left and right speakers.
• FACTORY RESET removes games from the RECENT tab.

 

In addition, these were also updated:

Now has support for SNES games!  It's POSSIBLE support for other systems was added as well
Able to access your microSD card from the main menu

I'm not sure what optimizations were done as far as increased performance

Also please note that instructions were only added for the Atari games -- the bonus games still do not have them.

[just_lou]

42 minutes ago, just_lou said:

I did the upgrade, but it did not move SD Cards ROMs into subfolders like in the video. I guess I have to do it manually. Other than that, the upgrade process was painless.

As per GenXGrownUp, the update does not reorganize your SD Card files. It only adds support for sub-folders, so you have to create them and move your files yourself. 

[VidaReborn]

I did the upgrade also.  Testing some new games.  All SNES games seem to work now.  Had a problem with the Super Punch Out game where the GSP controller would not enter the player new name.  Tried the Logitech controller I bought a few months ago that did not work and now it works!  Apparently, the update also fixed some issues where some controllers may work now.  Problem is figuring it out now.  Nintendo DS games still don't work, sadly.  Too bad.  There are plenty pokemon games there I'd like to try before I buy the solid cartridges.  Trying out other system games and see how they go.  

 

My personal opinion, MyArcade will continue to make updates to this system.  All those who criticized this system before may have to eat their words.  This system is starting to show a lot of potential.

[just_lou]

What a difference. Now I'm going to add a lot more games. 

[CMR]

I hope they continue updating it after Christmas is over.

Edited December 9, 2023 by CMR

[big_guitar]

5 hours ago, Riko said:

Haven't checked myself,  though controller mapping is critical.

Yes, tried a TG16 game (PCE extension), the only action button recognized was GSP-C (XBOX-Y), which invokes the Save menu, so that wasn't ideal.  Will have to see if CFG files work for non-arcade games.

[Domeshtan]

I tried some of my Super Famicom games out on it. Well, Super Nintendo seems to be pushing the limits of the system. I booted up an English translation of Dragon Quest VI and when the title screen with the clouds scrolling came up you started getting slowdown and crackle with the sound. I tried the save feature. No saves possible for Super Nintendo. *sniff* Looks like I will have to play DQ6 and FF4 (English translation from Japanese) on my laptop. Next I tried out Astro Go! Go! (Think F-Zero). The mode 7 seemed pretty decent but a button was missing for speeding up/shields. I tried both the GSP controller and my PS Classic. Darius Twin and Parodius Da! we're playable but Parodius Da! Had a little frame skipping it looked like. Most of the Mahjong games and Pachinko game were unplayable. Buttons missing again that are needed. Well at least SNES is there as an option. Maybe more improvements will come.

I noticed they missed Tempest for fixing the vertical aspect ratio and Tournament Table the changed to vertical but I think it's supposed to be horizontal. I had some really bizarre controls on the GSP side but it might have been my PS Classic controller somehow. It didn't work with Centipede but the GSP stick did. I tried Quantum with my PS Classic controller and it was moving insanely fast. Like you could circle about half the screen. (Square it... Whatever). Tried with the GSP stick and it was normal again. Food Fight was weird with my pad too. Like way over sensitive so you only moved in diagonals. The GSP controller had that more rounded feel again moving.

You might want to keep using those MAME .cfg files for altering the controls and stuff as the rest isn't fixed. Some improvements made though.

[Microjak]

Please can anyone tell me if this will be available in the UK from Amazon etc at normal prices not greatly inflated on ebay? cheers

[atariman72]

HMV are charging £159 for it!

 

I purchased from one of the Amazon sellers for £97 and it only took a couple of days to arrive.  They were UK based.

[Shannon]

For a decent idea of SNES performance.  Try the following chip based games.

 

Super Matio World 2 - Yoshi's Island.  One of the later chip based games and usually takes a performance hit on lesser consoles. 

 

Star Fox - Almost the same as SMW2.

 

Super Mario RPG - An earlier chip game.  Likely will see occasional slow down but should be playable  

 

I think someone already tried FF4.  It has been know to have slowdown on lesser systems. 

 

As for Nintendo DS.  Forget it.  😛

 

Even an xbox series X sometimes needs frameskip of 1 to get full speed.  And with no touch screen ability a lot of games will be unplayable.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Shannon

[fluxit]

Not having updated yet, but looking forward to it, I've been taking a peek at the 2 normal partitions in the Firmware.img. 

 

One is a 78mb(compressed) squashfs containing the OS, Retroarch, Stella, and many of the Myarcade assets.  The other is a 143mb(25mb free) ext2/3/4 writable partition containing the games, their associated menu images, and some retroarch related config files.

 

"Games/Atari_Games/Atari Arcade/cfg" seems to be the location for the MAME .cfgs, including default.cfg.  It should be possible to generate the 'ultimate' default.cfg, and replacing the existing one should be very easy.

 

Here are the included libretro libraries(from the squashfs):

[fluxit]

The menu background music tracks are as follows:

 

    '8bit Adventure' by Tenacious Orchestra

    'Space 80s' by Ilegot

    'Simple Idea' by Hidden

    'Pixel Wave' by Hidden

[Shannon]

36 minutes ago, fluxit said:

Not having updated yet, but looking forward to it, I've been taking a peek at the 2 normal partitions in the Firmware.img. 

 

One is a 78mb(compressed) squashfs containing the OS, Retroarch, Stella, and many of the Myarcade assets.  The other is a 143mb(25mb free) ext2/3/4 writable partition containing the games, their associated menu images, and some retroarch related config files.

 

"Games/Atari_Games/Atari Arcade/cfg" seems to be the location for the MAME .cfgs, including default.cfg.  It should be possible to generate the 'ultimate' default.cfg, and replacing the existing one should be very easy.

 

Here are the included libretro libraries(from the squashfs):

 

Well that is interesting.  They have two A5200 cores.  I wonder if the a5200_libretro_new.so core is the one with the many changes I made about 4 months ago.

 

Never heard of Jungle2003, 2014 and 2016.  But I reckon those are the MAME cores.

 

They also have two snes9x cores.  Snes9x2002 is an older core based on 2002 code ( basically performs better on lesser processors ).  Snes9x should be snes9x current which would be based on the latest Snes9x code.  Which in theory should be the more accurate but potentially slower core.  Also may have more features and support more things.

 

Also interesting to see they have both Stella cores.  2014 is based on older code.  Stella_libretro is the current core and should be able to handle all the current DPC games as well as read the .pro files.  I've yet to check to see if Stella 2014 recognizes and reads .pro files.

 

Vice_xpet... that is an odd choice.  Why would they have Commodore Pet emulation on there?

 

No pico cores which is odd cause I assumed there was one since they have pico games included with the gamestation pro?  Or at least I thought they did.  GenesisplusGX only supports genesis/mega drive... sms, game gear and sega CD.  No 32x support.  No pico support.

 

Now I guess the question is.. what extensions determine which emulators are called.  In particular the mame, stella and snes9x cores.  Also it should be possible to determine what extensions are used by looking at the ".info" files for each core.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Shannon

[big_guitar]

So you're thinking we can make our own squashfs img files using 1.30 as a template? I suppose caution would be necessary to avoid bricking, I imagine the flashing software would look for particular markers in the file for proper recognition.

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, Shannon said:

 

Well that is interesting.  They have two A5200 cores.  I wonder if the a5200_libretro_new.so core is the one with the many changes I made about 4 months ago.

 

Never heard of Jungle2003, 2014 and 2016.  But I reckon those are the MAME cores.

 

They also have two snes9x cores.  Snes9x2002 is an older core based on 2002 code ( basically performs better on lesser processors ).  Snes9x should be snes9x current which would be based on the latest Snes9x code.  Which in theory should be the more accurate but potentially slower core.  Also may have more features and support more things.

 

Also interesting to see they have both Stella cores.  2014 is based on older code.  Stella_libretro is the current core and should be able to handle all the current DPC games as well as read the .pro files.  I've yet to check to see if Stella 2014 recognizes and reads .pro files.

 

Vice_xpet... that is an odd choice.  Why would they have Commodore Pet emulation on there?

 

No pico cores which is odd cause I assumed there was one since they have pico games included with the gamestation pro?  Or at least I thought they did.  GenesisplusGX only supports genesis/mega drive... sms, game gear and sega CD.  No 32x support.  No pico support.

 

Now I guess the question is.. what extensions determine which emulators are called.  In particular the mame, stella and snes9x cores.  Also it should be possible to determine what extensions are used by looking at the ".info" files for each core.

 

There don't seem to be any .info files.  There are many ascii .cfg files for the libretro cores in the retroarch directory.

 

The only references to the usable file extensions that I was able to find were in the cores' binaries.  However, I didn't do an exhaustive search.

[fluxit]

48 minutes ago, big_guitar said:

So you're thinking we can make our own squashfs img files using 1.30 as a template? I suppose caution would be necessary to avoid bricking, I imagine the flashing software would look for particular markers in the file for proper recognition.

I hadn't really gotten that far, yet.  It's almost certainly possible though.  Writing to the uncompressed ext2 partition should be basically risk free though, as you wouldn't even have to alter the partition table in the image file.

 

AFAICT, having mounted the .img with no errors, and accounting for the fact that MyArcade is using standard tools for their updates, it's doubtful that Firmware.img is anything other than a 'disk' image to be written to the appropriate area of the device's flash.

[big_guitar]

4 minutes ago, fluxit said:

I hadn't really gotten that far, yet.  It's almost certainly possible though. 

I'll likely wait until someone else tries first, but it would be interesting if we could add other cores like CV.

[fluxit]

The 8bitdo Genesis Bluetooth receiver works on the GsP.  Warlords works great with the wii nunchuck stick.  I almost like it better than the dial on the GsP controller😆.

 

Has anyone come up with a reliable method of getting the GsP to recognize a 3rd party controller as 'controller 1,' with working start and select buttons?  Regardless of the connection method, or type of controller I use, I can only ever get A, B, C, menu, and home buttons to work.  Other than the sticks and dpads, which usually work more or less, if the buttons are working.

 

Of course now that we have direct access to the config files, all things *should* be possible in time.

[Shannon]

1 hour ago, fluxit said:

There don't seem to be any .info files.  There are many ascii .cfg files for the libretro cores in the retroarch directory.

 

The only references to the usable file extensions that I was able to find were in the cores' binaries.  However, I didn't do an exhaustive search.

 

 

What tools can I use to extract the files out of the update they provided?  I might be able to look at the retroarch structure to get a better idea of how they are utilizing it.

 

[Riko]

I heard Sega Master System might work now, any information on that? Still hoping for button mapping.

[fluxit]

15 minutes ago, Shannon said:

 

 

What tools can I use to extract the files out of the update they provided?  I might be able to look at the retroarch structure to get a better idea of how they are utilizing it.

 

Which OS are you using?  I'm just using gnome-disks on Linux.

[Shannon]

5 minutes ago, fluxit said:

Which OS are you using?  I'm just using gnome-disks on Linux.

 

Oh.. I didn't think about that.  I'm not using any *nix variants.  Just plain vanilla windows 10. 

 

[82-T/A]

17 hours ago, Riko said:

Update just launched apparently, can support snes roms now too.

Dude!

 

 

17 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

GenXGrownUp just released his video about the firmware update being available and he walks you through it. Have to do it over the weekemd.

 

https://youtu.be/lyyhjoM_1Wg?si=hGbHge_nWGafZdtX

 

Dude!!

 

 

16 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

SNES support! Well, looks like all the Japanese games I bought are going on this thing. One problem though... What happened with the controller mapping? The regular GSP stick isn't going to run everything but what about other controlers? (Like my PS Classic. They had up to 4 buttons working.) I know I got some stuff that you need the select button or other ones not used as often.

 

DUDE!!!

[fluxit]

15 minutes ago, Shannon said:

 

Oh.. I didn't think about that.  I'm not using any *nix variants.  Just plain vanilla windows 10. 

 

You might want to try double(or right) clicking on the Firmware.img to see what happens.  Windows does have *some* built in disk image management support since at least version 8.  I haven't used 10 enough to say if it can handle this kind of image without additional tools.

----------------------

Oops.  I forgot that Windows probably doesn't support squashfs or ext(x) partitions natively without additions.

You could download a Linux liveCD or USB image, other than that, I can't really give any recommendations.

Edited December 9, 2023 by fluxit
oops