Gamestation Pro

[+Mocotechprfl]

20 minutes ago, fluxit said:

Not a proper answer to your question, but have you tried this control scheme, controller rotated 45° clockwise?:

 

First thing I tried, with no success.

[Atari8264]

5 hours ago, Hydro Thunder said:

Just want to report (in case it hasn't been already, IDK, trying to keep up but  31 pages is a LOT lol!)...

The 8bitdo Arcade Stick for Switch / PC DOES work, and fantastically, for 2600 and 7800 games, you just need the USB - C adapter which is like $5 online.

It's...amazing honestly.  Set the dial to X-input and you're good to go.

Having an absolute blast playing Subterranea, Commando, PMP's Galaxian...all looking amazing in HD on an OLED.  Just LOVE it. 

I use the same controller sometimes but I have to use the GSP controller in port 2 to navigate the menues while the arcade stick is plugged into port 1.  Does it work the that way for you too?

[Hydro Thunder]

8 minutes ago, Atari8264 said:

I use the same controller sometimes but I have to use the GSP controller in port 2 to navigate the menues while the arcade stick is plugged into port 1.  Does it work the that way for you too?

I have not yet had to use Port 2, but I do use the GSP controller wirelessly to navigate the menus.  So I have to have it sitting nearby to go back to the menu, to select a game, etc.  But from there, the Arcade stick works great.  B button is mapped to the main fire button (2600 / 7800), and the X button is the 2nd 7800 button.

[Domeshtan]

2 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

Can you map the button configs for the arcade version of Toobin' so that they actually work?

Here are 2 flavors to try out. I mapped PlayStation X to right paddle forward, Down to Left paddle forward, R2 to Right paddle backwards, L2 to Left paddle backwards. O button to throw cans. (Square can't be mapped). Both players are mapped. The other file is if someone wants to try to play it 1 player using both GSP joysticks. Player 1 controller up and down for left side paddling, Player 2 controller up and down for right side paddling. B button on controller 2 to throw cans. 

Yeah, I was able to map these quite quick using both PlayStation Classic controllers on Mame078b. Just had to remember the triangle and X buttons are reversed for some reason.

Toobin.zip

[Domeshtan]

2 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

This would be the equivalent for the Xbox controller, which I have and would be willing to test:

A = Paddle forward left

B = Paddle forward right

Top left bumper = Paddle backward left

Top right bumper = Paddle backward right

X = Throw

Oh yeah... The thumb stick. Hang on. I'll remap it again.

[Domeshtan]

2 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

This would be the equivalent for the Xbox controller, which I have and would be willing to test:

A = Paddle forward left

B = Paddle forward right

Top left bumper = Paddle backward left

Top right bumper = Paddle backward right

X = Throw

Try this one for Xbox. I forgot about that thumb stick for directions. 

toobin.cfg

[Atari8264]

1 hour ago, Hydro Thunder said:

I have not yet had to use Port 2, but I do use the GSP controller wirelessly to navigate the menus.  So I have to have it sitting nearby to go back to the menu, to select a game, etc.  But from there, the Arcade stick works great.  B button is mapped to the main fire button (2600 / 7800), and the X button is the 2nd 7800 button.

I have both controllers plugged in so I don't have to use batteries.  We both have to use a second controller to select the SD card and pick a game to load.  Also, the Select function is button LB and Start is button RB on the Arcade stick.  The Home button is blue Home button.

[Domeshtan]

8 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

Can you map the button configs for the arcade version of Toobin' so that they actually work?

I messed up the button order, didn't I? Trying to think of Xbox differences and the X and Triangle being reversed it messed me up. This one has O=Right forward paddle, X=Left forward paddle and Triangle for throwing on mine so it should come out right. L2 and R2 paddle back which should be the bumper buttons on Xbox. I tested it this time on both controllers.

toobin.cfg

[big_guitar]

16 hours ago, fluxit said:

You might want to try downloading the firmware update again.

I see they actually changed the file since my original download on December 8, which also worked fine for my update.

 

The two zip files have different lengths and different names.  The file I obtained originally was named:

 

"GameStation Pro Firmware update v.1.30.zip"  - the firmware image reports as 5D1FDE2FEDBF0EAB2E41F3F01B76CDEB

This zip also contained a subdirectory for "__MACOSX" 

 

 

This zip file name was changed (from what is there today) to 

"Atari Gamestation Pro Firmware v.1.30.zip" - the firmware image now reports as 4DE3C6DA30EF2B63DB0D87A5DCF3D992

This zip does NOT have the MACOSX subdirectory.

 

167,709,311 Atari Gamestation Pro Firmware v.1.30.zip
168,476,191 GameStation Pro Firmware update v.1.30.zip

 

[+Mocotechprfl]

6 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

I messed up the button order, didn't I? Trying to think of Xbox differences and the X and Triangle being reversed it messed me up. This one has O=Right forward paddle, X=Left forward paddle and Triangle for throwing on mine so it should come out right. L2 and R2 paddle back which should be the bumper buttons on Xbox. I tested it this time on both controllers.

toobin.cfg 964 B · 1 download

Thanks will test it later this morning and let you know. In my original post I gave the identical button types for both PS and Xbox based on the images I saw of both controllers online.

[+Mocotechprfl]

Domeshtan, as usual, you have come through for me and the community, thank you again! 

The latest Toobin.cfg file you gave me for the Xbox controller worked like a champ!

 

Enclosed is an image of the Xbox Elite controller, and the buttons Toobin' is mapped to now.

A = front paddle left

B = front paddle right

X = throw can

top left bumper = back paddle left

top right bumper = back paddle right

And of course, thanks for not configuring the Y button, which is hard-mapped to the GSP's Save/Pause button!

 

Again, this arcade game doesn't use the D-Pad or thumb stick at all, and was always configured to use buttons only.

 

---- Mocotechprfl ----

 

 

[NISMOPC]

5 hours ago, big_guitar said:

I see they actually changed the file since my original download on December 8, which also worked fine for my update.

 

The two zip files have different lengths and different names.  The file I obtained originally was named:

 

"GameStation Pro Firmware update v.1.30.zip"  - the firmware image reports as 5D1FDE2FEDBF0EAB2E41F3F01B76CDEB

This zip also contained a subdirectory for "__MACOSX" 

 

 

This zip file name was changed (from what is there today) to 

"Atari Gamestation Pro Firmware v.1.30.zip" - the firmware image now reports as 4DE3C6DA30EF2B63DB0D87A5DCF3D992

This zip does NOT have the MACOSX subdirectory.

 

167,709,311 Atari Gamestation Pro Firmware v.1.30.zip
168,476,191 GameStation Pro Firmware update v.1.30.zip

 

I recall they accidentally released the firmware early - then announced official release within 24 hours of the first release. My guess is you got the firmware that was not supposed to be downloaded.

[big_guitar]

1 hour ago, NISMOPC said:

My guess is you got the firmware that was not supposed to be downloaded.

Could be, but I downloaded the same day when genxgrownup posted his video along with many others, and the update worked without issues. I asked myarcade about the change around that date, will see if they respond at all.

Edited December 21, 2023 by big_guitar

[fargoal]

On 9/29/2023 at 10:36 AM, donjn said:

But what is the input lag? Like compared to hardware on a CRT or even Stella on a high end PC. Is the movement smooth?

I am VERY sensitive to input lag.

you mean inflexible about mitigating lag. 

[big_guitar]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:36 PM, fluxit said:

Here is the xdelta3 patch to be applied to the 1.30 update Firmware.img if anyone wants to try it.

When using the firmware updater (RKDevTool v2.72) to update (such as with a patched image like Firmware-New.img), do you select the loader.bin to be processed at the same time, or does that not matter? 

[big_guitar]

OK, I tried using a custom runme.sh to target a specific sdcard folder game source for invoking the gearcoleco libretro library and custom CFG file (with retroarch command line options), where the CFG had the system_directory pointed to an SD card folder, but just black screens so far.  Not sure if the so library files can't be used from sd, or if the custom CFG settings won't override default locations for particulars.  Perhaps would need to also patch or completely modify the squashfs partition in the end, but it was an interesting experiment.  

[fluxit]

7 hours ago, big_guitar said:

When using the firmware updater (RKDevTool v2.72) to update (such as with a patched image like Firmware-New.img), do you select the loader.bin to be processed at the same time, or does that not matter? 

I'm not sure if MyArcade has actually changed their boot loader.  I'd recommend following their instructions on that, unless you know that you already have that particular boot loader on your GsP.

53 minutes ago, big_guitar said:

OK, I tried using a custom runme.sh to target a specific sdcard folder game source for invoking the gearcoleco libretro library and custom CFG file (with retroarch command line options), where the CFG had the system_directory pointed to an SD card folder, but just black screens so far.  Not sure if the so library files can't be used from sd, or if the custom CFG settings won't override default locations for particulars.  Perhaps would need to also patch or completely modify the squashfs partition in the end, but it was an interesting experiment.  

From where did you source your gearcoleco core?  I tried bluemsx, which created .ini files in my game directory, and threw an error that I haven't been able to identify.  It may be the case that in order to load new cores, we will have to use a different retroarch binary.  The GsP definitely *can* load libraries from the SD card.  I'm still investigating.

 

Did you log the output of your experiment to the SD card?

 

I've successfully run "Chip's Challenge" using the handy core.

Edited December 23, 2023 by fluxit
success at running a game on an external core

[big_guitar]

2 hours ago, fluxit said:

From where did you source your gearcoleco core?  I tried bluemsx, which created .ini files in my game directory, and threw an error that I haven't been able to identify. 

Did you log the output of your experiment to the SD card?

I obtained gearcoleco_libretro.so from here https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/x86_64/latest/ so it could certainly be that GSP's retroarch isn't happy with the latest.

 

I had tried bluemsx_libretro.so first, but having to use an extension recognized by the main GSP system (like .bin) in order to even select the game file, I saw it was not on the list of accepted extensions for bluemsx (unlike gearcoleco), but perhaps when loaded under retroarch it doesn't matter what file you feed into it.  But I also saw that that it requires "databases" and "machines" within retroarch system directory.  Gearcoleco requires the colecovision.rom (exact spelling I believe), I placed that in an sdcard folder I pointed system_directory to in the custom CFG file I had.  I didn't think about logging, so I will try that again, I'm not that experienced with retroarch, but I see I should be able to enable the verbose option with a log file.

[UPDATE]: Well it didn't create a logfile, not sure if syntax is different for previous retroarch versions.  I added 

-v --log-file $gclog\

where gclog was the file location under /mnt/sdcard/<custom>/gcoleco.log... 

 

But I suppose I could just try loading a linux version without retroarch... 

Edited December 23, 2023 by big_guitar

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, big_guitar said:

I obtained gearcoleco_libretro.so from here https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/x86_64/latest/ so it could certainly be that GSP's retroarch isn't happy with the latest.

 

The cores need to be arm.  Try http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/armhf/latest/ .  That's where I got the handy lib that worked.  I note that gearcoleco isn't in there.  A build may be available elsewhere.

 

1 hour ago, big_guitar said:

--snip-- I should be able to enable the verbose option with a log file.

[UPDATE]: Well it didn't create a logfile, not sure if syntax is different for previous retroarch versions.  I added 

-v --log-file $gclog\

where gclog was the file location under /mnt/sdcard/<custom>/gcoleco.log... 

 

But I suppose I could just try loading a linux version without retroarch... 

My method for logging is to just add >/sdcard/logfilename to the tail end of my command line.  Of course verbosity may produce more useful messages.

Edited December 23, 2023 by fluxit

[big_guitar]

11 minutes ago, fluxit said:

The cores need to be arm.  Try http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/armhf/latest/ . 

lol missed that!  well that could certainly make a difference. 😆

Edited December 23, 2023 by big_guitar

[Shannon]

Weird.. I looked back through the stable builds and didn't see it either.  If someone has a build environment they could go to the author's site and possibly manually build it.

 

Also those nightlies are 2020... which is kind of odd.  A5200 is not there either.  So I suspect they are not sourcing that particular version.

 

Might be best to get the checksum of the existing emulators and do some comparison to figure out which build of retroarch they are pulling from.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Shannon

[fluxit]

5 hours ago, big_guitar said:

--snip--

I had tried bluemsx_libretro.so first, but having to use an extension recognized by the main GSP system (like .bin) in order to even select the game file, I saw it was not on the list of accepted extensions for bluemsx (unlike gearcoleco), but perhaps when loaded under retroarch it doesn't matter what file you feed into it.  --snip--

This is actually a somewhat complicated subject, because the "game" bin only recognizes certain file types by extension, and RetroArch cores also only recognize certain file extensions.  Some have support for zipped files, and some don't.  In order to see files using the GsP's file browser, we have to use file names that it knows. 

 

What we can do with those types that it doesn't know, is to put them in .zip files, which "game" shows.  Then all we have to do is leverage the GsP's busybox unzip to peek inside the .zip, and our script can take it from there.

[Living Room Arcade]

Hello guys.  I just heard the news about the new firmware upgrade 1.3 and just wanted to say congratulations!

 

In the following video, Jon tells us that with the new update, now you can have sub-folders to organize your roms.  Nice!

Also, he said now your SNES roms will also work.  Awesome!

 

In the next video, Jon tells us about a special, new folder called "Atari 2600 Paddle."  

He said on your SD card, just put all your Atari 2600 paddle games in this folder and the paddle knob on the controller will work.  Awesome!

Two weaknesses that hopefully would be addressed in future firmware upgrades, he says, are 1) slow loading time if you have a lot of roms in one folder and 2) it still needs better support for 3rd party game controllers.  But the GSP has only been out for what a few weeks, and already a firmware upgrade?  Wow! A few more tweaks and the GSP might just be a no brainer for a lot of retro-gamer folks, I think.  

[big_guitar]

14 hours ago, fluxit said:

My method for logging is to just add >/sdcard/logfilename to the tail end of my command line.  Of course verbosity may produce more useful messages.

I tried bluemsx_libretro again from armhf this time with ">$logfile" added, can't get it to write anything, did not hard define something like ">/mnt/sdcard/folder/blue.log", but it doesn't want to write anything, did you get it to write for your blue test? I made Machines and Database subfolders under my custom system directory, assuming it uses the "-c" config file, which also has "core_options_path" which should allow overriding "retroarch-core-options.cfg". I tried making a replacement to include blue_msxtype="ColecoVision" .(I saw this is referenced elsewhere). But getting some runtime log file made would certainly help.

 

One thing that does happen, every time I attempted to load a rom for the first time from my coleco folder, with either core, it created the .SRM extension file in the same folder for that matching game file name.

Edited December 24, 2023 by big_guitar

[big_guitar]

15 hours ago, fluxit said:

That's where I got the handy lib that worked.

Where did you put the boot image for this? Did you use a custom cfg?