Gamestation Pro

[Shannon]

18 minutes ago, Domeshtan said:

Yes, I think this system is starting to look a little better.

 

Good to know.  I suspected it would look for the bezel files.  But when I sent test images to my sister I sent the wrong version arcade roms. 

 

[famicommander]

20 hours ago, Dutch_88 said:

I still haven't decided on whether I want to get this system. On the one hand it looks great, but on the other there seem to be some issues with it. 

 

Moreover, the system has these bonus, non-Atari games that I don't need on an Atari system. I know games can be added through an SD-card, but supported systems don't include SNES, does it? 

 

Anything else I am missing? What are the absolutely great aspects of this device? I'd like to hear... 

 

Also... would the Atari Flashback 50th Anniversary be a better deal? 🤔

Just buy Atari 50 or one of the other compilations on a system you already have and call it a day. The GSP has really bad emulation, really bad included controllers with tons of lag, and the box makes false claims. 

[Domeshtan]

43 minutes ago, Shannon said:

 

Good to know.  I suspected it would look for the bezel files.  But when I sent test images to my sister I sent the wrong version arcade roms.

I was using "discontinued MAME artwork" from Mr. Do!'s Arcade website. For MAME0.61 to MAME0.106.

[Domeshtan]

1 hour ago, xboxiso said:

How did you add the bezels to arcade games? They look really cool.

Discontinued MAME artwork on Mr. Do!'s Arcade website. Just drop the zipped files into the artwork folder. I don't know why they couldn't have included stuff like this at least on a couple of games like Asteroids Deluxe and Warlords (Black and white version). If they have the car image on Night Driver they had to use something like that.

 

https://mrdo.mameworld.info/old_artwork.php

[just_lou]

1 hour ago, Domeshtan said:

I was using "discontinued MAME artwork" from Mr. Do!'s Arcade website. For MAME0.61 to MAME0.106.

Thank you for this. Games look great now. 

[xboxiso]

1 hour ago, Domeshtan said:

Discontinued MAME artwork on Mr. Do!'s Arcade website. Just drop the zipped files into the artwork folder. I don't know why they couldn't have included stuff like this at least on a couple of games like Asteroids Deluxe and Warlords (Black and white version). If they have the car image on Night Driver they had to use something like that.

 

https://mrdo.mameworld.info/old_artwork.php

Thank you for sharing this!

[the4thman]

2 hours ago, xboxiso said:

Thank you for sharing this!

OMG.... the MAME artwork looks fantastic! I am so gonna add this to my MicroSD card! Wow, great find! I think as time goes by hopefully will find some additional tips & tricks. 
Thank You for the post with the the Ebay link too. I may pick up another one for that price!

What Mame romsets are people using? I'm using one of the links that was from GenX Growup. https://archive.org/details/MAME2003_Reference_Set_MAME0.78_ROMs_CHDs_Samples

It had many working titles, but some don't work.
Might be cool to find a better romset. 
 

Edited November 15, 2023 by the4thman

[fluxit]

4 minutes ago, the4thman said:

OMG.... the MAME artwork looks fantastic! I am so gonna add this to my MicroSD card! Wow, great find! I think as time goes by hopefully will find some additional tips & tricks. 
Thank You for the post with the the Ebay link too. I may pick up another one for that price!

 

You'll have to tell us if a single unit will wirelessly sync with 4 GSP controllers if you buy a second unit.

[Atari8264]

Can the Artwork change the Ms Pacman screen to make it tall and narrow like the arcade screen? 

[just_lou]

13 minutes ago, Atari8264 said:

Can the Artwork change the Ms Pacman screen to make it tall and narrow like the arcade screen? 

It does. The aspect ratio is now the way it should be, or at least close to it. 

Edited November 15, 2023 by just_lou

[+Living Room Arcade]

On 11/12/2023 at 3:46 PM, Domeshtan said:

Here is a video of my findings playing the Gamestation Pro showing the issues I brought up. 

 

 

@Domeshtan Thank you for making and sharing this video.  I'm interested in the old B&W arcade games, too.  

 

List of Games Shown

Avalanche, Basketball, Canyon Bomber, Dominoes, Drag Race, Fire Truck, Monte Carlo, Pool Shark, Night Driver, Sky Diver, Runaway, Sky Raider, Super Bug, Tournament Table, Ultra Tank, Space Duel, Super Breakout, Warlords, I, Robot, Food Fight, Cloud 9, Atari Baseball, Atari Football, Atari Soccer

 

 

For me, this explains a lot.  The appearance of Dragster (Activision, 1980).  Now I see.  It looks exactly like the arcade.

Atari 2600 Combat looks likes Ultra Tank.  Atari 2600 Sky Diver is, well, the arcade Sky Diver.  Atari 2600 Basketball has a strong resemblance to the arcade basketball game.  Atari 2600 Surround is Dominoes.  Isn't it?  Atari 2600 Space War is Space Duel.  Isn't it?  I think I had already known about arcade Warlords.  Atari 2600 Night Driver is, well, Night Driver.  How about that!  

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Living Room Arcade

[Atari8264]

13 hours ago, just_lou said:

It does. The aspect ratio is now the way it should be, or at least close to it. 

Thanks. I was looking for an overlay for Armor Attack.  It is one of the files. Armor Attack is now playable!

[Domeshtan]

41 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

For me, this explains a lot.  The appearance of Dragster (Activision, 1980).  Now I see.  It looks exactly like the arcade.

Atari 2600 Combat looks likes Ultra Tank.  Atari 2600 Sky Diver is, well, the arcade Sky Diver.  Atari 2600 Basketball has a strong resemblance to the arcade basketball game.  Atari 2600 Surround is Dominoes.  Isn't it?  Atari 2600 Space War is Space Duel.  Isn't it?  I think I had already known about arcade Warlords.  Atari 2600 Night Driver is, well, Night Driver.  How about that!  

 

And Video Olympics would be Tournament Table (mostly) with a version of Breakout thrown in (if they could get all the other game options running. I tried the latest version of MAME on my laptop and it looks like it's all figured out now. Has some game option called Basketball on Tornament Table that looks like something I saw on the Atari Video Pinball game system. (Not the cartridge) 

 

I saw "01" on the 2600 hack of Dragster they included.(Drag Race) Wasn't there a hack 2600 game called Dukes of Hazzard? 

 

Yeah, the old 70's arcade games are what attracted me to get the GSP. I think the only other place any of those games might have been available would be some "extra pack" of games on Atari Vault for PC. 

[just_lou]

2 hours ago, Atari8264 said:

Thanks. I was looking for an overlay for Armor Attack.  It is one of the files. Armor Attack is now playable!

Cool 😎

Now if anyone has artwork that works for Zaxxon, please post it here. 

[Domeshtan]

A few more examples of what the included arcade games "could" have looked like. Added some more files to the artwork folder on the Micro SD. Drag Race looks a little fuzzy but still way better than just the plain black and white. I didn't realize Skydiver had lights blinking across the top. I think I messed up a .cfg file on it experimenting. If I delete it the game should run normal again. (Been playing with things seeing if I can trick paddle support and remapping by slipping in a MAME 2003 .cfg file from my laptop). Football looks nice with the lit play buttons. Would have been nice to have these as options but at least they can be played this way off the Micro SD.

[Domeshtan]

Yeah, I've been experimenting trying to trick this thing into either using the paddles or remapping things like UP for thrust on asteroids style control games instead of the buttons. I was looking up about .cfg files and they use XML I think where you can open it up with notepad and pretty much read what's going on. Well swapping files from a version of MAME on my laptop didn't work. (Like delete the files off the Micro SD card and slip in one's that ran from my laptop) Well, it gets more fun as I opened up a couple of .cfg files that were created on the Micro SD card after running some games. They mostly look like gibberish. Looked at it with a hex editor and I would see a number, a bunch of zeros, another number, a bunch of zeros, etc. mostly. So the older version of MAME it's running is using some form of binary file for the .cfg stuff. I downloaded and tried running games using MAME .078b (should be the 2003 version). Tried reconfiguring controls a bit using an Xbox "style" controller. (Some wired knock off I picked up for $17 on clearance a couple months back). Remakes some things, deleated the .cfg files from the Micro SD and tried to slip in the new ones created on my laptop with the older version of MAME. Games pretty much locked up for the controls. They ran but the controls didn't work. Deleting the .cfg files from the Micro SD card and running the games again seem to restore stuff back to the defaults. So a question... Does anybody know how to read the "binary" versions of those .cfg files for what bytes do what? If so I would think it would be possible to edit the .cfg files the system creates with a hex editor and slip them back in to remap some things.

[Domeshtan]

6 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

Atari 2600 Surround is Dominoes.  Isn't it?

Well, it depends who was copying who I guess. I know around the same time there were the arcade games Bigfoot Bonkers, Blockade, Barricade and Checkmate which are pretty much the same thing.

[Shannon]

2 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

Yeah, I've been experimenting trying to trick this thing into either using the paddles or remapping things like UP for thrust on asteroids style control games instead of the buttons. I was looking up about .cfg files and they use XML I think where you can open it up with notepad and pretty much read what's going on. Well swapping files from a version of MAME on my laptop didn't work. (Like delete the files off the Micro SD card and slip in one's that ran from my laptop) Well, it gets more fun as I opened up a couple of .cfg files that were created on the Micro SD card after running some games. They mostly look like gibberish. Looked at it with a hex editor and I would see a number, a bunch of zeros, another number, a bunch of zeros, etc. mostly. So the older version of MAME it's running is using some form of binary file for the .cfg stuff. I downloaded and tried running games using MAME .078b (should be the 2003 version). Tried reconfiguring controls a bit using an Xbox "style" controller. (Some wired knock off I picked up for $17 on clearance a couple months back). Remakes some things, deleated the .cfg files from the Micro SD and tried to slip in the new ones created on my laptop with the older version of MAME. Games pretty much locked up for the controls. They ran but the controls didn't work. Deleting the .cfg files from the Micro SD card and running the games again seem to restore stuff back to the defaults. So a question... Does anybody know how to read the "binary" versions of those .cfg files for what bytes do what? If so I would think it would be possible to edit the .cfg files the system creates with a hex editor and slip them back in to remap some things.

 

I just loaded up MAME 2003 in Retroarch and it looks like it is MAME 0.78.  So you are close enough.  I went in and changed the configuration for thrust to UP.. here is the .cfg file try it and see if it works for you.

 

Also this is a great site for finding information on MAME games.  You can search for a game.  You can also select the version of MAME if you want and it will tell you exactly what you need.  But also another cool feature is the "info" button down at the bottom.  It will give you a history of the revisions so you can see when thing were fixed.  Assuming one can interpret the technical explanations. 

 

http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=nitedrvr&arcade_only=0&autosearch=1

 

Here is a small sample..

 

 

0.212: hap changed resolution to 256x240 and VSync to 60.114504 Hz. Draw tiles manually.
0.208: Removed MACHINE_CONFIG macros [Osso].
0.207: Removed MCFG macros [Osso].
0.206: Removed TIMER MCFG macros [Osso].
0.202: Removed WATCHDOG MCFG macros [Osso].
0.200: Added MCFG_SCREEN_RAW_PARAMS [AJR]. Changed VSync to 56.654676 Hz.
0.154: Fixed tilemap and 'hvc' ram size. This fixes random characters appear in the middle of the screen using -autosave [hap]. 0x80 bytes / 32 cols = 4 rows; also added AM_READNOPs so 6502 dummy reads don't clog the log [Alex Jackson].
0.136u4: Fabio Priuli added driver_data struct to Night Driver.
0.135u4: Tafoid changed clock values to XTAL in Night Driver.
0.104u2: Oshah added save state support to Night Driver (still needs save state support in the discrete core to be 100%).
0.88u1: Curt Coder cleanup Night Driver, removed gear/track display hack

asteroid.cfg

[Domeshtan]

1 hour ago, Shannon said:

 

I just loaded up MAME 2003 in Retroarch and it looks like it is MAME 0.78.  So you are close enough.  I went in and changed the configuration for thrust to UP.. here is the .cfg file try it and see if it works for you.

Unfortunately my rom set of Asteroids doesn't work so can't test that one. Asteroids Deluxe worked though. So unless I grabbed the wrong file somewhere.... 

 

Anyway, I got to thinking about that .cfg file stuff. I'm thinking of booting up the old version of MAME on my laptop and copying the .cfg on a game each time I run it. Like map out a different direction or button each time, copy the file, and then compare the files in a hex editor to see which byte or bytes change. Should get closer to pinning it down that way I would think.

 

You don't have a GSP to test it out?

[Shannon]

41 minutes ago, Domeshtan said:

Unfortunately my rom set of Asteroids doesn't work so can't test that one. Asteroids Deluxe worked though. So unless I grabbed the wrong file somewhere.... 

 

Anyway, I got to thinking about that .cfg file stuff. I'm thinking of booting up the old version of MAME on my laptop and copying the .cfg on a game each time I run it. Like map out a different direction or button each time, copy the file, and then compare the files in a hex editor to see which byte or bytes change. Should get closer to pinning it down that way I would think.

 

You don't have a GSP to test it out?

 

Nah.  I had my sister return the one she picked up for me.  I'll create one for asteroids deluxe and attach it later for you to try. 

 

But knowing they are using retroarch helps.  Everything should be thrbsame as far as the file structure goes.

[ahofle]

  

On 11/15/2023 at 1:04 PM, xboxiso said:

Thank you for sharing this!

Yes thank you! Most useful post here. Looks beautiful and vastly improves vertical games. Does anyone know of a generic bezel that will improve all other vertical games (mostly just looking for correct aspect ratio here)?

This little system is so worth the price if you are looking for a small, portable multi-game system with more than just 2600 games. Here are the only major downsides I'm tracking:

- no paddle support for SD card games (2600 or arcade)

- clunky UI for SD card games (no sorting, sub folder support, etc.)

- controller remapping on SD card games would be nice

 

I think a very simple firmware upgrade could easily fix those 3 things and make this an amazing little device.

[fluxit]

My order from myarcadegaming.com finally arrived.  I'm quite enjoying the GsP, and its joysticks.

 

If this has already been posted, I missed it:

 

On Linux Mint, the joystick(wired) works 100%.  The stick, all buttons, and the paddle are recognized.

 

 

[Domeshtan]

I was playing around with a USB hub I picked up yesterday and got my PlayStation Classic controller to work with it. Well enough anyway. Takes a little mashing on the directions and select button to get it to recognize the controller in a game but seems to work fine once it does (for that game). Still need the GSP controller hooked up for the home button to get back out and navigate menus. Seems the order the controllers are plugged in matters. I had no directions on the PlayStation Classic controller otherwise. Figured I would try this powered USB hub thing and it worked... Mostly. Don't know if it needs to be powered or a certain type but you can see I got it working in the games. Figured I would chance trying this because the other controllers that are known to work gave me sticker shock on the price tag. Pay half the price of the system or more for a different controller? Nope. I had a PlayStation Classic already so I tried the controller and it worked. I had a six button controller from the Genesis Mini 2 but only the Y button worked and it seemed like it was hitting ALL of the buttons at once. Like I played Missile Command. I think it put in the coin and started it, but it was launching missiles from all 3 bases at the same time! I tried a 3 button controller from the original Genesis Mini and I could only get the directions to work. My wired knock off Xbox controller I got on clearance for $17... Nothing again.

 

 

[0078265317]

Saw one at costco today.  Actuall got to play withbit.  Menu was a little confusing but the controller felt solid and the games look nice.

[nopaybob]

I don't have any games added to my gsp yet, Why can't I get asteroids deluxe or centipede to work with the included controllers.