Gamestation Pro

[+Mocotechprfl]

21 minutes ago, Teke184 said:

I’m attempting to test out a lot of existing games on the SD card under the 1.3 firmware using a PS Mini controller, which is the most reliable controller I have so far.

 

Would you be able to post an Amazon link to the PS Mini controller you have? Too many results come up when I do a search. Thanks!

[Teke184]

4 minutes ago, Mocotechprfl said:

Would you be able to post an Amazon link to the PS Mini controller you have? Too many results come up when I do a search. Thanks!

It is the one that actually came with the PS One Mini system that Sony came out with a few years ago, not available separately that I know of.

 

it looks like the original grey dog bone PS1 controller without the analog sticks.

[8bitwidgets.com]

45 minutes ago, Mocotechprfl said:

Would you be able to post an Amazon link

You should try more places than Amazon..  search ebay..  ps mini controller..  you can find them for around $20-25.  etsy can be another place to find classic game consoles stuff.   

 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=ps+mini+controller&_sacat=0&_odkw=hd+antenna&_osacat=0 

 

[ahofle]

On 12/21/2023 at 8:11 AM, Mocotechprfl said:

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 ----

 

 

 

OMG Toobin!

I am looking at the controls and they don't seem...right. Is it possible to have the back XBox flipper buttons mapped to back L/R paddle and the bumpers mapped to forward L/R paddle (and then something like A for throw)? That would be perfect. Paddling forward with one hand seems difficult.

[big_guitar]

1 hour ago, Teke184 said:

I’m finding that the mapping for TG16 / PC Engine seems to be especially obnoxious

Yes what I tried so far was not playable, I think it would only be playable with a custom cfg file, which under the circumstances I don't think could be loaded in the same way the mame/arcade games are (anyone tried)? I think it would have to be passed through runme script with fluxit's firmware patch. 

[fluxit]

2 hours ago, Teke184 said:

I’m attempting to test out a lot of existing games on the SD card under the 1.3 firmware using a PS Mini controller, which is the most reliable controller I have so far.

 

I’m finding that the mapping for TG16 / PC Engine seems to be especially obnoxious, as I keep finding that some titles seem fine (Blazing Lazers / Gunhed special edition) while others have either no controls past Run (Devil’s Crush) or have incomplete controls (Aero Blasters, R Type, Legendary Axe all have the I or II button unmapped).

 

 

Most other consoles I have tried so far appear to be fine (NES, GBC, GG, SMS, 5200, 2600, etc.), but I have not gotten to the SNES yet.

 

 

I find, for testing purposes, that shoot ‘em ups with 360 degree movement seem to be good for testing controls since I found out an otherwise good controller would go up and to the left whenever I dropped bombs in Fantasy Zone on SMS.

Is TG16 just 2 buttons, plus "select" and "run" for a total of 4?  It seems to be using the default configuration at the moment.

 

Perhaps the current NES .cfg would work well with it.  AFAIK, the NES mapping is fine.  I'll do some testing.

[Teke184]

1 hour ago, fluxit said:

Is TG16 just 2 buttons, plus "select" and "run" for a total of 4?  It seems to be using the default configuration at the moment.

 

Perhaps the current NES .cfg would work well with it.  AFAIK, the NES mapping is fine.  I'll do some testing.

Should work that way on the vast majority of games, as a D pad, I, II, Select, and Run were the only buttons for most if not all of the system’s life.

 

 

[Domeshtan]

2 hours ago, ahofle said:

OMG Toobin!

I am looking at the controls and they don't seem...right. Is it possible to have the back XBox flipper buttons mapped to back L/R paddle and the bumpers mapped to forward L/R paddle (and then something like A for throw)? That would be perfect. Paddling forward with one hand seems difficult.

That was the way someone requested it because the one I mapped for my PS Classic would use down for left paddle forward, but on an Xbox controller it comes out as down on the left thumb stick. Kinda awkward. The next try I messed up the button order. (and if mapping with a PS Classic controller the X and Triangle buttons come out swapped compared to how the GSP reads them. He wanted "buttons" that way so that's how it turned out. Not all buttons can be mapped it seems. On my PS Classic controllers you can have the D-Pad, X is the GSP A button, O is the GSP B button and Triangle is the GSP C trigger. Throwing other values at it I found you could also map the L2 and R2 buttons so that is 2 extra to play with. I couldn't find any values that worked for L1 or R1. Square is that save menu so that is out. On an X Box controller the L2 and R2 buttons come out as the left and right bumper buttons. No values for any other buttons I found. First controller has values from 69 to 72 hex Second controller has values from 79 to 82 hex. 70 was probably square button but it's the save menu. There should be a PS Classic Toobin .cfg. If not here it's on one of my YouTube videos with a link.

[Domeshtan]

4 hours ago, Teke184 said:

I’m attempting to test out a lot of existing games on the SD card under the 1.3 firmware using a PS Mini controller, which is the most reliable controller I have so far.

I just wanted to point out in general for people wondering aboutbPS Classic controlers I got a set with this thing. 

I need to fiddle with the select button and D-Pad a little at first to get the GSP to detect them when you start a game. Takes a few seconds. Just a minor annoyance. I already had mine while testing controllers. I wasn't going to shell out $50+ for a different controller. Too expensive for my needs. The only game that seemed to give me any issues starting was Space Duel. Need the second GSP Stick to start it for some reason. I just swap back after starting. Still need a GSP stick to exit a game because there is no "home" button mapped on the PS Classic controller anywhere. Also need the GSP stick to navigate menus. Other than that they seem to work great once the system detects it when you start a game.

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, Teke184 said:

Should work that way on the vast majority of games, as a D pad, I, II, Select, and Run were the only buttons for most if not all of the system’s life.

 

 

Okay.  The included file fixes the TG16/PCE button mapping, and also may improve the SNES button mapping.  It requires my patched 1.30 firmware to be installed first.  Then the file should be unzipped to your SD card, preserving directories.   "runme.sh" should end up in a folder called "agsp," that is located at the root of the SD card, replacing the existing runme.sh, if one exists.

 

It may be the case that the TG16 buttons should be swapped.  If you decide to try this out, and agree that they should be swapped, let me know and I will release a version with the buttons swapped.

 

For anyone who previously installed my vector games fixes, this will not affect those fixes, but it also doesn't include them if you haven't already installed them.

 

fix-snes-tg16.zip

Edited December 28, 2023 by fluxit
clarification

[Teke184]

 

 

27 minutes ago, fluxit said:

Okay.  The included file fixes the TG16/PCE button mapping, and also may improve the SNES button mapping.  It requires my patched 1.30 firmware to be installed first.  Then the file should be unzipped to your SD card, preserving directories.   "runme.sh" should end up in a folder called "agsp," that is located at the root of the SD card, replacing the existing runme.sh, if one exists.

 

It may be the case that the TG16 buttons should be swapped.  If you decide to try this out, and agree that they should be swapped, let me know and I will release a version with the buttons swapped.

 

For anyone who previously installed my vector games fixes, this will not affect those fixes, but it also doesn't include them if you haven't already installed them.

 

fix-snes-tg16.zip 12.17 kB · 0 downloads

TY, will need to try this later when I get a chance.

[big_guitar]

5 hours ago, fluxit said:

The included file fixes the TG16/PCE button mapping

glad that works, haven't tested yet.  It don't recall seeing a TG16 specific cfg file under libretro/retroarch, so that would be an issue to begin with there. It would ideal to be able to load a core and have retroarch report button values to help configure mappings, not sure if there's a way.  It seems evident that not all cores are going to register button values consistently, but perhaps there are more that are similar than not. then again some games for the same core will also not be consistent 100%.

I see you tried a keyboard earlier, but none of the cfg files have a hotkey enabled. We should be able to set input_enable_hotkey = "num1" or something like that in an edited cfg and try again. Do you know if it makes a dif which usb port the kbd is plugged into? I may try that.  Thank you!

 

Yet another topic, has anyone attempted to launch Jungle2016_libretro.so?  Assuming that's a more recent mame, that could make controller updates per game easier with the xml cfg files.  Anothing thing to try.

Edited December 28, 2023 by big_guitar

[big_guitar]

So as suggested I used the built-in NES cfg for TG16 and that works fine for me so far.  The game specific data (player profile) with the TG16 game I tested did save and load to the matching .srm file, so that's nice. 

[doug0909]

This community is fantastic, and thanks to everyone for the time they are putting in! 

 

But while this is all being figured out, I think I just want to add some favorites, mostly single button games... 

 

Does anyone have a quick and dirty list of systems known to be supported by the new firmware, and file extensions to use? And how do you make paddle games work with the included controller? 

 

Thanks! 

[Teke184]

I need to start documenting the MAME games which work or not while I am doing my tests.

 

Not that I am going to screw around with trying to fix something that won’t boot (won’t go from menu into game at all) as much as trying to note stuff which is just taking up space and needs to be dumped just so it isn’t cluttering up menus or slowing down the system having to account for them when opening the MAME folder.  There are WAY too many games in the MAME set to keep around crap that won’t work for various reasons, as it makes it hard to find the treasure under all the trash.

 

A number of them won’t boot at all while I find a lot of the Williams games (Blaster, Bubbles, etc) get stuck at the diagnostic screens upon startup.  As I’ve noted below, this could be a controller issue on my end as the PS One controller I’m using has been noted for not being picked up automatically by the system.

 

 

These are all from the MAME set known to work listed in this thread so it isn’t a case of me attempting to use the wrong roms to do this.

 

 

On the plus side, a few selected games I really wanted to play, such as Aliens (Konami) and Airwolf (Kyugo) seem to work perfectly.  That’s wonderful because Aliens never got a home port while the Famicom port of Airwolf (not the NES version by Acclaim) just feels “off” to me because so many ports were reformulated a bit rather than straight conversions and I have fond memories of the arcade version from my youth.

 

 

Known to work-

Airwolf (Kyugo)

Aliens (Konami)

Burger Time (Data East)

Chopper I (SNK)

Crazy Kong (Donkey Kong clone)

 

 

Did not work-

 

Air Buster (Kaneko) - No boot IIRC

Avengers - No boot (I assume this is the Capcom beat ‘em up circa 1984 and NOT Captain America And The Avengers (Data East).  Can’t tell from file name since it wouldn’t boot)

Blaster (Williams) - Stuck at diagnostics (may be controller issue)

Bubbles (Williams) - See Blaster

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Teke184
Added Airwolf to tested list

[Domeshtan]

3 hours ago, Teke184 said:

Blaster (Williams) - Stuck at diagnostics (may be controller issue)

Bubbles (Williams) - See Blaster

That's not an issue where you just need to run a game again to get it working, is it? I know Williams stuff comes up with something like factory settings restored the first time. Runs the second time.

[Teke184]

20 minutes ago, Domeshtan said:

That's not an issue where you just need to run a game again to get it working, is it? I know Williams stuff comes up with something like factory settings restored the first time. Runs the second time.

Certainly possible, have not tried a second run on these games yet because I was doing quick checks then, if the game spun up, testing the controls to ensure it is working.

[Riko]

Narc works though suffers from intense slow down. Wizard of Wor works good, Holey Moley cant hit the first 2 rows, the game Flower is broken and garbled with at least the copy i have, Defender can't turn around. Alot are hit and miss.

[samwars95]

Do you think will we be able to play more recent homebrew like the retron77 ? Really looking foward for that !

[big_guitar]

Messed around a bit with Jungle2016 & 2014, no go so far.  Only tried one game, one that works for 2003, but tried to match the release build for romset (unmerged).  Screen would go to black for a bit, flash, return to sdcard listing.  Couldn't even get 2016 to dump stdout to a file, although 2014 did, but nothing revealing.  Could be there are some needed core options to be defined, or perhaps mame.ini, or perhaps those are too much for GSP to handle, but you'd wonder why they are there.  

Edited December 28, 2023 by big_guitar

[8bitwidgets.com]

4 minutes ago, samwars95 said:

more recent homebrew like the retron77

I would see no reason not.  The only ones I might question would be harmony based games like Champ Games Robotron and Turbo..  these games use arm processor acceleration which I'm just speculating might be too demanding.   I would guess the GSP is arm based itself so maybe it could 1:1 "emulate" the acceleration very efficiently?   or maybe the nature of the harmony cart itself is emulating the 2600 stuff thus making it really inefficient..  but yea baring those games, why wouldn't a homebrew work?  if it can fool a real 2600 I would imagine it would fool the emulation too, or maybe not?  

Edited December 28, 2023 by 8bitwidgets.com

[MattJH]

@SoulBlazer has done a great job testing various controllers earlier in this thread, and GenXGrownUp posted an equally helpful video on YouTube, but neither have mentioned the two controllers I have handy and I'm wondering if anyone can confirm/deny that they'd work. I have an Xbox Wireless Controller model 1708 which came out in 2016 alongside the Xbox One S, and I have 8BitDo's SN30 Pro. If I have a Micro-USB to USB-A cable and a USB-A to USB-C adapter, am I all set for both controllers?

 

Tangential question. Based on reports I've read, it seems that wired controllers (e.g. ones with no Bluebooth and no 2.4GHz, just an integrated cable) won't work at all on a GSP. Does anyone know the technical reason why those are duds, but Bluetooth versions of those same controllers with a USB-C cable run into the GSP work fine?

[Shannon]

Here are my notes on the different retroarch "mame" versions and which version of MAME they correspond to.

 

MAME 2010 -> 0.139 ( CHD v4 or less? )
MAME 2015 -> 0.160 ( CHD v5-v3 )
MAME 2016 -> 0.174 ( CHD v5-v3 )
 

[big_guitar]

Like others, I tested a usb keyboard (with A to C adapter), could not get anything while running retroarch, which is where it would be most helpful I think. 

But from sdcard list, F2 behaved like the Home button, then N key was like the A button, "<" key was the B button (go back).  The arrow keys worked for navigation.  I could not determine a Start equivalent. [as mentioned, ctrl-esc to bring up window listing in lower-left] 

Edited December 28, 2023 by big_guitar

[Teke184]

5 hours ago, Teke184 said:

Certainly possible, have not tried a second run on these games yet because I was doing quick checks then, if the game spun up, testing the controls to ensure it is working.

 

Just retested Bubbles and Blaster.  Having the joystick recognized causes the diagnostic screen to pass it and go to the game.

 

Also proven to work-

 

City Connection (Jaleco)

Congo Bongo (Sega)

 

 

More checks -

 

005 - Works, no sound

1941 - Works

1942 - will not spin up

1943 - works

1943 Kai - works

2020 baseball - won’t spin up

280 zzzap - Works, k think.  Night Driver clone?

3 count - won’t spin up

3 stooges- works

3 wonders - won’t spin up

4F Warrior- won’t spin up

600 - works

64th St - works

720 - won’t spin up

800 Fathoms - works

88 Games - works

99 The Last War - works

AAFB (All American Football?) - multiple rom sets.  One won’t load, one hands on title screen.  One works.

ABase(Atari Baseball?) - Works but orientation is 90deg off

Act Fancer - works

Aeroboto - Won’t spin up

Aero Fighters - Works

Air Duel - works

Ajax - works

Alcon / Slap Fight - throwing a hardware error on boot

Alex Kidd Lost Stars - Works

Edited December 29, 2023 by Teke184
Additional games tested