Custom firmware for Atari Gamestation Pro

[big_guitar]

33 minutes ago, crash said:

I don't necessarily intend to have 1000 games installed, but it will be easier for me to delete unwanted entries from an INI file than it is to manually enter them if I want to try other games. If I am able to come up with some way to select the games I want from a database query and then have it generate a corresponding INI file, even better. It would be nice to have an app to assist with any of this.

If you're going to read directly from the db, might as well write to it as well, and bypass the INI file altogether.  It would just take some experimenting with a bit to verify that the interface would handle any data updates you made.  If there's any issue, you can always restore the original db and try again. 

 

One way to add a lot of games at one time could be with a CSV file with an app to update the database.. to add records only without needing the existing games in the file. 

Edited March 4 by big_guitar

[Atari8264]

If you are just testing new games, use the original SD card blue screen to test games from the /Games folder.  No .ini editing is needed.  I am using the blue screen for now. It is functional, but not pretty. 

[crash]

Hi, I'm not sure which games I will end up with on this system. I just want to create an INI file that includes informations for all the games I ever want to use so I don't ever have to do this again. Hopefully if I get this figured out other people can just copy and paste the parts they want.

[clyde]

Here's my .ini template I started for some popular arcade (MAME) games. Was curious to see how many ROM files I've got that would match to titles in buildbot's MAME 2003-Plus list.

  

It only contains the game titles and generic settings for each -- all set to class type 4 / game type 10. Hopefully it's correct for these games?! Now just need to figure out a quick way to scrape game images for each. I figure even having the full game title will be easier than guessing at a bunch of ZIP filenames.

  

Disclaimer: I haven't installed the CFW yet so can't confirm if this is formatted correctly.

 

GSP_template-176_arcade_games.txt

[big_guitar]

2 hours ago, clyde said:

Here's my .ini template I started for some popular arcade (MAME) games. Was curious to see how many ROM files I've got that would match to titles in buildbot's MAME 2003-Plus list.

  

It only contains the game titles and generic settings for each -- all set to class type 4 / game type 10. Hopefully it's correct for these games?! Now just need to figure out a quick way to scrape game images for each. I figure even having the full game title will be easier than guessing at a bunch of ZIP filenames.

  

Disclaimer: I haven't installed the CFW yet so can't confirm if this is formatted correctly.

 

GSP_template-176_arcade_games.txt 47.14 kB · 1 download

I notice you have some leading spaces in front of game section brackets, I'm not sure how the ini2gamedb program will handle the spaces, but that could be easily tested.  Otherwise, easily corrected with a little regex replacement command in notepad++.  Also, I think you'll need to convert the end of line character to simply be a line-feed/unix format, so you'll want those carriage returns removed.  The value in brackets will need to match the rom filename prefix stored in your Arcade directory.

 

I think currently the process is similar to creating documentation, it does take some time to size the images properly, to compose the unique descriptions for each game, etc., otherwise, why bother with the interface, just use the folders for navigation.  But I'd say that's kind of part of the challenge and having a sense of achievement to some extent in the end.

 

Perhaps at some point an application would be developed similar to what was created for TheC64, where others performed a lot of the work for you and have established a more simplified means with a Windows application to apply your interface changes and select which games you want.  Then you could potentially modify settings for each game, even down to which controllers you plan to use, and the necessary mods could be made to the db and the sdcard to support all that, but it would be a decent amount of work, and I'm not so sure the community for the GSP is large enough to go down that path.  Of course I believe with TheC64 there are additional interface customizations in play there as well.  

Edited March 5 by big_guitar

[Brad_from_the_80s]

3 hours ago, big_guitar said:

I notice you have some leading spaces in front of game section brackets, I'm not sure how the ini2gamedb program will handle the spaces, but that could be easily tested.  Otherwise, easily corrected with a little regex replacement command in notepad++.  Also, I think you'll need to convert the end of line character to simply be a line-feed/unix format, so you'll want those carriage returns removed.  The value in brackets will need to match the rom filename prefix stored in your Arcade directory.

I think I at least did an ltrim/rtrim, but worth testing it out.  Unix newlines are basic expectation, and contemporary Windows notepad, notepad++ honor these AFAIK, but the carriage returns MIGHT be okay, you'd just have to test.

[clyde]

Thanks guys, appreciate you checking my formatting. Ah yes, I wondered how the GSP would locate the associated ROMs without any filenames in the .ini file. Obviously that goes in the [brackets]. Was late so thought I hallucinated those leading spaces.

   

Attached is a cleaned-up version, I left the carriage returns intact to see if it matters going forward. I added the ROM names and cleaned up some of the display_names (removed versions/regions, and shortened long titles to avoid hitting character limits).

  

If anyone tests this .ini without having all the ROMs, will the GSP just exclude those games from the UI?

 

 

GSP_template-176_arcade_games (v2).txt

[Airwolfman]

After a couple of days of trial and error where I just couldn't get the new 1.30c interface to work, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. So, I'd like to share a troubleshooting list here for anyone else that might be having problems.

 

1. Make sure your SD card is formatted as exFAT.

2. Make sure you still have a "Games" directory in the root. Not sure if you need a rom file in there but I do just in case (it is essential for testing via tip #5).

3. Use notepad++ to edit games.ini. I had tried notepad, wordpad and Dreamweaver to make changes, and for some reason none of them saved the data in the correct format.

4. Change update_db=0 to update_db=1 each time you make a games.ini file change.

5. If you're not sure that the GSP is recognizing your SD card, repeat step 2, then insert it and press the two outer red buttons "Menu" and "Select" simultaneously to bring up the firmware 1.30-style menu of your game rom(s).

And here's a handy reminder on your image dimensions:

236 x 322 png "romname.png" Box Art

362 x 278 jpg "romname.jpg" Screenshot

960 x 186 png "romname_title.png" Logo

[clyde]

Attached are most of the JPG screenshots to match what's in my .ini file, if anyone is interested. Snaps for 159 out of 176 games.

 

All resized as close as possible to 362x278, while maintaining original aspect ratio. Nothing has been cropped.

  

Guess it's time to install that CFW!

  

 

screenshots.zip

[clyde]

OK, so I got the CFW installed and all the arcade games and snaps added that I posted above.

   

My first attempt showed no SD card mounted, or any of my added games via the GSP UI shown below. That was because the final line in games.ini was missing an LF after "vertical=0".

  

My second attempt allowed me to load all added games (yay!) and shows most game snaps I added (more yay) -- those double as the box art which gets stretched vertically, but still better than a blank box. Note that I've ONLY added game snapshots/thumbnails -- NO marquees, box art, or cabinet images.

 

So that's where the funds ends. You can see below how the box images (snaps) don't always correlate with the game title. Many do match up properly though. Maybe the firmware doesn't like when there are missing image files for the box, marquee, and cabinet?? Perhaps 176 arcade games is too much for the UI? I might try cutting it in half to see.

 

  
A number of games will have no snapshot at all, despite every JPG being in place with the same filename as the ROM. It also shows the box art for some other random game, and another different snap positioned in the arcade cabinet spot.

 

Attached is my current games.ini file if anyone has any idea what might be causing this. You can see the end of each line just has an LF, so I guess carriage returns got stripped out.

  

As a last attempt, I tried adding all three images for Zaxxon, but that didn't make a difference; the images were still mixed up for quite a few games.

 

games.ini

[Vic20Ian]

8 hours ago, clyde said:

You can see below how the box images (snaps) don't always correlate with the game title. Many do match up properly though. Maybe the firmware doesn't like when there are missing image files for the box, marquee, and cabinet?? Perhaps 176 arcade games is too much for the UI? I might try cutting it in half to see.

 

As a last attempt, I tried adding all three images for Zaxxon, but that didn't make a difference; the images were still mixed up for quite a few games.

 

 

games.ini 177.26 kB · 3 downloads

I will give it a go later.

 

I will try to chop the ini down into say first 50 items or only items with all artwork and check.

 

The missing artwork may throw off some indexing.

[clyde]

2 hours ago, Vic20Ian said:

The missing artwork may throw off some indexing.

Thanks! Excellent point, will see if I can find images for the ones that are missing.

[TheRingBearer]

From what I've experienced, yes, missing artwork and/or artwork with wrong filenames WILL throw off the indexing.

[clyde]

5 hours ago, Vic20Ian said:

missing artwork may throw off some indexing

Thanks, no need to try trimming down the games.ini file to resolve this...

2 hours ago, TheRingBearer said:

missing artwork and/or artwork with wrong filenames WILL throw off the indexing

Messy artwork index is now fixed due to the above points -- thanks to both of you fine Atarians!

 

Attached is the complete set of snaps for all 176 titles in my games.ini file previously posted.

 

As mentioned, these are just snaps which also provide a thumbnail as the box art, making it easier to find the game you're looking for. Maybe someone else will have the time to add official box art, cabinet image, and marquee/titles (romname_title.png) to this collection. 

screenshots (MAME snaps).zip

Edited March 6 by clyde

[Vic20Ian]

4 minutes ago, clyde said:

Thanks, no need to try trimming down the games.ini file to resolve this...

Messy artwork index is now fixed due to the above points -- thanks to both of you fine Atarians!

 

Attached is the complete set of snaps for all 176 titles in my games.ini file previously posted.

 

As mentioned, these are just snaps which also provide a thumbnail as the box art, making it easier to find the game you're looking for. Maybe someone else will have the time to add official box art, cabinet image, and marquee/titles (romname_title.png) to this collection. 

screenshots (MAME snaps).zip 6.53 MB · 0 downloads

Great that you got it fixed.

 

Cheers

Vic20Ian

[Marky316]

I just want to thank everyone and Brad for there work and info with this custom firmware.

 

I know I am new on the forum  but been playing around with this customer firmware since Brad made it , So my 1st goal was to get some of the Mame,5200 and 7800 games on it, then update all the artwork in the Atari Arcade front page folder because I hated the game screen shot, and I am just picky about that.

 

2nd add the games info and artwork(INI file, title, screen shots and resize) that I want on my system, this takes time as you all know and some I had to make up some because the game was a prototype or the artwork flyer wasn't made.

 

3rd I am going to get rid of all the PICO games and the bonus games as that part will be for OTHER system games.

 

I am not the greatest on editing imaging I try to work with what I have or find on https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/

 

I will be added more info and games when I can...but for now  thank you all...... this will be my fun side project on my free time.

 

The only thing I wish I can get to work is Pole Position 5200 and MAME and both MAME TRON games with the paddle to work with the Atari controllers as they are not setup right with them.

 

Atari Arcade Main page box art.rar

[Vic20Ian]

5 hours ago, Marky316 said:

I just want to thank everyone and Brad for there work and info with this custom firmware.

 

I know I am new on the forum  but been playing around with this customer firmware since Brad made it , So my 1st goal was to get some of the Mame,5200 and 7800 games on it, then update all the artwork in the Atari Arcade front page folder because I hated the game screen shot, and I am just picky about that.

 

2nd add the games info and artwork(INI file, title, screen shots and resize) that I want on my system, this takes time as you all know and some I had to make up some because the game was a prototype or the artwork flyer wasn't made.

 

3rd I am going to get rid of all the PICO games and the bonus games as that part will be for OTHER system games.

 

I am not the greatest on editing imaging I try to work with what I have or find on https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/

 

I will be added more info and games when I can...but for now  thank you all...... this will be my fun side project on my free time.

 

The only thing I wish I can get to work is Pole Position 5200 and MAME and both MAME TRON games with the paddle to work with the Atari controllers as they are not setup right with them.

 

Atari Arcade Main page box art.rar 14.3 MB · 2 downloads

Nice job. Thanks for sharing it.

[Turo]

This is a great thread and I was able to flash to 1.30c and all went as planned 

 

Thank you to the OP and the rest of the posters here for all the input 

[dec0y13]

Thank you so much everyone, I got my GSP all kinds of modded now!

 

I am bumping into a few issues though. As I understand it this will play Atari Jaguar files, but every ROM I've downloaded has been unseen by the firmware. Am I using the wrong extension or doing something else wrong?

 

Also, I can run SNES files from the SD menu, but I can't seem to get them into the pretty menus. No matter what I do they won't launch. I added them in the 16 bit folder and change the file extensions, all the art shows up but I only get a black screen for the game load.

I'd welcome any help you guys can offer.

[Marky316]

8 hours ago, dec0y13 said:

Also, I can run SNES files from the SD menu, but I can't seem to get them into the pretty menus. No matter what I do they won't launch. I added them in the 16 bit folder and change the file extensions, all the art shows up but I only get a black screen for the game load.

I'd welcome any help you guys can offer.

Well To be honest since the GSP is very basic in terms of working formats plus the buttons on the GSP Controller I stick to 2600,5200,7800,MAME,NES,GBC,SEGA Genesis,Sega CD

 

16 bit folders for Sega Gen,Sega CD

8  bit for NES and Game Boy Color
 

Jag and SNES plays choppy in my view plus never even attempted to put in the folders on the main system with the custom firmware.

 

On my system I just it keep it basic, keep it to the Classic hits and 90s. And leave the preloaded games on it except the preloaded Bonus Games as they don’t go with my setup I want and can add better games.

 

Right now I am testing out stuff before I make a final build. Just keeping it to the two/three buttons games is the best way to go with GSP I see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Goochman]

Is there a TI99/4a emu that runs on GSP?

[big_guitar]

2 hours ago, Goochman said:

Is there a TI99/4a emu that runs on GSP?

There is a TI-83 emulator for Retroarch that will likely work fine (assuming patched firmware is established).

As far as TI-99, you'd likely have to use a newer RA build that allows keyboard access combined with a newer Mame build, not likely something quick and easy.

[Boots01]

On 3/6/2024 at 1:06 PM, clyde said:

>> custom titles

 

Here is a wild example for some people who want a bit of description or controller info displayed in their custom Bonus Games section (title). Yep, maybe you are freaky enough and have lots and lots of time to waste.... TEE HEE HEE __ (backgrounds do display black)

[big_guitar]

After the talk of other ways to work with the data I decided to mess around with .net sqlite and make a windows based interface. There are certainly generic Windows based db tools you could use to manually edit the games.db, now with the games.db accessible on the sdcard, but it's at least a little more particular to the need.  Kind of beta, but works for me! Due to some funkiness with how the .net library loaded existing data, I ended up changing the db schema for the 'players' attribute to be text instead of integer (it's basically used as a string anyway), and the UI is fine with that.  Search, Add, Delete, Update, Renumber, save a default template. No bulk importing at this point.

Does require .net 6.0 x86 installed currently, it's just how I started the project and didn't stop messing with it. 

The INI method is certainly an easy way to go about it, this just shows other approaches are possible.

If any interest, I will share what I have so far.

 

 

 

[crash]

That's awesome. I have been stuck trying to get a SQLite database connector working for MS Access so I have only been able to open the games.db database in SQLite Studio. 

Edited March 9 by crash