Retroarch won't load from command line (for arcade roms)

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hi all,

I’m trying to run my retroarch from the command line for my launcher but for some reason it will work on one PC but not the other.

I’ve managed to rule out the launcher since the roms won’t even load from command prompt. I’ve checked and double checked the paths (ie C:\Retroarch\retroarch.exe -L C:\Retroarch\cores\whatevercore.dll “path\to\rom.7z”) and every thread within there is correct. I am able to launch the rom with the core through the GUI but not from CLI. I’ve tried the MAME core as well as FBA and FBA2012 (and MAME2003, and plus). SNES roms seem to work perfectly fine on the other hand.

Now the weird thing is, doing this on a completely different PC (my main PC rather than the arcade cab build) it works perfectly fine.

So I’m wondering if there are some magical settings I may have set somewhere, or something I need to install or something along those lines that I’m missing? I’ve been at this for days trying to figure it out now and really have no clue.

Thanks!

#2

What error is it giving you when it fails?

#3

It varies based on the core (and will only throw an error with the -v flag).

Here’s the pastebin of the log.

#4

Your command line is wrong ?

I see “C:/Pegasus/roms/mame/avsp.7z” in your logs, on windows it should be “C:\Pegasus\roms\mame\avsp.7z”

1 Like
#5

That was also my initial thought but changing it in the command prompt doesn’t make any difference.

I should also add that it works fine with the same arguments on a completely different PC.

-edit- ok so starting over and deleting the existing retroarch installation and starting again I am able to get it loading with backslashes instead from the command line. The other PC still works fine mixing them so I’m very confused about this. Anyway, I’ll take the issue to the frontend creator instead I guess. Thanks for the help.

#6

Being the author of fbalpha libretro, i can tell you my core won’t be able to parse the driver name (in this case : avsp) if you don’t give it backslashes when running on windows, and i expect all other arcade emulator to work the same way.

So that’s a custom frontend or something ? It might be doing weird things with the paths if you are able to load paths like “C:/Pegasus/roms/mame/avsp.7z”

#7

I’m using Pegasus and have mentioned it to the author. He was under the impression that both were fine but will be changing it for Windows now.

Thanks for the clarification.