Any cores for Colecovision and Intellivision consoles?

So far the only thing that i found to make those work is an old, 2015 build, of MESS. They do work but i can’t make controls work.

Is there any other core that could work with these? Anything should be better than MESS…

for the colecovision there is bluemsx, with the newest addition, the core auto-select the colecovision if the rom end with col.

For the Intv there is only MESS/MAME currently

Can’t load colecovision roms with Bluemsx though. It says load failed. Roms do end with .col.

Should autoload. But try to set bluemsx_msxtype = "Auto" in retroarch-core-options.cfg

Read the core info: you need BlueMsx Databases and Machines folders.

bluemsx worked great for ColecoVision once the settings were proper. I actually asked about this a few days ago and was able to set it up. Here’s that thread for reference if it helps:

As for Intellivision, I too avoid the MESS that is MESS whenever possible. Sadly, this meant I went outside RA for a solution there.

I recommend Nostalgia.

I’m not sure if you use any other frontends or anything, but so far it seems to blend quite well with my Hyperspin setup, and I just set the controls same as my RA stuff.

Thanks for the links. I got it working.

1 Like

Hi, if you’re using Retropie, JzIntv is the goto for Intellivision for now. Initial work has begun on building an RA core for it, and hopefully will happen, but for now… setting up JzIntv is a little taxing, but once it’s done, you’ll find no better.

Also, JzIntv is the only interface that allows you to setup the Intellivision Ultimate PC interface which allows you to use the original controllers with Retropie.

http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/interface/interface.php

This unit also accepts the Atari, Colecovisoin… etc. It’s a great unit. But back on point… .it takes a little hair pulling, but it’s worth it to have it running in Retropie.

If you need help, you can come to the AtariAge Intellivision forum and guys like myself who have already gone through it can answer questions.

JR

If you’re interested in playing ColecoVision games with the BlueMSX core, I suggest you check out the following thread to avoid confusion.

The biggest caveat to take note of is that you can’t map the 0 or 9 keys at all due to limitations with RetroArch’s whole RetroPad abstraction. It doesn’t support enough buttons. And the core author hasn’t found a way around that. I don’t think the RetroArch developers had weird phone pad controllers in mind at all. The whole input system is built on the idea of a standard gamepad.

1 Like

Here’s a libretro core for Intellivision at least:

3 Likes

compiled it on ubuntu 16.04 and it builds but as soon as a rom is loaded i exits with:

HALT! at 0

that’s it, no other error when using retroarch --verbose (and yes installed the bios to system_dir)

@r-type and @hunterk , tagging you in case this new Intellivision libretro core was not on your radar. One of the key missing systems in terms of first and second generation consoles IMO!

1 Like

@recompile thank you for your work on this core! I’d like to help make it a more integrated part of the libretro ecosystem if you are OK with that.

For example, please check (and feel free to post in) this github issue conversation about how to add Intellivision scanning to the RetroArch playlist scanner: https://github.com/libretro/libretro-database/issues/563

No worries, I don’t exactly have my ego wrapped up in the thing; it was just a fun project after all. Besides, I can think of no better stewards than this community.

3 Likes

Is there a core available to download of the Intellivision emulator? I don’t know how to use these files in the downloaded zip…

Right now, only for rpi systems but with any luck there will be precompiled cores for other platforms soon via the buildbot.

1 Like

The bluemsx_libretro.dll core has now been fixed and runs Colecovision games. I renamed the core bluecv_libretro.dll and in Launchbox under the manage emulators section went to Retroarch and I set up associate platforms for Colecovision like this,

-L “cores\bluecv_libretro.dll” -c “config\cv.cfg”

I’m using a bezel that’s why you see the cv.cfg

1 Like

@GemaH FreeIntv is now part of the libretro buildbot for many systems. Check the RetroArch online updater to see if you can download. You will also need to download fresh Core Info files and Databases from the updater in order to give it a try.

Note also you will need to find your own copy of the two required Intellivision BIOS files.

3 Likes

How is the compatibility of the intellivision emulator?

I tried a few games and most of them have many graphical glitches. Is this normal or am i doing something wrong?

Also, how do you config the controls? There are no controls available to change for me and there is no input except the numerical pad.

The Ultimate PC Interface and those old controllers can be used with any emulator that lets you map buttons and functions. It turns the old controllers into standard USB game controllers so they could be used with any computer games. And there’s other options that do the same thing. (Retronic USB, Vision-dapter, Raphnet)

1 Like