I’m trying to set up the ability to play ColecoVision using blueMSX in retroarch on Android. I downloaded the full blueMSX app and placed the “Machines” folder into my bios directory. I also extracted all my games to make sure that isn’t affected my inability to get this core to work. But I can’t seem to be able to run any of the ColecoVision games. Am I missing something or is the Machines folder int he wrong directory?
I don’t know much about that core, but it would be helpful to post a log of you trying to load a game.
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How do I get a log? Sorry for the noob question
Assuming you’re in Windows, open your RetroArch directory and shift+right-click somewhere in there and choose ‘open command window here…’. In that console window, type:
retroarch_debug.exe --menu --verbose --log-file log.txt
Do whatever you need to do to cause the offending behavior and then quit RetroArch. You should now have a text file named log.txt in your RetroArch directory. Copy/paste its contents to pastebin.com (or similar) and then post a link to that resulting page here.
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You need to change the machine type to Colecovision in Core Options (when bluemsx is launched, F1 quick menu, Option, change and restart).
Get the “Databases” folder too.
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in windows i launch colecovision with bluemsx like this
PATH\OF\blueMSX.exe" /machine "COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension" /rom1 NAME-OF-THE-ROM /romtype1 "113" /fullscreen
I know you need for android but maybe give to you an idea.with the bluemsx core i cant launch any game. i will try tomorrow because i prefer the cores than external app.
This worked! Thank you!
Hmm…
Well I’m struggling to get BlueMSX working under Android I have tried pretty everything I can find on the subject, which is actually not much!
I’ve downloaded the BlueMSX for windows package and moved the Databases & Machines folder to \data\user\0\com.retroarch which is the system folder.
For good measure I copied them to my ROMS folder and finally \sdcard\RetroArch.
I edited \sdcard\Android\data\com.retroarch\files\retroarch-core-options.cfg and added bluemsx_msxtype = “COL - ColecoVision”.
I also unzipped a test rom with the extension .col - RA just crashes upon launch (ColEm works fines)
I also read that I must load a rom and the change some core settings, which is impossible since RA crashes!
Does anyone have this working under Android?
If so please can you explain how you managed it…
Thanks
It’s crashing for me as well on Android.
Ok… Thanks for the reply Tatsuya79 At least now I know I’m not the only one!
My feeling is that it’s simply a directory path problem.
Androids a pain like that 
Anyone have any luck with it…?
I’ve tried MSX roms as well without any success. …sigh…
Ok, I just tested with the latest Retroarch nightly and it’s working now! 
Try to update.
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Thanks for the info Tatsuya79…
It’s late here, so I’ve grabbed the nightly, and uninstalled RA… I’ll test tomorrow with a fresh install and let you know how I got on…
I’m looking forward to playing some Coleco Games, it was my favourite console as a kid!
Edit
All working nicely now 
I think what was confusing me a little was some conflicting information across the various platforms as to where to put the files…
The wiki was correct of course! https://buildbot.libretro.com/docs/library/bluemsx/
However one small detail tripped me up.
When I installed RA, it did not create a BIOS folder… and the BIOS directory was pointed to /System
So I created the BIOS folder in /System and put the Machines & Databases folders into it and then pointed the BIOS path to the newly created folder.
It ran with a MSX BIOS which I then was able to change in QuickSettings to ColecoVision.
I still however, suck at Donkey Kong!
Many Thanks for your help Tatsuya79!
I added machine auto-detection today.
You need to manually change Machine to “Auto” in core option once and it should adapt automatically if your roms don’t have funky extensions (except for Spectravideo that still need the machine manual selection).
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Man, talk about great timing hahaha. I just found this thread and was going through the steps. I don’t have an MSX BIOS with me so I was surprised it started at all haha.
I’m having the same problem I had with the Atari800 core for 5200 games though, in that… what are the controls? Are there special ones like with 800 that aren’t mapped to RetroPad like * and = are?
I’m guessing the keypad is just mapped to the corresponding numbers though.
Sorry if I sound stupid. The only time I played a keypad system was the Intellivision and I was like 11 and it was the strangest thing I had ever seen at the time hahaha.
(Side Note: There’s not an intellivision core is there? Other than Mess?)
Yes Coleco has that awful 12 keys pad + 2 buttons, I had to leave 2 of them on the keyboard.
It’s explained in the core info file.
Other machines should be more straight forward.
(with carts at least, disks/cassettes are a bit complicated to use)
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I didn’t even know that kind of info was in core info. lol learn something new about RA every day.
Thanks for the info, and thanks for all the work you do Tatsuya!
Does this work on 1.7.1 Android ? I tried all the solutions described but retroarch is always crashing when launching. Can you explain it step vu step ? Many thanks
I just encountered this problem and with some digging I fixed this on Windows x64. i was poking around the folders and I found .info files in the “info” folder. When i edited the one for blueMSX, this caught my eye:
notes = “(!) The libretro port of blueMSX requires the BIOS files|from full standalone package inside the ‘System\Machines’ directory |and media database files into ‘System\Databases’ directory.|https://docs.libretro.com/library/bluemsx/#bios|(!) ColecoVision Gamepad Mapping is as follow:|Button 1 as Retropad A|Button 2 as Retropad B|Dial keys 1 to 8 as X, Y, R, L, R2, L2, R3, L3|Star as Select, Hash as Start|0 & 9 are on keyboard 1 & 2 for Player 1|0 & 9 are on keyboard 3 & 4 for Player 2.|(!) To play SpectraVideo cassettes type ‘cload’ then ‘run’|or BLOAD ‘‘CAS:’’,R depending of game.”
I copied the BIOS ROM from the Machines folder to RetroArch\system\Machines\COL - ColecoVision and now the ColecoVision ROMs all load properly
Hope this helps!