Fire tv stick: 11/03/2015nightly -- Cores crashing retroarch (n64/psx/mame)

RetroArch Android devices
#1

Is the fire tv stick capable of running retroarch with ps1, mame and n64 roms?

I have the appropriate bios files [checksummed] in the same directory as the roms.

I have Snes9x Next & Genisis Plus GX cores loading fine.

For PS1 roms, I’ve tried both mednafen_psx_libretro_android and pcsx_rearmed_libretro_android via the 'Core Updater". InstaCrash to 'Load Retroarch" screen.

MAME , MAME2003 & MAME2014 via the ‘Core Updater’ as well as a version of mame078_libretro_android from HERE that I read in an older forum post was very stable that I altered the .cfg file to point to] InstaCrash to 'Load Retroarch" screen.

mupen64plus_libretro_android via ‘Core Updater’ (which I have read is broken at this time and I have experienced the same issue) InstaCrash to 'Load Retroarch" screen.

ALSO a Version of mupen64plus_libretro_android from HERE that was recommended in this forum post which I placed in /sdcard/Android/data/com.retroarch/files/system/ in a file I created called ‘cores_hack’ and pointed to in the .cfg for this core. THIS core does load the rom but suffers from intense video&audio stuttering. I tried everything suggested HERE and the only thing that helped, with 50% less stuttering but unstable and crashed during game selection, was editing the .cfg file for this core to 0.000Hz as a screen ‘refresh rate’ since I am pushing it through a 480p plasma TV. Any ideas? I’ve spent the balance of the last couple of days trying to work this out myself before posting here. I hope you all may have some insight.

Thanks, FSG

#2

I forgot to mention that I have Logcats for the above crashes. I will edit this post and link them shortly.

Edit:12:12 -5GMT

This is the older n64 core logcat, below.

n64_older.txt (16.6 KB)

Edit: 12:17 -5GMT

MAME crash

PSX crash

The above have several instances of cores loaded and crashing retroarch.

Thanks, FSG

Edit: FYI-The external file share website I linked is (cutpi {period} com). They seem to be harmless.

#3

I’m not seeing anything particularly helpful in those logs. Make sure your logging verbosity is set to “0 (debug)” in settings > logging.

In most cases, MAME issues are caused by ROMset mismatches, mednafen-psx crashes are caused by BIOS issues and/or problems with the cue sheet, pcsx-rearmed crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter and/or ROM image issues and N64 crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter or incompatibility with the gfx plugin(s).

For MAME2003, make sure your ROMs are from exactly the 0.078 set. For mednafen-psx, it’s going to be a slideshow on your device anyway, but you can check whether your BIOS images are being recognized by loading the core (but not any content yet) and then going to information > core information and it will list which images–if any–are being recognized. For PCSX-ReARMed, you can try a few other ROM images and you could try manually changing from dynarec to interpreter (or other core options) by typing the options into your retroarch-core-options.cfg file with a text editor. Likewise for mupen.

#4

Thanks for all that helpful information. That’s a couple years worth of learning crammed into two paragraphs. Really, thanks a ton!

It’ll take me a while to sort it all out but I’ll rerun the logcats first and update them here when I do. It seems I had, stupidly, turned off ‘logging verbosity’ entirely before logcatting. :frowning:

From the sound of it, it might be time better spent for me to fix MAME and N64. PS1 games “it’s going to be a slideshow on your device anyway” being too hardware intensive for the firetv stick.

I loaded the core and config for mednafen-psx and checked info and it shows 5500-5502 as ‘missing, required’ though those files are in the same directory as the ps1 roms (i had read somewhere in this forum that android need bios with the roms and not in /system/bios). As such I have not assigned a bios path in settings-directory.

Note: I checked Genesis core since it is functional (at least with earthworm jim), and it too shows the bios ‘missing,required’ even though bios_CD_U.bin is also in the directory with the genesis roms.

The path I’m using for the roms is /sdcard/ROMS/“rom_platform” Seems I’ve gotten this all wrong. Where should the bios files live and/or does the bios path just need to be set to the proper rom directory?

EDIT: I put the bios’ in …/system/bios and set the path in directory and they are now seen so the tiny text above is now sorted. Still have to work on getting mame and n64 working, but now psx see it’s bios files but still crashes. I’ll post logcats as soon as I get them

[QUOTE=hunterk;30629]I’m not seeing anything particularly helpful in those logs. Make sure your logging verbosity is set to “0 (debug)” in settings > logging.

In most cases, MAME issues are caused by ROMset mismatches, mednafen-psx crashes are caused by BIOS issues and/or problems with the cue sheet, pcsx-rearmed crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter and/or ROM image issues and N64 crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter or incompatibility with the gfx plugin(s).

For MAME2003, make sure your ROMs are from exactly the 0.078 set. For mednafen-psx, it’s going to be a slideshow on your device anyway, but you can check whether your BIOS images are being recognized by loading the core (but not any content yet) and then going to information > core information and it will list which images–if any–are being recognized. For PCSX-ReARMed, you can try a few other ROM images and you could try manually changing from dynarec to interpreter (or other core options) by typing the options into your retroarch-core-options.cfg file with a text editor. Likewise for mupen.[/QUOTE]

#5

[QUOTE=hunterk;30629]I’m not seeing anything particularly helpful in those logs. Make sure your logging verbosity is set to “0 (debug)” in settings > logging.

In most cases, MAME issues are caused by ROMset mismatches, mednafen-psx crashes are caused by BIOS issues and/or problems with the cue sheet, pcsx-rearmed crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter and/or ROM image issues and N64 crashes are caused by dynarec vs interpreter or incompatibility with the gfx plugin(s).

For MAME2003, make sure your ROMs are from exactly the 0.078 set. For mednafen-psx, it’s going to be a slideshow on your device anyway, but you can check whether your BIOS images are being recognized by loading the core (but not any content yet) and then going to information > core information and it will list which images–if any–are being recognized. For PCSX-ReARMed, you can try a few other ROM images and you could try manually changing from dynarec to interpreter (or other core options) by typing the options into your retroarch-core-options.cfg file with a text editor. Likewise for mupen.[/QUOTE]

I have problem with all MAME 0.78, 2003 and 2014 they won’t load (the only one that works is MAME git), like the emux emulators and SCUMMVM, when you try to load it says NO CORE…I did make a fresh install of the last nightly and nothing, my device is running Android 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean (the same thing happend with the stable build, when you update the cores, I can’t make then run and obtain the same issue NO CORE)

#6

I’ve been able to get a ps1 game “oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee” running. It’s beautiful! It wasn’t able to run previously because I had forgotten that my test game was stored as an .ecm (a few minutes with unecm has fixed that) AND I was using the mednafen-psx core. Details below.

mednafen-psx - via online updater (current version 2015-11-05) = “it’s going to be a slideshow” was 100% accurate. Loaded splash screens and intro but at about 2fps with synced and equally slow audio.

pcsx-rearmed - via online updater (current version 2015-11-05) = WIN! no tweaks. vanilla settings and loaded straight from .bin, no .cue file necessary. Splash screens and intro looked awesome. audio was synced perfectly. Entered the game and moved the character around for a few minutes. Haven’t done any gameplay but it looks very possible. I’ll check gameplay stability later.

Working on MAME and n64 next.

#7

Nice! Glad you got it going. I’m confident we can get the others working, too :slight_smile:

#8

drunk update: controllers and such.

the fire tv stick remote worked perfectly out of the box navigating retroarch but my playpad pro couldn’t be recognized no matter what I did.

after trying to get a controller working for the last couple hours, nyko playpad pro, I’ve got a few tips for those new to firetvstick : retroarch : nyko playpad pro or anyone else having trouble binding a controller or even clearing bindings using ‘User x Bind Default All’

  • It seems that android on the fire tv stick gets stuffed and starts to mess up after too many crashes of installed programs. I crashed retroarch a few dozen times today and had to restart it and es file explorer about 50 times while troubleshooting my particular issues.

I was about to submit a bug to retroarch because ‘User x Bind Default All’ did absolutely nothing the dozens of times I tried to restore default to a non-responsive input/controller binding. nothing changed and I couldn’t get autoconf to interact with my device {nyko playpad pro} other than recognizing that it was connected and having a single button functioning; an improperly mapped ‘select’.

after clearing cache and force stopping the app from firetv settings each time I crashed retroarch, in the end , I used the ol’ windows trick on the fire tv stick - REBOOT.

it’s probably only useful for extreme situations where someone has abused this thumbdrive device with multiple sideloads and crashes and running an ftp server for days on end and abusing a filesystem with repeated installs and deletes, but it worked for me to just shut it all down for an hour and give it a break. i dunno, magic maybe.

so for someone googleing an apparent esoteric problem, which is how I found this forum, I’ve tried to place enough content with key words to perhaps give back a little bit if you ever manage find yourself having mangled a similar configuration with retroarch and fire tv stick.