Donkey Kong II (Game & Watch) is dear to my heart as a kid is not running consistently across platforms using the same gnw_dkong2 rom/artwork files (and when I say “broken” - I mean the background artwork is missing like the screenshot below, the rom itself boots and “plays” just fine in all cases (you just can’t see what you’re doing without the artwork)):
- works: Win10 (RetroBat) RetroArch 1.19.1 MAME 0.268
- broken: Linux (Batocera v41) RetroArch 1.19.1 MAME 0.268
- works: Linux (Batocera v41) standalone MAME 0.268
- broken: macOS 15.5 (ES-DE) RetroArch 1.20.0 MAME 0.277
- works: macOS 15.5 (ES-DE) standalone MAME 0.277
- broken: macOS 15.5 (ES-DE) RetroArch 1.20.0 MAME 0.267
- broken: Android 16 (Pixel 6a) (ES-DE) RetroArch 1.17.0 MAME 0.276
I do not have this issue with any other Game & Watch title so I feel it might be specific to the artwork? I’d attach the artwork zip but I don’t know if it’s kosher (if it is, happy to attach it to a follow up post). Here are the contents:
% unzip -l gnw_dkong2.zip
Archive: gnw_dkong2.zip
2019/10/21
Credits:
Design, layout and editing by Lee Robson (hydef)
Background scans by Henrik Algestam
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
12439 10-21-2019 21:51 default.lay
1202246 10-14-2019 19:54 Backdrop.png
2367187 10-10-2019 15:10 Unit.png
51165 09-27-2019 11:04 Gradient.png
1692944 10-15-2019 00:22 Background-Bottom.png
1725809 10-15-2019 00:22 Background-BottomNS.png
1711783 10-15-2019 00:20 Background-Top.png
1751039 10-15-2019 00:20 Background-TopNS.png
0 10-11-2019 22:01 Animation/
65899 10-11-2019 21:52 Animation/Jump-Flat.png
62811 10-10-2019 16:04 Animation/Jump-Flatb.png
27995 10-15-2019 00:30 Fix-Bottom.png
1009373 10-15-2019 00:24 Fix-Top.png
52428 10-11-2019 21:53 Animation/Grey-Flat-1.png
59867 10-11-2019 22:01 Animation/Grey-Flat-1b.png
56761 10-11-2019 21:54 Animation/Grey-Flat-2.png
61858 10-11-2019 22:01 Animation/Grey-Flat-2b.png
54800 10-11-2019 21:54 Animation/Grey-Flat-3.png
61124 10-11-2019 22:01 Animation/Grey-Flat-3b.png
2554116 10-21-2019 21:37 BackdropCase.png
6929252 10-21-2019 21:37 CaseTop.png
--------- -------
21510896 21 files
How do we get to the bottom of this and get the artwork to show up consistently on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android?
As a reminder, it’s not my RetroArch config as the artwork shows up if I just switch to another Game & Watch title (eg. gnw_dkjr)
Thought I’d get some input and see if anyone else is having this issue and/or can reproduce it before having to turn to learning how to build past cores. (and if anyone happens to have a MAME 0.268 RA core pre-built for macOS and/or Android, happy to try it and report back)
Perhaps a place to start is ironing out the difference in behavior between Windows and Linux as they both have the same version of RetroArch and the same version of the MAME core (and on Linux, it works by just switching to standalone MAME with the same files)
My daily driver is macOS and just confirmed that standalone MAME 0.277 doesn’t have this issue.
If it makes more sense to move this to GitHub, happy to repost (it’s actually easier for me to track)
and if it helps any, here is an instance of it showing up in the wild back in 2019 (I assume standalone MAME?).