Help troubleshooting bluemsx for Colecovision? (SOLVED)

I’m having trouble getting Colecovision games to run. I found some instructions for GameShell here:

Based on those, I downloaded this

I copied the Machines/COL - ColecoVision folder to Retroarch’s system directory. So the structure looks like ~/.config/retroarch/system/COL - ColecoVision/coleco.rom and config.ini.

I gather I have to copy the database files, but I’m not sure where exactly. I put the 6 files from the Databases folder of the zip into the root of retroarch’s database folder.

But no joy. When I try to load Donkey Kong for example it fails:

retroarch -f -v --libretro /home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/cores/bluemsx_libretro.so "/home/wrybread/.attract/colecovision/roms/Donkey Kong (1982)/Donkey Kong (1982).col"

[INFO] RetroArch 1.9.0 (Git 5e551dd92b)
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save file to "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/saves/Donkey Kong (1982).srm".
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save state to "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/states/Donkey Kong (1982).state".
[INFO] === Build =======================================
[INFO] CPU Model Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU         540  @ 3.07GHz
[INFO] Capabilities:  MMX MMXEXT SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE4 SSE4.2
[INFO] Built: Aug 10 2020
[INFO] Version: 1.9.0
[INFO] Git: 5e551dd92b
[INFO] =================================================
[INFO] [CORE]: Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/cores/bluemsx_libretro.so"
[INFO] [Overrides]: No core-specific overrides found at /home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/config/blueMSX/blueMSX.cfg.
[INFO] [Overrides]: No content-dir-specific overrides found at /home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/config/blueMSX/Donkey Kong (1982).cfg.
[INFO] [Overrides]: No game-specific overrides found at /home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/config/blueMSX/Donkey Kong (1982).cfg.
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_CORE_OPTIONS_VERSION.
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_LANGUAGE: "0".
[INFO] [Environ]: RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_SET_CORE_OPTIONS_INTL.
[INFO] [Environ]: SET_CONTROLLER_INFO.
[INFO] [Remaps]: remap directory: /home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/config/remaps
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save file to "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/saves/Donkey Kong (1982).srm".
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save state to "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/states/Donkey Kong (1982).state".
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_LOG_INTERFACE.
[INFO] [CONTENT LOAD]: Content loading skipped. Implementation will load it on its own.
[INFO] [Environ]: SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: RGB565.
[INFO] [Environ]: SYSTEM_DIRECTORY: "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/system".
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_SAVE_DIRECTORY.
[ERROR] [CONTENT LOAD]: Failed to load content
[INFO] Content ran for a total of: 00 hours, 00 minutes, 00 seconds.
[INFO] [CORE]: Unloading core..
[INFO] [CORE]: Unloading core symbols..
[INFO] [Core Options]: Saved core options file to "/home/wrybread/.config/retroarch/config/blueMSX/blueMSX.opt"
[INFO] [Video]: Does not have enough samples for monitor refresh rate estimation. Requires to run for at least 4096 frames.

It fails the same way if I load thru Retroarch’s gui.

I also tried putting the bios files (coleco.rom and config.ini) and the 6 database files in Retroarch’s System directory, still no luck.

Any theories?

Phew, solved. For anyone else who comes this way:

Works great for me now. And wow Colecovision’s Donkey Kong was shockingly better than Atari 2600’s, ha.

1 Like

So my only question is will this work for Retroarch on ps3hen if you know? I’m having the exact same issue