Mame and Mega CD help

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hi,

I’m going to need some serious help on getting MAME and Mega CD games to be recognised in Retroarch. I don’t mind if I have to add them manually, but I currently haven’t been able to find any way to list them and I have been at this for months.

Most of the threads here mention a database or downloading some sort of list without explaining where these are or how to do it. It’s all super vague. My MAME roms work if I select to play them manually, but I’m using Retroarch so I can list them and standard MAME is simpler at this point.

Mega CD games also won’t list but will play is select the CUE file individually (although no music, strangely - do the audio tracks need to be in a certain format?). I can get Megadrive and SNES titles to list, but that’s it.

I’m sorry, I know this has been asked countless times but I’m at a loss of what else to do. Retroarch looks like it’s just the type of emulator I’m looking for but my advice is to perhaps put up some simple to follow tutorials for absolute beginners. I’ve been using emulators for decades and I’m completely stumped with this one, I can only imagine what someone new to this must think.

Thanks!

#2

Why don’t you use Genesis Plus GX core instead?

#3

It seems like the guys are still trying to figure out the best way to scan certain systems. There are a couple community created scripts for creating the playlist manually. Catagories->RetroArch Additions->Tools and Scripts The Playlist Buddy is what you want.

#4

Thanks I’ve seen this before but where is categories? Is it in Retroarch, this website, a folder on my install? Does it have instructions of what to do with it?

Tried Genesis Plus GX core but still doesn’t list Mega CD games and none of the cores for any system are working now. Retroarch just closes on selection of ROM even on non Sega systems. Is there a way to reset to default to try again?

#5

If you want to play Japanese Mega-CD games in MAME, Don’t use Mega-CD 1 device(MAME can’t emulate its Japanese version correctly now. US version(Sega CD 1) is working) Use Mega-CD 2 instead.

#6

OK I think a bit of confusion here. I’m not using MAME to emulate the Mega CD - I’m using Picodrive and the problem is the Mega CD games play without the CD music (I’m using and selecting cue file) and they’re not being added to the menu when I scan them.

The MAME issue is a different issue where I simply can’t scan them to a list. The games work if I load them manually.

At the moment these are my only two issues. I’ve managed to stop the crashing by re-downloading Retroarch again.

#7

RetroArch does not support scan of all system yet (like mame roms and Sega CD), you need to create the playlist manually like GoblinDriver said: https://forums.libretro.com/c/retroarch-additions/tools-scripts

Genesis Plus GX is more accurate than PicoDrive, you’ll need bios files: https://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=Genesis_Plus_GX#BIOS.

Open the .cue file with a text editor, take a look if the audio tracks name match exactly. Are you using redump image?

#8

I ripped the files myself from my Mega CD discs and have been using them in Gens with no problem. The cue file works fine in that. I’ve tried the audio as MP3, wav and ogg (and changed cue to match) but still not working. I’ve resorted to downloading the games instead but same problem. I also have correct bios.

I’m trying Picodrive because I can get the games to work on that just without the music tracks. With Genesis Plus GX the Mega CD games don’t load at all and always return “No Items”.

#9

Does your rips match with this?

http://web.archive.org/web/20161030190955/http://redump.org/discs/system/scd/

If not, you have a bad dump.

I changed a ‘S’ to ‘s’ in the track 03 of my Sonic CD RIP, all music stopped. Pay attention to case-sensitive

#10

Sorry what am I looking at on there? The length of the audio tracks? I’m pretty sure the naming on the cue file is consistent, especially since the files work on other emulators and have tried a lot of games.

Could it be how I’m storing the files? Do they maybe need to be zipped? Is MP3 format ok? Completely stumped.

#11

You should look at the CRC / MD5 hashes, search your disk there. If you dumped it right, you should have a .cue + a bunch of .bin files, which matches the CRC / MD5 hashes from redump. Don’t use zip with disks.

I tried mp3 just now, genesis plus gx doesn’t read it. I wonder why people still uses mp3 when there’s much better audio formats… OGG is a better thing if you like quality and low size.

Take a look here: Core and Feature Requests

and here: Core and Feature Requests

#12

I just tried some games with OGG format audio. Picodrive seems to read these except it’s just white noise instead of nothing. Genesis Plus GX is still not reading any games at all. I’m sure the files are correct as I’ve been emulating this console through other emulators for years.

#13

i cant remember the last time i checked picodrive and genesis with different audio formats, but i am sure picodrive can load any of them but no sound or white noise only. im not sure why genesis crashes for you.

try to re-convert your images into pure cue/bin formats, use isobuster or any method that works for you and test

#14

So Picodrive has never been able to play music tracks? I’ll have to try and figure out why Genesis Plus GX doesn’t work then.

So I’ve put all my personally ripped Mega CD games to the side, completely reinstalled Retroarch again and downloaded multiple versions of all games. Same problem - Genesis Plus GX fails to completely load any Mega CD game and Picodrive plays them all but without audio tracks. All games work perfectly in Gens. Something is amiss here and I really don’t think it’s the game files since other emulators run them with no problems.

#15

you should should probably post log so its easier to see what is happening: run retroarch from command line like this:

retroarch --menu --verbose >> log.txt 2>&1

then upload the created log.txt to hastebin.bin

also post the cue sheets you have that are not running. i just a did quick test and even if the audio tracks in my cue is mp3, picodrive and gxplus will run the game fine but no cd audio. it does not crash-

heres a sample of my log running picodrive with might and magic III that has mp3 audio tracks https://hastebin.com/mafoxugaha.tex

#16

PicoDrive supports only .bin and .wav audio tracks. It’s missing tremor source to play ogg files.

Did you Load Core first, then Information --> Core Information to see if the bios are really being recognized? It’s either that or you have BAD DUMPS. Get a REDUMP image, like we already told you.

#17

OK I’ve figured it out - thanks for the help. For Genesis Plus GX I had the wrong bios file names. They need to be bios_CD_EU etc which is different to how Picodrive uses them. Assumed they’d both use the same file names.

Strangely for Picodrive I did use some games with .bin but still no audio tracks. Doesn’t matter so much now as can use Genesis Plus GX. Might be bad dumps in those cases.

If I may make a friendly suggestion for Retroarch unrelated to these issues, it has been quite time consuming and confusing getting it set up. It’s great now that I’ve got it close to what I was looking for in an emulator, but it could do to be a bit more simplistic for those starting off and more complex options in an advanced menu or something.

One thing I would suggest is the option for each console to just link to a folder of games rather than performing scans to list them. Anyway I’m glad I’ve stuck with it and keep up the good work - looking forward to seeing it evolve.