Retroarch command line options for MAME (Latest) core

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I’m trying to use some command line parameters to the mame_libretro.dll core in retroarch which comes from the official MAME, such as -waitvsync - plugin hiscore… but it refuses to work. Here’s my full command line:

retroarch -L mame_libretro.dll c:\rcs\games\retroarch\downloads\pitfight3.zip -waitvsync -triplebuffer -pause_brightness 1.00000000 -cheat -nonvram_save -plugin hiscore -skip_gameinfo -noui_mouse -nosnapbilinear

If I remove every parameter, the game runs, but if I try to insert just one of these parameters, retroarch does not work. What am I doing wrong here?

I’m also trying to use these commandline options in Lauchbox to load and run games using Retroarch, but it does not work either.

#2

Do you have the command line core option enabled for the MAME core? I also see a lot of instances online of people needing to put quotes and/or backslashes-in-front-of-spaces on those CLI switches.

#3

I’ve enabled the “Boot from CLI” option in the quick menu, is this what you mean by “command line core option”?

I tried again using " ’ " and " / " and " \ " for each command line parameter (see below) and it does not give any errors, but it does not applies the parameters either. It seems to just “ignore” the parameters instead:

retroarch -L mame_libretro.dll c:\rcs\games\retroarch\downloads\mk.zip ‘-waitvsync’ ‘-pause_brightness 1.00000000’ ‘-triplebuffer’ ‘-cheat’ ‘-nonvram_save’ ‘-plugin hiscore’ ‘-skip_gameinfo’ ‘-noui_mouse’ ‘-nosnapbilinear’

As an example, the “pause brightness” option does not set it to 1.0, the game pauses darkening the image, which is the default MAME behavior. So, if this parameter did not work, I assume everything else is being ignored as well.

And I’m running these tests straight from the DOS command prompt, without any frontend. If I manage to make these parameters to work properly, then I will try to do it inside Launchbox.

P.S. - I’ve found one old discussion thread in other website where a guy tells that: “i’m afraid libretro cores of MAME will not support these standard MAME command line options.” Is this true?

#4

I know at least some of the CLI stuff works because that’s how you can load games from non-arcade drivers (i.e., things formerly covered by MESS). However, in some testing, I haven’t been able to get anything else to work, like pause_brightness. I wouldn’t expect triplebuffer or nosnapbilinear to do anything either. However, I believe you can set these things via mame.ini in system/mame (or is it saves/mame?) right?

#5

Yes, pause brightness works if it is added in system/mame/ini/mame.ini and “read configuration” core option is enabled.

But then again why use MAME pause instead of RA pause…?

Vsync related stuff won’t be doing anything though since those are done by the frontend.

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