RetroArch Wii/Gamecube Releases (v1.0.0.2)

RetroArch Nintendo consoles
#381

In the course of making the following request, I spotted a minor error in the readme:

RStick Left + ZL               - Decrease save state slot

In practice, it’s actually ZR.

Would others find it agreeable to have some additional functionality on the Wii Remote when GameCube or Classic Controller schemes are in use? Basically, some emulator-side features like fast forward, rewind, and save state handling. These features are obviously already mapped on the right stick and shoulder buttons for GameCube and Classic Controller, but personally I’d love to see them mirrored on the (horizontally-orientated) Wii remote like so:

D-pad down: Fast forward D-pad up: Rewind D-pad left and 2: Decrease save state slot D-pad right and 2: Increase save state slot D-pad up and 2: Load state D-pad down and 2: Save state

This maps closely with the way controls currently work on the other gamepads, so hopefully would work as comfortably and without much acclimatization.

I understand that on the surface this all sounds quite pointless, but the use case revolves almost entirely around people with controller adapters (or, I guess, rare pieces like the Hori Game Boy Player pad or the SNES Classic Controller from Club Nintendo). I use an adapter to plug NES and SNES pads into a Wiimote—and similar adapters exist for the GameCube ports—the problem being that NES, SNES and other retro controllers don’t have luxuries like right sticks or multiple shoulder buttons. Replicating (not moving) this functionality on the Wiimote would allow fairly direct access to functionality that’s otherwise missed out on when not using a modern gamepad, without complicating the controls with more complex combos most users will never need.

Thanks for any consideration.

#382

I have some questions:

1-Does anyone know how to fix the controller issue in mednafen pce fast? I can even load super cd games but they are unplayable because the controller seems to be pressed down all the time. 2-Have anyone made run the Quake and Doom cores on RA Gamecube? 3-What happened to the main site, I could not access it for a few days, in fact I am logged through a link I found in another site, not a web browser.

#383

We’ve been having some domain issues. Hopefully it’ll all be worked out soon.

#384

The domain was not renewed on time and we have to wait a few weeks to get the chance to register www.libretro.org again.

So we made the best of a bad situation and have now registered www.libretro.com. Use that instead. www.libretro.org will likely be reinstated as well again once we get the chance.

Regarding the PC Engine controller issues - I’ll look into them.

Regarding Quake and Doom - does Quake crash at startup? It could be a lack of RAM issue. Doom right now doesn’t fit into Gamecube RAM because I memcpy the entire WAD into RAM and the Gamecube’s 24MB RAM segment is not big enough for that + everything else it has to keep into RAM. I’ll likely look at getting Doom working later.

Quake I didn’t even try on Gamecube so it would be nice to get a confirmation if it works or not - if it doesn’t, I could try lowering Quake managed heapsize from 8MB to some lower value.

#385

Dear Aea and Squarepusher, More info on the PCE controller input on Retroarch-Wii:

I first noticed this problem back in 0.8.4, and I was expecting to find it corrected in 0.9.9, but everything is the same, however I was able to get both versions to work fine! Let me explain:

I have a Gamecube SNES pad adapter that I use for all of my emulators. It works flawlessly on every core of Libretro, except for Mednafen PCE Fast. Back in 0.8.9, I was trying to play PCE games using this adpater, and got no results. The controller was always pressing bottom or left, and start looked like to be in constant rapid-fire (turbo). Since all other cores were working fine, I assumed it was something directly related to PCE only. I did even not try to remove this controller and try the emulator with a clean setup using just the wiimote on settings.

When 0.9.9 was released, I was eager to check PCE again, but got the same results while still using the very same adapter. Decided to look further on the problem, I think it could a good idea to test another adapter of mine, a Gamecube PSX adapter, and plugged on it my “white fly” and nothing changed. The PCE controlling issues were still there.

So, after several random configurations I finally got PCE to work by removing the adapter from the console and setting the emu to use Wiimote only. Now, I can even have the SNES pad attached in the Gamecube port (RetroArch Wii), but I need to be careful to not touch it anytime… if I do it, the controlling issue returns.

And yes… I am playing a lot of PCE last days. Mandara on Shinobi is gone! =)

If you guys need me to test something specific regarding the Gamecube controller connection, please let me know. It will be a pleasure to help!

C.

#386

@ Squarepusher : Thanks for the info about the site, I´m actually logged from the new one and works well. About the pce controller issue I thank you take it in mind because the only pce emulator for gamecube before mednafen pce, hugo gx, it runs the super cd games but has no support for music tracks while mednafen pce does have it. I forgot mention that when I tried the Quake and Doom cores I did not add music tracks into their respective folders, so maybe if I can find those music tracks I can give a more accurate veredict, I mean, these two cores already work in their standalone versions for gamecube, so there are chances that work for retroarch too in fact, they do not crash inmediately when I load them.

@cospefogo: Yeah, I remember that you and other guys, like me, reported the issue in gbatemp forums and here but maybe retroarch team guys forgot to fix that little detail due to the huge amount of work to introduce the three new cores we have, make all the console ports, etc. Maybe it could be a problem from the standalone mednafen pce wich is not their fault, but I´m sure that this time they´ll solve the problem. About testings with gamecube controller I´m afraid there is not test to do, I compared my results using the two pce emulators for gamecube (mednafen pce and hugo gx) with three games : Devil’s Crush.pce (hucard), Bikini Girls.bin (a super cd homebrew) and Akumajou Dracula X-Chino Rinne[T+Eng].bin (super cd game), and the same controller issue with mednafen pce while not with hugo gx.

#387

Is the MAME core being rolled out to all platforms? Is it severely curtailed compatibility wise on Wii like the FBA core?

#388

It will be rolled out to as many platforms as possible. I think there are currently some significant roadblocks on Wii but Toad King is looking into it, AFAIK. No promises at this point, but here’s hoping.

#389

I am sure there will be roadblocks with our trusty little white box :slight_smile: Thanks for the prompt reply hunterk, keep up the great work with RA!

#390

Good evening RA dev team, just wanted to bump this way back from page 2, it still occurs with 0.9.9, I know that it’s gonna be pretty low on the priority list, but since there are a lot of emu’s for Wii which require a keyboard, plus MMO games and apps, I thought it would be pretty useful if this bug could get some limelight. BTW can anybody else reproduce this bug? Maybe I just need to get a different keyboard or something -_-

Please let me know if there’s any info I’ve left out that might help you guys :slight_smile:

Been jamming games with WiiFlow + RetroArch btw and I’m loving it! So much gaming goodness inside. RA=Best multi-emu on Wii hands down!

#391

I don’t own a Wii keyboard so I have no means to debug this.

Also- in other unrelated news -

we are currently testing the MAME core on Wii.

First, starting off with the bad news -

We hoped that Mortal Kombat 2/3 might have ran at fullspeed with the DCS speedhack seeing how I can get fullspeed on an iPad 2/iPad Mini. Well, turns out the Wii is quite a bit weaker than that - we max out at around 44/45fps - Mortal Kombat 1/2/3/Ultimate run at 53fps so this is not fullspeed. Also, there are some dips which make the framerate even lower.

So fullspeed Midway DCS emulation seems out.

The older Midway Mortal Kombat game (1) currently crashes with an ISI stack dump - we might or might not get it to work. if we do, there might be the odd hope that things like Mortal Kombat 1, NBA Jam et al at least will be fullspeed since they are far less demanding than the Midway DCS games.

To end off with the more positive news -

I have found that MAME 0.78 runs most of the old arcade games a lot better than Final Burn Alpha right now. This includes -

  • Caveman Ninja / Joe & Mac
  • Chase HQ
  • Darius 1/2
  • Ninja Warriors
  • R-Type Leo
  • Double Dragon 1/2
  • Contra

There might be more games that run a lot better on MAME 0.78 than they do on current-day FBA - I’ll update the list as I go along.

Anyway, we’ll also be looking into maybe getting a ‘full’ MAME 0.78 core with which you could play these small ROM games that run very well - or - split it all up into separate cores like FBA.

#392

OH MY GOODNESS! I dont see in my right mind how this is BAD NEWS! MK2 arcade running on wii?!! AWESOME! i dont care if its full speed or not that is an AWESOME effort to get it to run on the wii in the first place. GREAT JOB GUYS! Im so excited.

#393

Another thing, how do you get to the service menu on CPS2 core now?

#394

I’m not using a Wii keyboard, I didn’t even know they had one lol. I’m just using a regular USB Dell keyboard, I have about 3 of them to spare, which kinda sux cuz I’d like to try out if it’s just these stupid dell keyboards that are the problem. I might have an HP keyboard lying around somewhere but I’d have to find it. Basically any USB keyboard should do the trick :wink:

BTW great news about mame-Wii, that’s fantastic, I can tolerate the slight frame dips on the MK series but as far as everything else goes this is just terrific. Also great is your updates on which games run better on MAME then FBA, that will really help us separate and organize things much faster and efficiently, you guys rock!

#395

OH MY GOODNESS! I dont see in my right mind how this is BAD NEWS! MK2 arcade running on wii?!! AWESOME! i dont care if its full speed or not that is an AWESOME effort to get it to run on the wii in the first place. GREAT JOB GUYS! Im so excited.[/quote]

Yea, I agree. I’m happy with 50+ fps in mk 2/3/ultimate. A hell of a lot better than nothing. Mame .078 on the Wii is something im looking forward to a great deal :smiley:

#396

OH MY GOODNESS! I dont see in my right mind how this is BAD NEWS! MK2 arcade running on wii?!! AWESOME! i dont care if its full speed or not that is an AWESOME effort to get it to run on the wii in the first place. GREAT JOB GUYS! Im so excited.[/quote]

Yea, I agree. I’m happy with 50+ fps in mk 2/3/ultimate. A hell of a lot better than nothing. Mame .078 on the Wii is something im looking forward to a great deal :D[/quote] If you want to play MK serials, why not try Gamecube version of Midway Arcade Treasures 2? http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/920474-midway-arcade-treasures-2/data

#397

Simply amazing. I never thought that MK2 from Mame could be possible to even load on the wii. That means that smaller games like toki, caveman, hammerin harry… probably will run smooth. Good work guys!!

#398

Yea, I agree. I’m happy with 50+ fps in mk 2/3/ultimate. A hell of a lot better than nothing. Mame .078 on the Wii is something im looking forward to a great deal :D[/quote] If you want to play MK serials, why not try Gamecube version of Midway Arcade Treasures 2? http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/920474-midway-arcade-treasures-2/data[/quote]

It will probably be the best route yes - the DCS sound speedhacks were the big speedhack that gave us at least +100fps conservatively, and even with that it’s still shy of a fair +10/+15fps just so that we could reach fullspeed.

An LG Lucid could not match the Wii’s runtime performance with SNES9x Next on Yoshi’s Island, yet an iPad 2/Mini kicks the Wii’s ass with MAME 0.78 (on MK2/Mk3) by a fair few +10/+15fps. Mobile devices are catching up fast with current-gen consoles - with even an iPad 4 slaughtering the PS3/360 CPU’s performance per single core by a fair margin.

#399

Well, I keep maintaining that the reason all these other MAME ports never could fit games like MK2/MK3 into memory on Wii (and the same goes for FBA ports) is

  1. they are lazy and they can’t be bothered to make ‘separate’ cores for each driver family, etc.

  2. because they think they have a luxury of available RAM at their disposal and they have this obsession with having a ‘nice’ frontend. Sure, a ‘nice’ frontend is ‘nice’, but on a system like Xbox 1 (or Wii - only slightly higher) with ‘only’ 64MB of RAM available or even less? It’s absolutely nuts to waste 30% or even 20% of that available RAM on things that have nothing to do with the main core/program.

You simply CANNOT get away with wasting all your RAM on stupid GUI thingies if your concern is to get big ROMs to be loaded. Sure you can resort to VM ROM management, but really, file I/O-based ROM paging will always suck performance-wise compared to having the entire ROM into RAM.

I simply cannot understand this obsession with these Wii-fied GUIs and why there are these silly ‘requirements’ on sites like ‘Wiibrew’ that an app they feature MUST have some kind of fancypants GUI - therefore precluding RetroArch. We are on a RAM-starved system and really - a bare-bones totally simple GUI that eats up as little RAM as possible is the only way - anything else is foolhardy.

#400

Very good news! Hopefully MAME core will run Irem games and some other favorites like Xain Sleena that have eluded FBA so far.