I was going to play some Blaster Master WiiWare version, but it freezes up on launch. Is this a limitation of the Dolphin core, or is there a trick to getting it running? Thanks for the help.
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I believe at least some Wiiware works, e.g. Mega Man 9 and 10, but any that require the ‘dual core’ option will crash, including Contra and Castlevania Rebirth.
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Ah ok… thanks for that. The Blaster Master must be a dual core. Do they just load like a normal Wii image?
I believe so, yeah. Just load the wad.
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On the off-chance that someone comes to this thread at some point in the internet future for information… Blaster Master will work… I just had a weird problem from changing a symlink directory into a normal directory at some point.
Sorry for the trouble, hunter.
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Currently, both Blaster Master & Castlevania Rebirth crash retroarch on load for me with the same error:
[libretro ERROR] 53:38:174 DolphinLibretro\Boot.cpp:203 E[BOOT]: Could not boot D:\Games\Emulators\ROMS\Nintendo Wii\WiiWare\Blaster Master - Overdrive (USA) (WiiWare).zip#Blaster Master - Overdrive (USA) (WiiWare).wad
[ERROR] [Content]: Failed to load content
[libretro ERROR] 59:04:344 DolphinLibretro\Boot.cpp:203 E[BOOT]: Could not boot D:\Games\Emulators\ROMS\Nintendo Wii\WiiWare\Castlevania - The Adventure ReBirth (USA) (WiiWare).zip#Castlevania - The Adventure ReBirth (USA) (WiiWare).wad
[ERROR] [Content]: Failed to load contentYeah, those are both examples of the ‘dual core’ problem.
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I did some testing, trying to get Contra Rebirth to run on the Dolphin core and I was able to get some results.
So, as mentioned above, the RA Dolphin cores has issues with the Dual core option. The game will simply crash RetroArch upon loading normally. However, you can deactivate this option in the game’s ini.
Some game default to CPUThread = False -which results in the crash. If you change Contra Rebirth’s setting (WKT ini) to CPUThread = True the dolphin core will no longer crash, you can see the intro and go in the option’s menu…but you still get a black screen upon starting the game itself…
However, if you use the ‘Cached Interpreter’ in the Dolphin core options in conjunction with CPUThread = True and SyncGPU = True in the game’s ini, it actually runs.
So:
Add these two lines below [CORE] in WTK.ini
CPUThread = True
SyncGPU = True
Load the game, go to the core’s option, choose 'cached interpreter for CPU (plain interpreter I get like 2fps -it just crawls). Save game Options, then quit and restart and hopefully the game will run fine.
I get something like 45-50fps so not full speed unfortunately with cached, so I haven’t tested for very long -maybe it crashes at some point. Perhaps it’s more trouble than it’s worth at this point but maybe someone with a faster CPU can test the game this way to see if it’s playable from start to end.
edit: Got Castlevania Rebirth to play with the same method as well.
Same deal: edit the game’s ini (WD9.ini in this case) located in system\dolphin-emu\Sys\GameSettings and add the two lines mentioned earlier and make sure the game uses cached interpreter.
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What kind of CPU do you have?
Ryzen 7 2700x (from 2018, I think). GPU is a GTX 1050 ti.
I can get full speed on any GameCube or Wii game with the Dolphin core with the JIT64 core option no problem, but seems it’s not quite fast enough when using Cached Interpreter.
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Sry，I’ve tried your way, but it still cannot be worked, especially Castlevania Rebirth. Can you show me more details, thx.
Sure, this guide is for a completely fresh/new Retroarch installation. Some of these steps might seem pretty obvious but just to be complete:
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Download RetroArch and extract it somewhere.
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Start RA then from ‘Main Menu’ go to ‘Load Core’ then ‘Download Core’. Download the Dolphin core.
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Now again from ‘Main Menu’ go to ’ Online Updater’ then ‘Core System Files Downloader’. Download ‘dolphin.zip’
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Quit RA then navigate to RA ‘system’ folder then ‘dolphin-emu’ then ‘sys’ then finally ‘GameSettings’.
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Open WKT.ini and edit to add the two lines below the ‘core section’:
CPUThread = True
SyncGPU = True
The ini should look exactly like this after being edited:
- Load the game. Normally, if you didn’t edit the game’s ini the core and RetroArch would crash but since we’ve edited the ini it should start normally. Now press F1 and go to the core’s option’s and change the ‘CPU Core’ to ‘Cached Interpreter’ Save the game’s core options. Quit RA and re-launch the game.
You should be able to play the game but once again, unless you have a very beefy system you’re probably not going to get full speed. The particle effects in the game (explosions in Contra and even things like the rain in Castlevania seems to be very demanding with cached interpreter).
While I’m posting in this thread. This method also allows you to play Metal Slug Anthology (which also crashes if you don’t modify its ini). Modify RML.ini and add the two lines below ‘core’ same as before.
The nice thing here is -unlike with Contra and Castlevania Rebirth, you don’t have to use the cached interpreter. The Neo Geo Metal Slug games display a few visual glitches, nothing major but honestly, you’re better off playing them on the MAME, FBNeo or Geolith cores anyway.
The real reason you’d want to play Wii Metal Slug Anthology is for Metal Slug 6. No visual glitches and very responsive. It’s one of the better way to play MS6 imo (guessing the Neo Geo games are emulated while 6 is a port).
One additional thing you’ll have to do however is to change the emulated controllers from ‘Wiimote’ to ‘GameCube Controller’. Like so:
Do this for port 1 through 4. Otherwise you’ll get random Wiimote disconnects. I think this happens or happened at some point with Dolphin standalone too. Now when you select and start Metal Slug 6, you’ll get this message:
Just choose ‘Select Another Controller Configuration’ and select Gamecube controller (you only have to do this once if you save in the game).
Optionally, you can reconfigure the button/stick/d-pad layout within RA. By default the character controls with the GameCube’s stick instead of d-pad. And then you should be set.
