PiFBA released - Final Burn Alpha arcade emulator

[bidinou]

@Pudding : I'll annoy you with a couple more questions

Out of curiository, I tried the Final Burn version provided by the RetroPie distribution (well, the script, from Raspbian).

Strangely, it uses a kind of meta-config file common to all emulators and somehow applies to Final Burn Alpha !

I noticed a few strange things. In this version of your emulator, a 640x480 resolution is used (well, that's what my monitor says) while my monitor remains in 1280x1024 when I start the stock Final Burn build. It seems to make a little difference in rendering. I'm not 100% sure but for some reason I find it less blurry in 640x480. Strange ! Is it possible to force another screen resolution in the regular fba2x.cfg ?

Also I noticed something else. Earlier I mentioned that the display ratio in Final Burn was not correct in all games. For instance, 3Wonders or Striders look "squashed". It's OK by default in the RetroPie build. Then I realized I could get the right ratio in the regular FBA burn as well by... disabling the correct aspect ratio in the config file. (?)

Strange ?

Well there are some more differences in the 2 builds but that's not the point of this thread anyway

Well... Thanks again for you work which makes the Pi extremely enjoyable ! Definitely looking forward to some more improvements. Tell us if we can help somehow !

[bidinou]

Hi ! I'm sorry to come and annoy you again with my resolutions concerns

I checked and plugged an Amiga with a scandoubler (well, an FPGA recreation of the Amiga computer...) to the very same monitor I use with my Pi and Final Burn. It uses a 720*512 screenmode (PAL) but games are in 320*256. I was very surprised to see the picture looked very sharp and actually much much better than when using an emulator on the Pi, even if the base system uses the same base resolution. (most amiga games are in 320*256). Also, when using the optional filter it looked less blurry than Fba with the filter. When using no filter but 25% scanlines it looked surprisingly great for such an old system.

--> Is there a possiblity to get a similar rendering ? For instance, maybe by optionally asking Final Burn to open, for instance, a 800*600 screenmode instead of using my native screen resolution (1280*1024) ? Is there a possibility to optionally ask it to stretch game resolution to a multiple of the base game resolution even if the screen is not filled 100% ?

Well, I'm desperately looking for a way to improve the rendering, as it definitely causes me eyes strain (without complex shaders / CPU treatments)

Cheers & thanks again ! And sorry for insisting on this !

[KitchUK]

Anyone been able to get Metal Slug 3 working with FBA?

I've tried all the bios fields out there and multiple roms. The best result I get is that it attempts to load the rom and then quits and the command line says it's due to a segmentation fault.

This only seems to happen with this particular entry in the series.

[wesbluemarine]

I know that final burn alpha supports cps3 capcom games and daraku tenshi (neo geo) but they aren't in the game list, why?

[welshy]

wesbluemarine
As far as I am aware the Capcom CPS III Board has yet to be emulated in FBA, in any case this is based on an older version that definitely doesn't.

[pudding]

Later versions of FBA will support other games but this version supports only the ones on the list. This version is used for optimal performance reasons with the Pi.

[wesbluemarine]

Later versions of FBA will support other games but this version supports only the ones on the list. This version is used for optimal performance reasons with the Pi.

Thanks for the answer.
The only strange thing is that "daraku tenshi" runs on retropie finalburn... how it's possible?

Other questions:

1. Is possible to reset game without returning to gamelist?
2. Is possible to set the home version of a game like mame?

[welshy]

Later versions of FBA will support other games but this version supports only the ones on the list. This version is used for optimal performance reasons with the Pi.

The only strange thing is that "daraku tenshi" runs on retropie finalburn... how it's possible?

As pudding stated, the RetroArch version is a 'newer' revision of FBA. New emulator revisions tend to add more titles and/or compatibility/accuracy of the original hardware. i.e. when Nicola Salmoria released the first revision of MAME it ran 5 games, now its 10,000! SNES emulation on the RPi generally makes use SNES9x which is currently stable release v1.53, but again OLDER revisions (puddings PiSNES uses v1.39) as accuracy has been improved (especially sound emulation) at the expense of performance (common with emulators). As the RPi is limited in its computational power it is often prudent to use these older revisions to get acceptable performance. Advance MAME is another case in point, the latest release is v1.2, however, v0.94 is compatible with less titles but performs faster for the majority of ROMS, albeit with less accuracy in emulation.

Hope that explains it!

[KitchUK]

Is there any way to change the emulated CPU speed with PiFBA? If so I would like to speed it up a little and see if I can make Metal Slug 2 run a little faster. (I know it naturally has lag and this is accurate but I'd rather it be smoother if possible. And yes I know X is re-done version with less lag but also differences in enemies/gameplay)

Also does anyone know how to get into the Neo Geo service menu? All I get is a black screen.

[Vanfanel]

Also does anyone know how to get into the Neo Geo service menu? All I get is a black screen.

Heh, I'm trying to get into the service menu, too! Enemies in Metal Slug seem to be full of milk!

[KitchUK]

Also does anyone know how to get into the Neo Geo service menu? All I get is a black screen.

Heh, I'm trying to get into the service menu, too! Enemies in Metal Slug seem to be full of milk!

HA! I know what you mean. Also I could really do with adjusting the difficulty in the KOF games. I'm getting my A whipped!

I've tried the service menu with CPS games and that works fine...just the Neo Geo I have problems with.

[Vanfanel]

@KitchUK: HOW exactly do you enter the CPS settings menu??

[KitchUK]

@KitchUK: HOW exactly do you enter the CPS settings menu??

I actually figured it out by randomly pressing all the buttons and then pin pointing which ones I pressed. For my xbox 360 pad I press:

LEFT TRIGGER + SELECT + B

Like I said this works fine in CPS games but I just get a black screen for Neo Geo games. PiFBA must recognise this as the service menu button command but something is going wrong somewhere...

[Vanfanel]

Thanks a lot, KitchUK! Now the problem is doing the same thing with a PSX pad
I've tried all combinations with no luck.

[Husar]

What causes Segmentation Fault? I have tried different Bios and roms but everything exits me out of PiFBA back to the terminal and say Segmentation Fault.

Thanks.

[Husar]

I have games showing up in the menu now but still having issues. Games appear to load, bar progresses, and then exit back to the menu. If I exit out of PiFBA then I see a message back in terminal that says...

Rate Doesn't Match (Requested 441000Hz, get 0Hz)

Anyone seen this before?

[KitchUK]

Thanks a lot, KitchUK! Now the problem is doing the same thing with a PSX pad
I've tried all combinations with no luck.

Did you get it working with the PS pad? If so did you just get a black screen?

[antiriad]

Hi,
PiFBA is great but I also have some problema with Metal Slug games:
- Metal Slug 3 causes a segmentation fault after loading.

- Metal Slug 1 has some strange black bars on left and right sides: these bars stop before reaching the end of the screen.

Maybe somebody knows how to fix it? Or these are common issues?
Thanks

[welshy]

antitrade
I also had issues with Metal Slug 3 but in many cases FBA seems to have problems with this ROM (I now use Nebula on my PC). Are the 'Black Bars' you are referring to on Metal Slug present on the bottom of the display window where the screen extends slightly, a slight screen 'T' shape? If so this is normal in many Neo-Geo emulators and is probably present in the original Hardware, these 'anomalies' are present in many old systems because the TV casing covered them (a good example is the Atari VCS/2600 where the Horizontal Blank afforded extra processing cycles to run game code before the Screen Draw, See Below), on a modern widescreen LCD TV they are quite evident!

[KitchUK]

Hi,
PiFBA is great but I also have some problema with Metal Slug games:
- Metal Slug 3 causes a segmentation fault after loading.

- Metal Slug 1 has some strange black bars on left and right sides: these bars stop before reaching the end of the screen.

Maybe somebody knows how to fix it? Or these are common issues?
Thanks

As Welshy said the Metal Slug 1 problem is normal as far as I know.

The way I got Metal Slug 3 to work was by having two seperate files; 'mslug3n.zip' and 'mslug3.zip'. I then transferred the files from 'mslug3.zip' and added them to the 'mslug3n.zip'. I then added all the files from the Neo Uni-Bios to 'mslug3n.zip'. Now put this zip file in the rom folder and it should work..hopefully.

[antiriad]

Hi and thank you for all your answers.

About Metal Slug 1: black side bars start from the top of the screen, and end before the end of the screen, so the visible area is like an upside-down "T". This happens on my CRT monitor, I will take some pictures.

About Metal Slug 3: it is eventually possible to have the list of files included in each zip? So I will try to recreate the same situation with my roms. Thank you!

[welshy]

About Metal Slug 1: black side bars start from the top of the screen, and end before the end of the screen, so the visible area is like an upside-down "T". This happens on my CRT monitor, I will take some pictures.

Don't worry about the picture, that's normal and what I explained (obviously poorly) above. Remember the RPi isn't displaying the Image EXACTLY as the original Hardware.

[antiriad]

Remember the RPi isn't displaying the Image EXACTLY as the original Hardware.

This is a great starting point for some clarification about display in emulation.
One difference between real arcade boards and emulation (not only on the rPi) is certainly the resolution, right?
There are other differences? I am a collector of arcade boards, I'm very interested on this argument (hoping not to go off topic).

[KitchUK]

Hi and thank you for all your answers.

About Metal Slug 1: black side bars start from the top of the screen, and end before the end of the screen, so the visible area is like an upside-down "T". This happens on my CRT monitor, I will take some pictures.

About Metal Slug 3: it is eventually possible to have the list of files included in each zip? So I will try to recreate the same situation with my roms. Thank you!

I'll send you a private messgae dropbox link with my zip when I get home from work

[antiriad]

Great! Thank you very much.