11 replies to this topic

[almightytodd]

I struggled with deciding which forum this topic belongs in... ...I thought about putting it in "Computers, Science & Technology", but that is a sub-group of "Off-Topic", which I don't think this is.

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire Onenetbook from a pawn shop.  After correcting a problem with the battery not charging (...I had to flash the BIOS), I installed Zorin Linuxon it, dual-booting with the Windows XP installation that was already on it.

The primary purpose of this device is for personal entertainment (...I'm not quite ready to drink the "Tablet Koolaid" though...) - watching Hulu, web surfing, and classic gaming.  However, I can also use it at work by remoting into my desktop computer using Citrix Xenapps.  I'm hoping to eventually get Citrix Remote Desktop to work using my Linux OS, but it's a one-click install with Windows XP, so for now, dual-boot fills my needs.

Anyway, I wanted to put Stella on it, so I went to the Stella website and downloaded the Debian Linux compatible install and attempted to run it.  It complained about some incompatibility or missing library, so then I decided to try the Tarball build approach.  Again, I had problems so at that point I gave up.  I do hope to eventually build SOME piece of software from source, before I can consider myself a "real" Linux user, but maybe that will be what I do to get MAME up and going...

A few days later, I thought to look through the software offerings in the Ubuntu Software application that is found with each Ubuntu-derived Linux distribution (...really, the primary reason for selecting an Ubuntu derivative).  At first, I selected the category "Arcade Gaming".  I was somewhat astonished at the sheer volume of offerings there, with many "clones of" or "inspired by" video game classics.  I'm wondering if anyone here has tried any of these and whether any of them are worth playing.

I've played "Super Tux", which is okay, except I'm not a real big Super Mario Brothers player anyway; plus the Tux conversion feels a little too much like a Flash-animation based game and not close enough to a "real" 8-bit game.

This is all sort of a distraction from what I'm really trying to do though, which is to get a number of 8 and 16-bit emulators setup for Atari, Coleco Vision, and Nintendo consoles and computers, so I can make this my personal gaming device.

I found the Ubuntu installation package for Stella, which installed flawlessly with one click (...and Linux password authentication).  Maybe I wasn't looking for it on the Stella website, or maybe it isn't clear that for Linux installations, if you're using an Ubuntu derivative, you should try the Ubuntu Software installation first, but with the popularity of Ubuntu versions of Linux, it would be helpful for that to be more clear.

I've seen installations for Nintendo and Commodore emulators, but so far I don't think there's one for MAME, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit computers, or Atari ST.  I'll keep working on it and hopefully find emulators for all of the systems I'm looking for.  I'm pretty sure that Linux versions of these exist, as I have a version of Puppy Linux that comes with several of these already installed.

Please let me know if you've gone down this road and have any advice for a Linux newbie.

Thanks!

[stephena]

Binary compatibility in Linux is, shall I say, less than ideal.  IMO, Linux was (and still is) essentially a source-compatible operating system.  The Stella binaries (DEB version) posted on the webpage are clearly stated (as of this writing) to work with Ubuntu 11.10/Oneiric Ocelot only.  They may work on other Debian-based distro's, but the ones on the webpage were compiled and tested in Ubuntu 11.10 only.  Similarly, the next release due in a few weeks will be for Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).  And again, they will be compiled and tested for 12.04 only.

Then there's the option of compiling from source.  For most people installing Linux for the first time, it's highly likely that Stella won't be build-able with their default install.  This is because the required prerequisites for building software typically aren't installed unless you specifically do so in the initial installer.  This is really no different from Windows or OSX.  When you install those systems, you also have to install Visual Studio and Xcode, respectively; they aren't part of the base operating system.

That being said, if you're using an Ubuntu system, you can use the following commands to build and install Stella:

• run 'sudo apt-get build-dep stella' to install the build prerequisites
  
• download stella and decompress to some directory
  
• change into stella directory and type 'configure', followed by 'make', followed by 'make install'

Of course you're right that if your distro includes a build for Stella, you're probably better off using that instead.  But IMHO, if you're going to be using Linux in the future, you're going to have to get used to building some things from source sooner or later.

[Liduario]

My linux knowledge isn't that good, but if you're just begining using Gnu/linux, maybe I can help with something.

1) I consider synaptic a very good program to search and install packages. As root you can start it just typing synaptic or from your user sudo synaptic

2) You also can search from the terminal typing:  apt-cache search term. Example: apt-cache search mame . If your seach brings too many things, you can filter typing: apt-cache search term | grep term2. Example: apt-cache search atari | grep 2600

3) If you can't find anything, look for the Zorin repositories...

4) When you install a new program, it's always good to check for the manual. Man program (page down with space and quit pressing q)

5) Finally it won't do no bad if you learn apt-get or aptitude. It isn't wise to use both, can bring some problems in the long run...

Simple tips

Of course, if all of this is too simple, just improve your building from the source skills   hmm... it seems I'm talking to myself now...

[almightytodd]

Thanks to both of you for your speedy responses...  ...definitely some things to think about.  I may try building Stella according to Stephan's instructions as "practice" before I take on MAME.  All of this might eventually even help with figuring out Citrix Xenapps for Linux as well...

[stephena]

If you like, respond by PM for more detailed instructions on building Stella.  I've tried it for most of the major distro's out there, so it's likely I can help you with any problems you may encounter.

I can also advise on building MAME, since I typically build it from source (for testing 2600 compatibility in MESS).

[MrMaddog]

Which kind of distro do you use?  Ubuntu (and distros based on it) have a Software Center where you can download emulators from the game section.  If you can't find anything there, you can use Synaptic which lets you search for the name of the package you need to get. If you don't have Synaptic installed, just type 'sudo apt-get install synaptic' in your Terminal window.

I seriously recommend only getting Linux software from repositories as downloading packages from them also install needed dependency files automatically.  You could compile from the source code, but you also need to install a GCC compiler and not only the dependent libraries but the source code for those as well.  Also be aware that emulators on Linux don't look or run the same way as the Windows versions.

[stephena]

MrMaddog, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:04 PM, said:

I seriously recommend only getting Linux software from repositories as downloading packages from them also install needed dependency files automatically.  You could compile from the source code, but you also need to install a GCC compiler and not only the dependent libraries but the source code for those as well.  Also be aware that emulators on Linux don't look or run the same way as the Windows versions.

As i mentioned for building Stella, there's a command that will automatically install the build requirements for you.  And you don't need the source code for the dependent libraries installed, so there's no need in saying this and making the process seem more difficult than it really is.

Also, while some emulators may not look or run the same in Linux as in Windows, some are quite similar or even exactly the same.  Stella is one of the latter ones.  In fact, one of its design goals is cross-platform compatibility, so it will look and work the same across platforms.

In my experience, many of the commandline-based emulators are developed on Linux, and work exactly the same in Windows.  Now there may be frontends which look different, but even in those cases it's usually possible to get cross-platform frontends too (usually written in Java or some such cross-platform language).

But I agree you don't actually need to compile anything in Linux.  I was answering the question as if the original poster wanted to do that.

[Petran79]

Problem is that a lot of emulators will not support older Linux versions

Eg the most recent BSNES version does not run in Ubuntu 10.04
I have 10.10 with a lot of programms compiled from source that would be erased if I upgraded to 11.10
Now I see that PureNES does not support 10.10 libraries. I have to install or upgrade each library manually, maybe causing system instability.
So I have to install 11.10 separately. this creates quite some trouble.

So while Windows XP still supports those emulators, Linux distros are less likely to do so with the same version.

[almightytodd]

So I used apt-get to successfully install MAME (...well, MAMESDL).  When I search the etc directory I find the mame (executable?).  If I type "mame" from the command line while in the etc directory, the text-based MAME user interface starts up and gives me the following message:


No games found. Please check the rompath specified in the mame.ini file.

If this is your first time using MAME, please see the config.txt file
in the docs directory for information on configuring MAME

The thing is, I can't find the mame.ini file.  If I type "mame.ini" in the search box off the Zorin start menu (...it's trying to look like Windows) it says, "No items matched your search criteria".  This site says I should be able to find the /doc directory as a sub-directory of the /usr directory.  But it's not there.

I also tried to install the Loemu front end according to the instructions here.  It says, "Download the deb package loemu_0.3.1_i386.deb and install it as root:

# dpkg -i loemu_0.3.1_i386.deb

Typing that into the command line doesn't work.  I'm probably in the wrong directory.

I have all of my MAME ROMs on the Windows share (it's dual boot) and doing it this way works just fine for Stella.  I just have to mount the Windows partition (...the path is /media/ACER/_Emulation); that way I can boot into either Windows or Linux and share the same set of ROMs.

It's frustrating that a Google search on "MAME Ubuntu" brings up many sites, but many of them are four or five years old, so it's questionable when they say things like, "The stable version of Gxmame doesn’t work with the last version of MAME, so to make all work, we’re going to install the CVS version."  Well, maybe that was true in 2008 when this entry was made, but what about now, four years later?

I really want to start getting more comfortable with Linux.  My Windows 7 environment does irritating things like not letting me save text files from Notebook in the public documents folder if I don't launch it as Administrator.  It looks like Windows 8 is just going to get worse.  I'll have to learn a whole new user interface, and pay hundreds of dollars for the OS, and accept constant anti-piracy scans before being allowed to upgrade any Microsoft products... ...I've just had it.

The Zorin user interface is beautiful; the performance is blazing on my Intel Atom based netbook, and I love everything about it except trying to install classic gaming emulators that I have run on Windows XP machines for the past 10 years without any trouble.

Well, at least there is no deadline for me to get this stuff done.  I can work on it here and there and just hope that eventually I'll get a handle on it.  Thanks again to everyone here who offers encouragement and support.

[goldenegg]

almightytodd, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:47 AM, said:

I struggled with deciding which forum this topic belongs in... ...I thought about putting it in "Computers, Science & Technology", but that is a sub-group of "Off-Topic", which I don't think this is.

There is an 'Emulation' section here, which is pretty much specifically for stuff like this.

http://www.atariage....um/5-emulation/

[Liduario]

I'm using a front end called gmameui. It's working   And I also point to the windows directory. The only problem was in the filter of the avaible games, it doesn't work properly. I need to try each game before I know it's working.

Another simple tip I can give is the apropos command. Type apropos packagename to know the name of man pages installed in the system. Then man nameyougot.

But I don't know much about mame...

In some emulators I put symbolic links in the rom directory pointing to the roms on windows partition.

ln -s /windows_path_to_roms/* /path_to_emulator_rom_directory

Edited by Liduario, Wed May 2, 2012 6:16 AM.

[Hatta]

I use Linux exclusively, and do a lot of retro gaming on it.  It's really well suited, but you have to get used to doing things the Linux way.

Quote

So I used apt-get to successfully install MAME (...well, MAMESDL). When I search the etc directory I find the mame (executable?). If I type "mame" from the command line while in the etc directory, the text-based MAME user interface starts up and gives me the following message:

Binaries are kept in /bin and /usr/bin.  What you see in /etc is a directory named "mame" that contains configuration files.  Within that directory there should be a mame.ini (IIRC) that you can edit with your favorite text editor.  There will be a line that says something about a rom path.  Edit that path to match the directory where you keep your roms.  That will fix your problem.

Quote

I also tried to install the Loemu front end according to the instructions here. It says, "Download the deb package loemu_0.3.1_i386.deb and install it as root:

# dpkg -i loemu_0.3.1_i386.deb
Typing that into the command line doesn't work. I'm probably in the wrong directory.

Yes, you diagnosed this one correctly.  You have to be in the same directory as the .deb file you are installing, or you have to pass the path with the file name.  So if you downloaded it to "Downloads" under your home directory, you'd execute 'dpkg -i ~/Downloads/loemu_0.3.1_i386.deb'

Setting up emulators like this is an excellent way to get familiar with basic tasks in Linux.  Good job.

One emulator I strongly recommend is Mednafen.  It's a multi-system emulator that's run from the command line.  It will work well with your front end of choice.  It supports NES, GBA, PC Engine, Atari Lynx, and apparently now even Genesis and SNES.