MAME and QMC Frustration

[DocFlareon]

When I try to load a cartridge, any cartridge, I get this error, "Fatal error: Device TI-99 cartridge load failed: Invalid image"

 

I downloaded the all_carts.zip from the MAME directory at WH Tech's ftp server. QMC2 has the right hash path, but MAME still dies when loading TI 99/4A carts.

[+mizapf]

What is your MAME version? Could you try without QMC2 first? (In my opinion, QMC2 adds another level of complexity.)

[DocFlareon]

0.184 When I tried from the shell, MAME spat back the exact same error until I created a new directory under roms named ti99_cart. Then I was able to load carts. Why it explodes when I try loading from a custom location, I do not know.

reynard@corvus:~/TI-Stuff/Cartridges$ mame64 ti99_4a -cart parsec
phm3112g3.bin NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_4a ti99_cart/parsec parsec)
phm3112g4.bin NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_4a ti99_cart/parsec parsec)
phm3112g5.bin NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_4a ti99_cart/parsec parsec)
phm3112c.bin NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_4a ti99_cart/parsec parsec)
Fatal error: Required files are missing, the machine cannot be run.
reynard@corvus:~/TI-Stuff/Cartridges$ mame64 ti99_4a -cart ./parsec.zip
Fatal error: Device TI-99 cartridge load failed: Invalid image
[ At this point, I decided to create the new directory in the system-wide roms folder ]
reynard@corvus:~/TI-Stuff/Cartridges$ mame64 ti99_4a -cart parsec
[ Yay! it worked, with no speech. . . ]

[+mizapf]

With the zip files, you can only specify the cartridge name (file name without ".zip"). With RPK files, you specify the file name / path.

 

Suppose you have parsec.rpk and parsec.zip. Then the following invocations are correct:

mame64 ti99_4a -cart parsec
mame64 ti99_4a -cart cartridges/parsec.rpk
mame64 ti99_4a -cart /home/reynard/TI-Stuff/Cartridges/parsec.rpk

provided that parsec.rpk is found in ./cartridges (2) or /home/reynard/TI-Stuff/Cartridges/parsec.rpk (3).

 

The following invocations are incorrect:

mame64 ti99_4a -cart parsec.zip
mame64 ti99_4a -cart elsewhere/parsec.rpk

The parsec.zip file must be located in a folder that is specified in the rompath property of mame.ini. The default is "roms", but you can add more folders, in particular one where you want to store the cartridges.

 

If you do not yet have a mame.ini file, use the "-createconfig" argument with mame64.

 

Note that you must not write "parsec.zip" because this will trigger the RPK loader (as it found a period in the specified name). Accordingly, the RPK loader fails to load the ZIP file.

 

You do not have speech yet because you did not say that you want some.

mame64 ti99_4a -peb:slot3 speech -cart parsec

Edited May 14, 2017 by mizapf

[DocFlareon]

Okay, so that pretty much renders QMC2 incompatible with TI-99/4A usage until QMC2 is configured to treat TI carts differently than it does now. QMC2 expects that carts are rpk, and there's no option to change that behavior.

Edited May 14, 2017 by DocFlareon

[+mizapf]

No, you have to use the tab "Software list" (right side, use the < > buttons).

 

If you use a Unix-like OS, I recommend to skip QMC2 and instead write short script files which provide all necessary options. You can then create some desktop shortcuts if you like. QMC2 is just a launcher and not a MAME user interface (which means you cannot change settings after starting; you still have to use the OSD menu).

 

By the way, you should look at it this way: QMC2 is still supporting the TI-99 RPK mount option, whereas all other systems use the ZIPs only.

Edited May 14, 2017 by mizapf

[DocFlareon]

True. It's just a little more complicated than it used to be back in the day.

[+Schmitzi]

Hi, is there any way to enable the newer Mame to enter a dedicated path with the ZIPs ?

(Otherwise my batch which comfortably searches for them would be impossibly disabled if I make an update to newer Mame version)

[+mizapf]

PM sent

[+Schmitzi]

PM received

[+Schmitzi]

PM answered (We´ll keep you up to date here)