MAME sdl for Wii

[Shannon]

Just came out recently. I downloaded it with the homebrew browser. Haven't had a chance to get ROM sets together for it, though.

 

Anyone try it yet? I'm figuring it oughta run fairly well...

[DracIsBack]

What the heck is an "SDL"?

 

Friggen acronyms ...

[Cybergoth]

What the heck is an "SDL"?

 

Simple DirectMedia Layer. (Something like cross-platform DirectX )

[PacManPlus]

From what I've heard, it's *very* slow. But I can't tell you for sure; it crashes at the game select screen for me.

[RevEng]

This is great news! Between this, all of the other emulators, usbloader and Mplayer, the Wii is a versatile little console.

 

I'll give mame a shot soon!

[Shannon]

Yeah I guess I posted in haste... seems it is fairly limited. I compiled MAME sdl for my PS3 over a year ago and it ran really well so I was kinda hoping the wii one would be pretty decent (at least for 80's to mid 80's games).

 

But who knows, maybe they will be able to get it going decent. MAME has always been problematic on consoles.

[Shawn]

Yeah I guess I posted in haste... seems it is fairly limited. I compiled MAME sdl for my PS3 over a year ago and it ran really well so I was kinda hoping the wii one would be pretty decent (at least for 80's to mid 80's games).

 

But who knows, maybe they will be able to get it going decent. MAME has always been problematic on consoles.

 

 

The best I've personally seen MAME run on a console was when I tried it out on an overclocked Dreamcast but that was years ago.

[RevEng]

The latest version is looking up.

 

The classic games are loading fast. Phoenix and Donkey Kong worked at slower but playable rate. Frogger less so.

 

Puckman and Joust dumped back to the HBC menu.

 

The author/porter says he may update the graphics to use hardware rendering. If that happens you should see perfect framerates on all classic games, and likely a better sample playback rate.

[gliptitude]

I set a couple Wiis up with the homebrew channel and some emulators a few years ago. Now I'm trying to streamline one of them and get all the settings and collections where I want them to give to my sister and her kids. ..

 

It looks like the status of emulation has changed a lot, I assume mostly as a result of Nintendo defending their copyrights more aggressively. I was not able to download updated versions of the emulators, let alone ROMs. I even tried the "homebrew internet", an app that loads through homebrew channel and seems to be a small private network of Wii home brewfor download straight to Wii.

 

.. Anyway, sticking with what I've already got loaded, I've never really gotten MAME working well and I'm looking for tips and resources on this. My main problem is setting the controls on the games that do load, (I figured out that most of the games I was trying to play are not on the shortened game compatibility list for the Wii version of MAME).

 

Changing controls within the menus in MAME on Wii is kind of a mess for me, especially for analog control games. Sometimes my changes generate a config file that I'm able to view when I look at the SD card on my computer, but it doesn't seem to reflect all settings and the changes I make within MAME on Wii seem to save every time eventhough a config file is only sometimes generated.

 

Do people save and share config files? Is it a simple matter if I attain suitable config files and drop them in there?

 

I just have a few games, Night Driver, 280 Zzzap, Juno First, Gorf and Space Harrier. Juno First is the only one I can get the controls somewhat playable, although I am not able to get the analog stick to work for directional control like I'd prefer, (Wii nunchuck or Wii classic). I am able to get analog sticks to register SOME input on Space Harrier, although not correctly or sensibly. .. Juno First is not originally analog directional controls but Space Harrier IS. .. The driving games appear to have analog steering controls and may also have analog pedals for gas and brakes.

 

.. On a side note, while I'm reviving this very old thread on what might be a sketchy topic, the Wii 2600 / Stella is more accessible than what I'm asking about here and besides convenience, (and more legal ROMs) is actually a uniquely wonderful way to play VCS paddle games, and not super difficult to configure. Playing Night Driver with motion controls is amazing.

[gliptitude]

.. Here is my progress and pretty much my conclusions and where I will leave it, in case anyone is ever interested in this.

 

In general, using the Wii Classic controller helped a lot and provided the most versatile standard. MAME is not as user friendly as most console emulators and it is tricky (or in some configurations, impossible) to have multiple controllers or configurations set up for the same game. With several fundamentally different controller options available on Wii, I found it necessary to choose one and only the Wii Classic satisfied all of my needs. I think a GameCube controller might work as well and be a little easier to configure but I wanted a wireless option.

 

If you don't know, the Wii Classic is a pad type controller that plugs into the Wii remote and was made for use with Virtual Console games. It is like a more ergonomic SNES pad with the addition of two analog sticks.

 

It is easy to get messed up assigning buttons within the Wii MAME app. If you don't know the protocol it is easy to accidentally assign a long list of multiple buttons. Also the motion controls are available so it is easy to accidentally assign them, either as an alternative or as a necessary part of a combination. Try to set the remote still when you are entering buttons.

 

Configure general settings button mapping and user interface button mappings first with the Wii remote by itself. You might find it useful to turn some off, (although I'm not clear on how to reset a button to "none" or "NA" so I think I assigned them all to the same button that I know not to use or plugged in the nunchuck and assigned to that). Just configure the basic ones you need to the remote. This includes directional controls in menus which may be with remote held horizontally by default, but I prefer to hold it.. like a remote.

 

To start from scratch scroll to the button you want to assign in the menu, press button A on the Wii remote, (or the button you have otherwise assigned to menu selection in general settings/user interface, I think it starts as button 2 on the remote). When you scroll to the button and select it it clears the assignment and awaits a new one. Select the new one by pressing it on the controller. After you press one button and let go, that one button should be the only button on your controller assigned to the corresponding emulated button on the arcade game. If you leave that button highlighted in the menu and don't scroll away from it and press A on the remote again, (or selection button) it will await your next button press as an additional alternative button, which will be added to the list with "or" before it. To clear it out and start over just scroll away and back, select and reassign. To add more stay there and select and input them one at a time.

 

An additional unfortunate problem that I can't explain is that there seems to be some problem with the standard analog stick, the LEFT one, even when it is correctly assigned, which I could only completely resolve by using the right analog stick instead. (Before settling on the Classic controller I failed completely to get the nunchchuck controller configured for directional controls, either in digital or analog joystck games).

 

For the two shooters I have that are originally programmed for ordinary digital joysticks, I have two buttons assigned for each direction so that either the D-pad or the RIGHT analog stick will control it. Both work well.

 

For the one game I have that originally uses an analog flight stick, I assigned both the left and right analog sticks on the Classic controller, so that either one will control it. However only the right one is reliable. Also I found it necessary for both sticks to be assigned as non-inverted, (non-flight) orientation, unlike the original arcade game. The two sticks on the controller seem to be tied to eachother somehow and the inverted Y seemed to be problematic.

 

For the two driving games with analog steering I did use the left analog x-axis and it seems to work, although it obviously doesn't give the sensitive positional control of a real steering wheel, which is large and non-centering. But single X axis assignment of the left stick like what is needed for steering seems to be okay and not have the problem of dual axis joystick directional controls on the left stick.

 

For assignment of analog input there are three assignments to make for each axis, (rather than the two for the digital equivalent). You must assign the potentiometer first. Then separately assign increase and decrease. Assign the potentiometer to X axis by pushing stick left or right or Y axis up or down. One tutorial I read said that increase and decrease are only for calibration and don't need to be messed with. But I found this not to be the case, in part because positive and negative were sometimes in the opposite orientation of what I needed. For increase press the stick in the direction you want for increase. Then assign decrease by pushing the same stick in the opposite direction.

 

One of the driving games I configured had an analog gas pedal, which I assigned to the right stick on the Classic controller, and has to be configured a little bit differently in order to function like a gas pedal, since the stick is self centered and will give half pressed gas pedal in resting position if configured the way described above.

 

.. GORF/Juno First/Space Harrier/Night Driver/280 Zzzap ..

Edited February 4, 2019 by gliptitude