*.bin files with 7800 emulators

[Swami]

Occasionally people drop *.bin files in a post for a 7800 game for rom release. I cannot get these games to play on any of the emulators: MAME, 7800 ProSystem of 7800Emu. How do you run these without the header info. I'm not even sure the bin roms work on the 7800 real hardware. The Concerto usually gives me a warning about it being a bin extension and then croaks. Here is an example:

 

 

piranha final.bin

Caterpiller_FINAL.bin

[H.E.R.O.]

EMU7800 works for me under 16k non bankswitched. Maybe you have an older version of the emulator?

[mr_me]

With Mame, you'll probably have to add it to the software list xml file (ie .\hash\a7800.xml)

[Swami]

EMU7800 works for me under 16k non bankswitched. Maybe you have an older version of the emulator?

 

What kind of syntax do you use to enter header info in the console properties? For instance to enter BIN32 non-bankswitched for Cartridge type? I just downloaded this about 6 months ago and the EMU7800 website says the last update was Sept 2015.

[Trebor]

Occasionally people drop *.bin files in a post for a 7800 game for rom release. I cannot get these games to play on any of the emulators: MAME, 7800 ProSystem of 7800Emu. How do you run these without the header info. I'm not even sure the bin roms work on the 7800 real hardware. The Concerto usually gives me a warning about it being a bin extension and then croaks. Here is an example:

Attached are the proper header files (*.a78) for the OP games, Piranha and Caterpillar.

 

Caterpiller (Hack) (20090828).a78

Piranha (Hack) (20090828).a78

 

The above files and a plethora of others, all with proper headers, are a part of Trebors 7800 ROM PROPack.

 

Files work perfectly under MAME, or the even better, A7800 emulator.

[Swami]

So, I tried adding a header to Mitch's food fight proto rom in EMU7800, as follows:

It is saying CPU: processor jammed. What am I doing wrong?

32foodfight629.Bin

[Swami]

I get this when I try to boot the game from the list:

 

[Orionsangel]

The 7800 ProSystem core on Retroarch is now the best 7800 emulation around imo.

 

[Trebor]

Retroarch is a nice GUI wrapper for some emulators. The ProSystem core though needs some significant timing fixes. Test ROM for the various issues available from this thread. There have been a number of instances mentioned in these forums with the ProSystem emulator core providing false results for developers or/and not running a ROM properly.

 

A7800 is the closest to hardware accurate emulation available for the 7800, including supported emulation of Light Gun, Trak-Ball, Paddles, High Score Cartridge, and several other devices; an easy setup guide was posted for any interested.

 

Granted, there is no fancy GUI, but it has plenty of visual bells and whistles available (I.E. bgfx/hlsl), for those interested in such items. For example, some may wish for the CRT TV look with some wood panels...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...or the ever popular, and often utilized, Commodore 1702 display:

 

 

 

 

 

For giggles, I modified my own personal copy so that it can optionally run with the 7800 PAL console overlay above (That ~1/2 inch empty space/gap from the bottom was removed though); from within a window and fullscreen:

 

 

 

 

 

It would be nice if a 7800 NTSC console overlay was done.

 

Regardless, it's great to have different options, and different strokes for different folks. Hopefully someday, the ProSystem core/emulator will be improved upon so it can better emulate the console's hardware timings. It would be great if when doing so, ProSystem would properly manage all *.a78 ROMs and not require various hacks/fixes to its core database.