Problems with Papilio Arcade Blaster App


xbelanch

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Hi,

I'm trying to run Scramble on the Papilio Arcade but after many attempts this doesn't work properly. Let me explain myself a little:

  • The Papilio Arcade runs well and I love it. I uploaded a short video yesterday ;-)

  • I downloaded the Scramble rom. It works well with MAME 0.140

After all, I trying to upload the rom to the Blaster App but does not recognize it and, therefore, can't install it. I attached one screenshot to show the error message.

Hope you can help me :-)

Thanks in advance,

Xavier

post-30966-0-73718500-1344710853_thumb.j

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you have to make sure you have the proper romset.

Ok, from mame 0.142 you need scrambles.zip and scramble.zip.

scrambles.zip --

  • 2d
  • 2e
  • 2f
  • 2h
  • 2j
  • 2l
  • 2m
  • 2p
  • 5f
  • 5h

scramble.zip --

  • ot1.5c
  • ot2.5d
  • ot3.5e
  • c01s.6e

put the files in a zip (scramble.zip)

you may need to run the app as an administrator (vista/win7 uac.. blah)

install game - choose scramble.zip

load game

done :)

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Ever I follow the steps but doesn't work again:

  • create the scramble.zip which contains the two zip files
  • run the app as an administrator

still fails... I test the scramble rom with mame 146b (last build) and runs perfectly.

on the other hand, I'm really interested in your .dat :-) specially if I can avoid this awkward moment :)

Thanks

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Hey again!

Good news also bad news. I put the Scramble romset inside the rom folder of the Arcade Blaster and it recognizes them! I load the game but I only have a frozen screen of the room boot:

P1010565.JPG

Seems to be corrupted the rom :( or something I don't notice. Anyway, I put the Pacman rom and it runs at the first time! :D

P1010564.JPG

Yeah! only left a atari joystick or compatible to play it, but happy to see that it's not a hardware problem ;-)

On the other hand, I put the Frogger and Crush Roller roms and Arcade Blaster not recognize them... this things are turning me crazy!

Any advice or help are welcome...

Thanks,

Xavier

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Ever I follow the steps but doesn't work again:

  • create the scramble.zip which contains the two zip files
  • run the app as an administrator

still fails... I test the scramble rom with mame 146b (last build) and runs perfectly.

on the other hand, I'm really interested in your .dat :-) specially if I can avoid this awkward moment :)

Thanks

The scramble.zip has the files from the list, not the .zips :)

I ended up re-forking arcade blaster on github, did some small changes which hopefully

Jack will pull into the main branch.

having said that, here is the dat

Papilio_Arcade_DAT.zip

(works with romvault 1.7.7, didn't test cmp but should work there too)

and here

-link removed- merged into current on Github by Jack

is my Games.xml, and associated images to add support for a few other Pac-Man variations/Hacks.

Pac-Man (With Speedup Hack), Hangly-Man (Set 1, 2 3), Caterpillar

Regards,

//F//

ps: no actual ROMs are included in my post (don't need to be spanked by jack, nor la policia)

edit: Nice Raspberry Pi :) Still need to go find one

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Wow! it works!

and the others romsets too :-) I was confused trying to put two zip files inside of one (too silly!). Anyway, now it's all ok and the next step is find a compatible joystick to play the games :)

I didn't known of the existence of romvault! Thanks for your help, the files and to be patient!

Best,

Xavier

PS: actually it runs a simple linux distro with Nodejs running inside... ;-) it's really promising but I miss a few features like 3D acceleration :(

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  • 7 months later...

I had the exact same problems and spent hours chasing down all the correct files to get a few of the games working. Arcade Blaster is a neat concept but IMO it's not quite ready for prime time yet. It needs some error handling beyond the vague error displayed when there is a problem with the zip. At the very least it should list the missing file(s) and/or have a help file or readme listing exactly what is needed for each supported game. I've been out of the loop with MAME, but when I did last play with it, all one had to do was drop the ROM zips in the right folder and for the most part MAME would pick them up and just work, no mucking around chasing various zips and combining things. Reminds me of the dependency nightmare that used to plague Linux and the countless evenings I spent figuring out what I needed to install before I install this so I could install that to make this other thing work and so on.

 

A more conventional UI option would be a great feature too. UI's that ignore window manager settings and attempt to emulate the appearance of a physical device (and thereby take on the cumbersome limitations of said physical device) have long been a pet peeve of mine. I much prefer a nice rectangular window easily docked with other windows, with standard minimize/maximize/close controls and a menu.

 

I hope this is not taken as criticism, it's a great app with a lot of promise, it just needs a bit more work.

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thats why i included a ROMVault 'datfile' with the installer (well i commited to github and jack included it)

makes it easy to verify you have the right files.

 

i did start my own UI but going from windows 7 to windows 8 i lost the source.

 

a few days ago i started playing with 'gamebase' to see if i can get it to work properly as a replacement,

and results are promising so far (space invaders+clones work), but it doesnt do hash checking so you

still have to use clrmamepro or romvault for checking the files.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Gents,

 

I got a Papilio Pro and Arcade mega wing for christmas!  I have managed to get PacMan and the pong demo working by using the merge rom script.  I'm finding that although I have installed the arcade blaster app and managed to install the ROM files it isn't programming the papilio.  I'm certain I have all of the settings correctly specified and the LEDS on the arcade mega wing do flash when I click on the load game but when I then attach a monitor the games do not load.  If I program the board using the papilio loader app with a bitfile from the merge rom it works.  Any idea what I'm doing incorrectly?

 

 

 

 

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Hello langster1980,

 

It can be a little difficult to get the correct ROM files, and without the correct ones you will not see video output... Like Felix says, there is a xml file included that works with a ROM verification tool you can download that will help you get all the correct ROMs sorted out and verify everything for you.

 

Jack.

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Hi Gents thank you for responding.

 

I verified the PACMan ROM are correct by checking the md5 / sha1 by an external program when I was using the merge rom bat file.  I have looked at the ROM files I have for alieninv and they match the numbers given in the .dat file in the roms folder of arcade blaster.  Surely if the program is attempting to program the papilio pro the ROM files are present and correct?

 

What is the Rom verification tool you mentioned and I will try that....checking the roms are correct is the first place to start.

 

I'm surprised the arcade blaster app won't load Pong or PacMan though as I have managed to get those working...

 

Cheers

 

Alex

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Ok...I have downloaded and ran RomVault using Felix's DAT file and compared it with the ROMS I have and they are correct.  So now what do I do?  I'm finding that although I have the papilio pro board connected to my PC via USB when I click program in ArcadeBlaster it isn't programming the FPGA.  I can post a video of what is happening if required.

 

Here is a screenshot of RomVault.

 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7fA8ZgAyKMld0F4UDZjcEVNTlE/view?usp=sharing

 

Not sure what else I can do for now...

 

Alex

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Thank you for helping Felix,

 

Sorry to be a burden.  I managed to get Puckman working by using the merge ROM script file which I believe you put together.  Once I got the directory structure correct I managed to merge the roms into a bit file and upload that using the papilio loader application.  I also got pong working, I haven't tried alieninv or galaxian as I was hoping arcade blaster could be made to work as it would be much easier.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

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Hmm...when you say unzip the Roms...I clicked on the install game button in arcade blaster and navigated to where I have the zipped rom files located.  Arcade blaster then reports the game is ready for install.   Where should I be unzipping the ROM files?  If I look in the arcade blaster roms directory then the correct rom files are present in their respective folders.  

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After some initial hurdles I was able to get Arcade Blaster working, but I've since found it's easier to just keep a collection of bitfiles and use the Papilio Loader to put them on the FPGA.

 

Now if only we'd get some more game hardware implemented, some of the supported games are good but there are loads of better classic games out there. The early TTL logic stuff with no microprocessor is a perfect candidate since there is no software to emulate on a PC. Gottlieb games like Qbert, Mad Planets and Reactor would be awesome. Williams made some great classics but those could be a challenge since they used a DRAM frame buffer but maybe on the Papilio Pro. Unfortunately given the complexity of implementing an arcade board from scratch, one has to be a rather competent FPGA developer to do so and I don't think we've had any new games done since the original platforms were ported from FPGA Arcade years ago.

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