Advmame games booting with scrambled graphics

[Tapper]

I've noticed a few games that run with Advmame (.106) will bootup and seemingly run but the graphics are scrambled.

I'm guessing it has do with a modeline sending a signal that my monitor can't display correctly? I'm running a standard res CRT monitor in a basic JAMMA cab.

Offhand, 2 games that do this are Turbo and I'Robot.

Now, the initial solution would be to run them on a different MAME version, but in some cases they run worse. For example, Turbo stutters in 0.172.

Any ideas on getting such games to display properly using Advmame?

[dee2eR]

Without being sure I'd guess it's the AdvMAME SDL rendering bug, some games display as though the scanlines are starting in the wrong places or something... (it appears a bit diagonally scrambled or something when this is the issue)

If this is the problem adding them to the nosdl array in the AdvMAME launcher should fix you up. It's been a while but I'm sure iRobot can play fine in AdvMAME so hopefully it's just this.

I still haven't figured out if this is a unique bug for ARpiCADE due to the changes I made to SDL1.2s scaling for scanline correct output in low res... but that is my suspicion.

[Tapper]

Yes, diagonally scrambled is what they seem like.

Not sure what you mean by "nosdl array in the AdvMAME launcher." Thanks you as always.

[dee2eR]

Inside the AdvMAME launcher script, /boot/launchers/advmame.sh there is an array (programming term for a group of variables) you can add games to which will stop them using the SDL rendering. ie. [from advmame.sh]

# add games which render wierdly using dispmanx to nosdl to run them on the framebuffer (eg. gorf)
nosdl=("phoenix" "spnchout" "punchout" "aeroboto" "gorf" "tcobra2" "sundance" "spacedem" "spacefb" "getstar" "aso" "victroad" "venture" "tnk3" "suprglob" "splat" "spectar" "jedi" "playball" "nyny" "mrflea" "mysticm" "mustache" "mtrap" "megadon" "mayday" "ldrun3" "ladyfrog" "dogosoke" "spaceg" "tacscan" "tempest" "tumblep" "smashtv" "gravitar" "mpatrol" "bbprot" "tshoot" "mating" "getstarb" "gekirido" "defence" "defender" "crmaze" "cchasm" "colony7" "alienar" "bmcbowl" "blast30" "blaster" "robotron" "splash" "trog" "shimpact")

be careful editing the file, a typo or formatting mistake can break things. Use Notepad++ rather than a built in text editor if on Windows as the default stuff can break file formatting.

[FrizzleFried]

Dee2er...

We should have a dedicated sticky post to things like this. BTW... for the list you have above, you can add pleades and joust2...

[Tapper]

Great info, thank you! I now have those games displaying well, albeit I needed to go into the TAB menu and experiment with different video modes to get the best display. And yeah, a sticky containing a FAQ with these types of infos would be awesome.

Followup question: I'm noticing sound lag with AdvMAME in some games, i.e. Crystal Castles. So far the best fix I've found is to just use a newer MAME version instead. But just wondering if there's a setting I've missed or something?

[triggerhappy]

dee2eR,

I had the same issue with Joust2, so I added it to the nosdl array in advmame.sh, which fixed the garbled graphics, but the game ends up displaying in horizontal mode, which is to say it's not rotated appropriately for my vertically-oriented monitor.

Is there a way to fix the graphics issue while preserving the aspect/rotation?

[dee2eR]

I'm posting a fix for 3.X AdvMAME3.9 rotation now. Check the release thread first post.

[triggerhappy]

I recently re-imaged my RPi w/ a fresh 3.X image, and I've gotten most everything working, except I noticed in retesting various games I had issues with previously that Joust2 is back to displaying scrambled video on my vertical-aspect hi-res (480p) monitor .

I remember having this working before, so I rechecked the advmame.sh script, and I see that "joust2" is listed in the nosdl array. Not sure why it doesn't work anymore.

Any suggestions?

[dee2eR]

did you install the AdvMAME nosdl rotation fix I posted as well? I definitely checked Joust2 when I went through this stuff last. Not sure what has gone wrong with it there, probably best to just use MAME 172 for that game instead.