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Tutorials -> ODROID -> Tutorial 5

Tutorial 10: Retroarch Advanced Config - Monku R1, R2, R3

• Author: Brian A. Ree

  
  

  Sections

  - Tools Needed
  - Introduction and Tutorial Goals
  - Monku R1 RetroArch Config
  - Monku R2 RetroArch Config
  - Monku R3 RetroArch Config
  

  
  
  

  0: Tools Needed

  - A Monku Retro 1,2,3 / ODROID-C1+,2,XU4:     link C1+     link C2     link XU4
  
  (It's expected these devices are configured with Ubuntu and MATE. Click here for R1 and R2 devices, and here for R3 devices.)
  
  

  1: Introduction and Tutorial Goals

  This tutorial will show you how to configure your retroarch software for all the devices we have build tutorials for - Monku R1, R2 and R3. If you don't have one the information here could still be useful. You can apply the knowledge to whatever system you're working on. But, all the testing done for the settings is broken down by R1, R2 and R3 devices. If you want to build a Monku - Ubuntu based ODROID device like the one's we work with in this tutorial click here for R1, R2 devices, and here for an R3 device. Ok let's get to it.

  Actually, a quick aside. I wanted to cover some small things that we may need to do ahead of time. If you're using the web browser on your device make sure that your system time is up to date. Close retroarch and make sure you have a network connection. Click on the Time in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Then click the Edit button, and then click the Time Settings button. The system time should update via NTP in a few moments. Now you can browse the web without any error messages blocking you.

  
  
  

  Now that that's out of the way, the next thing we need to do is check the volume of the system. I didn't check this and was perplexed why the in-game volume was so low. Turns out the volume setting in MATE was too low. Close retroarch if it's open. Click the speaker in the top right hand corner of the screen and make sure the volume is set to the max.

  2: Monku R1 RetroArch Config

  Let's take a look at the default emulators I like to use for the systems that run on the Monku Retro 1, ODROID-C1+, device. All emulators were tested at 720p. The boot.ini files we use to set the device to the proper resolution can be found here. You can copy the files into the /media/boot/ folder. To set the device to the desired output simply copy the target file and overwrite the current boot.ini file then reboot the device.

  • Atari 2600:  Stella

  • Atari 7800:  ProSystem

  • ColecoVision:  BlueMSX

  • GameBoy:  mGBA

  • GameBoy Color:  Gamebatte

  • MSX-1:  fMSX

  • MSX-2:  fMSX

  • NES:  FCEUmm

  • Virtual Boy:  Mednafen VB

  • Sega GameGear:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega Master System:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega SG-1000:  Genesis Plus GX

  When you run a ROM for the first time you will be prompted to choose the default emulator for that ROM only. Fear not if you make a mistake or find that an emulator doesn't run things correctly you can choose to reset the emulator association from the menu that comes up when you select a ROM. This will reset things to their default and you can then choose a different emulator the next time you run the ROM.

  If you want to exit a game press L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose to close the current game. Press L1 + Select + Start + R1 again to cose the menu and return to the game. To adjust emulator specific options scroll down after pressing L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose the Options entry. For the most part you shouldn't have to adjust these settings for the emulators running on the Monu Retro 1 device, but just so you know where it is.

  Now on to the retroarch settings. We'll cover some general settings followed by screen shots of the configuration I've been using for video, audio, and drivers. Don't adjust settings that aren't listed below, some settings are driven and you don't need to worry about them.
  
  Video Settings:
  Suspend Screen Saver: ON
  Start in Fullscreen Mode: ON
  Windowed Fullscreen Mode: OFF
  Show Window Decorations: OFF
  Remember Window Position and Size: OFF
  Integer Scale: OFF
  Threaded Video: ON
  Vertical Sync: ON
  Hard GPU Sync: OFF
  Black Frame Insertion: OFF
  Crop Overscan: ON
  Bilinear Filtering: OFF
  

  A complete listing of the video settings follows in the next few screen shots. Take a look. Again you can safely ignore the window size settings as these will be driven by the fullscreen mode option. I had to turn fullscreen mode off to capture the screen shots but you should be fine.

  
  
  
  
  

  Next up we'll go over the audio setting. I'll list the major ones first then show screen shots of all the settings.
  
  Audio Settings:
  Audio: ON
  Mute: OFF
  Mixer Mute: OFF
  Synchronization: ON
  Audio Latency (ms): 72
  Resample Quality: Normal
  

  
  
  

  Lastly, below are the driver settings used for the Monku Retro 1 - ODROID-C1+. If you are using a different device these may need adjusting. However, if you are using an Ubuntu based operating system on said device then you might want to give these a try, they work great on the R2 running Ubuntu and MATE.

  
  
  

  Now we'll get into the nitty gritty of some specific emulator configurations, specifically, blueMSX and fMSX. While it sounds like they only emulate MSX systems blueMSX actually supports quite a few systems and runs CalecoVision games really well. In order to get blueMSX and fMSX working we'll need to get a copy of some BIOS ROMS. In order to get blueMSX running you'll need a copy of two folders from their stand alone installation. The Databases and Machines folders are found in the blueMSX installation folder. You can get a copy of blueMSX at this URL, http://bluemsx.msxblue.com/download.html.

  Once you've installed blueMSX and found the folders in question copy them onto a USB drive and plug that drive into your Monku R1. Locate the Odroid home directory by clicking the link on the desktop or by opening any file browser and navigating to the home directory. Locate your ROMS folders. Now you'll need to place a copy of the Databases and Machines folder in the root directory of any ROMS you want blueMSX to run. I placed a copy in my ColecoVision and my MSX folders. The screen shots below demonstrate the proper setup for MSX and ColecoVision ROMS.

  
  
  
  
  

  Because blueMSX seems to only have one setting for the system it is set to emulate I like to use it for ColecoVision games. It runs them really well. In order to get blueMSX setup to run ColecoVision ROMS you'll need to start the emulator by running an MSX or ColecoVision game then press L1 + Select + Start + R1 and scroll down to the emulator options entry. You can then set the target system for the blueMSX emulator. I like to use blueMSX for ColecoVision games and fMSX for MSX-1, 2 games. But I setup both directories to work with blueMSX just in case. The fMSX emulator doesn't work with ColecoVision games to the best of my knowledge so I don't add those system ROMS to the ColecoVision directory.

  To setup the fMSX emulator you'll need to find a copy of the following BIOS ROMS on the nets.
  
  DISK.ROM
  KANJI.ROM
  MSX.ROM
  MSX2.ROM
  MSX2EXT.ROM
  MSX2P.ROM
  MSX2PEXT.ROM
  MSXDOS2.ROM
  PAINTER.ROM
  

  Once you've located those BIOS ROMS place a copy of them in the root directory of your MSX games folder. All your ROMS should be in one folder and these BIOS ROMS should be in there too. Retroarch will look for BIOS ROMS in a few different places, I think, one of those locations is the root directory of the ROM itself. Ok, that wraps up our review of advanced retroarch configuration for the Monku Retro 1 - ODROID-C1+. You should be able to easily run all the systems listed above and have ColecoVision and MSX running side by side with some nifty emulator configuration.

  3: Monku R2 RetroArch Config

  Let's take a look at the default emulators I like to use for the systems that run on the Monku Retro 2, ODROID-C2, device. All emulators were tested at 720p. The boot.ini files we use to set the device to the proper resolution can be found here. You can copy the files into the /media/boot/ folder. To set the device to the desired output simply copy the target file and overwrite the current boot.ini file then reboot the device.

  • Atari 2600:  Stella

  • Atari 7800:  ProSystem

  • Atari Lynx:  Handy

  • ColecoVision:  BlueMSX

  • GameBoy:  mGBA

  • GameBoy Advance:  Beetle GBA

  • GameBoy Color:  Gamebatte

  • MSX-1:  BlueMSX, fMSX

  • MSX-2:  BlueMSX, fMSX

  • NEC: Turbo Grafx:  Beetle PCE Fast

  • NEC: PCE Super Grafx:  Beetle SGX

  • NEO GEO Pocket:  Beetle NeoPop

  • NEO GEO Pocket Color:  Beetle NeoPop

  • NES:  FCEUmm

  • SNES:  Snes9x2010

  • Sega 32X:  PicoDrive

  • Sega GameGear:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega Genesis:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega Master System:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega SG-1000:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Virtual Boy:  Beetle VB

  • Wonder Swan:  Beetle Cygne

  • Wonder Swan Color:  Beetle Cygne

  When you run a ROM for the first time you will be prompted to choose the default emulator for that ROM only. Fear not if you make a mistake or find that an emulator doesn't run things correctly you can choose to reset the emulator association from the menu that comes up when you select a ROM. This will reset things to their default and you can then choose a different emulator the next time you run the ROM.

  If you want to exit a game press L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose to close the current game. Press L1 + Select + Start + R1 again to cose the menu and return to the game. To adjust emulator specific options scroll down after pressing L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose the Options entry. For the most part you shouldn't have to adjust these settings for the emulators running on the Monu Retro 2 device, but just so you know where it is.

  Now on to the retroarch settings. We'll cover some general settings followed by screen shots of the configuration I've been using for video, audio, and drivers. Don't adjust settings that aren't listed below, some settings are driven and you don't need to worry about them.
  
  Video Settings:
  Suspend Screen Saver: ON
  Start in Fullscreen Mode: ON
  Windowed Fullscreen Mode: OFF
  Show Window Decorations: OFF
  Remember Window Position and Size: OFF
  Integer Scale: OFF
  Threaded Video: ON
  Vertical Sync: ON
  Hard GPU Sync: OFF
  Black Frame Insertion: OFF
  Crop Overscan: ON
  Bilinear Filtering: OFF
  

  A complete listing of the video settings follows in the next few screen shots. Take a look. Again you can safely ignore the window size settings as these will be driven by the fullscreen mode option. I had to turn fullscreen mode off to capture the screen shots but you should be fine.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Next up we'll go over the audio setting. I'll list the major ones first then show screen shots of all the settings.
  
  Audio Settings:
  Audio: ON
  Mute: OFF
  Mixer Mute: OFF
  Synchronization: ON
  Audio Latency (ms): 72
  Resample Quality: Normal
  Dynamic Audio Rate Control: 0.018
  Maximum Timing Skew: 0.08
  Output Rate (Hz): 44000
  

  
  
  

  Lastly, below are the driver settings used for the Monku Retro 2 - ODROID-C2. If you are using a different device these may need adjusting. However, if you are using an Ubuntu based operating system on said device then you might want to give these a try, they work great on the R2 running Ubuntu and MATE.

  
  
  

  Now we'll get into the nitty gritty of some specific emulator configurations, specifically, blueMSX and fMSX. While it sounds like they only emulate MSX systems blueMSX actually supports quite a few systems and runs CalecoVision games really well. In order to get blueMSX and fMSX working we'll need to get a copy of some BIOS ROMS. In order to get blueMSX running you'll need a copy of two folders from their stand alone installation. The Databases and Machines folders are found in the blueMSX installation folder. You can get a copy of blueMSX at this URL, http://bluemsx.msxblue.com/download.html.

  Once you've installed blueMSX and found the folders in question copy them onto a USB drive and plug that drive into your Monku R2. Locate the Odroid home directory by clicking the link on the desktop or by opening any file browser and navigating to the home directory. Locate your ROMS folders. Now you'll need to place a copy of the Databases and Machines folder in the root directory of any ROMS you want blueMSX to run. I placed a copy in my ColecoVision and my MSX folders. The screen shots below demonstrate the proper setup for MSX and ColecoVision ROMS.

  
  
  
  
  

  Because blueMSX seems to only have one setting for the system it is set to emulate I like to use it for ColecoVision games. It runs them really well. I also like to use it for MSX2 games on the Monku R2 device, it seems to work better in most cases than the fMSX emulator for MSX2 ROMS. In order to get blueMSX setup to run ColecoVision ROMS you'll need to start the emulator by running an MSX or ColecoVision game then press L1 + Select + Start + R1 and scroll down to the Options entry. You can then set the target system for the blueMSX emulator. Since I like to use blueMSX for both ColecoVision games and MSX-2 games. This requires that I switch the target system in the emulator Options menu. I always setup both directories to work with blueMSX just in case. The fMSX emulator doesn't work with ColecoVision games to the best of my knowledge so I don't add those system ROMS to the ColecoVision directory.

  To setup the fMSX emulator you'll need to find a copy of the following BIOS ROMS on the nets.
  
  DISK.ROM
  KANJI.ROM
  MSX.ROM
  MSX2.ROM
  MSX2EXT.ROM
  MSX2P.ROM
  MSX2PEXT.ROM
  MSXDOS2.ROM
  PAINTER.ROM
  

  Once you've located those BIOS ROMS place a copy of them in the root directory of your MSX games folder. All your ROMS should be in one folder and these BIOS ROMS should be in there too. Retroarch will look for BIOS ROMS in a few different places, I think, one of those locations is the root directory of the ROM itself. Ok, that wraps up our review of advanced retroarch configuration for the Monku Retro 2 - ODROID-C2. You should be able to easily run all the systems listed above and have ColecoVision and MSX running side by side with some nifty emulator configuration.

  4: Monku R3 RetroArch Config

  Let's take a look at the default emulators I like to use for the systems that run on the Monku Retro 3, ODROID-XU4, device. All emulators were tested at 720p. The boot.ini files we use to set the device to the proper resolution can be found here. You can copy the files into the /media/boot/ folder. To set the device to the desired output simply copy the target file and overwrite the current boot.ini file then reboot the device.

  • Atari 2600:  Stella

  • Atari 7800:  ProSystem

  • Atari Jaguar:  Virtual Jaguar

  • Atari Lynx:  Handy

  • ColecoVision:  BlueMSX

  • DinoThawr:  Dinothawr v1.0924

  • Doom Demo:  PrBoom v2.5.0

  • GameBoy:  Gambatte

  • GameBoy Advance:  Beetle GBA

  • GameBoy Color:  Gamebatte

  • Magnovox-Odyssey2:  O2EM

  • MAME:  CSP 1, 2, 3 - MAME 2016, 2014

  • MSX-1:  BlueMSX

  • MSX-2:  BlueMSX

  • NEC: Turbo Grafx:  Beetle PCE Fast

  • NEC: PCE Super Grafx:  Beetle SGX

  • NEO GEO Pocket:  Beetle NeoPop

  • NEO GEO Pocket Color:  Beetle NeoPop

  • NES:  FCEUmm

  • SNES:  Snes9x2010

  • PS1:  Beetle PSX HW

  • PSP:  PPSSPP

  • Quake Demo:  TyrQuake

  • Sega 32X:  PicoDrive

  • Sega GameGear:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega Genesis:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega Master System:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sega SG-1000:  Genesis Plus GX

  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum:  Fuse

  • Virtual Boy:  Beetle VB

  • Wonder Swan:  Beetle Cygne

  • Wonder Swan Color:  Beetle Cygne

  When you run a ROM for the first time you will be prompted to choose the default emulator for that ROM only. Fear not if you make a mistake or find that an emulator doesn't run things correctly you can choose to reset the emulator association from the menu that comes up when you select a ROM. This will reset things to their default and you can then choose a different emulator the next time you run the ROM.

  If you want to exit a game press L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose to close the current game. Press L1 + Select + Start + R1 again to cose the menu and return to the game. To adjust emulator specific options scroll down after pressing L1 + Select + Start + R1 and choose the Options entry. For the most part you shouldn't have to adjust these settings for the emulators running on the Monu Retro 3 device, but just so you know where it is.

  Now on to the retroarch settings. We'll cover some general settings followed by screen shots of the configuration I've been using for video, audio, and drivers. Don't adjust settings that aren't listed below, some settings are driven and you don't need to worry about them.
  
  Video Settings:
  Suspend Screen Saver: ON
  Start in Fullscreen Mode: ON
  Windowed Fullscreen Mode: OFF
  Show Window Decorations: OFF
  Remember Window Position and Size: OFF
  Integer Scale: OFF
  Threaded Video: ON
  Vertical Sync: ON
  Hard GPU Sync: OFF
  Black Frame Insertion: OFF
  Crop Overscan: ON
  Bilinear Filtering: OFF
  

  A complete listing of the video settings follows in the next few screen shots. Take a look. Again you can safely ignore the window size settings as these will be driven by the fullscreen mode option. I had to turn fullscreen mode off to capture the screen shots but you should be fine.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Next up we'll go over the audio setting. I'll list the major ones first then show screen shots of all the settings.
  
  Audio Settings:
  Audio: ON
  Mute: OFF
  Mixer Mute: OFF
  Synchronization: ON
  Audio Latency (ms): 62
  Resample Quality: Normal
  Dynamic Audio Rate Control: 0.016
  Maximum Timing Skew: 0.06
  Output Rate (Hz): 44000
  

  
  
  

  Lastly, below are the driver settings used for the Monku Retro 3 - ODROID-XU4. If you are using a different device these may need adjusting. However, if you are using an Ubuntu based operating system on said device then you might want to give these a try, they work great on the R3 running Ubuntu and MATE.

  
  
  

  In order to get blueMSX running you'll need a copy of two folders from their stand alone installation. The Databases and Machines folders are found in the blueMSX installation folder. You can get a copy of blueMSX at this URL, http://bluemsx.msxblue.com/download.html.

  Once you've installed blueMSX and found the folders in question copy them onto a USB drive and plug that drive into your Monku R3. Locate the Odroid home directory by clicking the link on the desktop or by opening any file browser and navigating to the home directory. Locate your ROMS folders. Now you'll need to place a copy of the Databases and Machines folder in the root directory of any ROMS you want blueMSX to run. I placed a copy in my ColecoVision and my MSX folders. The screen shots below demonstrate the proper setup for MSX and ColecoVision ROMS.

  
  
  
  
  

  Because blueMSX works really well, and will automatically detect the target system, it can be used for ColecoVision, MSX-1, and MSX-2 ROMS.

  To setup the fMSX emulator you'll need to find a copy of the following BIOS ROMS on the nets.
  
  DISK.ROM
  KANJI.ROM
  MSX.ROM
  MSX2.ROM
  MSX2EXT.ROM
  MSX2P.ROM
  MSX2PEXT.ROM
  MSXDOS2.ROM
  PAINTER.ROM
  

  Once you've located those BIOS ROMS place a copy of them in the root directory of your MSX games folder. All your ROMS should be in one folder and these BIOS ROMS should be in there too. Retroarch will look for BIOS ROMS in a few different places, I think, one of those locations is the root directory of the ROM itself.

  To get PSP and PS1 emulators working you'll need to locate the following bios files on the nest. Listed below are the bios files you'll need.
  
  scph5500.bin
  scph5501.bin
  scph5502.bin
  scph5552.bin
  

  With your PS1 games you'll need to unzip the contents of the compressed version of the game and place the .cue and .bin files into the PS1 target folder. This way you'll only need one copy of the bios files in the root directory of the PS1 roms. The PSP game format does not have this issue, you can easily copy the bios files into the root directory of the PSP roms.

  For the Maganvox-Odyssey2 emulator you'll need to get a copy of two bios files from the internet and place them in the root directory of your Odyssey2 ROMS. Listed below are the bios files you'll need.
  
  o2rom.bin
  c52.bin
  

  Lastly if you plan on using the Commodore64 emulator you'll need to place the following bios files in the root directory of your Commodore64 ROMS.
  1542.ROM
  Basic.ROM
  Char.ROM
  Kernal.ROM
  

  This wraps up the special configuration steps needed regarding bios files for the emulators that need them. Enjoy!!