Monday 15 October 2012

Raspberry Pi with Neogeo

So I followed Shea Silverman's blog post, but could not get gngeo to work properly. The gngeo GUI would hang whenever a game was loaded or it was exited. Following this comment from the Raspberry Pi forums, I decided that compiling gngeo from the source would be a better option. Unfortunately, that comment doesn't explain the full process and what's required to get started. After messing around a bit, here is the complete series of things you would need to do:
  1. Install GCC4.7:
    • sudo apt-get install gcc-4.7
    • export CC=gcc-4.7
    • export GCC=g++-4.7
  2. Install SDL:
    • Run "sudo apt-get install libsdl-dev"
    • (AND/OR; you may or may not need to do the following)
    • Get the source code from here
    • The file should look something like this "gngeo-0.7.tar.gz"
    • Untar the source folder (tar -zxvf gngeo-0.7.tar.gz) and cd (change directory) to that folder.
    • On the terminal, run "./configure; make; sudo make install"
  3. Install zlib:
    • Get the source code from here
    • cd into libz and run "./configure; make; sudo make install"
    • Installing zlib may not actually be necessary. I just went ahead and installed it, following the gngeo readme file instructions.
  4. Install gngeo:
    • Get the source code from here
    • run "./configure --build=i386 --host=arm-linux --target=arm-linux --disable-i386asm --enable-cyclone --enable-drz80; make; sudo make install"
  5. Download neogeo.zip (which is the neogeo rom) and whatever game roms you need, unzip inside /usr/share/local/gngeo:
    • cd ~/.gngeo/
    • wget http://sheasilverman.com/rpi/gngeorc (Note that this file needs to be saved as gngeorc, not gngeorc.txt)
    • You might need to unzip neogeo.zip inside the folder "/usr/share/local/gngeo" if gngeo complains that it is missing a couple of files.
    • Run "arm-linux-gngeo -i ~/ ~/gamename.zip" to actually play your game.
  6. For fullscreen:
    • type "sudo vim ~/.gngeo/gngeorc"
    • change the line "effect none" to "effect scale 2x50"
    • change the line "fullscreen false" to "fullscreen true"
A couple of helpful commands you might use: scp (I used this copy roms over from my mac to the Raspberry Pi after having sshed in), wget. I managed to get metal slug x, art of fighting 3 and king of fighters 97 working.

21 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hi, do you got it working full speed with full screen and sound support?

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  3. For fullscreen:
    - type "sudo vim ~/.gngeo/gngeorc"
    - change the line "effect none" to "effect scale 2x50"
    - change the line "fullscreen false" to "fullscreen true"

    I haven't really looked at how to enable sound though. I reckon that it might slow the game down.

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  4. thanks! i will try to get sound working...

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    1. No probs. Let me know if you get it working.

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  5. just edit sound true in config file, and the performance for gngeo with the sound activated it's ok

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    1. I had seen "sound true" in the config file but still wasn't getting the sound on my device. I might take look at it later. Thanks anyway, and I'm glad you found this post helpful.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. hum, tryed the compiled version from Silverman's site and foud better compatibility and less graphic glitches. Any way to editing the romrc .rc files to getting best performance?

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    1. I don't doubt that Silverman's version might be better. I tried using his too but it didn't work for me at all. I've honestly not tried fiddling around with the romrc file though.

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  8. yours is fastest but less compatible

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    1. The compatibility isn't ideal I agree. I've only managed to run as far as metal slug x, art of fighting 3 and kof97 so far (and other small games).

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  9. Have you tried to get Final Burn Alpha running on Pi? CPS1 and CPS2 games are great, and there is a GP2X version working well.

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    1. Cool, thanks for letting me know. I might try running Final Burn Alpha too. Cheers!

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  10. Hi Dhruv!! any chance to getting Final Burn Alpha on the Pi?

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    1. Hey there! I've not tried fba yet sadly. I might do that someway down the line, but not anytime soon (I've got quite a bit of work on my other side-projects!).

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  11. There is a more accurate gngeo v0.8 ARM version

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. A new project has been done for GnGeo and raspberry Pi.
    https://github.com/ymartel06/GnGeo-Pi
    The sound is available and it's compliant with Emulation station

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    1. Thanks Yohann- looks promising! Do you have a tutorial/screenshots/video?

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  14. You can take a look inside the wiki, it will be updated very soon: https://github.com/ymartel06/GnGeo-Pi/wiki/_pages

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