How to get SEGA CD Working? Bios? etc?

[SkullGrin]

New member here. I am a long time Retropie user and finally got around to trying out Recalbox. So far i really like it just one problem: I can't get SEGA CD working if my life depended on it! I put the Bin/Cue of the game in my SEGA CD Roms folder, i put my U.S model 2 Bios in the Bios folder and named appropriately to what the site recommends (us_scd2_9306.bin) and nothing. Every attempt ends in a blank screen. Even tried to change the Cores and emulator used(Libretto, picodrive, etc).

Help please! I like Recalbox but it's useless if i can't get anything to work.

[voljega]

@skullgrin the reference to your bin file inside the cue file is likely wrong, it must be exactlyt the same than the bin file, cae included.
also cue and bin files must have exactly the same name, case included

[SkullGrin]

@voljega They are named the same. Just to make sure, i even went and redownloaded a game and put it in, Bin/Que file as is. Nothing. Changed cores and settings, nothing. blank screen. What about the Bios? Anything special i need to know? Never had any of these issues with Retropie.

[voljega]

@skullgrin did you look inside the cue file by editing it ? You don't mention it

Also let me put the stress again on case : the characters cases of both names must be exactly the same

For the bios you also need the eu and jp bios if you want to use roms from those countries. Look for the bios page in the wiki

[SkullGrin]

@voljega Did it all. Does NOT work. What about the Bios? Because i suspect i have a Bios recognition problem, since it NEVER makes it to the Model 1/2 SEGA CD Intro screen with the music. After selecting a game, the screen just goes blank. Is there anything special i need to know about how to get the Bios working? Location? Zipped or unzipped? Bios version required? Naming issues? etc?

[voljega]

@skullgrin there's a wiki. please read it.
https://github.com/recalbox/recalbox-os/wiki/Add-system-bios-(EN)

[SkullGrin]

@voljega Fixed! The problem? I was trying to run with my Games & BIOS entirely on USB drive. Evidently there is a huge glitch with this method. Even though stuff like Genesis games will run fine off of it. However, it absolutely will NOT boot Sega CD bios no matter what. But when i remove my USB drive and load the SEGA CD game & Bios directly to the SD card? It works perfect. WTF.

[voljega]

@skullgrin I've been running them on usb stick for as long as I can remember so I don't think this the problem...

That said I didn't check in 4.1

[SkullGrin]

@voljega Well i've tried various combinations to still allow use of the USB drive. Like loading the Bios onto both the SD card and USB, but keeping my games on the USB drive. Doesn't work.

[voljega]

@skullgrin they off course need to be on the same, ie either both on sd when using sd or both on usb key when usb key

[SkullGrin]

@voljega I've also tried loading up all the exact same files on both USB and SD card (Bios and games), and switching between them using the menu(Internal, Anyexternal, and drive name). Each time the system reboots to use the desired storage. Every time the internal/SD card booted up SEGA CD Bios and games perfectly fine. And everytime i tried using Anyexternal/USB Drive or the Drive name, it never worked. Actually now my Genesis roms don't want to load any more either. Both them and the SEGA CD games are recongized as present in the menu but, when i try to play them, it just leads to a blank screen. Sometimes freezes the system up.

That's pretty cut & dry. USB drive won't work. I am using Latest Recalbox also.

[voljega]

@skullgrin hmmm maybe your usb drive is f**kep up then, did you try to connect it on windows and repair it ?

[SkullGrin]

@voljega It's a brand new, Sandisk 16GB USB drive. Every time i disconnected it from the RPI3 and connected it to my PC, it works great. UNLESS i'm supposed to actually load the entire Recalbox O.S onto it as well, not just roms? Right now i have the O.S loaded to the SD card, and was trying to load the actual roms from USB drive.

[voljega]

@skullgrin yeah you're doing it right. are you powering off your pi properly throught the EmulationStation menu and not just disconnecting the power cable or socket ?

[SkullGrin]

@voljega Yes. I use the menu to restart the system. Although i've also just unplugged it to shut it off. In many cases i had no choice, because trying to boot up SEGA CD caused it to freeze on a blank screen. Maybe if i just loaded up the entire O.S, as well as games to the USB drive and nothing on SD card? Can that be done?

[voljega]

@skullgrin no it can't be done.

When the system freeze, try to connect to it through putty and type the command reboot to restart it

OK you may have fried your usb card partition then. If you're still in a testing process, you can try to reformat it (prefer FAT32), switch the external partition to none, reconnect the key, then reswitch external partition to any external, it will recreate the partition from scratch.

Then try recoping your bioses and games in the right places on the usb key, reboot and retry

[SkullGrin]

@voljega Holy crap! So i tried everything again, using the same official tutorial as before to get USB drive working but, this time used an older 128GB USB drive i had. Loaded up the Bios and roms as before and....it works!! WTF. The other drive i was using was a brand new, from the package, 16GB USB. Followed the same directions and got nothing. But its working now with my 128GB. SEGA CD Bios and games boot up fine. I don't get it. I did everything the same as before. Oh well, at least its working now.