invaders + galaxian high scores get saved but not read back in (v0.158) . Other roms do work

[beemandev]

UPDATE:
Having done further testing with other roms (apart from invaders) I discovered that puckman, 1941, ckong DO work with high scores in Retroarch mame (latest) core whereas both invaders and galaxian high scores get saved but are not read back in when games are re-run (bad luck I started testing solely with invaders!)

Note, all roms, high scores work correctly using standalone Mame 0.158 + 0.158 merged rom set.

I deduced you also need as a minimum in plugins folder the json folder( along with hiscore folder + boot.lua)

--original post
I've spent about 12+ hours trying to track down why high scores don't get reloaded via mame core, when they do work fine in standalone mame (tested using game=invaders.zip)

I've devoured endless guides, posts, links and experimented with so many settings to no avail. So can only conclude that it's broken. I know I could workaround using save states via autosave option but for now I'll revert to using fbneo, but would much prefer to use Mame.

[sonninnos]

I've had zero issues using the hiscore plugin..

[beemandev]

Can you confirm that both invaders.zip and galaxian.zip high scores work properly on your system?

I updated op with new info

[sonninnos]

Indeed, those games always show 0 even though something is saved. Pretty weird if they would work with the standalone, since this core does nothing different with plugins. The version is 0.258 though.

[beemandev]

Yes, it is weird, but definitely happens. I can rename/revert C:\Emu\Mame\hiscore\invaders.hi and see the high scores go and return with MAME standalone.

re 0.258, yes I did all testing with standalone MAME v0.258 + RetroArch (both stable and nightly) + MAME (latest) core using MAME 0.258 merged roms from archive.org.

I tried other early games, asteroids high scores work fine, but headon doesn't save in RetroArch (Mame latest) or RetroArch (FBNeo) Or Standalone Mame. For that I'd have to turn autosave states on for just that rom I guess.

[grant2258]

Done a little digging and found the frame notify is not getting triggered for lua. It could possibly be something missing in the runloop. It doesnt run regardless of the high scores working or not.

uncomment this https://github.com/libretro/mame/blob/3d612fb19eb95c0ae322c3cab343857b14a65a9c/plugins/hiscore/init.lua#L313C4-L313C4 (it shows up as not working better if you add a print comment as the top for the case of debugging)

Games will fail to initialize at all if the memory test doesn't pass at the start as the recursive call isint working for lua.

https://github.com/libretro/mame/blob/3d612fb19eb95c0ae322c3cab343857b14a65a9c/plugins/hiscore/init.lua#L358C1-L361C6

@beemandev some hi scores only save the tables so if you save a high score and check the tables, it might be the case that only the tables are saved for that game(headon).

edit confirmed its disabled

mame/src/emu/video.cpp

Lines 260 to 263 in 3d612fb

	#if !defined(__LIBRETRO__)
	// perform tasks for this frame
	machine().call_notifiers(MACHINE_NOTIFY_FRAME);
	#endif

[sonninnos]

That MACHINE_NOTIFY_FRAME is in running_machine::retro_loop() in src/emu/machine.cpp though. Found a few more where the scores aren't read back, or the save data is garbage since the file size is similarily small, such as "warpwarp" and "geebee".

The script indeed seems a bit weird, since a lot of stuff isn't even run (based on adding some verbose logging) when the hiscores are working properly..

So is the filesize the same with standalone, and does the same saved file work with standalone?

[grant2258]

The libretro core makes a pig ear of the galaxian hi sore that was saved on standalone, if thats what your asking. I haven't really looked into issue at all apart from the initial debugging the notify events arent happening.

edit:
I would probably need to check more into how the output module connects up and if its related to that. Im Pretty sure the standard one should work fine though. Ill try enable it and test when I have the time to compile mame again.

https://github.com/libretro/mame/blob/master/src/osd/modules/output/console.cpp

This is just pure guess work without tracing things properly.