PicoChess v3.3 Bookworm Images [10 Mar 2025]

[RandyR]

Hi everyone,

I think (hope?) I have fixed the issue with the previous images. I added a short 2 second delay between the retro engine startup and when it receives its first uci command. I can't guarantee the fix since it is sometimes hard to get it to fail but during my tests it never failed once. Hopefully, that will be your experience as well.

The RPiOS files are updated (as of today, 10-Mar-2025) and these images contain the latest version (0.275) of MAME (mess) for the retro engines. Also, the Desktop image has an updated version of Wine.

There are many fixes to the MAME chessengine plugins and custom artwork to be compatible with the latest MAME version.

Henri will be happy to hear that the info display for the retro engines has been re-enabled for the retro engines that supported it, except for 2 Mephisto engines, MM I and MM IV since they sometimes give results that python chess doesn't like, and an error in the log. If you want to re-enable them just remove the comment blocks (--[[ and --]]) around the functions in the mm1.lua and mm4.lua files.

The position setup function in some retro engines has been disabled as they are not compatible with the latest MAME version. If they can be made to work correctly in the future I'll re-enable them.

As mentioned before, the MAME team has added support for some new retro machines and Dirk has adapted them from Franz's CB-Emu project so they can be used in PicoChess. These include:

CXG Computachess II 1982
CXG Pocket Chess 1986
CXG Sphinx Junior 1988 (Note: the pieces showing in the artwork do not move since Junior didn't use a sensor board for making moves; it used buttons and you just moved the pieces on the board to stay synchronized.)
Mephisto Excalibur (WCCC Ver.) 1983
Novag Beluga 1990
Novag Primo 1987 (not new but enabled - similar to Beluga)
Saitek Electronic Trio (Chess) 1985
Chess King Pocket Micro Deluxe 1984

Thanks again, Dirk!

If you find any issues make a post on the forum. Don't forget to read the enclosed documentation. It may answer your questions.

The links are below. Remember: the Lite image is designed and set up for a stock DGTPi.

Enjoy.

Randy


64-bit Bookworm Lite (4.4 GB)

64-bit Bookworm Desktop (5.6 GB)

[Francois Vannier]

Hi,

Thanks for the fix short turn-around time !

As far as I could test, the previous issue seems to be gone. Some comments though:

> Is the value of the 2s delay.accessible for fine tuning ? Would deserve to be adjusted depending on the RPi HW for minor cosmetic reasons: transient magnified windowed artwork is displayed during a couple of seconds before going to proper fullscreen mode.

> Picotutor is working with retro-engines, but you are forced to take back first, as opposed to standard engines. Then up to you to play again the same move or another one (so no big deal). The color of the take back announced seems wrong : white blundered & was forced to take back, but "black take back" is announced, totally minor issue ;-)

I'll use that image from now on..

Kr,

Francois

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[RandyR]

Unfortunately, as I was composing this reply and looking at the full-screen switching, I saw the engine setup hang issue when switching between mm4 and mm5. So, it's not fixed. I'll try some more things.

Anyway, here's what my reply was:

________________________

I added the delay on Line 638 of the init.lua file in /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation/plugins/chessengine. It only adds 2 seconds at the beginning of a new game and afterwards the uci command is not given.

It won't affect the switching from windowed mode to fullscreen at the start as that is just how MAME does it. Not sure there's a way around that (maybe changing video drivers or another MAME option. If you want to use full-screen all the time, just edit mame.ini in the picochess folder and change 'window' to 0. It's in the OSD Video Options section:

# OSD VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                     accel
numscreens                1
window                    0
maximize                  1
waitvsync                 0
syncrefresh               0
monitorprovider           auto

PicoTutor works a bit differently when using a MAME engine since most (all?) don't support takebacks (and even if they did the code would need to be added to support it) so PicoTutor prevents the bad move from being sent to the engine and gives you a chance to change it.

When PicoTutor offers the takeback, you can just toggle the lever (on the top of the DGTPi or the arrow (red button on left of clock web display) to confirm the dubious move, or actually take it back and make a different move. The "Black Takeback" does sound unusual. Perhaps Dirk can provide his reasoning but you can probably ignore the colour announcement in the first takeback announcement (maybe just "takeback?" would be a better announcement since when using a non-MAME engine you can take back multiple moves, and when you actually take back the move it will say "White Takeback" - then "Black Takeback", "White Takeback", etc.).

[RandyR]

By the way, the easiest way to get out of the frozen PicoChess issue (if connected to your network) is to issue the following commands via ssh:

sudo pkill -f chromium

sudo systemctl restart picochess

DISPLAY=:0 /home/pi/kiosk.sh &>/dev/null &

Then lift a piece and replace it if using a retro engine to bring the artwork to the front.

On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 8:26:08 AM UTC-5 francois...@gmail.com wrote:

[Henri]

Hi Randy,

You lured me back in, restoring the info function (thanks!!), so I tried the latest image. The good news is that all retro images work, eventually that is. The bad part is that a lot of engines don't start the first time and picochess hangs on engine setup. The engine is loaded though, I can play a game on the retro-layout, playing the moves myself as indicated by the engine. Almost in all cases after a reset the same engines load without a problem, in one case it took two resets.

What I usually do is importing the latest roms, rename the all_retro.ini and start testing all the retro-engines one after another. I do this on my Pi5. I hope you can recreate what is going on, I do not have the slightest idea what is happening...

A couple of minor things: the rom 'amsterda.zip' is one of the default roms on the image, but it's not included in the new ones; Tasc R30 with King 2.23 is called 'The King 2.30' in the player description and there is a typo in [windows64/crafty] (medium = Crayfty)

Henri

 

Op dinsdag 11 maart 2025 om 16:37:43 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[Randy Reade]

Yeah, the problem is tough to track down. It doesn't happen every time so trying things and testing takes a while. I have currently gone back to MAME 0.270 and so far it is stable, but I thought that on this last image as well. I may have to forgo the latest retro machines and revert to the older stable version of MAME.
I'll look at those other problems you mentioned and fix them before posting a new image. Thanks for letting me know.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/00959626-1e84-4fdd-9cf3-7d1a99add578n%40googlegroups.com.

[RandyR]

MAME v0.270 eventually showed the same issue. I'm running out of options. I suppose it's a possibility it's related to the OS updates, perhaps a new kernel or library. I'll revert to an older image in my testing and if it is stable (I have not done this extensive testing before) then I'll update only the PicoChess/MAME related files and leave the OS files untouched. Once a new version of RPiOS comes out I'll build from scratch (which shouldn't make a difference but who knows). Another option is to see if I can get more info on the failure itself, perhaps monitoring the communication between PicoChess and MAME. I'll have to modify some python code to do that.

Stay tuned...

[Henri]

Hi Randy,

For me at least it's more about the quality (and options like POS and INFO of course!) than the quantity. The latest retro-engines are imho mainly 'special' editions and collector engines. 

So I think it would be more than ok to go back to an earlier version of MAME and stick to that for a while, as long as the most popular engines are supported from brands like Mephisto, Fidelity, Novag, Saitek and Tasc.

The rapid succession of MAME versions only lead to a lot of trouble and frustration, and the benefits are small. Also I think a lot of more testing is needed before producing a new picochess image, especially when it comes to MAME....

Henri 

Op dinsdag 11 maart 2025 om 21:33:13 UTC+1 schreef RandyR: