Supermodel M3 (Raspberry Pi)

Emulator
Emulates:	SEGA Model 3
Download:	Supermodel3 website
License:	Free (Non-commercial)
Developer:	Bart Trzynadlowski

Supermodel is an emulator for Sega Model 3 created by Bart Trzynadlowski, Nik Henson, Ian Curtis, Harry Tuttle, and Spindizzi. It has the ability to run on a Pi4 but not without some performance and visual issues.

Intro

This guide will help you install a forked version of supermodel updated by DirtBagXon introducing the ability to add borders via the -borders argument.

A RetroPie-Setup script has been created by DirtBagXon to install supermodel3 as an emulator in the "Arcade" system of your Retropie install.

Installation

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DirtBagXon/model3emu-code-sinden/main/supermodel3.sh -O $HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/supermodel3.sh

Go to Retropie Setup via Emulation Station or sudo $HOME/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

supermodel3 can be found and installed in Manage packages > Manage experimental packages

Post-installation

Rom Location

Place your roms in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade

Rom Compatibility

The following roms are compatible with a Sinden lightgun:

• LA Machineguns (lamachin)
• Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (lostwsga)
• Ocean Hunter, The (oceanhun)
• Star Wars Trilogy (swtrilgy)
  

Players Supported

Currently, it is only possible to play 1-player on Raspberry Pi; 2-player uses the argument -input-system=rawinput which is not supported in Linux.

Startup

Video Mode Selection

On the launch of your first model3 game you will need to enter the configuration options menu to set the video mode for supermodel (press a button after choosing a game, but before launching. This should be a blue screen).

Choose "Select a video mode for supermodel3"

Set this to 720x400 (currently the bottom option in the list). If you do not set this, the game will appear in a very small window in the center of the screen.

Per Game Configuration

Each game also requires some manual configuration (gun calibration, country, etc.) via the in-game "test menu". Details can be found on the Compatibility List's Model3 tab: https://lightgun.tech/game-compatibility-list

The configuration, especially the calibration, can be tricky for some games, so be patient.

Borders

The -borders argument has 3 settings 0 (none), 1 (thin), 2 (thick) which can be set in /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/emulators.cfg.

The entry could look like this:

supermodel3 = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/supermodel3/supermodel3 %ROM%" <--- no borders

supermodel3 = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/supermodel3/supermodel3 -borders=0 %ROM%" <-- no borders

supermodel3 = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/supermodel3/supermodel3 -borders=1 %ROM%" <-- thin borders

supermodel3 = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/emulators/supermodel3/supermodel3 -borders=2 %ROM%" <-- thick borders

By default this is set to 2 (thick border).

Perfomance Limitations

As mentioned previously, there are some performance and visual issues, but the games mentioned above are playable. Overclocking you Pi4 will provide better performance, but do so AT YOUR OWN RISK as this could results in your Pi becoming inoperable.

Default Hotkeys

There are some in-game hotkey button combinations, but these may change depending on which gamepad you have.

Below are for a wired 8bitdo:

• Select+Start = exit game
• Select+A = toggle 1P and 2P crosshairs
• Select+X = pause
• Start+X = save state
• Start+A = load state

ESC on a keyboard also exits a game.

You can find these mapped in /opt/retropie/configs/supermodel3/Supermodel.ini