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Tomy Tutor

The Tomy Tutor (a.k.a. Pyūta, ぴゅう太, Grandstand Tutor) is a computer developed by Tomy. It was released in Japan in 1983, and in the UK and North America the next year.

The system itself is similar to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. The system had moderate success in Japan, advertising itself as a children's learning computer (despite its more sophisticated 16-bit CPU compared to competitors at the time) and being sold primarily to elementary and junior high school students. However, when the cheaper and more accessible console that shall not be named was released later that year, sales dropped dramatically. In the UK and US, the Tutor struggled to compete against the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.

This system scrapes metadata for the “tutor” group and loads the tutor set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: MAME
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/tutor
  • Accepted ROM formats: .bin, .wav, .zip, .7z

BIOS

Requires MAME BIOS file tutor.zip or *.7z in either roms/tutor or the BIOS folder.

ROMs

Place your Tomy Tutor ROMs in /userdata/roms/tutor.

The Tutor used both cartridges and cassettes for its media.

Emulators

MAME

MAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is a multi-purpose emulation framework which facilitates the emulation of vintage hardware and software. Originally targeting vintage arcade machines, MAME has since absorbed the sister-project MESS (Multi Emulator Super System) to support a wide variety of vintage computers, video game consoles and calculators as well. MAME doesn't use an individual “core” for each system like RetroArch does, instead the ROM itself usually contains the necessary information to accurately emulate it, thus making it specific to the version of MAME it was made for. Overall it's a very complicated subject, we have a guide specific to arcade just for it.

MAME configuration

MAME offers a Menu in-game ([HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) or [Tab] on the keyboard). This can be used to manually adjust inputs or game settings. If you're having issues with a specific game, check the MAMEdev FAQ for that game here. For MESS systems specifically, you might find more information on MESS's wiki. All options can also be edited by opening the mame.ini file.

Standardized features available to all versions of this emulator: tutor.videomode, tutor.decoration, tutor.padtokeyboard

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all versions of this emulator
VIDEO MODE tutor.video BGFX for post-processing, accel/opengl for raw image.
⇒ BGFX bgfx, Accel accel, OpenGL opengl.
BGFX GRAPHICS API tutor.bgfxbackend Depends on video mode being set to BGFX. Vulkan is better, when supported.
⇒ MAME Detect automatic, OpenGL opengl, OpenGL ES gles, Vulkan vulkan.
BGFX VIDEO FILTER tutor.bgfxshaders Apply a post-processing effect.
⇒ Off None, Bilinear default, CRT Geom crt-geom, CRT Geom Deluxe crt-geom-deluxe, Super Eagle eagle, HLSL hlsl, HQ2X hq2x, HQ3X hq3x, HQ4X hq4x.
CRT SWITCHRES tutor.switchres Allows the use of switchres profiles if present.
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
VERTICAL ROTATION (TATE) tutor.rotation Rotates screen by 90 degrees. Intended for rotating displays.
⇒ Off None, Rotate 90 autoror, Rotate 270 autorol.
ALT DPAD MODE tutor.altdpad If the D-Pad is oriented incorrectly for your controller.
⇒ Off (Default) 0, DS3 Orientation 1, X360 Orientation 2.
SPECIAL CONTROL LAYOUTS tutor.altlayout Controls for 5/6 button games and other unique controls
⇒ Default Only 0, Street Fighter (SNES) 1, Street Fighter (Modern) 4, Mortal Kombat (SNES) 2, Killer Instinct (SNES) 3, Genesis 6-Button (Retroarch) 5, Neo Geo (Neo Geo Mini Pad) 6, Neo Geo (Neo Geo CD Pad) 7, Neo Geo (Offset Fightstick) 8, Twin Stick with Triggers 9, Rotated 4-Way Stick (Q*Bert) 10.
Settings specific to tutor
MEDIA TYPE tutor.altromtype Type of ROM file to load.
⇒ Cassette cass, Cartridge cart.
UI KEYS tutor.enableui Open with hotkey + D-pad up or Scroll Lock in-game.
⇒ Off at Start 0, On at Start 1.

Starting a game

To get through the loading menu, [R1] will move down and East button (A SNES) will select.

Controls

Here are the default Tomy Tutor's controls shown on a Batocera RetroPad:

Troubleshooting

Further troubleshooting

For problems with MAME specifically, there are some tips on the troubleshooting section on MAME's system page.

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/tutor.txt
  • Last modified: 10 months ago
  • by atari