1.21.0 Android update broke arcade games - constant crashes

Is there an existing issue for this?

• This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
• I have searched the existing issues

Description

Hi everyone,

I'm having serious problems with RetroArch 1.21.0 on Android that I never had before. Everything was working fine in previous versions, but after updating, arcade games are a mess.

Final Burn Neo is completely unreliable now. Some games just won't load at all - Metal Slug 1 and Street Fighter III refuse to start. Metal Slug 2 eventually loads but sits on a black screen for ages first. Weirdly, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs works perfectly fine. Sometimes RetroArch just crashes completely when I try to load games.

MAME cores are even worse - literally nothing works. Every single game either crashes RetroArch or gets stuck on a black screen forever.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled RetroArch several times thinking it might help. All my BIOS files are in the right place and worked perfectly before the update. Same ROMs, same setup - everything that used to work great is now broken.

This never happened before! The exact same files and setup worked absolutely fine in earlier versions. I didn't change anything except updating RetroArch, and now arcade emulation is basically unusable.

Expected behavior

Arcade games should load and play normally like they did in previous RetroArch versions.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Install RetroArch 1.21.0 on Android
2. Set up BIOS files correctly
3. Try to load Metal Slug 1 with Final Burn Neo - won't start
4. Try to load any MAME game - crashes or black screen
5. Notice that some games work (Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) while others don't

Version/Commit

1.21.0

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

I don't know

Platform & operating system

1.21.0 on Android

Affected Cores

Final Burn Neo, MAME variants

Environment information

No response

Relevant log output

Start by reproducing the reported failures on Android 1.21.0 with Final Burn Neo and the MAME variants, using Metal Slug 1, Metal Slug 2, Street Fighter III, and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Compare the same setup with an earlier RetroArch version and collect relevant logs; done means the affected arcade games load and play without crashes or indefinite black screens.