Mame Issues

[vodoochild81]

I am using mame0142b_64bit on windows 7. I downloaded the roms from a reputable sight and I kept it zipped and in the roms folder.

I get this error "The selected game is missing one or more required ROM or CHD images. Please select a different game." I get this on a every game I tried such as X men, TMNT, Samurai showdown, etc etc.

I read the faq and it says you also need the .chd file but where do you get that from? The roms downloaded were all in one zip file. Do I make the .chd file and do I put it in the roms folder as well?

Also do I need to download bios's for this emulator? There are a TON of bios's for mame no? Is there a way someone could PM me a place to download all them...

Kinda lost here, any help would be really appreciated!

 

[FatTrucker]

Firstly, no rom requests its a breach of this sites AUP.

If mame says you're missing files then you're missing files. Either the site you're getting the roms from isn't hosting roms compatible with the latest version of Mame or you're missing Bios or Parent Roms. Explained Below.

As Mame is updated, roms are often updated as well, code sometimes changes, is added to, redumped or redundant code is removed as the emulation becomes more accurate.
Basically this means that with each release of Mame a number of roms will need to be updated. Most sites hosting mame roms will specify somewhere what version number of mame they relate to and work with.

Bios files. Lots of Mame roms also require the system Bios rom for that arcade system. For example Neo Geo games require the Neogeo bios rom (neogeo.zip) to be in the Mame/roms folder or none of them will boot.

Parents and clones. Lots of games in mame have a number of versions. These will be different regional versions of the game (US, EU, JAP etc) and revisions, updates and bootlegs. Rather than have multiple copies of all the game code, what Mame does is has a single 'Parent' rom that contains all of the game code, and all the other versions (called 'clones') just contain the small amount of code that's different for that version.

For games that have more than one version you must have the parent rom in the rom folder or no other versions of that game will work.
If you're using MameUI when you check the gamelist you'll notice there's a column called 'cloneof' if that field is blank then that version of the game is the parent rom, if however there is a romname in the cloneof column, then its that romname that is the parent rom.

CHD's. A few games encapsulated a Hard drive, CD Rom or some other form of Mass storage inside the original machine. What Mame does is use a single common format (CHD) to hold this data. For games that use CHD's there will be a game rom which is commonly a couple of Mb in size and a CHD image which can be anything up to several Gb's in size dependent on the game. You need both the game rom and the CHD to be in the Mame/Roms folder for any of the CHD games to work.
None of the games you mentioned above use a CHD, popular CHD titles are Street Fighter III, Killer Instinct and Carnevil to name a few.

In your case its almost certain that you're missing the system bios roms and/or the roms you're downloading are out of date or you're missing the parent sets.