MAME

RiderLeangle

New member
OK, I don't know what I'm doing, where do I get the right version of MAME and how do I get it to work?
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
Download a binary version of plain MameUI (mame classic has a lot of 'extra' stuff that you can play with after you've got mame working and are more familiar with it).

Use 7zip to extract it and you'll end up with a mame folder with the MameUI.exe file and all the various folders that come with it.

Leave your roms zipped and put them into the rom folder, if there isn't a rom folder by default then create one.

Load mameUI, click 'file' then select 'audit all'. Mame will now check the roms you put in the rom folder to see if they are compatible.

Any roms that are ok will now show as playable in the gamelist window.

Double click the game you want to play.

You can also right click games individually from the gamelist and select audit and it will check that game and report any missing files. If it comes up 'Passed - OK' then the rom is good. If it chucks out a load of missing crc's or whatever then you need a different source for roms for that version of MameUI.
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
It says its not compatable with my OS, does MAMEUI work with Vista?
EDIT: Downloaded wrong program, my bad.

EDIT2: It won't let any ROMs work. It says files are missing. How the hell do I use this?

There are 4 main reasons roms will report missing files.

Certain arcade systems (like NeoGeo) require a bios rom to be in the mame roms folder. So for example non of the SNK/neoGeo games will work without the neogeo.zip bios rom present in the rom folder. Your best bet in this case would be to google for Mame bios roms and put them in the roms folder (leave them zipped just like a game rom).

Some games (around 70 of them) used mass storage like a hard drive, CD-Rom etc. These titles require both the game rom (typically a few Mb) and a CHD (anywhere from 500Mb to 5Gb). So for example to run killer Instinct you need the Killer Instinct rom and the Killer Instinct CHD in the rom folder for the game to work.

Many arcade games had lots of different variants (released in different territories, board revisions etc). rather than have a full sized rom for each variant Mame has one 'Parent' rom for that game that has all the core game files and all the other variants are known as clones and just contain the few files that are different from the main version. You must have the parent version of any given game for it or any of its variant roms to work. For example there are more than 30 different variants of Street Fighter II.
Generally speaking when downloading a game with several different versions the larger one is usually the parent. Mame32 will also tell you which is the parent as there will be no 'cloneof' info reported in the gamelist window for parent roms.

As time passes and Mame is updated, many of the roms have had newer dumps or hacks removed meaning you need to download roms that work with the version of mame you are using. Most decent sites hosting mame stuff will also report what version of Mame they are up to date for. All previous versions of Mame are available for download.
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
Street Fighter shouldn't need a bios. The rom you want is the one called sf.zip. If the one you have doesn't work then it seems likely your source for roms is out of date.

Guitar Freaks requires a CHD as well as a rom so you will need to find somewhere hosting them, as the original games ran from a CD. Not sure how good the emulation is for the GF games at the moment though TBH. You might find it runs very slowly even if you manage to track down the CHD.
 

Michael

New member
i need help making my mamewah system load the games sory it had no relivence to your post but i have no clue how to post topics
 

alcoatjez

Capo di Tutti Capi
@RiderLeangle: Setting up MAME and keeping it up-to-date takes time the first time you do it, but it's worth the time.
Just make a pot of coffee, get a pack of cigs (if you smoke) and read the MAME guide on easyEmu.
If you want to play more games, also check out the clrmame guide there. Since MAME updates very often and ROMs also change very often, it's worth using clrmame. Once again, it takes time to start clrmame but it's worth the effort.
BTW, sf.zip is one of the easiest games to find...
 
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