Directing MAME

[MilesHedgehog]

Ok, so I got the MAME emulator and got me a rom to work it with. Howver, I have it unzipped in the "roms" directory, it tells me to config Mame.ini to look in the rom directory.

I checked the help text, and have no clue whatsoever to do. Any help directing?

[FatTrucker]

Firstly, you don't unzip mame roms. You leave them zipped in the rom folder.

Next are you using Mame32 or commandline mame?. mame points to its rom folder by default so I'm presuming you are using commandline mame and you haven't generated a mame.ini

If its mame32 once you have zipped your roms back up you need to click 'file' then 'audit all'.

If you are using commandline mame you need to create a mame.ini:

First open a command prompt (On the windows desktop click 'Start', then select 'run' and type 'cmd'.

If you have mame installed directly in your C: drive then type cd C:\mame then press return. The command prompt should go to C:\mame.
Now type mame -cc (including the space between mame and -cc). You have now created your mame.ini and should be able to launch any valid games from your rom folder.

If mame is located anywhere other than C:\mame then you need to substitute the alternate directory at the first step.

[MilesHedgehog]

I'm using command MAME.

When I say cd \mame, it works. However what doesn't work is -cc. I just won't. I've tried mame -cc and just -cc and general, and it says this(Sorry about the stupid stamps):

So yeah, I'm still confused.

And by the way, I have MAME32 on my other computer, but it won't work whenever I load it. I tried finding it, but decided to stay with command line.

[FatTrucker]

The only thing I can think of is that either mame hasn't been extracted properly or your mame.exe is sitting in a different directory. Either that or you've inadvertently downloaded dos mame or Win32 source instead of the Win32 binary commandline version

You should have a folder called mame directly in your C:\ drive. i.e. C:\mame.

Inside that folder should be all the mame files and folders including mame.exe.

When you type mame -cc it basically looks in the folder C:\mame for the mame.exe and then uses the mame.exe to create the config (ini) file. The error you are getting indicates that the mame.exe isn't in the folder C:\mame.

Make sure the mame folder is in the correct path and not something like C:\program files\mame or C:\documents and settings\mame etc. Also make sure the mame.exe is directly in the main folder and not tucked away in a sub folder or something.

Failing all that, do a fresh install. Delete the mame folder, unzip mame again to the folder C:\mame and repeat the commandline setup process.

Lastly I noted that you only entered cd \mame. Try using the full path cd C:\mame.

If none of that works post a screenshot of your mame folder to show exactly whats inside it and where it is.

[FatTrucker]

xxxxxxxx

[MilesHedgehog]

Either that or you've inadvertently downloaded dos mame or Win32 source instead of the Win32 binary commandline version

I guess that's it, I didn't get an exe. *me starts to get 32MAME*

EDIT: That seems to have work, now for testing.
EDIt2:Nope, didn't work. I have mame.ini, but it won't chekc out the "roms" directory. SO I gotta change it, I guess.
EDIT3: Nope, that didn't work either. When I changed the path, it said the same thing. D':

[FatTrucker]

If you've generated a mame.ini then so long as your roms are zipped and in the roms folder and compatible with the version of mame you are using you should be able to pull up a command prompt, go to the mame directory and simply type mame <romname> and the game should load.

So at the command prompt you type cd C:\mame, then type mame puckman for example.

In the mame ini it specifies an entry for rompath. This should just read 'roms' if you have your roms in the standard mame roms folder. When you execute mame it will look in this folder for the selected rom (which needs to be zipped).

Win32 Binary commandline mame is not the same as Mame32.

If its still not working, then there has to be either a problem with your directory structure, your roms, or you are simply using the wrong version of mame (i.e. Dos mame, Win32 source, etc).

[MilesHedgehog]

Thanks, it works.