Mame Newbieee....

W

wiserommer

New member
Hey guys,

New to the mame scene, so i was wondering could anyone answer these questions for me? please.

- I'm using this emulator "MameUI32", should i just stick with this for all the recent mame releases or be flexible with multiple emulators? if so, which ones?

- I've tried to get some roms to work on that particular emulator, but when i refresh the list the rom does not show up under available.

- What do all the BIOs files do with the roms?

- Mame updates are frequent, do i add the updates to the collection i have or keep them separate?

- Finally, CHDS what are they? and when i do play them do i have to have a rom file to play them, like a cue and bin file.

cheers
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FatTrucker

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
A number of Arcade systems require a bios file to be present in the Mame/roms folder in order for any game roms for that system to run (for example NeoGeo/SNK games require the neogeo.zip bios file to be in the mame/roms folder).
With a simply worded google you should be able to source all the bios files mame requires. Simply leave them zipped and place them in the rom folder just like a game rom.

Many games in mame are clone roms. What this means is where a game has several different versions (released in different regions, bootlegs etc) Mame will only have one main 'Parent' rom that contains all the game files. The remaining roms for the different versions of the game will only contain the few files that are different to the parent rom. The parent rom is required for any of its 'clones' to work.

CHD's (compressed hunks of Data) are just a generic term for games that had a Hard Drive, CD or other large scale storage in them that have been dumped for use with mame. The CHD is put separately into the rom folder and you will also require a separate (and much smaller) rom for each of these games.

Mames 'U' releases are Work in Progress releases between version updates. They usually include various driver changes and other submissions for testing purposes. Unless you are a mame tester its only really worth updating mame with the core releases 0.124, 0.125 etc and ignore the 'U' releases. That said its often necessary to update any roms that might have been changed or re-dumped in order for them to continue working with new releases. A lot of people simply find a version of mame that plays everything they want and don't upgrade again until something new that they want to play is fixed.

Upgrading in most cases is a simple matter of putting the new MameUI.exe into your MameUI folder and overwriting the old one.

For more information on roms, visit the Maws website. As mentioned above many mame roms can and have changed on a regular basis as the emulation improves and new dumps become available. Any roms you download will need to be compatible with the version of mame you are using.
This sites AUP prohibits discussion of romsites or how or where to procure roms as they are subject to copyright, but there are many rom sites out there still hosting very old romsets that won't work with current builds of mame. Any decent site will usually state which version of mame its roms work with.

Hope that helps.
 
Last edited:
W

wiserommer

New member
FatTrucker said:
A number of Arcade systems require a bios file to be present in the Mame/roms folder in order for any game roms for that system to run (for example NeoGeo/SNK games require the neogeo.zip bios file to be in the mame/roms folder).
With a simply worded google you should be able to source all the bios files mame requires. Simply leave them zipped and place them in the rom folder just like a game rom.

Many games in mame are clone roms. What this means is where a game has several different versions (released in different regions, bootlegs etc) Mame will only have one main 'Parent' rom that contains all the game files. The remaining roms for the different versions of the game will only contain the few files that are different to the parent rom. The parent rom is required for any of its 'clones' to work.

CHD's (compressed hunks of Data) are just a generic term for games that had a Hard Drive, CD or other large scale storage in them that have been dumped for use with mame. The CHD is put separately into the rom folder and you will also require a separate (and much smaller) rom for each of these games.

Mames 'U' releases are Work in Progress releases between version updates. They usually include various driver changes and other submissions for testing purposes. Unless you are a mame tester its only really worth updating mame with the core releases 0.124, 0.125 etc and ignore the 'U' releases. That said its often necessary to update any roms that might have been changed or re-dumped in order for them to continue working with new releases. A lot of people simply find a version of mame that plays everything they want and don't upgrade again until something new that they want to play is fixed.

Upgrading in most cases is a simple matter of putting the new MameUI.exe into your MameUI folder and overwriting the old one.

For more information on roms, visit the Maws website. As mentioned above many mame roms can and have changed on a regular basis as the emulation improves and new dumps become available. Any roms you download will need to be compatible with the version of mame you are using.
This sites AUP prohibits discussion of romsites or how or where to procure roms as they are subject to copyright, but there are many rom sites out there still hosting very old romsets that won't work with current builds of mame. Any decent site will usually state which version of mame its roms work with.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

thanks a lot for all that information, it did indeed help me.
 
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