Help with mame

[Wolf_]

Hello, I am attempting to use mame to emulate: Nintendo Game Boy Nintendo Game Boy Advance Turbografx-16 Turbografx-cd CD-i Neo Geo Atari 2600 Sega Game Gear Sega Genesis Sega Master System and Wonderswan Except it does not work for most of those consoles. I have downloaded a mame bios pack and am running the latest version of mame so I was wondering if anyone could just tell me where to put the bios as searching google and youtube yielded literally 0 results that explained where to put the bios or what names/file types they require to be recognized by mame. Also for use with launchbox is it fine to just list the path to mame64.exe for the emulator or do I need to specify which core/plugin/bios/whatever mame uses for each system? Thanks again for taking the time to make this excellent and user friendly front end and answer questions!

[Lordmonkus]

Only one simple answer, don't use Mame to emulate anything other than arcade stuff. Use Retroarch for everything in your list except for the CD-I. Sorry if this isn't the answer you are looking for but trust me when I tell you it is by far the best way to emulate all of these systems.

[DOS76]

I have to agree 100% with LordMonkus. Watch the videos on the website and if you run into issues hit us up on the forum and people will definitely get you up and running.

[CADScott]

Another vote for Retroarch here, it may seem a bit daunting at first but it works so much better than MAME / MESS for everything other than arcade!

[Lordmonkus]

Well RA does do the NeoGeo and Capcom games as good or better than Mame but for everything else Mame is the better emulator for arcade stuff. The RA Mame core is alright but I prefer to use the stand alone Mame for a few reasons.

[DOS76]

Yeah the mame_libretro.dll core is fairly new based off of the 170 build of MAME which is fairly up to date from the standalone but I prefer using MAMEUIFX where I can set up all of my settings for vertical games and horizontal games and set my monitors I know you can do this in RetroArch but for some reason in RA it isn't done right. I've had vertical games come up sideways on my landscape monitor but if I send them unrotated to the portrait monitor they come up in cropped down with a small video and tons of black on the top and the bottom instead of looking like it is supposed to. MAMEUIFX just handles this superior to RA so that's why I stay with MAME in this category. Although RA handles your controllers better than MAME.

[Lordmonkus]

Another reason to use Mame stand alone for the bulk is to disable the stupid nag screens when you load a rom. You can either use GrooveyMame and disable it in the cfg file or if you look around you can find 3rd party compiled versions of Mame with them disabled.

[Wolf_]

I would like to know how to do it with mame though. I just need to know what it takes to get mame up and running. For some reason absolutely 0 documentation exists on the entire internet (seriously I've been through multiple pages of google and youtube results and no guides for it exist) yet I really need to set up mame. I don't want to get into a debate about which is better but this is the setup I'm using, please stay on topic or just don't post.

[DOS76]

MAME is a command line emulator that is why people prefer MAMEUI and others so the program has a gui and is easy to manage with a mouse and a keyboard and not textually. I don't know what your level of computing is but are you comfortable with using the command line in order to set it up or would you be more comfortable with a GUI which will allow you to run the program see it in a window and manipulate its settings from a program. I can use the command line when it is absolutely necessary but would prefer to use a gui if it is available personally but it is up to you.

[Lordmonkus]

Wolf_ said For some reason absolutely 0 documentation exists on the entire internet (seriously I've been through multiple pages of google and youtube results and no guides for it exist)

This is the precise reason why we told you to use Retroarch, there is no documentation around to get stuff up and running outside of arcade games. There is plenty of documentation for other, better emulators so no one is gonna go through the extreme hassle that is console emulation through Mame. Now having said that I have spent some time getting some stuff running through the stand alone MESS and basically you need the right bios files in the right folder and you need to have the rom paths setup for your console games. Once you get that setup it should be good to go. Keep in mind this is just my experience with getting MESS to do the X68000 stuff. You dont "NEED" to emulate these consoles through Mame, you may want to but there is zero need for it since far better emulators for every one of the systems you mentioned exist.

[Antropus]

Wolf_ said Hello, I am attempting to use mame to emulate: Nintendo Game Boy Nintendo Game Boy Advance Turbografx-16 Turbografx-cd CD-i Neo Geo Atari 2600 Sega Game Gear Sega Genesis Sega Master System and Wonderswan

I cannot confirm if the tg-cd works right now, but all other systems not only work, but work great under mame. I do use Retroarch for a lot of stuff, but I'm still on the fence and your question is absolutely valid. I love the fact that my glsl settings in mame look great with most of those systems. I'm putting the kids to bed now, but I'll write up a tuto to help you out tonight, so stay tuned. Cheers, -Kris

[weltall]

Rather than using precompiled BIOS packs, better search for the bios you want yourself. Just keep in mind you should be looking for the console name and not the company name, so it is not Nintendo Game Boy, but just Game Boy, on the list. I am not sure about a correct way, but I use " -cart" So for example the GBA will be "gba -cart" It is really weird to me to see GBA emulated on MAME... but it works.

Spoiler

For CD-ROM games I use "-cdrm" instead of "-cart". I have started messing around with MAME like this week, mostly because of some consoles that do not have another way to emulate things, so I am still not sure if the way I do it is the best or correct. For me it works, especially because I do not want to be renaming my files according to MAME standards and of course when I used that, it worked with LaunchBox.

[DOS76]

Hey for future reference it isn't allowed to link ROMs like this or even really talk about going to EP and getting ROMs or going to PD to get the full MAME set we have to be smart about those kind of things. This information is readily available online so much so that we don't have to bother to link it people can find it with minimum effort already. I'm not trying to be the internet police either just letting you know the rules about these things.

[weltall]

Sorry for that. I think it is kind of common sense to not link to copyrighted things, so it is definitely my fault for not thinking it. Kind of was thinking of EP as a place with backups for people that already own the consoles. Can you at least edit out the link? It would be better to keep these forums clean. =)

[Jason Carr]

Done. :) I hate the fact that we can't link to those places without (supposed) repercussions.

[weltall]

Considering people try to find "dirt" in the cleanest places, it is better to keep things clean and safe rather than be sorry later. Thanks a lot Jason =) Either way wolf, better search for separate BIOS files, since not only you will find what you want, but they will work better than anything in a pack. Keep in mind MAME BIOS packs are usually for arcade like machines that require BIOS, rather than consoles.

[Antropus]

Ok, I started writing a full tutorial and I'm planning to publish it on a separate thread to help others as well, but since I don't want to leave you hanging, here's part of it and some pointers to get you started. For the record, I've tested each and everyone of those systems in Mame and they run flawlessly as far as I can tell. No glitches, no sound stuttering, great color emulation, full speed, so people complaining about the emulation not being good are not being really serious, I guess :) I was actually blown away with how good the games look and play with my trusty Mame glsl shader! What you will need 1) Download and install Mame in your machine. I strongly recommend a “No-nag” version (easy to find with a google search). You can also try the great “GroovyMame”, which is a compiled version of Mame with many improvements for arcade cabinets and with no-nag screens switchable via mame.ini 2) Rom files for both Mame and Software Lists. “Software Lists” are the Roms for game consoles, computers, handhelds etc. Don' t ask me where to find them. Google is your friend! If you download the entire packs, you will not need to worry about mining for the correct bios for each system, as they will be all included within the default Mame Roms folder. Atari 5200 Bios for example will be part of a zip file called “a5200.zip” and will contain two roms: 5200.rom and 5200a.rom. You don' t need to extract those files anywhere and you don't need to place those zip (or 7z) files in any special folder. Keep all bios files zipped and inside of your main Mame Roms, just like you do with your arcade games and you should be good. 3) A correctly configured Mame.ini file (located in your main Mame installation folder), pointing to the correct folders. In my particular case, I stored my Software Lists in a folder called “SoftwareLists” right inside of my Mame main installation folder, at the same level as my mame Roms folder. So in my Mame.ini file I made sure to include this path, like so: rompath roms;SoftwareLists 4) Artwork placed in the correct folders. Snapshots for Software Lists should be added to the very same folder where you keep your Mame snapshots images (usually in a folder called “Snap” inside of the main Mame installation folder), but to keep things organized, they NEED to be kept inside of their own sub-folders which should be named after the Software List name. For example, a snapshot of the game “Donkey Kong Jr” for the Atari 2600 should be saved as: YourMameInstallFolder\Snap\a2600\dkongjr.png The same will be needed for all other systems. Examples: YourMameInstallFolder\Snap\coleco\hero.png YourMameInstallFolder\Snap\msx1_cart\hyperspt.png 5) The correct command line to run each system. Here's a small list that might help you to get started: Atari 2600 a2600 -cart Atari 5200 a5200 -cart Atari 7800 a7800 -cart Atari Lynx lynx -cart Atari XEGS xegs -cart Bandai's Wonderswan/Wonderswan Color wscolor -cart Philips CD-i cdimono1 (Wait until it loads and then click “Play CD-I”) ColecoVision prsarcde -cart Commodore 64 vip64 -cart (Use Keyboard) Vectrex vectrex -cart Intellivision intvsrs -cart Magnavox Odyssey 2 odyssey2 -cart MSX1/MSX2 Cartridges yis60464 -cart1 NEC PC-Engine sgx -cart NEC Supergrafx sgx -cart NEC Turbografx 16 tg16 -cart Nintendo NES nes -cart Nintendo Gameboy gameboy -cart Nintendo Gameboy Advance gba -cart Nintendo Gmeboy Color gbcolor -cart Nintendo SNES snes -cart Sega GameGear gamegear -cart Sega Master System sms -cart Sega Genesis/Megadrive megadriv -cart Sega SG-1000/SG-1000 Mark II sg1000m2 -cart Sharp X68000 x68000 (Some games take over a minute to load. Be patient and enjoy the music!) SNK Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Color ngpc -cart SNK Neo Geo neogeo -cart1 SNK Neo Geo CD neocdzj (The actual CD-Rom was notoriously slow. Use frameskip (F9) to speed loading times!) Watara Supervision tvlinkp -cart Here's what I found to be the best way to set things up (the images should be self explanatory): If you have everything set the way I explained, things should work, but I strongly encourage you to test everything out of Launchbox first, to make sure that Mame is working and the command lines are being parsed correctly, game roms are being found etc. As for CHD games, like the CD-i, you will need dummy roms in order to run them. That means that, for each folder containing the CHD files, an equally named zip file OUTSIDE of that folder and at the same level as that folder itself should be created and Launchbox should use that as the rom file for launching the game. I have my own script to auto-generate those dummy roms, but it's not stand alone at the moment. I will probably make that available as a little standalone app so people can use it to generate dummy zips to launch CHDs (if those are not found). Good luck! -Kris

[weltall]

What do you mean dummy roms? For me, I just have them 7zipped in a folder and added in the list like the rest of the games. But instead of -cart, I use -cdrm. At least the CD-i games work normally, so I can't tell about other systems.

[Wolf_]

lordmonkus said

Wolf_ said For some reason absolutely 0 documentation exists on the entire internet (seriously I've been through multiple pages of google and youtube results and no guides for it exist)

This is the precise reason why we told you to use Retroarch, there is no documentation around to get stuff up and running outside of arcade games. There is plenty of documentation for other, better emulators so no one is gonna go through the extreme hassle that is console emulation through Mame. Now having said that I have spent some time getting some stuff running through the stand alone MESS and basically you need the right bios files in the right folder and you need to have the rom paths setup for your console games. Once you get that setup it should be good to go. Keep in mind this is just my experience with getting MESS to do the X68000 stuff. You dont "NEED" to emulate these consoles through Mame, you may want to but there is zero need for it since far better emulators for every one of the systems you mentioned exist.

Easier is not the same as better. Mame supports literally thousands of systems, RetroArch has a few cores to it. That isn't to say RetroArch doesn't do some things the best, or on par with the best, but Mame is far superior. Mame has teams of programmers working on it to update it very frequently. RetroArch has one guy stringing programs other people built together into a big patchwork quilt which normally works fine but fails in several cases. Such as the RetroArch ppsspp core which is several updates behind the ppsspp standalone and sega saturn core which has increased latency over the standalone. While RetroArch is fine at being an all in one for most of the systems it offers Mame is far superior because it has better support, natively runs the systems, has more developers, and will eventually catch up to RetroArch in the systems it is not perfect at. RetroArch is simply more noob friendly which is why people use it even though in many cases it is a tradeoff in performance for increased ease of use. (Also despite a few RetroArch cores being on par with the Mame ones Mame is still a better option because it will continue to grow in other areas and RetroArch will at best just add more cores until it can't support them anymore like the ppsspp or dolphin emulators) If you have any other questions/off topic comments feel free to research on your own.

[weltall]

You can't compare MAME "cores" to the RetroArch ones. The reason is that like MAME points out in the majority of the systems it supports, the emulation is not perfect. While in some systems you see this In the majority of the consoles that is supports you see this I am sorry but yo uare sayign that MAME is better than RetroArch with the reason being quantity over quality. RetroArch uses cores of emulators that focus on specific consoles and try their best to emulate the console to perfection. If is of course your choice to choose MAME, so you will not have different emulators, but you can't compare the emulation of MAME with other Emulators. I can agree that maybe in the future MAME will dominate the Emulation. But to use something that itself says it is currently imperfect, over another that uses the cores of emulators that strive for perfection, is not really something I would do.