MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Could do with some help organizing MAME files... I got these from a certain dome of pleasure: MAME 0.194 ROMs (non-merged) MAME 0.193 CHDs (merged) MAME 0.194 Software List ROMs (split) MAME 0.194 EXTRAs MAME 0.194 Multimedia Basically, I'm struggling pretty hard here. I'm very new to emulation, but I've been reading everything I can about MAME over the past 3 weeks, trying to learn what I can but I have no idea how to fully organize/path these downloads. I'm aware that you can place ROMs/CHDs/BIOS files into the Mameui64 > Roms directory. I know you can place Samples in the Mameui64 > Samples directory. Anything beyond this I don't know how to do. Having said that, all of what I have is "created in such a way that their contents can be used directly in MAME or frontends, without the need of copying, moving, renaming, compressing, or extracting any files or folders." So my goal is to get all of this working without having to move anything around. If I do need to move files around to specific folders, I can do that too, but I don't know how to manually organize anything beyond what I've already mentioned: (ROMs/CHDs/BIOS/Samples). In original MAME I'm aware that you can edit the mame.ini and the ui.ini to set paths to these folders without having to move anything around. But as I said, I use MAMEUI so I haven't been able to test this and I'm not overly fond of using something as complex as the original MAME. So can anyone help me out with what I should be doing to organize everything? I realize this request doesn't have much to do with LaunchBox and Bigbox, but I figure if I can't this right, there's probably not much hope for me getting LB/BB working properly. From my perspective, I need to get the basics down before moving on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mylkman Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 (edited) So you have not tried retroarch with the mame drivers (multiple) yet? There are video walkthroughs for launchbox that are pretty in depth. Mame is much more complex than other systems. If you plan on doing other systems , I would start with something a little less complicated, so that you can get the feel for how easy it is once retroarch and launchbox is to setup. Then tackle mame. Sorry I'm not much help here but possibly watching the launchbox mame tutorials will help you a bit more. Edited February 28, 2018 by mylkman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Okay in MAMEUI (which I haven't used in awhile) there is an option to set paths for certain things but I'm not sure of the extent of it actually. Really MAME isn't that complex once you grasp a few of the concepts of how it works but that can take awhile sometimes. There is some good info here explaining how certain things work. http://docs.mamedev.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 6 minutes ago, mylkman said: So you have not tried retroarch with the mame drivers (multiple) yet? There are video walkthroughs for launchbox that are pretty in depth. Mame is much more complex than other systems. If you plan on doing other systems , I would start with something a little less complicated, so that you can get the feel for how easy it is once retroarch and launchbox is to setup. Then tackle mame. Sorry I'm not much help here but possibly watching the launchbox mame tutorials will help you a bit more. No, I haven't tried RetroArch. I've seen videos of it in action though. Does the RetroArch MAME emulator or "core" version have to match my ROM/BIOS/CHD/Samples version? I've invested too much time into MAMEUI at this point and this is pretty much one of the last things I need to figure out. So I'd prefer to get this sorted then move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 2 minutes ago, DOS76 said: Okay in MAMEUI (which I haven't used in awhile) there is an option to set paths for certain things but I'm not sure of the extent of it actually. Really MAME isn't that complex once you grasp a few of the concepts of how it works but that can take awhile sometimes. There is some good info here explaining how certain things work. http://docs.mamedev.org/ The site you posted is for original MAME which is different than MAMEUI. I'm using MAMEUI. I realize there's some overlapping information/functionality, but I don't use original MAME because I have zero interest in typing Command-line. Yes, in MAMEUI--for paths--It's "Options" > "Directories" but there are certain things about this functionality that doesn't make sense to me. And yeah, you're right, once you get the hang of things, MAMEUI isn't so bad, but until you reach that point it drives you borderline bonkers which is about where I'm at. I've never had to work so hard in my life to understand what should be a simple piece of software. I've scoured the web trying to find answers to certain things and I'm coming up short. I wish I could just get on a Skype call with someone and make it worth their while to help me out with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 lol I use MAME and never have to type in command line MAME has it own built in UI and has for a long time now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 9 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said: The site you posted is for original MAME which is different than MAMEUI. I'm using MAMEUI. I realize there's some overlapping information/functionality, but I don't use original MAME because I have zero interest in typing Command-line. The standard MAME has a UI also, I have never used command line for it I set everything I needed through the built in UI. This is the default UI in the standard MAME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mylkman Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Maybe someone can point out the major reasons why one would use Mame over retroarch would help me make my decision to try out mame.exe instead. I have working games with retroarch which was so much easier to setup for me. However, if there is something I'm missing in using the standalone, please by all means share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 I personally use it due to having controller issues with Retroarch, I use Retroarch for as much as I can, but stick to standalone for MAME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 I like stand alone for certain reason like it handles screen rotation and multiple monitors better than RA does and I have a few setups that utilize it. Also if you want to use the MESS components of MAME it is much easier and doesn't require the specific software list naming that RA does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro808 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 I concur with @neil9000 and @DOS76 . As an old user of MameUI it was this forum that got me moved into regular Mame. Since MameUI is technically a frontend offshoot of Mame sometimes it can cause a conflict with other fronts ends. Not often, but it has happened. There was a period where we had to tell those using MameUI to copy the mame.ini file from the Ini folder into the root folder of MameUI as they had changed something and it was not playing nice with Launchbox. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 1 hour ago, DOS76 said: lol I use MAME and never have to type in command line MAME has it own built in UI and has for a long time now Never had to type in command-lines? Uh...Ok, well, there are A LOT of command-line options. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html I'm sure you can see how this would be intimidating to people who don't know command-line and have never emulated before. And really, I couldn't be bothered to learn command-line when MAMEUI functions perfectly fine without the use of command-line. When I was first getting into MAME most of the information (articles/tutorials/YouTube videos etc.,) were focused around MAMEUI so I gravitated toward MAMEUI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 2 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said: Never had to type in command-lines? Uh...Ok, well, there are A LOT of command-line options. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html I'm sure you can see how this would be intimidating to people who don't know command-line and have never emulated before. And really, I couldn't be bothered to learn command-line when MAMEUI functions perfectly fine without the use of command-line. When I was first getting into MAME most of the information (articles/tutorials/YouTube videos etc.,) were focused around MAMEUI so I gravitated toward MAMEUI. Yeah when setup in Launchbox its actually Launchbox that passes the command lines to MAME, and does so whether you use the UI version or not. In fact this is basically all Launchbox does for all emulators it passes the rom to load to the emulator via command line. You use whatever you want to use though, best emulators are always very subjective and what works for one may not work for another. That's the beauty of Launchbox it doesn't care what emulator you use it will just pass the command lines to whatever you tell it to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 1 hour ago, neil9000 said: The standard MAME has a UI also, I have never used command line for it I set everything I needed through the built in UI. This is the default UI in the standard MAME. As I mentioned in another post, there's a long list of command-lines for MAME. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html Are all of these command-line options available in the menu you're showing me? Using original MAME to address my OP issues will involve me editing an .ini file and setting paths. That's a bit above what I know how to do. I do have the instructions for it, but am still somewhat confused. This is another example of a process that's probably easier in MAMEUI. Except there are zero instructions on how to do this in MAMEUI; it would be me sitting there and making guesses and I'll maybe be able to figure out 60% of it on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 2 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said: As I mentioned in another post, there's a long list of command-lines for MAME. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html Are all of these command-line options available in the menu you're showing me? Using original MAME to address my OP issues will involve me editing an .ini file and setting paths. That's a bit above what I know how to do. I do have the instructions for it, but am still somewhat confused. This is another example of a process that's probably easier in MAMEUI. Except there are zero instructions on how to do this in MAMEUI; it would be me sitting there and making guesses and I'll maybe be able to figure out 60% of it on my own. The vast majority of the commands in that link you will never need. all you will need to do is set your paths, and if you are putting roms and such inside your mame folder you may not even need to do that as mame looks inside its own folder by default, so it will by default look in the Roms folder for the roms. you can of course put your roms anywhere on your system, and that is when you would have to tell mame where they are. In that image I posted you will see the second option is "configure directories" you just go in there, pick something from the list, lets say roms, you then just navigate to where your roms are then once in the rom folder hit tab on the keyboard to set that as the directory. As for your original question as to the software lists, Extras, and Multimedia, I have never used any of those so I'm not 100% sure where they go, but as I say above you should be able to put them anywhere as long as you tell mame where to look for them. Hope that helps in some way, any further questions fire away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Exhausted here and fading fast. Need some rest. @neil9000 I'll read over your response in full when I wake up and take some time to think over what everyone has said. Is anyone on this forum (with adequate know-how) willing to assist with live tutorials/help for this sort of thing? Your time would be compensated for - try me. I don't mind putting in work, as I've been doing so every day for the past three weeks, but this current pre-occupation is taking up wayyyy too much of my life lol. I'll re-check this board when I wake up. Thanks for the advice so far guys! Definitely seems like I've made the right choice for a front-end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 We have a tutorial video on our youtube channel for setting up mame with launchbox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 7 minutes ago, MapleLeaf said: but this current pre-occupation is taking up wayyyy too much of my life lol. Lol, that's how it is, we all tend to get wrapped up in it once we dip our toes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MapleLeaf Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Just now, neil9000 said: We have a tutorial video on our youtube channel for setting up mame with launchbox. I've watched some of the tutorial videos from the LB YouTube channel back when I was looking into front-end options. That's not what I'm talking about. But of course that IS something I'll get into at some point. But right now I'm referring to original MAME stuff (what we've been talking about so far) configuring my files in there. If you guys use original MAME It's probably a breeze for you - especially if I linked you to the instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Can you put your roms and chd's in the MAME/Roms folder and open MAMEUI and double click the 1941 game, does it load? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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