MAME 2.5X romsets don't work or turn on

[2ndWind]

I have or had all the roms in perfect order in the ROMS directory of MAME 2.5X family that's recent and they don't work at all. I for example when to turn on Cruis n USA and it gave an error even though I have the missing file. In fact I went to download Cruis n USA Rev 4.1 just to be on the safe side manually and left it zipped which it still read errors. Should I have unzipped it? I don't want to download MAME over again only to find that wouldn't fix anything as I have deleted my MAME stuff as they just don't work anymore.. 

[Lordmonkus]

You should be matching the rom set version to the Mame version. Mismatching version can result in non working files even though you have the files with the same name, there can be differences in the file making it not work.

21 minutes ago, 2ndWind said:

Should I have unzipped it?

Never unzip Mame roms, they need to be zipped.

Mame works perfectly fine.

[2ndWind]

3 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

You should be matching the rom set version to the Mame version. Mismatching version can result in non working files even though you have the files with the same name, there can be differences in the file making it not work.

Never unzip Mame roms, they need to be zipped.

Mame works perfectly fine.

How come I get a boot not found for Cruis n USA then? I downloaded the merged romset. Could it be I don't have a bios or some other kind of CHD or something? I don't recall Cruis n USA ever EVER needing a CHD.  If so where do I put BIOS files? Maybe that's where my problem is?  And of course MAME itself works fine it's the games that don't.  LOL. MAME always works fine. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by 2ndWind

[JoeViking245]

Cruis'n USA also needs the Device file tms32031.zip.  It should be in with your MAME full romset.

[Lordmonkus]

I don't know if Cruisin USA requires a CHD or not but If you have the full set (and CHD if required)and the rom set and Mame version matches it should work. All roms and bios files go in the same folder together.

13 minutes ago, 2ndWind said:

And of course MAME itself works fine it's the games that don't.  LOL. MAME always works fine.

The vast majority of the games in Mame do work in some way though some may not be perfect.

Make sure your rom set and Mame versions match, I cannot stress this enough.

[2ndWind]

22 hours ago, Lordmonkus said:

I don't know if Cruisin USA requires a CHD or not but If you have the full set (and CHD if required)and the rom set and Mame version matches it should work. All roms and bios files go in the same folder together.

The vast majority of the games in Mame do work in some way though some may not be perfect.

Make sure your rom set and Mame versions match, I cannot stress this enough.

From that one site I am not sure if I can mention (I'm sure you know what it is) I got the 2.51 roms and placed it in the rom folder.  They did it in a weird way where it was a folder within a folder so I corrected that by copying the roms back to the main ROM directory so the 80s roms works but the 90s ones like Cruis n USA or World do not work.   Cruis n USA says no rom file found yet Mr Do works. All the Pac games work,etc.  Anything from the 90s on do not work regardless or not it requires a CHD.  Cruis n USA/World do NOT require a CHD and neither does Exotica. 

Edited January 1, 2023 by 2ndWind