strich Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 I've read the 3+ threads in here on setting up MAME but they either don't explain it in a way that makes sense to me or seem wrong/outdated. I have the latest 0.261 merged ROM and CHD sets in their own folders as that makes updating them easy. It's not clear to me how I can configure MAME to search the CHD folder for missing files whenever a game that needs CHDs is required? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-17 Bomber Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 First you need to create your mame.ini file by typing "mame -cc" in your MAME folder. Then modify the rompath line as follows to include the location of your CHD files. # # CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS # homepath . rompath roms;C:\MAME ROMs\MAME 0.261 ROMs (non-merged);C:\MAME CHDs\MAME 0.261 CHDs (merged) Just adjust things to match your folder structure and location. My roms are at C:\MAME ROMs\MAME 0.261 ROMs (non-merged) and my CHDs are at C:\MAME CHDs\MAME 0.261 CHDs (merged). Remember to include the semicolons. Once you are finished MAME will run the CHD games without hesitation. Take care. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro808 Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Additionally you can just launch the mame.exe without a game. Then while Mame is open just go to >Configure Options >Configure Directories >Roms then just manually locate your folders. Save that and the ini file and your Rom/CHD paths will be set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeViking245 Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Alternately, (just to give more options and possibly confuse matters worse ) rather than messing with mame.ini (whether it exists or not) you can place the CHD folder(s) in the same location as the ROMs. D:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\gauntleg.zip D:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\gauntleg\gauntleg.chd Then edit your MAME emulator (in LaunchBox) and in the Default Command-Line Parameters, add -rompath %romlocation% Caveats: This won't work if you like to keep your CHD set in its own folder. i.e. D:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\CHDs\gauntleg\ This will only work if in your games Launching section, the ROM File [path] is the full (or relative) path to the main ROM (gauntleg.zip) for the CHD Which, by default it should be. i.e. "Games\Arcade\gauntleg.zip" or "D:\LaunchBox\Games\Arcade\gauntleg.zip" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strich Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 Yeah that's the problem with that advice - Ideally the CHDs are in their own directory as that helps with updating the torrent on new versions. But the mame setup is perfect thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup3rt3dy Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 On 12/30/2023 at 9:00 AM, B-17 Bomber said: First you need to create your mame.ini file by typing "mame -cc" in your MAME folder. Then modify the rompath line as follows to include the location of your CHD files. # # CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS # homepath . rompath roms;C:\MAME ROMs\MAME 0.261 ROMs (non-merged);C:\MAME CHDs\MAME 0.261 CHDs (merged) Just adjust things to match your folder structure and location. My roms are at C:\MAME ROMs\MAME 0.261 ROMs (non-merged) and my CHDs are at C:\MAME CHDs\MAME 0.261 CHDs (merged). Remember to include the semicolons. Once you are finished MAME will run the CHD games without hesitation. Take care. This helped me kind sir I ran it without in command line parameters -rompath %romlocation% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maabus Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 I am not able to get my CHDs to work. I have always ran my own installation of Mame, and CHDs have always worked, but figured i would try LB's auto setup of Mame and now CHDs dont work. i keep my roms and CHDs separate. I added the rom and chd folders by opening mame in LB's Mame folder and adding through the gui. Everything works fine in Mame, but when i try running from LB, it doesn't do anything. I then copied sf3 folder from my chd folder into the rom folder and it worked from LB. My paths are in the mame.ini # # CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS # homepath . rompath "roms;M:\Mame\MAME Roms;M:\Mame\MAME CHDs" hashpath hash samplepath samples;M:\Mame\Extras\samples artpath artwork ctrlrpath ctrlr Not sure why setting up my own version of Mame works, but the auto version of Mame doesnt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeViking245 Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 1 hour ago, maabus said: Not sure why setting up my own version of Mame works, but the auto version of Mame doesnt. In LaunchBox, edit the MAME emulator LaunchBox setup for you. Since you've added the paths to rompath in MAME itself, in the default command-line parameters, remove -rompath %romlocation% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maabus Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said: In LaunchBox, edit the MAME emulator LaunchBox setup for you. Since you've added the paths to rompath in MAME itself, in the default command-line parameters, remove -rompath %romlocation% Thanks Joe! You rock!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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