MAME - most ROMs don't load

[cheek]

Hello, I'm a recent convert. I've got MAME version .273, and ROMs for .273 too (well, I updated to .274, but this made no difference otherwise).

Some ROMs seem to work without trouble (e.g. Phoenix, Shinobi), but many don't work at all, the classic black screen and back to menu.

There was a change recently, a game I'd played a lot (Street Fighter 2 - World Warrior) stopped working without me having changed anything.

All the suggestions I see here relate to making sure versions match, maybe editing .ini files, reinstalling everything maybe. Nothing I've done has helped.

A further thing is that I'm struggling to test games directly in MAME, I can't find them...! (the lack of a GUI in my version led me to find Launchbox...)

Thanks in advance.
 

[JoeViking245]

12 minutes ago, cheek said:

A further thing is that I'm struggling to test games directly in MAME, I can't find them...! (the lack of a GUI in my version led me to find Launchbox...)

Can't say I've ever seen a version of MAME (or variant thereof) that didn't have a UI.  Maybe try the one direct from the MAMEDev team and see if the results are any different.

If that still doesn't work, might share some screenshots of your MAME install in LaunchBox.  Edit the emulator and share a screenshot of the main details section and the Associated Platforms section.  Also, edit your sf2 game (in LaunchBox) and share a screenshot of its main details section, the Launching section and the Emulation section.

Couldn't tell if you actually edited/changed the mame.ini file or not.  If so, share what was changed and to what.

[cheek]

On 2/16/2025 at 1:16 AM, JoeViking245 said:

Can't say I've ever seen a version of MAME (or variant thereof) that didn't have a UI.  Maybe try the one direct from the MAMEDev team and see if the results are any different.

If that still doesn't work, might share some screenshots of your MAME install in LaunchBox.  Edit the emulator and share a screenshot of the main details section and the Associated Platforms section.  Also, edit your sf2 game (in LaunchBox) and share a screenshot of its main details section, the Launching section and the Emulation section.

Couldn't tell if you actually edited/changed the mame.ini file or not.  If so, share what was changed and to what.

Thanks for replying.

I suppose what I mean is that I'm using the base mame.exe, whereas for years I used one with a much nicer GUI rather than the very blocky default.

As for your screenshot requests:

Game:






I didn't do anything to the .ini file apart from create one as it wasn't initially present (can't remember the method). Everything I can see here looks like default settings. Didn't see any effect from creating it.

[JoeViking245]

29 minutes ago, cheek said:

I suppose what I mean is that I'm using the base mame.exe, whereas for years I used one with a much nicer GUI rather than the very blocky default.

Everything appears good there.  Since your games are in MAME's /roms/ subfolder, you shouldn't need mame.ini.  (Not saying delete it, though)

In LaunchBox, right-click your SF2 game and select Open MAME....  When MAME opens, type sf2.  You should see

On the left, is Available selected (the white diamond)?  if not (it's probably on Unfiltered), select it.  Do you still see the game (World 910522)?   If not, the ROM is missing,  If so, press the Enter key (the main one. Not the one by the 10-key).  Does the game start?

[cheek]

11 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Everything appears good there.  Since your games are in MAME's /roms/ subfolder, you shouldn't need mame.ini.  (Not saying delete it, though)

In LaunchBox, right-click your SF2 game and select Open MAME....  When MAME opens, type sf2.  You should see

On the left, is Available selected (the white diamond)?  if not (it's probably on Unfiltered), select it.  Do you still see the game (World 910522)?   If not, the ROM is missing,  If so, press the Enter key (the main one. Not the one by the 10-key).  Does the game start?

The game is present/available but doesn't start; apparently this is the problem:

System media audit failed:
buf1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
ioa1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
prg1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
rom1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
sou1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
stf29.1a (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
iob1.11d (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
c632.ic1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND

It was definitely working, I've got a good ten minutes of playing time logged in LB (aye, not much, but not just a failed run), so I've no idea what might have occurred.

[JoeViking245]

7 minutes ago, cheek said:

The game is present/available but doesn't start; apparently this is the problem:

System media audit failed:
buf1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
ioa1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
prg1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
rom1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
sou1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
stf29.1a (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
iob1.11d (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND
c632.ic1 (279 bytes) - NOT FOUND

It was definitely working, I've got a good ten minutes of playing time logged in LB (aye, not much, but not just a failed run), so I've no idea what might have occurred.

Those are some of the files that are supposed to be inside sf2.zip.  Since this is the parent ROM for the game, this (plus several others) should all be inside the zip file.

Beyond that, not sure what to tell you. 

[cheek]

33 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Those are some of the files that are supposed to be inside sf2.zip.  Since this is the parent ROM for the game, this (plus several others) should all be inside the zip file.

Beyond that, not sure what to tell you. 

Strange, I wonder if the ROM download was incomplete? It's possible, now I think about it, that the failure happened after I got hold of the full ROM zip which would have overwritten previously-working ROMS.

I downloaded this one again, and that solved the problem.

Ah well, thanks for your help.

Edited Monday at 11:44 PM by cheek
Forgot the key point.

[JoeViking245]

37 minutes ago, cheek said:

Strange, I wonder if the ROM download was incomplete? It's possible, now I think about it, that the failure happened after I got hold of the full ROM zip which would have overwritten previously-working ROMS.

I downloaded this one again, and that solved the problem.

Ah well, thanks for your help.

Glad it's working for you now.   If nothing else, hope you got some good help asking tips and MAME troubleshooting ideas.