Arcade Games Won't Launch (stand-alone MAME) - Troubleshooting

[JoeViking245]

Arcade Games Won't Launch (stand-alone MAME) - Troubleshooting

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Question: "When I try to launch an Arcade game using stand-alone MAME, all I see is a flicker of a black screen then it goes right back to LaunchBox.  Why?"
Answer: "Because something is wrong with your ROMs and/or something is wrong in your settings."

This plugin gathers data and provides checks to help you determine what that something may be.

 

Features:

• Shows the required dependency files needed (if any)
• Launches the game in MAME and captures the command window output that you never see. (Potentially useful 'Why the game isn't launching' data)
• View the emulators Running Script.  (Typically never contains "the issue". But doesn't hurt to look.)
• Verifies ROM and dependency (BIOS & Device) file(s) exists and are accessible to the emulator when launching**.
  • If found, checks and verifies the zip file contents (all inner files exist and CRC32's match).
  • If a CHD is required, this only verifies the file exists and is accessible to the emulator when launching**.

**  "accessible to the emulator when launching"  The plugin looks for the "rompath" setting per MAME's order of prescience.  This dictates which folders MAME will scan for ROMs and dependency files.

This will NOT "fix it" for you. But should tell you everything you need to deduce "why" you can't launch a MAME game via LaunchBox.  Once you know why, all you need to do is fix that part of the equation.

 

Requirements:

• Requires LaunchBox 13.19 or newer
• Requires the games emulator to be mame.exe
• Only works with MAME Arcade machines. No software lists
• Only works with ROMs that are .zip (Not .7z)

Since MAME is generally an all-or-nothing type of thing, this is essentially a one-off plugin.  But if needed, it should provide sufficient information in a one-stop-shop to resolve your MAME launching issues.

Installing:

• Extract the contents of the downloaded zip file into your /LaunchBox/Plugins/ folder.
  • e.g.  D:\LaunchBox\Plugins\MAMEtroubleshooting\MAMEtroubleshooting.dll

 

Using:

• Start LaunchBox
• Right-click an Arcade game and select MAME Troubleshooting.

 

• Read through the Quick Analysis tab
• Click Test Game to capture and see MAME's command window Output
  • If it indicates the game launches fine and you know it doesn't, click it again to see if it tells you a different story.
  • Note: clicking a 3rd time won't change the answer it showed the 2nd time.
• Click Running Script to view the emulators Running Script.  This usually is never the issue. But doesn't hurt to look.
• Click Check ROM(s) to scan the contents of the games ROM and Dependency (if any are required) zip files. 
  • This verifies the contents of the zip files and cross-checks those contents' CRC32 value against what MAME says they should be.
  • (Works with both Merged and Non-Merged sets)
  • For games requiring CHD files, it will only check that they are accessible to MAME and provide the files size. It won't do a hash check.
• Click Save Report to create a text file of all the produced data that you can share with your friends and family.
  • Files are saved to /Plugins/MAMEtroubleshooting/Reports/[rom_name].txt  (or /Reports/[rom_name] (Clone of [parent_rom]).txt)
  • Once created, 2 icons will appear to open the txt file or open the /Reports/ folder.

Once you've studied all the data and see "the issue", fix it and play games. 😎

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• Submitter
  JoeViking245
• Submitted
  06/29/2025
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[jophran]

This is great. Thank you!