MAME - the most infuriating thing ever?

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Downloaded MAME 32 to give a few of those old arcade classics of my youth another run through. Is it me or does almost every ROM file you can download cause MAME to error because it is missing files?

Is there something I am doing incredibly wrong or is that just the way it is?

Haven't even tried to see if I can get my USB Virtua Stick High Grade to work, but can't even imagine how much of a struggle that is going to be.

Any experienced MAMErs able to lend a hand here before I go mad

[Escape-To-88]

Um, could be you need the parent roms.
There are many sets of the same rom depending on where you are downloading from e.g. SF2 will have jap/U.S/bootleg versions etc.
Make sure you get the parent rom - this tends to be the 'world' labelled rom, or the romset with the largest size.
Also worth noting some systems games - STV etc. need the bios files to run, as does neo-geo, enjoy.
Also make sure you have the roms in the correct directory, and have selected that directory from the MAME menu.

[buster_broon]

Downloaded MAME 32 to give a few of those old arcade classics of my youth another run through. Is it me or does almost every ROM file you can download cause MAME to error because it is missing files?

Is there something I am doing incredibly wrong or is that just the way it is?

Haven't even tried to see if I can get my USB Virtua Stick High Grade to work, but can't even imagine how much of a struggle that is going to be.

Any experienced MAMErs able to lend a hand here before I go mad

some mame files need other files to help them work properly, the missing files will be in another directory

good example is shadow dancer, the game works fine but as soon as you pass the airport detector on level one your sprite disappears

if you have another file available called shdancbl (bootleg file) with the main file (shdancer) it works perfectly, bootleg files are normally little files, well smaller than the main files anyway

once you get used to that more or less everything works okay really dependant on the specs of your PC, i struggle with files on mame 1.02 i think, tekken and stuff just run really slowly

Neo geo files need a neo.zip file placed into the roms folder for any neo geo game to work, this is also the case with neorage as well - the zip folder contains all the bios information, same with other namco and stv boards as well

i like Mame tbh

[amorenod]

Most games will run on their own, but some won't. The main 2 reasons are:

-Some games need a bios file (like neogeo.zip for Neo Geo games)
-Others are clones of the main game, which is needed as well because the clones only include the extra/different files

EDIT

I'm slow

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Ok, that might explain it, seems strange that the ROM downloads wouldn't include all the necessary files, or maybe I was just hoping for it to be too easy!

I'll give that a try and see if it helps matters.

Anyone have any idea whether the Virtua Stick should work with MAME?

[Escape-To-88]

Is it the Japanese stick with the pink/green buttons? or is that another stick i'm thinking of?

[anephric]

You might find that older romdumps are incompatible with newer versions of MAME because as emulation is updated newer versions insist on newer romdumps, which means what worked in an older version of MAME won't work in a more up-to-date one.

Annoying.

[buster_broon]

You might find that older romdumps are incompatible with newer versions of MAME because as emulation is updated newer versions insist on newer romdumps, which means what worked in an older version of MAME won't work in a more up-to-date one.

Annoying.

yeah thats a good point

each mame32 version has its particular romset

look at the bootleg files as patches once they've released a big update

[Silvergun X]

If you're getting missing files, and you're sure that the rom your using is MAME standard and up to date, it could be that you need either the bios to run that particular game, or the parent romset for that game.

Basically, with each of the different revisions of the game, only one of the revisions actually contains all of the rom data. The other romsets available for download only contain the data that's different, not all of the data all over again.

While i'm not going to advise you on where to get missing files, I can tell you where you're going wrong. What files does it say are missing and what game are you trying to run?

[BaudAttitude]

Ok, that might explain it, seems strange that the ROM downloads wouldn't include all the necessary files, or maybe I was just hoping for it to be too easy!

I'll give that a try and see if it helps matters.

Anyone have any idea whether the Virtua Stick should work with MAME?

I use a Saturn Virtua Stick through a USB adapter, and while the buttons work fine in actual gameplay, I can't program the buttons using the Virtua Stick - I have to plug in a pad to program the buttons and then I can remove the pad and plug the stick back in.

So if you have any problems getting the buttons recognized during the initial setup, try using another controller to get the buttons set, and then you will probably be able to use the Virtua Stick from then on out.

Since you're using a native USB stick instead of going through a USB adapter, none of that may apply to you, of course, it might just work straight up.

[C']

yeah thats a good point

each mame32 version has its particular romset

look at the bootleg files as patches once they've released a big update

Bootlegs aren't patch files, but rather the rom data for a different version of the arcade board in question (bootleg boards funnily enough).

MAME romsets are either:

A Parent ROM (as mentioned above, this will often be the 'World' release of the game and the most recent version if multiple updates were made).

A Clone ROM (these will be a lot smaller filesize and will be for versions of the game other than what the Parent ROM is, i.e. a Japanese version of the board. Because the japanese romset will be for the most part identical, with only one or 2 roms different, instead of making you download all the duplicate roms from the parent set again, the Clone rom only contains the extra information needed by the other version).

Let's take Final Fight as an example.

The main romset for this game is I think ffight.zip. This will allow you to play the 'Final Fight (World)' game in MAME.

Now, you decide you want to play the Japanese version instead (for saucy, girl in her bra, intro) so you download the ffightj.zip. This romset contains the specific extra roms that were different for the japanese game, so when you try to load 'Final Fight (Japan)' in MAME, it will take the majority of files from ffight.zip but also the extra japanese specific files from ffightj.zip and it plays the japanese game instead.

However if you only download ffightj.zip and try to play 'Final Fight (Japan) in MAME it won't work as the necessary files from ffight.zip (the parent) aren't there.

As for the bootleg issue, there were lots of bootleg arcade boards in the eighties and early nineties. Often they were cheaper for arcade operators but also lacked the encryption that some games had. That is why Shadow Dancer (bootleg) works fine in MAME, as the emulator has no encryption problems to deal with, whereas the emulation of the proper board has not been completed yet due to encryption.

[JB@XL]

I know its the wrong section but i reckoned that since the mame experts were answering here i would get there opinion.


Just got a modded xbox and i am looking to get mame on it.Getting a crossover cable in the next few days so need some advice on what version of mame to put on the xbox and what part of the d/l file do you ftp to the xbox.Tried reading some guides but they have only confused me more.

PM with details if you prefer to save hijacking this thread.

Thanks.

[C']

This wiki article may better explain the different ROM sets thing better than I did XD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAME#ROM_set_types

[buster_broon]

Bootlegs aren't patch files,

i never said they were patch files, i said look at them like patch files

from my limited knowledge they offer more when linked through the parent rom and as you stated

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I think I get it now, basically the main games listed on MAME32 are the ones I did to download and then the smaller different version ROMs if I want to play a specific version, i.e. 2 player Turtles Arcade rather than the World 4 Player.

Most of the stuff I tried earlier I've redownloaded the main files and everything seems to be working now.

Thanks for the help guys!