how does this work

[Sothy]

Ok ive used Snes9x and some other emulators to play games but I never tried mame before.

Download mame32 and got it running oh ok its got a bunch of games listed on it. Try to play them of course it dont work.

umm okay i guess it just has the names of roms or something that arent there whatever...

try to download some mame roms and still cant get it to play how the hell does this convoluted piece of shit interface work the help files are crap and im about to shove a bayonet through the godamned monitor so please anyone explain in english how the hell im supposed to get games to work.

I downloaded the mame screensaver thing but im not gonna even touch that cuz i might blow up the house.
]
Sorry im frustrated but If anyone can help out its appreciated.

[zektor]

Wherever you unzipped Mame32 there should be a sub-folder called "roms". Place the zipped roms you downloaded into that directory and run Mame32. The roms you have should be highlighted on the list.

[Sothy]

ok i was unzipping them and putting them in there ill try putting them in zipped thanks man ill let you know if it works.

[Sothy]

Well it sees them but its like the roms are messed up.

stupid ass site i think is corrupting them because you have to vote before you download and it doesnt make sense i cant tell if im voting when i click or whatever.


Id like to see a list of the games i have not some big list of every damn game ever made i dont have to select what i want to play ill try getting some roms elsewhere to see if it works.

[Raccoon Lad]

Try here at DP first, there's some mame roms under the emulators section.

[ghsqb]

The other thing too Sothy is that many Mame roms require the presence of "parent roms" because they borrow files from it as well.

So if you're getting error messages about a particular file missing, this is most likely the reason.

Check out www.mame.dk

Altough their rom d/l have been disabled, its still great for info.

It can tell you what rom is valid for the game you are playing, as well as what parent rom is required, if any.

The last thing to make sure of is that the roms you d/l are compatible with the version of the Mame client you have.

Good luck

[TripppsK]

Another bit of advice would to go to www.mame.net and read through their documentation and FAQ's. While MAME32 is a great frontend, I find the documentation included with it not as easy to comprehend as the docs available on mame.net.

[Nature Boy]

The other thing too Sothy is that many Mame roms require the presence of "parent roms" because they borrow files from it as well.

It's a hard thing to explain but here goes.

Each game in MAME requires several files to run it, with extensions like .gam,
.l8, and .snd. For each game the list is different, but some games use the same hardware so they share files. Clones are an obvious example of this, but other machines used similar hardware.

A zip file represents a game of course, and inside each zip are these .gam etc. files that are required for running it.

If a file is missing from the zip file, it spits out an error message containing *which* files were missing. If you want the game to run you have to find those missing files.

A lot of the time they are available in a 'cloned' zip file. You can do one of two things: simply include the Cloned zip file inside your ROMs directory, or extract only those files you need and include them in your original zip. The former is much simpler and is pretty much what everybody does.

The biggest problem you'll have with MAME is versioning. As new versions of the emulator are released the file requirements can change. A game that works for version 69 won't necessarily work 'as is' for version 70, as it might require new files not previously present.

What I try to do is stick with a given version once I've gotten a good chunk of ROMs that work for it. 2000+ games is too many to play *anyway*, and hunting down ROMs can be a chore. If you're looking for specific stuff ask here or use the main DP site. If you want to scour the web, as far as I can figure, those 'voting' websites have *no way* to determine if you actually vote or not, so if you do decide to use them don't bother voting. And give 'em a bogus email address as I'm sure they sell their addresses to spammers big time.

[Sothy]

thanks guys got it working.

I been playing through CABAL with the mouse and its the closest to playing with trackball ive seen. The game is extremely close to the arcade version but sound is a little off... and the skull doesnt make that noise in the demo screen like it did in the arcade.. every 10 seconds... ARRRRRghhhghhhARRRRghgghghAAARRRGghghggh or something like that god i miss it. anyone know if theres a more exact version of Cabal or any other good trackball games besides missile command?

[digitalpress]

You're not going to find a more accurate version of CABAL than MAME, since it IS the actual arcade ROM you're playing. Granted there are sometimes minor issues with the drivers that run them, but the ROM is the arcade ROM. If sounds are missing or speeds don't seem right, try fiddling around with the dip switch settings (or the analog settings if the controls seem off), use the TAB key once the game is loaded up to tinker.

As for great mouse games, Centipede/Millipede spring to mind, but my FAVORITE games to play with a mouse are the Exidy light gun games, especially Chiller, Cheyenne, and Crossbow. I'm sure you'll dig those games.

[zektor]

You're not going to find a more accurate version of CABAL than MAME, since it IS the actual arcade ROM you're playing. Granted there are sometimes minor issues with the drivers that run them, but the ROM is the arcade ROM. If sounds are missing or speeds don't seem right, try fiddling around with the dip switch settings (or the analog settings if the controls seem off), use the TAB key once the game is loaded up to tinker.

As for great mouse games, Centipede/Millipede spring to mind, but my FAVORITE games to play with a mouse are the Exidy light gun games, especially Chiller, Cheyenne, and Crossbow. I'm sure you'll dig those games.

Yes! CHILLER! As Joe said, these great Exidy games are a must. They play great with the mouse.

[liquidmetal]

www.mame.dk it covers everything u need to know. If it needs a parent rom , what bios u need, and it has about every rom for mame :P