MAME Help???

[Jonathan Baenziger]

Good evening. I need a bit of help with getting MAME ROMs to run. I've been trying to figure this out for a very long time. Every time I download a MAME ROM, and try to play it, it ALWAYS says something about missing ROM files or CHD files. So far, I've only been able to get Killer Instinct to run. I can't get ANY Street Fighter type games to rum(Street Fighter III Third Strike and Double Impact, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, etc). What am I doing wrong? How can I get these games to run? I would really like to play some of these excellent games again. I also have some trouble running other games too, not just fighter type games. I get the same "missing ROM files or CHD files" message. Any help would be extremely helpful and would make me very happy. Thanks in advance.

[gezegond]

Mame files usually have one "working" version, and a lot of "dependent" versions. The working versions work on their own, while the dependent versions need the working version to be in the same directory to work. This is for old games, newer games actaully need other files called "CHD" files which contain all the game data in the same directory to work. CHD files are usually a lot larger than rom files, for instance rom files of one game might be a few kilobytes while the chd file could be bigger that 200 megabytes. The trick is to find the working roms and chd files. These are usually larger than their dependent counter parts and have more downloads, those are the metrics I use for finding them!

[Zorlon]

Don't forget the bios images as well

[Jonathan Baenziger]

That's just the problem I'm having. I don't seem to have any luck finding the working ROM and CHD files. I've tired many different ROM sites too not just this one. Still have the same problems. I'm usually good at this type of stuff too, but, this is one thing that's really wracking my brain. Guess I'll keep trying. If I don't have any luck, I guess I'll just stick with console emulators.

[Zorlon]

For MAME you need the correct version roms for certain versions of MAME

Mame 1.47 will work with rom dumps for 1.47, every time Mame gets an update it doesn't just add new rom but also used the newest dumps of existing games so older dumps will no longer be usable

Almost all roms have a master rom and all the others for the same game, i.e. different country releases use the master rom and the rom for that release for the game, so the master rom has data that is used by all the sub roms

Some roms require a bios rom that is like the master roms in that it is used by all the games from that hardware type of arcade cab, e.g. all neo-geo arcade games require a neo-geo rom file

Newer cabs that used a rom and HDD or GD require a CHD

[gezegond]

Guess I'll keep trying. If I don't have any luck, I guess I'll just stick with console emulators.

It's easier than you think once you get the hang of it. I too wish they would just mention which one is the master rom.

[Zorlon]

they do every rom list for mame, list the master rom

rom sites don't always list there games very well, the best site for that is long gone now that told you if a game is a master or for the games that are not a master rom it will tell you what the master rom is

http://surumnam00.tripod.com/id7.html for example, it lists all the games for mame and the rom names are the master rom names, the sub roms are just not listed but all they do is add onto the file name, e.g.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
ddtod is the master rom for a US release they would just add u onto the rom file name so that would be ddtodu

[Jonathan Baenziger]

Just for the record, I'm running MAME 0.148 on a Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1 64-bit operating system PC. This is just still very confusing to me as I'm still not having any luck with it. I'll give a few more ROMs a try, but, so, far, I still only have Killer Instinct working. All the others I've tried still keep giving me that missing ROM files or CHD files message.

[Zorlon]

I would guess at, that is because you have the wrong rom sets for the latest version of MAME, try using MAME 0.147 with the same roms you have there is probably nothing wrong with your roms you are possibly just using the incorrect version of MAME with them

[WitchHunter]

It's easy to know the "master" romset, just type
mame -listclones
or:
mame -listclones >clonelist.txt
and open the clonelist.txt!

Seach the list and download the "master" romset, add to your roms dir with the "clone" and play.

The correct path are:
ROMS/ <---put your roms and bioses here (zip, rar, 7zip archives are fine)!
ROMS/SETNAME/ <-- put the CHD file here (a CHD file, don't use zip, rar, 7zip.)

For example:
roms/neogeo.zip <---neogeo bios
roms/roboarmy.rar <--- a romset
roms/kinstinct/kinstinct.chd <--a chd

Note:
CHDs format was upgraded to v5 on 0.147, most of CDs need a redump. Also most roms are renamed, changed during the mame development (betas and final releases). You can audit/update your roms with tools like Ctlrmamepro or Romcenter.

Also type
mame <gamename>
on mame 0.148 and you'll find "master/clone/bios" dependency

On the picture below mame "tryied" roboarmy and neogeo archives for the missing roms!

[Jonathan Baenziger]

Well, I tried MAME 0.147 64-Bit. Still getting all the same problems with running any and all ROMs I download. I'm about ready to give up. I think I might just stick with console emulators. This is too confusing to me. I just can't get the hang of it.

[Zorlon]

I would be using MAMEUI at least it tells you what is wrong with a rom set if you audit your roms or you can do it the old command promt method shown by WitchHunter

MAME is easy enough to use but you must make sure your roms are correct and yours are obviously not correct you have something missing for running certain games

external rom checking tools like clrmamepro are also good for checking your roms

If you are just after emulating a few Arcade games mame is maybe not the best option anyway, especially for new users

http://www.barryharris.me.uk/fba.php Final Burn Alpha might be more like what you can use or maybe
http://nebula.emulatronia.com/descargas.php or Nebula
http://cps2shock.emu-france.info/dow...nkawaks163.zip or Kawaks (sorry there homepage is gone now)


there are others as well, actually that last host has a few Arcade emulators that cover multi systems http://cps2shock.emu-france.info/download.html

These other emulators are a lot more user friendly and depending on your systems specs will run the games a lot more smoother (MAME will almost always be the more accurate emulator though and is in general [that is not always a good thing though if you are after speed or just wanting a game to fully work])

MAME also has un-finished drivers so there are games that will not boot anyway or not work in other ways

http://nonmame.retrogames.com/ is a great site to check out, it will list certain games and hardware that is emulated at a more playable state in other arcade emulators that are not MAME

[Jonathan Baenziger]

Well, tried all those other emulators that you suggesting, zorlon. No luck with any of them. None of the games on any of them work. I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong. That command prompt method is even more confusing to me, so, that's out of the question too. Any idea where I can find MAMEUI, so I can try one last time? What if I list my system specs? Will that help at all? Thanks again for all your help.

[Zorlon]

http://www.mameui.info/

Missing Roms Report =

Roms are from an older set
You are missing main rom sets
You are missing bios roms
you are missing or the CHD is from an older set

P.S. what game are you trying to play and did you get the rom from here?

[Jonathan Baenziger]

There's a lot of games I'm trying to play, and yes, I got them all from here(at first, not originally all from here, but, figured I'd give them all a try from here). Here's my list: Any and all Street Fighter games(including the "vs" ones), Marvel vs. Capcom I & II, Final Fight, X-Men(original 4 player arcade version), and so many, many more.