how do I run mame

[crionics]

For the past couple of days I been trying to run mame. I mostly get a blank screen ( all black) then I press escape or I have missing files. do I unzip the rom or do I unzip it then put it all on the roms folder. I think I can run mame 32 because my computer says something when I run the other one

[treos]

eh, MAME's a tad complicated (compared to simpler emulators such as kega fusion) but easy enough to setup and use.

http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/ 1st, get the latest version of MAMEUI (32 or 64 bit, whichever works best for you). then unzip the emulator.

next is a bit of info concerning ROM's/BIOS's/CHD's: to begin with, when you boot up the emulator you should see a long long LONG list of ROM titles and other info. 32, 398 ROMs as of version 0.165 actually. as for the listed titles, anything in red probably won't work (at least not in that version of MAME, if at all...yet) and green are good to go. also, theres the matter of parent/child ROMs. gonna use the game Battle K-Road as an example: to play the child ROM, Battle K-Road (Korean PCB), you must also have it's parent ROM Battle K-Road as well or else it'll give an error about missing files. this goes for BIOS and CHD files as well.

as for the ROMs themselves, all you have to do is put them in the emulators ROM folder. (do not unzip ROMs as that is unnecessary)

next, once the rom files are in the correct folder and you've booted up the folder click available to the left of the ROM list and hit F5 and...wait. it takes several minutes to refresh the ever expanding list. once the list has refreshed click the title of the rom you downloaded (assuming it appears in the list space) and it should start up normally.

from there you're likely going to want to change the key configuration so hit tab, the using the arrow keys scroll up/down to "input (this machine)" and set you're keys as desired. hit escape to exit the menus (careful not to close the game as escape works for that as well) and play the game normally.

[crionics]

I finally got the other version to work... optimized or something. Im looking for a working golden axe revenge of death adder rom unless the here works.

[treos]

it depends, partly, on which version of mame you're using. just checked and it should work fine with MAMEUI 0.165.

http://www.emuparadise.me/M.A.M.E._-...World%29/13031 (note: this is the parent rom of that game, if you wanted one of the other 2 versions you'll also need this one anyway)

i can't say for sure if it'll work for you or not as i don't know what version of mame you're using. which version are you using? (my guide above is for MAMEUI)

[crionics]

mame 0.141 optimized the 3rd one down in emuparadise. I found a working golden axe rom in cool roms. thanks for the info. Now maybe I find ninja baseball batman it looks good... the one here didn't work for me

[treos]

141? thats from back in 2011. :/ you should always use the newest version (except for if something got messed up in the newest version).

i have no idea what will or won't work with 141 anymore though i do advise visiting the site i linked above and updating as 165 likely supports FAR more games than 141 and may be easier to use. plus this version has a UI making it real easy to use.

[Zorlon]

Always...

If you have a 0.141 rom set then use 0.141 Mame otherwise half the games will not work using a newer or older version of mame
If you are going for a new rom set or roms from a newer set then make sure the version of mame matches the rom set version or roms from the set they are taken from