Noob Question RE: MAME & File Paths (also, what are DATS)

[apache69yell]

I am sorry for being so noobish, but one must learn somewhere, & everything emulator related seems to point to this site as having not only the best downloads, but the most knowledgeable people. I'd rather learn from the best, so if you could take the time to answer these questions, maybe you'll save me hours of ripping my hair out later when I install MAME on my computer.

1. From what I've read, ROMs go in your ROM folder, and they should be zipped, is this correct?
2. CHDs also go in the ROM folder, should be named the same as the ROM, except with a CHD extension (not zipped), or do these go in a folder named the same as the ROM, in the ROM directory?
3. BIOS files are placed in the BIOS directory, do these need to remain zipped, can they be in sub-directories, or must they lay in the BIOS directory?
4. Where do DATS go, what exactly are they, and are they MAME version specific?
5. I've downloaded an extras collection pack (cabs, snaps, cheats, etc), where can one find a guide for where the various file types reside in MAME's paths, & do these files need to be zipped, or unzipped?
6. When playing a ROM, do you have to tell MAME what BIOS to use, or does it already know?

Thank you for reading this post, & helping out in any way possible.

[treos]

1. correct, you need not unzip the rom files.
2. first 3 parts of that question are correct. just put them in the rom folder like with #1 (pretty sure thats all that needs to be done with those files)
3. BIOS can also be placed in the rom folder with the rom and chd files and these too should remain zipped.
4. i'm not too sure of this one so i'll let someone else answer this question.
5. i am...guessing these should be divided among the appropriately named folders in the emulator folder (cabinet > cabinet folder, snapshots > snap folder, etc.) but i'm not 100% sure as i never bothered downloading this stuff. now as for the cheats, i don't remember how to setup/use a cheat file for MAME right offhand so if someone could explain that for us i'd be grateful as well.
6. it'll take care of that on its own (or it should like most emulators), you just have to have the correct BIOS files then launch the game.

since your 3 posts seem like they can be merged given the format of your questions i think i'll save some time and answer all 3 sets of questions (those i can anyway) here.

"1. I've read version 5 CHD's are for MAME 0.156 to 0.159 (current) only, is this true?
2. Will lower versions of CHD's other than 5 work on MAME 0.159?
3. Do I actually need CHDs to run the ROMs, if so, is there a specific list somewhere I can reference?
4. Is there a list somewhere, of working CHDs for v0.159 MAME?"

1.don't know
2. don't know
3. only for certain roms and iirc chd files can get quite large in some cases so expect a large download for some of them.
4. probably but...i don't know where it'd be myself.

"1. I've read you can use both xbox, ps2 & ps3 contorllers in MAME, is this true and what is the best way to go about it?
2. If a game is light gun, spinner, or ball controlled, can we still use joysticks to play the game, or is it non-playable if we don't have those peripherals? If they are playable, how do I go about configuring it?"

first off, as with pretty much any emulator used on the pc, controllers are typically optional so no, you don't have to have a controller to play (that'd be kinda silly don't you think? especially since...) since the controls could always be configured for the keyboard. never been too good at using the peripherals mentioned in question 2. but basically the mouse could be the light gun, i dunno what the heck a spinner is o.O and as for the ball...set it to the directional keys?

that answers the question i know, hope it helps.

[apache69yell]

Yes, it did help, thank you very much for responding. I didn't merge the posts into one, so maybe searching could bring up relevant answers in the future. I'm sure most noobs have these questions, but fear of getting flamed for asking them... I fear nothing, ahahah

[treos]

np, always glad to help now how did this work again...

http://cheat.retrogames.com/mame_downloads.htm cheat files there, kinda obvious but you should only use the one for the same version of MAME your using.

this is assuming your also using MAMEUI64 but i figured out how to get cheats to work again. yep, that got it. heres how to get cheats working if you want to know how.

first download the correct cheat file from the above site then unzip it and put the cheat zip file in the same folder as the mame program (note: do NOT unzip this file as it contains hundreds, if not thousands of files in it.). next, bring up MAME and go to options > default game options > misc tab > enable cheats. from there you just load whichever game you want to play and bring up the menu (press tab) and if the game has cheats there will be a cheats section in the menu.

and now it looks like i'm a couple versions behind...again pardon me while i go check if theres a MAMEUI64 version 156. grrr...make that 159, the cheat file is only up to 156 though.

[apache69yell]

yeah, I'm trying to get everything to 159, thanks for the tips though