ROMS won't load for MAME Emus

gt4chuck

Hey all, I've been banging my head against getting mame roms working for the past week.

Running a Pi 3 with the newest install. I've got the ROMs on a USB stick, set up per the wiki instructions.

I initially tried mame4all but no luck there, I kept getting file missing errors.

I rebuilt a .94 set using the dat files from the RP site, from a verified .138 set with advmame.

Now the roms just go to black screen, then bak to the list. I have the parent files in there too... any help would be appreciated.

All the console emus are working perfectly.

dankcushions

I initially tried mame4all but no luck there, I kept getting file missing errors.
I rebuilt a .94 set using the dat files from the RP site, from a verified .138 set with advmame.
Now the roms just go to black screen, then bak to the list. I have the parent files in there too... any help would be appreciated.

what roms? your .94 set using advmame? that should work, if you're using the .94 advmame emulator (i believe there's 2 for .94 and .106- have you chosen the right one?). have a look at /tmp/runcommand.log after a failed load and post the log here.

gt4chuck

Looks like it was something to do with running them off of a USB stick vs the card.

This is for a Bartop, and it's not going to have full sets, so I guess I'll just use the card.

I did all the stuff outlined in the USB guide, I don't understand why it wasn't working for MAME. Definitely worked fine for the consoles.

dankcushions

@gt4chuck running from USB works fine for me for mame. what guide do you mean?

gt4chuck

http://mardell.me/blog/how-to-load-roms-from-a-usb-drive-on-retropie/

I'd really love to get that working. I'm using a 64GB Sandisk flashdrive.

I can format and start again, it's certainly possible I did something wrong.

Also as an aside, can I use clrmamepro to fix individual games? I'm going to need to put some vector and spinner games in a different emu.

dankcushions

that guide seems pretty solid. it's difficult to know where your problem would be - can you see all the right files if you access the directories you've put in your es_systems.cfg via command line?

and clrmamepro can do that if you use non merged sets, or only parent Roms. the wiki covers it https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs#step-5--rebuild-a-rom-set

gt4chuck

Thanks, I've been using that guide!

I will be using non-merged sets.

I'm gonna reformat the USB and try again from scratch. Thank you!

GabhanEIS

I'm encountering this exact problem. Running off the USB Drive only seems to work if the roms are also in the original folder on the sdcard. My brother has been using a setup with all roms on his sdcard for some time, and got him to test and he has this exact problem too. Steps to recreate:

Test a single rom, installed in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-advmame to ensure it works correctly
Create a folder on the usb drive called myroms
Copy the single rom to this folder on the usb drive
Update es_systems.cfg and change the path for advmame roms to /media/usb0/myroms
Remove this rom from /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-advmame and restart the system
Only this rom shows in the game list
Start the game and after a few seconds it doesn't load and you are thrown back to the menu
Copy the game back into the /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-advmame folder
Restart the system and still only this rom shows in the game list
The game will now run correcly

dankcushions

i've no idea why it wouldn't work, but IMO editing es_systems.cfg isn't a great way to use an external drive. i personally mount the drive as my /home/pi/RetroPie folder, and that works fine with advmame.

that also means i don't have to mess about with editing configs. i don't have instructions to this, but it's just regular linux commands, so google 'linux mount usb drive as folder' or whatever :)

GabhanEIS

Thanks - I'm not great with linux, but I'll do some research and test this method out. Will report back if I can get it to work.

GabhanEIS

Excellent suggestions - mounting the USB drive as /home/pi/RetroPie/roms works perfectly! Editing the fstab file is a little daunting but thankfully it worked first time on reboot too! Many thanks @dankcushions - it seems that messing with es_systems.cfg is certainly not the way to go!

dankcushions

@GabhanEIS said in ROMS won't load for MAME Emus:

Excellent suggestions - mounting the USB drive as /home/pi/RetroPie/roms works perfectly! Editing the fstab file is a little daunting but thankfully it worked first time on reboot too! Many thanks @dankcushions - it seems that messing with es_systems.cfg is certainly not the way to go!

great! :) I will add a guide to the wiki soon so hopefully this method gets more widely used.