"how to" mame beginners
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@thedatacereal said in "how to" name beginners:
Can you clarify what it is you are asking about?
Mame ROMs.
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@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:
btw I'm using a mac does this make a difference?
No, it's not that important.
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@mitu I just saw the MAME tag and was editing my post accordingly, thank you.
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@thedatacereal it may be clear cut for you but obviously not for me, i believe I've followed all the correct steps but obviously not.
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@drewpie1895 Are you saying you followed my guide? Have you transferred the roms correctly? How did you do this? Where did you put them? More importantly, did you get a 0.78 set? You need to post what your issue is, nobody knows! Does the emulator return to a black screen? Tell us.
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@drewpie1895 in my view the most common mistakes people make with MAME is not understanding the ROM versions. MAME obviously plays a lot of different arcade games. While some of these games in original hardware form may have shared certain design similarities, there is obviously a lot of diversity among game motherboards, CPUs, audio, input and so on. It is amazing that a single application like MAME has been built to emulate all of these different hardware nuances.
That said, the ROMs have actually changed over the years, even though their names have not (with some exceptions). What this means is that the early versions of MAME were based on early sets of ROMs. Later, as emulation improved, less shortcuts were taken. MAME accuracy went up, and in many cases, this required a new 'dump' of the ROM chips, or a more comprehensive set of files from these hardware components. That means that newer versions of MAME won't work with older versions of ROMs (even though the ROM name may be the same).
That much, at least, make sense. What is hard to know is that when you have a single ROM file, you cannot easily tell what version it came from. The ROM versions are grouped in sets. Each ROM set contains ALL of the ROMs needed to play games using a specific version of MAME. If you want to change to a different version of MAME, you need to use ROMs from a different set that corresponds.
What does this all mean? Well, on the Pi we have many versions of MAME that come from a long history of emulator development. Earlier versions of MAME are nice on limited hardware because the performance is better. Newer versions of MAME are more accurate and can play newer games, but this comes at the expense of less performance. With RetroPie, you have choices. Crucially, you need to know what version of MAME you are using because you need to use the matching ROMset.
The second most confusing part has to do with the way the ROM sets are typically built. In order to keep them relatively smaller, it is more efficient to avoid duplicate data since some chips are identical among games. This is often the case with regional versions, so a USA version of a game may have much in common with the Japan version. Anyway, this is handled by way of a Parent-Child relationship. In order to play the Japan version of a game, for example, you might need to have the USA version of the ROM too because the set does not duplicate some of the chip dumps. Instead, MAME will rely on both ROMs to play one.
Since ROMs are just zip files, it is possible to build a merged or unmerged ROM set. You can have ROM files such that each game ROM contains everything it needs in one file, but this wastes a lot of disk space because of duplicate files. Having the compatibility lists is helpful (we have them in the docs) because you can check to see if the game you want requires a parent ROM, as most sets do not duplicate files.
Practially speaking, what this all means is that if you want to use lr-mame2003 (the default) then you better be using ROMs from set version 0.78. If you want to use AdvanceMAME 3, you need set .106. Sometimes, a ROM does not change from set to set, but knowing how all of this works will help you identify problems. This is why people run into trouble when they just do a web search and download whatever ROM they find. It is usually a ROM from a set that does not match their emulator.
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@rbaker i followed the guide i believe , i downloaded folders from the reference set on
[Link Redacted]0.78 zip 2003 set , i copied those into the arcade folder using the go/connect option , when i turn on the raspberry pi 3 only three games show up and won't let me enter , used the run command menu also to make sure the 0.78 are with ir name 2003. -
@drewpie1895 forum rules: Don't post details about where to obtain ROMs.
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@caver01 mate honestly if you want to earn an easy £100 come round to mine and sort it please. thanks
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@drewpie1895 Sounds like you will have to also pay for my flight from Portland, Oregon USA, cuz I am not taking a boat. Besides, you are off to a great start! You will be much better off in the long run understanding what you have, and how to leverage the possible ways to launch games in MAME. You asked what the challenges were, and if you can understand MAME ROMs, the rest is cake.
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While that organization was granted exemption from DMCA in America, this is an international forum. ROM links are not allowed.
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@caver01 apologies but this is half the problem.
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@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:
@caver01 apologies but this is half the problem.
The good news is that the Raspberry Pi is a learning/educational platform. It was built for the purpose of technology education. The fact that you are learning is the other half. RetroPie makes it easier, but it is not supposed to be "easy", rather it is "possible" and you are asking good questions. The documentation is also very good, and you can always reformat and start again and again.
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i downloaded folders from the reference set
But did you unzip the archive to reveal a full reference set of MAME roms, each being a zipped file?
go/connect option
I have never heard of this
when i turn on the raspberry pi 3 only three games show up
Don't you mean emulators? Emulators show up only when you add roms. Sounds to me like you copied over zipped archives as opposed to zipped romsets. What are the names of these files you transferred? Honestly, if you followed the guide, there is not a lot that can go wrong.
used the run command menu also to make sure the 0.78 are with ir name 2003.
Put them in the Arcade folder.
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@drewpie1895 You need to copy the .zip files from inside the ROM folder you downloaded to the
arcadeROM folder. The zip files must be directly copied in that folder on your retropie. After you copied them, restart Emulationstation and check the Arcade system again. -
@drewpie1895 It would help if you described exactly what you did in order as asked previously. Leave out no detail.
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@caver01 not supposed to be this difficult
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@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:
not supposed to be this difficult
It's not. Get a rom, place it in the arcade folder, reboot, play. You are missing something obvious. Something that is probably related to the transfer process.
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@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:
@caver01 not supposed to be this difficult
Hmm. It is what it is. Difficulty is subjective. I don't think it is that tough, but I have been using MAME for a very long time. Either you learn what you need to learn in order to do it, or you turn your attention toward a different project. There is no shame in that, but there is also no requirement that any of this should be easier than it is. It is not like a commercial product with guaranteed expectations. Either you pickup and run with it having a LOT of complicated stuff already worked out for you by developer/volunteers as they have, or not. Nobody is forcing you to build a RetroPie system.
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@rbaker where does it say in the guide about unzipping files? elsewhere it says raspberry pi expects files to be zipped.
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