"how to" mame beginners

mitu

@drewpie1895 You need to copy the .zip files from inside the ROM folder you downloaded to the arcade ROM 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.

rbaker

@drewpie1895 It would help if you described exactly what you did in order as asked previously. Leave out no detail.

drewpie1895

@caver01 not supposed to be this difficult

rbaker

@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.

caver01

@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.

drewpie1895

@rbaker where does it say in the guide about unzipping files? elsewhere it says raspberry pi expects files to be zipped.

caver01

@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:

@rbaker where does it say in the guide about unzipping files? elsewhere it says raspberry pi expects files to be zipped.

Yeah, there is some ambiguity here. The individual game ROMs are zipped and they need to stay zipped, but the entire set of these games usually comes in a giant zip file (zips inside of zips). That big file needs to be unzipped so that the thousands of games can come out if it and into your Arcade folder. Those game files stay zipped.

rbaker

@drewpie1895 This is a fact that has nothing to do with retropie. Most commonly, on the internet, files are archived - just like the image that you downloaded. To get the image, I unzip the archive. It's just what you do. Unless you use etcher - you do not need to unzip first. If I email photos, I zip them first. The documentation is referring to the fact that once you have you roms, you leave them zipped. For example, invders.zip. I place it in the Arcade folder and I play it.

drewpie1895

@rbaker honestly i appreciate your help but this is stupid, i'll find another way or somebody else who can show me , usually youtube is good for this kind of thing but obviously not this specific topic. maybe in the future i will make a video for complete mongs who are new to this and not experienced people like yourselves , happy gaming.

caver01

@drewpie1895 You are only like one file in a folder away from getting this working. Once you do, you will know how to move forward. You can do this.

rbaker

@drewpie1895 You still haven't described what you did and in what order, we are still guessing. I feel though that we have found the possible issue. Are you ready to name the files you transferred yet so that we can verify our theory?

jonnykesh

@caver01 I hate to see people give up. I think he's just frustrated to be honest. Sometimes walking away for a while and coming back fresh can sort things.

drewpie1895

@caver01 sounds great but am i really?

rbaker

@drewpie1895 Please name the files you transferred.

caver01

@drewpie1895 as @rbaker said above, we are only guessing, because you did not share any details about what you are doing/seeing. But we have good guesses based on what you did share. If you could take a single ROM file from your set, like dkong.zip for example, and put that in the arcade folder, then reboot, you will know.

jonnykesh

@drewpie1895 Yes you are. Just relax and explain what you are doing. What files you are putting where? I bet you can get this working in 20 minutes IF you explain what you are doing.

drewpie1895

@jonnykesh I've been "coming back" for over a day, all i want to do is play some old skool arcade games to take me back to my youth.

rbaker

@drewpie1895 We are all sat around you here waiting for your success! Our sanity depends on it! Name the files! Describe your steps!

caver01

@drewpie1895 said in "how to" name beginners:

@jonnykesh I've been "coming back" for over a day, all i want to do is play some old skool arcade games to take me back to my youth.

That is all any of us wants!

jonnykesh

@drewpie1895 Take a break, go for a smoke, cup of coffee or walk or whatever.
Come back and post what you are actually doing and it will work. You just seem very agitated atm.