MAME roms not all working

[Parzival]

@Riverstorm so lets say I just want one game... could i use the method in the tutorial to try and make it work?

[Riverstorm]

@Parzival said in MAME roms not all working:

@Riverstorm so lets say I just want one game... could i use the method in the tutorial to try and make it work?

Yes it would work but you'll see thousands of errors for the missing ROMs but it would work fine with no issues.

If you're only looking for a few games you'll find many sites that allow the downloading of single game ROMs for the specific version you need.

Look here for the ROM set version you're looking for. At the top of the page is a table. Look under the Emulator & Romset columns for the version of MAME ROMs to match the emulator you're wanting to use. Several search engines will produce the results you're looking for. As per the forum rules and to avoid any legalities you can't post direct links but the information is available in many locations.

It may seem daunting at first but give it a go and once you get rolling with it you'll find it a snap to do.

Managing ROMs link:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

[caver01]

It should be said here on this thread that getting MAME ROMs to work isn't actually trial and error at all. Sure, there are a few ROMs that fail in MAME on the Pi, sometimes merely due to performance, but by and large, MAME should be able to launch ROMs from the right ROMset. The key is knowing how MAME ROMs are built, and getting a known good (complete) ROMset of a version that matches the MAME you plan to use to launch it. It also requires an understanding of parent-child ROMs if you are expecting to launch clones. This isn't guesswork. It should be easy, provided you know what you need and you are able to obtain it.

I think where it feels like trial and error are situations when you don't pay attention to what you need, or you try to launch MAME using a ROM from one set while that version of MAME requires a different set. Sometimes that works (because an individual ROM may not have changed between versions). Taking chances like that is fine, but claiming that none of your ROMs work when you may not even have the right versions is the wrong way to go about it, and you can't expect a lot of sympathy in the forums. Figure out what ROMset you need and make sure your ROM is from that set and that it does not require any parent ROMs. It's never hit or miss. There is a proper way to do it.

[Riverstorm]

@caver01 said in MAME roms not all working:

It should be said here on this thread that getting MAME ROMs to work isn't actually trial and error at all.

Well said, I agree when I first read the post about trial and error I bristled a bit. :) When using the DAT with a ROM management tool it's really an exact science.

[Parzival]

what would the rom set of dungeons and dragons as well as mega man 2: power fighters be?

[caver01]

@Parzival first you tell me, what version of mame are you going to use to open these?

[caver01]

Because you need both bits of info to answer your question. The ROMset must match the MAME version you plan to use. Otherwise, it may not work.

[Parzival]

@caver01 mame4all or mame2003 :)

[caver01]

@Parzival Ok, so you need to go find two ROMsets. 0.37b5 for mame4all and 0.78 for lr-mame2003. Let's look for Mega Man 2.

Checking here, you can look at the compatibility lists. I looked at 0.78 and someone has tried MegaMan2 and reported that it does not work on the Pi3. No notes added. That's unfortunate. if it did work, though, 0.78 would be the ROM for that emulator. Next, I checked 0.37b5, but Mega Man 2 is not in there. It's from 1996, right? So perhaps this ROMset is simply too old have a game that was so recent (by the standards back then).

So, I looked at AdvanceMAME 1.4 which is a fallback for me. It's more recent at ROMset 0.106, and lo and behold--there it is in the compatibility list and someone has said it works on a Pi2. That's good because it probably works even better on a Pi3.

So, the short answer for MegaMan2 is that you can run it with AdvanceMAME 1.4, which means you need to find a 0.106 ROMset.

I know this sounds like a lot of rig-a-ma-role to get a single game to work, but that's why we have more than one MAME emulator available. The point is that each MAME uses a ROMset that matches. You can't just download a random zip file from somewhere and expect it to run on your preferred emulator.

You will have to do the same investigation for your D&D title. Newer arcade games are going to be harder. Classics from the 80's often give you more choices.

[Riverstorm]

That's well written Caver a great way to explain some of the reasoning on multiple emulators and ROM sets.

[Parzival]

thanks guys you are the best! Mega Man is working and ready to play. Ill be posting pictures and videos of how my cabinet looks ;)
Thanks Again!

[megatron99]

I got D&D and Alpha to work on FBA

[Beretta9]

D&D and all three of the street fighter alpha games wont work using mame4all or mame 2003. Use final burn alpha for these.

[moman]

@caver01 I see you are helping out wit a problem I also seem to have. I just bought a Pi 3 and most of my mame roms will not play. Moon Patrol, defender 1942, 1943, missile command etc mostly the old calssics. I have the rom set .37b5 and the Pi mame emulator still says there is an error. Only games I have working so far are tapper, timber, qbert and frogger. Any ideas ?????

[BuZz]

@moman Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first (and start a new topic).

[caver01]

@moman In addition to @BuZz's reply, I will tell you that it could be a lot of things. To help you narrow the scope, we need a lot more detail from you:

1. First of all, follow the link BuZz posted above and provide appropriate detail.

2. What exact emulator are you using? They each have different requirements. By your ROMset version, you really can only expect good results from MAME4All.

3. What exact ROMs are you trying to run and failing? There are numerous clones that require files from parent ROMs. You really need to have this figured out, or at the very least, understand the details and post exactly what's going on here. Calling out a game title is not the right way to describe the details. Use the MAME compatibility lists, as they will cite parent ROMs.

4. How do you know you have the ROMset you think you have? Have you done any integrity checking using a tool like CLRMAMEPRO?

Finally, don't get discouraged. None of this is easy. Those of us who are doing it and making it look easy have put in countless hours to understand all of the details. We have been building our systems for years in many cases, and because of that, we have worked through many of the same challenges. Stick with it, as the rewards are worth the effort, but recognize that you will also need to do a fair amount of research to understand how to make your setup work best for you.

[dsstrainer]

Having a hell of a time with the mame2003 romset.
I downloaded a full Mame 0.161 romset and rebuilt it down to 0.35b7 for lr-imame4all and that has been fine
But I wanted some additional games like Alien vs Pred and some others that weren't supported in that version so I've been trying mame2003. I got the 0.78 dat files from the wiki and everything appears to be rebuilding fine, but almost nothing works. The only ones that work are the ones like Punisher which always work, but even simple games like puckman and outrun (from 1985) won't load at all with mame2003. Oddly I can run those converted games in mame2010 and even fba next sometimes, just not 2003. And outrun is in the compatibility list and marked as OK
But I was able to run a version of outrun with an old version of mame romset (not even sure which version for the GP2x handheld device mame gp2x wiz 2.2 romset and that works fine with mame 2003. So not sure what is going on with it. Going to try to get the latest 0.178 romset and try down converting again.

[BuZz]

@dsstrainer Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

[dsstrainer]

I'm obviously well past that point BuZz... If I'm posting questions, rest assured there are probably real problems.

Anyway, it turns out it was a few issues. I somehow managed to remove some of the parents and clones of certain sets in my main mame 0.161 folder. Interestly, clrmame didn't report them as missing and just created new merged versions with the bits and pieces that it had, which were split sets so they were incomplete. So I restored from my original 161 tarball, only to find that it too is actually missing bits from the file and the dat file, specifically for the outrun game even.
It has outrun.zip, outrunb.zip but missing outruna.zip
The mame 0.78 dat file requires outruna.zip

Running a clrmamepro scan of the 0.161 doesn't flag anything because the dat file doesn't reference outruna so there is no mismatch. But when I rebuild as merged sets to 0.78, clrmamepro doesn't catch that there is a missing outruna file, and a scan afterwards also doesn't catch it. Perhaps because it is a merged file and it loses track of its references. But I would think that during the initial merge from the split 0.161 set, clrmamepro should have flagged something that when it reads outruna in the 0.78 dat file, but the outruna file doesn't exist, it shouldn't try to merge outrun and outrunb and pass it off as a finished file. If I grab an outruna from another romset, and put it into the source folder and then rebuild it, it rebuilds correctly merging all 3 files.

So while I know clrmame is proven, It might have an issue here... perhaps with the conversion from split to merged and missing an intermediate clone, which might be a very small subset of roms which could be why it has gone unnoticed. I'll play more with it. Also going to grab the 0.181 rom set and see what it has for outrun

[mediamogul]

@dsstrainer said in MAME roms not all working:

If I'm posting questions, rest assured there are probably real problems.

It's not that anyone is judging the legitimacy or severity of your problems. It's that without following the guidelines detailed in that link, no one will know enough about your issue or basic setup to give any kind of meaningful help.