Arcade games rom compatibility issues

herb_fargus

@melbmatt50 read the docs on mame. It explains everything. Random choosing the emulator when you have no idea of your source will inevitably lead to frustration. You need to get the correct set for the emulator, not the other way around.

rbaker

@melbmatt50 said in Arcade games rom compatibility issues:

I tried running these roms through the arcade program in retropie and while some of them have worked, many just go back to the game selection screen

I explained this to you 7 days ago in this thread. Please follow all the guidance there. As I said then, Arcade is not a program but a folder.

I was told that roms often have information about their requirements for running but I am wondering where I find this

In the link I posted 7 days ago and here

melbmatt50

@rbaker I referred to as arcade because that's the name it appears as on the emulator selection screen. I have been trying to follow the instructions you said from the site but its a bit confusing. First off as I said I am not sure what emulators will work with the roms. As an example I have been trying to play Moon Patrol. Most places don't tell you which emulator you can use. Fortunately the page you sent the link to had compatibility lists for some of the mame programs such as lr2000 and mame4all. On the libretto-mame2000 for rpi3 it lists the status as ok. This still gives the required files missing error. I noticed on the page that you sent the link to there's a file mame4all-037b5-RetroPie-260.zip which downloads with a .dat extension. I wasn't sure where to put this file or what to do with it as I wasn't sure if this file was required to run games like the one I was trying to run. I know it sounds like I am repeating myself and I apologise for that but I am really stuck on this issue. I don't know if the original rom files I am getting are no good or what the situation is and its just frustrating.

mediamogul

@melbmatt50 said in Arcade games rom compatibility issues:

As an example I have been trying to play Moon Patrol. Most places don't tell you which emulator you can use.

It can be confusing at first, but that's not the way any of this works. If you're using the recommended arcade emulator, which is lr-mame2003, it only makes use of ROMs from the 0.78 MAME ROM set. So if you want to play 'Moon Patrol' in lr-mame2003, you need the 'Moon Patrol' ROM from the 0.78 set. Any other 'Moon Patrol' ROM will likely report missing files. All of the arcade emulators also make use of a specific set. So, if you wanted to play 'Moon Patrol' with lr-mame2010, you would need the 'Moon Patrol' ROM from the 0.139 ROM set. With this information, I suggest that you re-read the links posted above carefully and methodically and the rest should all come together fairly easy.

rbaker

@melbmatt50 I wrote this step by step guide. If you read that then you would not ask what emulators work with what roms. Which bit of the guide needs clarifying? I am happy to assist if anything on it is not clear. The emulator selection screen that you refer to is actually a set of folders which contain roms. You then select an emulator using the run command. The purpose of "Arcade" is to enable multiple games to be "selectable" and "playable" from one place using multiple emulators otherwise you end up having MAME folders appearing more than once depending on your version of choice.

melbmatt50

@rbaker I read the article you said and going by that, I looked at Mame4All compatibility list to find if the games I were after were on that list. The ones for romset (o.37b5) were on it so I turned to Google to find that particular romset as part of the search string. I found a site that had this particular rom and it works which is great. I just have two questions. Firstly how do I know which particular romset version the mame4all is using on my retropie and secondly. If I update the emulator in future either through updating from source or updating from binary is this going to change the romset which it is then using, meaning that I will have to find a new list of compatible games for that romset version? I know these are probably straight forward things, but just things that I am not sure of. Thanks for the help so far, it is very much appreciated.

mediamogul

@melbmatt50 said in Arcade games rom compatibility issues:

how do I know which particular romset version the mame4all is using on my retropie

It's all in the docs. You'll notice in the table at the very top, it says that mame4all-pi uses the 0.37b5 MAME ROM set.

If I update the emulator in future either through updating from source or updating from binary is this going to change the romset which it is then using

Only on extremely rare occasions and I believe this has only ever happened with lr-fbalpha.

barbudreadmon

@mediamogul said in Arcade games rom compatibility issues:

Only on extremely rare occasions and I believe this has only ever happened with lr-fbalpha.

Yes, lr-fbalpha is the only "alive" project in terms of romsets, which means it is sync with current mame romset at every release (every 6 months or so). All mame version running on pi are supposed to be static in terms of romsets, except perhaps mame2003-plus which is a patchwork of different mame romsets.

rbaker

@melbmatt50 said in Arcade games rom compatibility issues:

If I update the emulator in future

The best way to think of this is that you will never update Mame4All. You might change from "Mame4All" to "lrmame2003" and in that case you would need a different set of roms, the 0.78 set.

melbmatt50

@rbaker I am just wondering if you are limited to the ones on the 0.75 romset as there are a couple of games that I didn't see and if I was to try to find them with 0.78 set for lrmame2003 whether you would similarly be limited. Overall though I am happy that I have been able to get the ones that weren't working before going now.

rbaker

@melbmatt50 You are limited by the romset. AdvanceMAME may have the other games you require. Which games are you wishing to run? Post here and people can tell you what they use.