Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7

mahoneyt944

Mame2003 is not tied to a retropie version. But as newer retropie builds are released, mame2003 also gets new releases. Likely there was a change made since mame2003 was loaded on the old retropie build you have. So to diagnose this we need a few bits of info:

Old mame2003 commit number (old retropie build)
New mame2003 commit number (new retropie build)

Get a rom to load in the core then enter the retroarch menu, the bottom of the screen should display the core name mame 2003 (.78) with the commit number.

Dochartaigh

@mitu said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

There may be some changes in the MAME 2003 version that changed the name of the romset or some files within it. Have you verified the ROM with the MAME 2003 .dat file ?

Just wanted to add that I just finished running that .XML file you linked me to in ClrMamePro and it looks to be full of errors, like a more than a few. I could be reading into this incorrectly as I'm NOT an expert whatsoever, but it doesn't seem to be based off the official Mame 2003/0.78 DAT. It found these errors:
https://pastebin.com/gNckDiT7

Now when I run my same set through the official .DAT file provided by Progettosnaps (that's the website with the older .DAT archives who I believe people from the official MameDev team run, and link to from mamedev.org) for my same mame2003/0.78 set it comes back 100% correct to my set:
https://pastebin.com/uAhucPLq

My set and the .DAT file) also matches exactly (like the .DAT files have matching checksums) what's on a certain Archive most of us are familiar with, so I'm totally confident I'm using the correct official verified set. (or I could be messing up ClrMamePro who knows lol ;)

This might not apply to my exact issue as guardian.zip isn't in the error log either way, but it still worries me as my issue is at heart because things aren't matching when they should!

mahoneyt944

@dochartaigh I solved this already. I'll be pushing a patch soon. I'll let you know once it's submitted so you can update.

Dochartaigh

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

@dochartaigh I solved this already. I'll be pushing a patch soon. I'll let you know once it's submitted so you can update.

You're the man! Thank you!!!

I was just reporting back that the runcommand options screen didn't say the build number, neither did RetroPie Setup when I go to main packages (closest numbers was Oct 21, 2020 for the 4.7.1 lr-mame2003 build).

mitu

@dochartaigh said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

I was just reporting back that the runcommand options screen didn't say the build number

That's not where the version/commit number is shown, as @mahoneyt944 said:

Get a rom to load in the core then enter the retroarch menu, the bottom of the screen should display the core name mame 2003 (.78) with the commit number.

mahoneyt944

@dochartaigh ok go into retropie setup, manage packages, main packages, mame2003, then update from source. This will take about 25 minutes or so. From source is important to get the new update. Then retest your guardian.zip rom

mahoneyt944

And to follow up on your xml dat.....the errors you have show that you're missing 7 games. These are mostly hacked games and clones of roms that were already supported.

The clones, like monster maulers, is just an english version of Kyukyoku Sentai Dadandarn (Japan).

The mortal kombat plus games are free to get here.
https://www.mortalkombatplus.com/

No copyright material is included.

Dochartaigh

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

@dochartaigh ok go into retropie setup, manage packages, main packages, mame2003, then update from source. This will take about 25 minutes or so. From source is important to get the new update. Then retest your guardian.zip rom

Works! Thank you so much for you help and speedy fix. Now I can bask in the glory of one of the most cheesiest early 90's games lol!

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

And to follow up on your xml dat.....the errors you have show that you're missing 7 games. These are mostly hacked games and clones of roms that were already supported.

Thanks for the info. To add to the confusion I'm also finding there's some "U1/2/3/4/5/6" sets (haven't figured out what the "U" actually stands for) but there's like 6 other .DAT files for Mame 0.78 - like incremental updates which I didn't think they did before the mame2004 set came out - so who knows which exact set (subset?) lr-mame2003 is using as it's basis either.

mahoneyt944

@dochartaigh well the beautiful thing about mame 2003 is you can generate your own dat file which will always match the version you're on. Open the mame menu and select "generate xml dat". It will save a xml dat file in your save directory.

Dochartaigh

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

@dochartaigh well the beautiful thing about mame 2003 is you can generate your own dat file which will always match the version you're on. Open the mame menu and select "generate xml dat". It will save a xml dat file in your save directory.

Can you tell me more about this please? I loaded up a game in lr-mame2003 and couldn't find any menu item (even after closing the game and just being in retroarch's menu) to "generate xml dat". Google says that mame2003-plus can do this, but didn't find anything about mame2003.

mahoneyt944

@dochartaigh it's accessable from the mame menu. Enter Retroarch menu(select + x) after you load a rom in the core, quick menu -> options -> display mame menu -> on. Then return to the game screen to use the mame menu.

If your default mapping is still present you can press tab on a keyboard to toggle it on.

Dochartaigh

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

@dochartaigh it's accessable from the mame menu. Enter Retroarch menu(select + x) after you load a rom in the core, quick menu -> options -> display mame menu -> on. Then return to the game screen to use the mame menu.

Beautiful! Thanks. Actually showed up in Arabian Magic (arabianm.zip) I was playing without having to turn on the mame menu (I was looking for the 4-player option and happened to find it). 19mb - I'll run it against the ROMs I have in ClrMamePro.

While I have you here, since you seem to be the expert with mame2003 (and I assume knowledgeable for mame/arcade stuff overall, especially for Raspberry Pi's), I have a question for you: for years I've been discounting games which say "doesn't work" in the google doc mame/arcade compatibility lists (there's 3 main ones) the official RetroPie Docs on this website link to.

I'm going through a 3-4 player game list I found online with ~40 games, and was cross referencing those lists to see which emulator I should try them out in on my RP4. I'm coming to the realization I maybe shouldn't be trusting even a single one of those lists as I took a chance and tried out those "doesn't work" ones anyway, and I'm not even a third through the list and a TON actually DO work well so far.

My question is: where should I turn to for better info? Is there someplace I'm missing? Every one of the lists in the official docs seem to be WAY outdated, like in numerous ways:

• The one listed on the official RetroPie Docs for FinalBurn Neo is outdated and seems to be the old list for fbalpha, although fbalpha uses 0.2.97.42, and fbneo uses 0.2.97.44. Several of these games so far ALSO worked! No "RP4 Status" column despite that model being out for ~1.5 years so far!

• ~~The mame2003 seems to be the best out of all of them, but still doesn't seem to be accurate as some marked 'not working' are working!~~ EDIT, just saw the RP4 tab here - awesome! Going to go back through.

• And my last resort list, if I strike out in the above (which are the two main emulators I use) is the compatibility list from the overarching RetroPie Doc (the "Arcade" section, which is over top of fbneo and mame2003). That one is going to be where people look first, and that links to a "Retropie Arcade Logbook", which says "MAME .171 FULL" in the header... which unless I missed it there doesn't even seem to be a .171 emulator listed anywhere in the Docs so I don't know where that's even from and from how long ago it was created... or how out of date it really is...

(they all seem to have a lock icon on each tab so I can't edit any of these 3x above lists myself either – to make them more accurate, they're all locked and the link to the Github -where I assume it might say how to update them or ask for access, is broke in each doc as well lol...)

Sorry for writing the above novel but I'm trying to expand my playable mame/arcade library and bad data is kinda throwing a wrench in those efforts and wanted to ask somebody who really knows there stuff if there's something I'm missing.

mahoneyt944

@dochartaigh none of the compatibility charts are very accurate. I would just try them out and see for yourself. Though you can use the xml dat file for general expectations I suppose.

Just open it in a text editor then search for the rom name. At the bottom of each games data you'll see a line:

driver status= "good" color= "good" sound="good"

This is probably the closest you'll get to a "compatibility list". Don't be discouraged to test a game that has "imperfect" tags as the imperfections may not be noticable to the average user.

Mame2003 and Mame2003-plus get updated pretty regularly by a small group of maintainers which is why compatibility charts are often wrong.

dankcushions

@dochartaigh the compatibility lists are so bad BECAUSE they're open to user contributions and google sheets do not have the collaboration tools to lock them down to the extent where they don't get filled with garbage worksheets over time.

for a time we would try to curate them but all it takes is one bot, or a user who uses the wrong romset and thinks that means a game isn't supported, and then they're back to being useless.

so, to that end they have become useless and will be removed from the docs. i'm going to do that today.

Dochartaigh

@mahoneyt944 said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

Just open it in a text editor then search for the rom name. At the bottom of each games data you'll see a line:

driver status= "good" color= "good" sound="good"

This is probably the closest you'll get to a "compatibility list". Don't be discouraged to test a game that has "imperfect" tags as the imperfections may not be noticable to the average user.

That's a good tip, thanks, was seeing that on a new site I discovered as well, http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/lista_mame.php, where they have status for a bunch fo different aspects of each rom (think that one is solely for the most recent MAME though).

@dankcushions said in Mame2003 game runs on 4.3 but not 4.7:

@dochartaigh the compatibility lists are so bad BECAUSE they're open to user contributions

That's what I feared. I would have also liked to help, but looks like that boat has sailed a while ago.

mahoneyt944

@dankcushions why don't you pull the latest xml dat from the mame cores git page then write the game status to a retropie.org page. That could be a decent compatibility list. Each time the page is loaded it grabs the latest xml dat and populates the list:

dankcushions

@mahoneyt944 aren't those statuses what are used to generate the in-game MAME warning message? if not, they should be IMO. if the core knows about them internally, it shouldn't need a user to go out seeking some external document.

besides, my personal feeling is that trying to being so granular about what games work on what isn't what RetroPie should be trying to track/maintain - it would just be so much work. we should focus on documenting RetroPie :)

however, it's something for emulator authors to consider i suppose. for example: duckstation

mahoneyt944

@dankcushions the xml dat is generated from the game tags in the drivers and the warnings when loading are also are grabbed from here. So you could use the xml dat to generate a compatibility list per say that would be fairly accurate to the cores ability. Nothing's perfect though.

My thought is to generate a webpage that grabs the latest xml dat then populates a simple chart. That way it's always live updated.

dankcushions

@mahoneyt944 i think it's a fine idea, but will leave that for the core maintainers for the reasons i've said before.

Riverstorm

@Dochartaigh - Some of the errors are probably due to your ClrMamePro settings. I believe they are minor changes in the DAT but still maintains the original ROM set integrity. Basically it's shuffling ROMs around a bit. Very minor.

Interesting though is I believe the core set has been expanded by several games. I haven't built a set from scratch for a while but by just looking at the errors above it seems to be true.

Which is going to require people to track down some new games if they want to have a complete mame2003 set.

Here's a list of what appears to be new ROMs added. Their may be more but I was just going off the list of errors above.

Mortal Kombat II Plus (Beta 2) - (ROM: mk2p)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Plus (Beta 1) - (ROM: umk3p)
Monster Maulers (ver EAA) - (ROM: mmaulers)
Night Slashers (Over Sea Rev 1.2) - (ROM: nslashers)
Night Slashers (Japan Rev 1.2) - (ROM: nslasherj)
Success Joe (World) - (ROM: scessjoe)