How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide

[MortalWombat]

Hello all, I'm new to RaspPi and these forums, just got a Pi4 and had ultimately been hoping to configure it to play arcade/Neo-Geo games, classics like Space Invaders, to 4-player games, and more high-end stuff like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2-- and know that arcade ROMs are a bit more complicated than your standard console ROMs-- so I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions.

2 hardware-related questions though:

1. Knowing that arcade games are a little more complicated, I've almost resigned myself to needing to 2 Pis, 1 for the NeoGeo and other arcade games, and one for just basic 8- to 16-bit home console games, in part because I've heard you want about a 32- 128gb MicroSD card to save the larger arcade ROM files (my RP4 came with 8GB RAM-- don't know if that's enough processing power to play something like a NeoGeo game without slowdown-- but with just a 16GB MicroSD card, so I already anticipate have to buy a bigger one).

Is that really necessary though? Have you all been able to fit/play both home and arcade games on one Pi?

2. I'm also hoping to develop a Pi that can play up to 4-player games, like the arcade TMNT, Simpsons, etc.

Have any of you done this? Is it as simple as plugging 4 controllers in the RP4's 4 USB slots, or would you need a USB extender??

Thank you!!

[dankcushions]

@mortalwombat said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

2 hardware-related questions though:

1. Knowing that arcade games are a little more complicated, I've almost resigned myself to needing to 2 Pis, 1 for the NeoGeo and other arcade games, and one for just basic 8- to 16-bit home console games, in part because I've heard you want about a 32- 128gb MicroSD card to save the larger arcade ROM files

for the recommended arcade emulators it’s more like 10-20gb, and the entire neogeo catalogue is ~2gb, and that’s presuming you want EVERYTHING.

(my RP4 came with 8GB RAM-- don't know if that's enough processing power to play something like a NeoGeo game without slowdown-- but with just a 16GB MicroSD card, so I already anticipate have to buy a bigger one).

the lowest RAM pi4 would be enough. you will likely want a bigger SD card (or external/thumb drive)

Is that really necessary though? Have you all been able to fit/play both home and arcade games on one Pi?

i’ve got everything i want across all systems on a 32gb usb drive.

2. I'm also hoping to develop a Pi that can play up to 4-player games, like the arcade TMNT, Simpsons, etc.

Have any of you done this? Is it as simple as plugging 4 controllers in the RP4's 4 USB slots, or would you need a USB extender??

assuming your pi has enough power to drive the controllers, and you don’t have anything else using the slots, it’s fine.

[MortalWombat]

@dankcushions said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

the lowest RAM pi4 would be enough. you will likely want a bigger SD card

Really appreciate the reply/clarification, @dankcushions . So you're saying that 8GB of RAM should be sufficient to run most arcade games (I don't expect to play anything much newer than say 2001/Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 or whatever), but that generally a 32GB MicroSD is enough to carry RAMs for all systems?

Out of curiosity, how many consoles/systems do you have on yours, and what's the newest one? I've heard that consoles like the Playstation, Neo-Geo, N-64 & Dreamcast can experience emulation problems-- and of those, I'd probably only want to play about 10-15 Neo-Geo games-- but most of the guides I've seen (including that https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/ one) haven't even covered the PI4 yet. Thanks!!

[dankcushions]

@mortalwombat said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

@dankcushions said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

the lowest RAM pi4 would be enough. you will likely want a bigger SD card

Really appreciate the reply/clarification, @dankcushions . So you're saying that 8GB of RAM should be sufficient to run most arcade games (I don't expect to play anything much newer than say 2001/Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 or whatever)

i am not aware of any emulation situation where the the lowest RAM pi4 means that RAM is a bottleneck.

but that generally a 32GB MicroSD is enough to carry RAMs for all systems?

no not at all. for example, if you wanted the entire catalogue of CD-based systems like the playstation, then that could be in the terabytes alone. for the subset of games i play, it's enough, but only you know how much space the roms you want to play takes up.

Out of curiosity, how many consoles/systems do you have on yours

probably about 20

and what's the newest one?

psp i suppose.

I've heard that consoles like the Playstation, Neo-Geo, N-64 & Dreamcast can experience emulation problems-- and of those, I'd probably only want to play about 10-15 Neo-Geo games

not sure i follow. neogeo games are on the... neogeo system :)

-- but most of the guides I've seen (including that https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/ one) haven't even covered the PI4 yet. Thanks!!

neogeo emulation has been fullspeed since at least the pi2, so the pi3 guidance will be the same for neogeo on pi4 (ie, use fbneo).

[IGA]

Hello)
It' possible to run Killer instinct 1\2 on Rbp4 on a normal speed? Or some 3d- games like tekken or doa maybe?

[Crush]

@iga
Killer Instinct (SNES)
Tekken 1, 2 and 3 (PS1)
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection (PSP)
DOA (PS1)
DOA 2 NAOMI and Dreamcast

If you purely want arcade 3D fighters then NAOMI games trough flycast is your only option.

[IGA]

@crush Yup, i know this variants. Wanted to try arcade

SNES version of KI is so poor... - Here's about run arcade https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjk9XdU3XuzuKAE0VFoKggw

[Crush]

@iga Should probably ask him how he did it then, cause the mame version runs nothing like that at all.
Edit: he does indeed not use MAME, and he has to run it on an unstable overclock of 2200. So no, you can't really play the arcade version of KI on a RPI4

[IGA]

@crush He use ultra 64 3.11. And said that is work better on twister os ( as we see he just runs it thru wine and box86). Also he promised release a video with manual how integrate it in RetroPie

@crush said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

and he has to run it on an unstable overclock of 2200. So no, you can't really play the arcade version of KI on a RPI4

• so what the problem?
  Paste in Config.cfg lines:

arm_freq=2200
gpu_freq=750
gpu_mem=512
over_voltage=8

[dankcushions]

@iga said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

gpu_mem=512

not a great idea: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Memory-Split/#raspberry-pi-4

[IGA]

@dankcushions maybe....
Ok, there more gentle overclock mode:

arm_freq=2000 (can also try 2145 there)
gpu_freq=750
over_voltage=6

[Crush]

@iga said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

@crush He use ultra 64 3.11. And said that is work better on twister os ( as we see he just runs it thru wine and box86). Also he promised release a video with manual how integrate it in RetroPie

@crush said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

and he has to run it on an unstable overclock of 2200. So no, you can't really play the arcade version of KI on a RPI4

• so what the problem?

As i stated it's not stable, thats a pretty big problem.
I mean its a nice testcase, but not really a viable solution on the Pi4

[Kchavpro]

can someone please explain how I can get and install mame2010 to use MAME 0.139u1, I feel so stupid just looking around on every page and not knowing how to install mame2010 but seeing everyone talking about having it, I have the raspberry 4 and the only options I see are

125 mame

236 Ir-mame2003-plus
239 Ir-mame2015
240 Ir-mame2016
242 Ir-mame

may someone please help me or maybe point me to the right direction?

[BPJerseyboy]

@kchavpro This is a pretty easy fix. You aren't seeing 2010 because it is optional and you have to install it.

Hit start on your controller and select "Quit", then "Quit Emulationstation" and it will put you into command line. Type the following spaces and caps exactly as shown:

sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

That will bring you into the back end menu. You can also do this through the graphical menu by going to Retropie and then choosing the "Retropie Setup" option in the menu but I don't recommend it.

I recommend getting used to doing it through the command line to get comfortable with it. As you get better with this you may want to change other things and certain changes require you quit Emulationstation in order for the changes to commit, so it's best to practice.

Hit "Manage Packages" then "Manage Optional Packages". Scroll down until you see "lr-mame2010" and hit enter or A on you controller. I think it's line 239. You can install either via source or binary, but know that source will take a lot longer, so be patient.

Once the install is done, back out of the menus (escape key) until you get to one with an option to reboot. Hit reboot and wait for it to restart. If you back out too far and end up back in the command line, don't worry. Just type "emulationstation" and hit enter. It will restart the graphical interface.

Now when you go to configure a machine in MAME, 2010 should be in your list of options.

A little detail on the topic here. https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#manage-packages If you need visuals. Search the web for "Install Optional Packages Retropie". There should be some good videos out there.

Good luck!

[mitu]

@Okinoto No, you can't and your reply is totally off-topic on this forum. Next time you'll break the forum rules, your account will be banned permanently.

[George Spiggott]

@dankcushions said in How to use MAME with RetroPie - Help Guide:

simply, you had a 0.139 romset (or closer) so mame2010 was the only one that was ever going to work for you. but if users are going to ignore the documentation and just download a random romset, rather than the one appropriate to the mame emulator they want to use (eg, mame2003 is 0.78), then what's the point of us setting a default? :)

This is one of the things that absolutely foxed me as a beginner to MAME emulation. I wonder if we're too far down the road now for the MAME cores to be renamed to something more descriptive, like MAME2003 being called MAME2003/078 or something similar.

[dankcushions]

@George-Spiggott it might be nice to display the module description when selecting the default emulator in the runcommand. this should show the version of most MAME cores (although i guess not lr-mame/mame, or any other cores that constantly update/change sets): https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/master/scriptmodules/libretrocores/lr-mame2003.sh#L13

i don't think this is currently shown in this context. can anyone confirm?

[wtstreetglow1]

@Floob Amazing post. Thank you so much for making this for everyone!! (Years later, thank you so much again!)