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    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

    I need help with MAME on my RaspberryPi 3

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    help mame roms
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    • cyperghostC
      cyperghost @meleu
      last edited by

      I don't like to sound like an elistist nerd...

      No way!

      img

      ...but if a person is unable to read and understand the really simple and easy to understand MAME guide that @Floob wrote, then this person shouldn't try to play arcade games on RetroPie.

      Honestly MAME is sometimes difficult to understand and to setup, but you're right the guids here a helpfull and should be read 1 or 2 times :)

      meleuM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • meleuM
        meleu @cyperghost
        last edited by

        Trying to help by speaking very very clearly:

        Pretend you are a RPG character and you meet an old hermit who will give you a the item you need to continue your adventure. But the old man will only give that item if you say the magic secret words.

        Now replace "old man" with "google", "continue your adventure" with "play Arcade games", and "magic secret words" with "reference set".

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        cyperghostC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • cyperghostC
          cyperghost @meleu
          last edited by cyperghost

          The solution of your quest can be so easy.

          You're in a RPG and meet @meleu (the wise) at the beachbar who will give you rare item of "The Map of sapienti sat est" you need to play Arcade games. Which direction the character should go to? You can go N-W or E

          N leads to a wrecked and make dubious torrent tracker
          W leads to a huge and all knowing googol
          E leads to Disney Store

          sirhenrythe5thS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • sirhenrythe5thS
            sirhenrythe5th @cyperghost
            last edited by

            Btw....a prebuilt 128GB Image sold for money?
            Bad enough!
            But a 128GB Image without the complete Metal Slug Series and even without Pacman??? 😱
            Cmon, how big is it? 60Kb?
            Might be a good think for lazy people, but i prefer to build my own setup to get everything i want, nothing more!, and even unterstand how it works and why.

            -- Retro-Achievements Username: SirALX --
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            simonsterS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • martinrdgzM
              martinrdgz
              last edited by martinrdgz

              Dose anyone here knows what I've highlighted in RED is? and if would you please explain it to me what it does.!
              0_1500821096982_Untitled-1.jpg

              Insert coin to continue… Keeping retro alive since 1985.

              simonsterS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • simonsterS
                simonster @sirhenrythe5th
                last edited by

                @sirhenrythe5th

                As I understand it @martinrdgz has done the following:

                Downloaded the official RP image and installed it to his Pi
                Downloaded a prebuilt image from elsewhere and extracted the roms directories to his PC
                He is trying to copy the roms to his RP install

                He is clearly confused about the rom versions, but hopefully is now on the right track.

                martinrdgzM meleuM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • martinrdgzM
                  martinrdgz @simonster
                  last edited by martinrdgz

                  @simonster yes you're 100% right

                  Insert coin to continue… Keeping retro alive since 1985.

                  rbakerR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • simonsterS
                    simonster @martinrdgz
                    last edited by

                    @martinrdgz

                    These are the ones I know.

                    "samples" contains a set of sound samples required from some early games (where the audio cannot be emulated for some reason or another)
                    "m37b5s " is the source code that is compiled to build a version of MAME that supports 0.37 roms (you do not need this)
                    "ROMs are Non-Merged" is a note that the Roms rely on parent versions when required (such as the 2 player version of turtles - tmnt2p, requires the 4 player version to work, as it only contains the different roms). There is an article in the wiki on Merged vs non-merged sets.

                    martinrdgzM dankcushionsD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • martinrdgzM
                      martinrdgz @simonster
                      last edited by

                      @simonster Thanks! Also I'm getting the .078 romset too

                      Insert coin to continue… Keeping retro alive since 1985.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • rbakerR
                        rbaker @martinrdgz
                        last edited by

                        @martinrdgz did you read this non technical guide I wrote?

                        https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7247/guide-arcade-games-and-how-to-play-them-a-non-technical-mame-fba-tutorial

                        martinrdgzM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • meleuM
                          meleu @simonster
                          last edited by

                          @simonster said in I need help with MAME on my RaspberryPi 3:

                          but hopefully is now on the right track.

                          The right track starts at reading the Arcade wiki. If this is hard to understand, this track can start at reading the How to use MAME with RetroPie guide or the link posted by @rbaker above.

                          Without reading the docs, it's not the right track.

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                          simonsterS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • martinrdgzM
                            martinrdgz @rbaker
                            last edited by martinrdgz

                            @rbaker My bad, I might have missed it since I’m struggling with researching and understanding all of this, but I’m on it now. Again, I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who has tried to help me understand and offered their support. Thank you so much, you all don’t know how much this means to me.

                            Insert coin to continue… Keeping retro alive since 1985.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • simonsterS
                              simonster @meleu
                              last edited by

                              @meleu

                              Agreed, I think the article by @rbaker is great. I just wanted to make the point that I didn't think he was using a third-party image.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • dankcushionsD
                                dankcushions Global Moderator @simonster
                                last edited by

                                @simonster said in I need help with MAME on my RaspberryPi 3:

                                "ROMs are Non-Merged" is a note that the Roms rely on parent versions when required (such as the 2 player version of turtles - tmnt2p, requires the 4 player version to work, as it only contains the different roms). There is an article in the wiki on Merged vs non-merged sets.

                                pedant alert: it's the opposite :) non-merged means clones don't need parents; all roms work standalone: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Validating,-Rebuilding,-and-Filtering-Arcade-ROMs#crash-course-in-arcade-roms

                                also, i don't know why OP is using mame 0.37b5 - recommended for pi3 is 0.78 + lr-mame2003: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Arcade#step-one-choose-an-arcade-emulator

                                DarksaviorD simonsterS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • DarksaviorD
                                  Darksavior @dankcushions
                                  last edited by

                                  @dankcushions said in I need help with MAME on my RaspberryPi 3:

                                  also, i don't know why OP is using mame 0.37b5 - recommended for pi3 is 0.78 + lr-mame2003: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Arcade#step-one-choose-an-arcade-emulator

                                  It's because he downloaded a 3rd party image with that installed and now he's wondering why his games don't work. Not sure why there's so many responses on trying to help this lazy guy. I stopped helping until he starts with a clean image.

                                  martinrdgzM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • martinrdgzM
                                    martinrdgz @Darksavior
                                    last edited by martinrdgz

                                    @darksavior Look, I don't appreciate you calling me "lazy guy" when you don't even know me. I would like to be treated with the same respect I've been giving others. If you want to start name-calling, I’ll treat you the same way. For all I know, maybe you’re someone who doesn’t have a job and still lives off your parents' income, simply [you don’t understand the responsibilities of life].

                                    Now, I don’t think you'd appreciate me talking to you like this when I don’t even know you. If you don’t have anything good to say, please keep it to yourself.

                                    Also, you mentioned I’m using a 3rd-party image—what I did was extract the ROMs and delete the image. There's no need to get worked up like it’s a big deal. If you think it’s such a problem, I don’t mind deleting everything and getting the ROMs myself. And just to clarify, I never said the MAME 0.37b5 romset came with the 3rd-party image.

                                    Insert coin to continue… Keeping retro alive since 1985.

                                    sirhenrythe5thS caver01C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • sirhenrythe5thS
                                      sirhenrythe5th @martinrdgz
                                      last edited by

                                      Folks, calm down.
                                      It is just about gaming, nothing to get in war.

                                      -- Retro-Achievements Username: SirALX --
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                                      • simonsterS
                                        simonster @dankcushions
                                        last edited by

                                        Thanks @dankcushions , I was tired and started writing non-merged and ended up thinking split sets when writing. Oh well!

                                        So @martinrdgz - each game in the non-merged set is self contained (i.e. doesn't rely on parent games).

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • caver01C
                                          caver01 @martinrdgz
                                          last edited by caver01

                                          @martinrdgz I think the problem with a third party image in this case, even if you are not running that image, is that you really don’t know that the ROMs that are on that image are correct to begin with. They might be, or they might not be. You could be just copying over incorrect ROMs that the person who made that image had wrong all along. There’s no way to be sure.

                                          SO, let’s say you are trying to do the right thing, using the official image, but you are filling it with ROMs from an unknown source. Then, if a game doesn’t work, how can you be sure you have the right version of any ROM? You are relying on that 3rd party image being correct.

                                          Most of the advice here is about getting the knowledge to understand exactly what you need without breaking forum rules about where you can go to get what you need. Understanding MAME is the key to this process. Knowing that each version of MAME has a corresponding set of ROMs that work with it is the point. Sometimes, a given ROM won’t change from version to version and you get lucky, but more often than not, folks don’t understand that the version of the entire set has to match the version of MAME being used, and if it doesn’t, you will eventually come to a ROM that fails even while some of them might accidentally still work.

                                          It is best to abandon that third party image as a source of ROMs and look for the reference sets you need. As others have recommended, using ROMset 0.78 and using it with lr-mame2003 is your most flexible option.

                                          My 4-player cocktail style cabinet built as a custom "roadcase"

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • SanoS
                                            Sano
                                            last edited by Sano

                                            I would add that Retropie is mainly an opensource project, based on Linux.
                                            Free software users/devs are nearly always prone to help people, as long as said people does a minimum of efforts by reading manuals, doing google searchs, or trying to understand what they are doing.
                                            Not that we are necessarily pedantic (I'm a linux user for nearly 2 decades now, and have tried to help people on the internet for nearly as long, so I'm including myself), but :

                                            • docs represents a lot of work to do, and it's not well seen to ask questions without event consulting it
                                            • devs/helpers are nearly always volunteers, doing this kind of stuff on their free time, and answering a question that is well documented is a waste of time that could be better used coding or helping users with more interesting issues
                                            • ...

                                            Here is a classic paper that anyone should read at least once : http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#intro

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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