Save and load button function on gamepad for mame games

Robotechvfx

Hi guys, I have my retropie configured for saving on all systems except for mame.
I simply can't find a way in to setup the hokeys on my gamepad the same way like I did for all the other systems that I have.
I need this because I wanna save my progress on pacman since it has 256 levels.
I followed etaprime's tutorial for the game pad hotkeys save and load states

but for mame it seems to not work the same way
Can anyone point me on the right direction?

I'm using mame4all emulator for these arcade games.
I'm running version 4.3 on a raspberry pi 3b on a 64gb sd card.

mitu

@robotechvfx Please add more info - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first. What emulator are you using ?

Robotechvfx

Hello @mitu . I'm using mame4all.

mitu

@robotechvfx The tutorial shown is using a libretro emulator (RetroArch) and it shows the RetroArch save/load bindings. Mame4All is a standalone emulator, so it has its own button/keyboard mapping configuration - press TAB while in game to map the keys in mame4all.
To use the same bindings as in the other systems, try switching to lr-mame2003 from mame4all for arcade ROMS. You can do that with the Runcommand launch menu (see the docs).

jonnykesh

@robotechvfx why? lr-mame2003 is recommended for the Pi3. https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Arcade

Robotechvfx

Thanks guys for pointing me in the right direction. lr-mame2003 actually solves the saving problem that I was having with the classic arcade games.
Yet it's compatibility is not as good as mame4all.
I'm having trouble finding a Pacman rom compattible with lr-mame2003.
At least now I can save my progress in Galaga and Pang.

dankcushions

@robotechvfx said in Save and load button function on gamepad for mame games:

Thanks guys for pointing me in the right direction. lr-mame2003 actually solves the saving problem that I was having with the classic arcade games.
Yet it's compatibility is not as good as mame4all.
I'm having trouble finding a Pacman rom compattible with lr-mame2003.

by definition, compatibility is much better than mame4all, since it a more modern mame core.

you shouldn't need to 'find' compatible roms - you need to get the right 0.78 romset. pacman works fine, if you have the correct 0.78 non-merged romset. please read https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Arcade

jonnykesh

@robotechvfx said in Save and load button function on gamepad for mame games:

I'm having trouble finding a Pacman rom compattible with lr-mame2003.

Use a ROM from the 0.78 set. This is the set designed to be used with lr-mame2003.
If you are using ROMs from a different or unknown set then you are going to have issues.
"Compatibility" should never be an issue when using MAME as it is designed and intended.

mitu

@robotechvfx It's just a problem of finding the right Romset for lr-mame2003. Take a look at the Arcade section in the docs, there's a list with the rom set version for each of the MAME emulators used in RetroPie.

Robotechvfx

Thanks for your insights. I've found games from romset 0.78 from this link:

CENSORED

Where I found lots of games that I downloaded to my lr-mame2003 rom folder. Most of them work perfectly and I can now save my progress.
But Pacman and king of fighters 94 simply don't work.
Pacman's my main issue here is that It only works on mame4all eventhough it is present on the mame2003 rom compatible list

Any clues why I can't boot pacman on lr-mame2003 or on the Arcade rom folder?
I really need to save my progress in this game I can't keep playing it in mame4all.

dankcushions

@robotechvfx please do not link to rom sites. this is in the forum rules :)

i believe the set you linked to is a merged set. so, to get a merged version of pacman to work, you also need to have its parent rom present in your rom folder, which is puckman.zip.

it's simpler to look for a non-merged set - a pacman.zip from that should work on its own. there should be one on the same site you previously linked to. it will be a bigger download, but there's less messing about.

Robotechvfx

Thanks @dankcushions I didn't knew that I needed the parent rom. Problem solved. It's up and running. Now I can save my progress in Pacman.

Thank you all.
@mitu and @jonnykesh

You've been a great help.