Can't get ROMs to work :(

[audi321]

Hi all,

I've got Retropie downloaded and all the emulators installed, and I've got about 8 ROMs which I want to play (just the popular ones like Galaxian, etc) but of all the 8 I've tried, I can only get 1 working (Galaxian).

Am I just being unlucky, or are these things notoriously hard to get working? They're all MAME ones. For example Scramble, and I've tried 5 different versions from places but nada.

Has anyone any advice for what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks for any help.

PS - Thanks for all your quick replies, I'll check out those pages now.

[rbaker]

@audi321 said in Can't get ROMs to work :(:

Am I just being unlucky, or are these things notoriously hard to get working? They're all MAME ones. For example Scramble, and I've tried 5 different versions

You really need to read this asap: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Then this: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2/forum-rules

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

Then you can play.

[Sano]

@audi321
First please edit your message by removing any name or link of websites providing roms. This is against the rules.
Second, please read the link provided at top of every forum page : https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first
Third, I'll help you by pointing the adequate doc page : https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/ - Basically, you need Mame 0.78 rom versions.

[markyh444]

@audi321 I'd also remove mention of sites where you downloaded ROMs from too. It's against the forums rules.

[markyh444]

@sano DOH, got there before me!

[Sano]

Ok guys, Nice combo ! I think our job here is done :)

[grant2258]

mame roms are complicated. The details are spread across the forums itll try explain it. will make a game name up called zigzag and it has 3 versions zigzag1 zigzag2 zigzag3

zigzag1.zip contains
prg1.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

zigzag2.zip contains
prg2.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

zigzag3.zip contains
prg3.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

snd.rom and gfx.rom are same on all roms

mame can store the roms 3 way there is parent rom in this case it will be zigzag1

first storage method and the prefered method for people that stuggle getting roms working

method none merged
all the roms are zipped like this

zigzag1.zip contains
prg1.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

zigzag2.zip contains
prg2.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

zigzag3.zip contains
prg3.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

method split the parent rom has all the zips and the children zips only have the changed files that are needed
so if you only have zigzag2.zip you will be missing gfx.rom, snd.rom you would have to get the parent rom as well.

zigzag1.zip contains
prg1.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

zigzag2.zip contains
prg2.rom

zigzag3.zip contains
prg3.rom

3rd method merged all files in parent (zigzag1.zip)

zigzag1.zip contains
prg1.rom
prg2.rom
prg3.rom
snd.rom
gfx.rom

then to add to the confusion roms change in mame versions new dumps bad dumps ect so you have to get the right version as well.

you dont want merged romsets for retropie your roms wont all list it has to be split or none merged.

If you are planning on getting the full set go for split to save space

if you only want one or two games of your choice use non merged sets because they have all the roms the zip needs.

I hope this clears things up for you its not the easiest thing to explain.

[audi321]

@grant2258 said in Can't get ROMs to work :(:

if you only want one or two games of your choice use non merged sets because they have all the roms the zip needs.

Thanks for the explanation, I think I'll go with this (if I can find them) as I'm only wanting about 8 games. Cheers.

[grant2258]

ask your friend google

removed

i cant give any links sorry

[herb_fargus]

@grant2258 that's the same thing.

[Riverstorm]

@grant2258 said in Can't get ROMs to work :(:

mame roms are complicated.

This is a pretty good visual representation of how ROM files are arranged in to the 3 main set types in a parent/clone relationship.

I always thought it was the cleanest picture of how to explain it. It gets wordy trying to explain it in written form. It doesn't explain BIOS files or Device Sets but it's a good solid base.

Basically it shows the relationship between the parent and clone when using those different set types. Another way of looking at it is 2 games. Common files are blue and identical that both games use, orange is game 1 and red is game 2.

If you focus on Non-Merged (what people mainly use here) you can see the parent and clone has 4 common ROM files. What makes game 1 and 2 unique is that single different ROM file/chip (ROMs 5 & 6) for each game ("orange" & "red").

Building sets out this way is a huge waste of space if you can imagine a game with multiple clones, multiple common files across thousands of ROMs but it does allow for exact game selection.

I just built a FBA 0.2.97.42 set and it came out to around 27GB Non-Merged. If I store that same exact set as split it's around 14GB. That's a difference 13GB. Big space savings.

@herb_fargus I don't if it would help or enhance the docs to have something like this posted with the written explanation on set types.

[grant2258]

@herb_fargus

sorry didnt think about that too much before i posted