MAME not running ROMs issue

bollwerk

As you have probably noticed, there are many emulator options for playing Arcade games in RetroPie. With the Pi4, many of them should run fine, but it's still often a "game" of trial and error. Personally, I start with MAME 2003 Plus and FB-Neo, then go from there. On the default installation of RetroPie, some emulators are pre-installed, and others are not. You can add or remove emulators in the RetroPie-Setup tool. Many are under Optional or Experimental, but don't let that scare you. They may work just fine.

Once you have some emulators installed, the next step is to make sure you have roms from the proper rom set. With arcade games, dumps change over time, for a variety of reasons. So it's critical to make sure you have roms that match the emulator version. For example, MAME 2003 (and 2003 plus) are based on MAME 0.78, so you need a rom set specific to MAME 0.78. We don't link where to find these, so you are on your own.

The DAT file is just used to validate the rom set, using a tool like clrmamepro. If you're not sure the rom set is clean and valid, this is a useful thing to do, but it's not for beginners. It takes some time to learn how to use the tool.

Once you have roms, you just copy the roms into the appropriate folder that the emulator will look for them in (this will be in the RetroPie docs).

EDIT - It's worth noting that MAME and FBA/FBN add support for new games with new versions, or improve the emulation quality, so it might be useful to have a list of games you want to play, then find the minimum MAME (or FBA/FBN) that supports them, or the point at which the game was set to "working" status. I've found Arcade Italia useful in this regard, as it has a history of each game supported by MAME - http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/mame.php

dankcushions

@Dan1300 said in MAME not running ROMs issue:

Which brings me to question 1. What is supported by Pi4?

what is “supported” is anything you can install via the retropie-setup script. what is recommended is currently the same for pi3 in your link. in truth, the jury is still out on the best MAME emulators for pi4, but mame2003 and fbneo are a safe bet.

I have done a zillion different things from archive removed (8 hours remaining..yea) to downloading and or running UniBIOS 4

why did you download “unibios 4”? unibios is an optional customised BIOS for neogeo. it is not needed for non-neogeo, and indeed not needed at all for normal function. the completed romset collection for a given MAME/fbneo emulator will contain ALL the required files, including the neogeo.zip neogeo BIOS file.

to clmamepro to the romcenter tool and had zero luck

you shouldn’t need clrmamepro or romcenter for normal function.

I tried the "wack a mole" approach for MAME and FB-NEO, after I have done everything short of buying one with things preloaded.
Is there an easier way to find version numbers or not really?

why do you need to find version numbers? you acquire the romset collection for the version of the emulator you have chosen, and then all the files within will be the right version.

2nd big question: I installed fbneo via Retropie but the folder is empty (in the Arcade folder) so do I need .dat files in there or did I miss something altogether?

no dat files are needed. again just follow the docs and it will tell you what to do. if you’re having problems please refer us to the exact step you’re stuck with.

Dan1300

@mitu Sorry about that. I did forget.

Dan1300

Weird how it happens.... I got the MAME files from the archive and man do I miss playing Aliens in the arcade. That was my test game.

For future people reading this....
Get the ROMs from a reputable site, DONT RENAME YOUR FOLDERS (that's how I got Neo Geo working) and be patient.

Looking back its still maddening.

Dan1300

Yep another question... MAME ver .185 doesn't seem to exist outside of MAMEdev but I have a ton of those ROMs so....

Which version of MAME or FBA works for these .185 ROMs?

I got the 185s from the archive.

As always.... Thanks for your time.

dankcushions

@Dan1300 said in MAME not running ROMs issue:

Yep another question... MAME ver .185 doesn't seem to exist outside of MAMEdev but I have a ton of those ROMs so....

Which version of MAME or FBA works for these .185 ROMs?

as you can see from the first table in https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/, no version of MAME supplied with retropie supports this romset version.

be sure to follow https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/ in the order it dictates - choose emulator, then get romset version for said emulator. if you start with a random romset, it will invariably be for an unsupported version.

bollwerk

It is perhaps worth noting that, I believe it's possible to create a romset for any version of MAME, by using the latest romset, the latest "rollback" romset, a DAT file from the version of MAME you need a set for, and a tool like ClrMamePro.

Dan1300

@dankcushions I figured that but I rather ask the question, than not, and wonder where I went wrong.

You just confirmed what I figured my next step is.

dankcushions

@bollwerk said in MAME not running ROMs issue:

It is perhaps worth noting that, I believe it's possible to create a romset for any version of MAME, by using the latest romset, the latest "rollback" romset, a DAT file from the version of MAME you need a set for, and a tool like ClrMamePro.

yes, but the romset collections for the recommended MAME/fbn emulators are very available, so i would save yourself the bother.

Riverstorm

@Dan1300 @bollwerk said in MAME not running ROMs issue:

It is perhaps worth noting that, I believe it's possible to create a romset for any version of MAME, by using the latest romset, the latest "rollback" romset, a DAT file from the version of MAME you need a set for, and a tool like ClrMamePro.

I agree I think it's worth noting and worth bothering to learn to use the tools depending on your setup. With current MAME and the rollback sets you can build any version of MAME from the beginning of development for RetroPie or other projects outside the RP scope.

You can build partial or full sets which is handy if using multiple cores with "Arcade" for RetroPie and only need a few games from a specific ROM set or a few per core.

It works fine for vanilla MAME to just get the set from whatever source. If using mame2003-plus or fbneo who's rom sets are ever changing it's a big plus to know the tools but you'll still need to track down some miscellaneous or decrypted ROMs that may not included in the official MAME set when rebuilding.

I find it easier to grab the current DAT once in a while for a changing core to complete a set vs. following every commit to grab the added/updated ROMs.

Also mame2003-plus has the source driver files in the DAT which allows you to build subsets like neogeo only or cps1, cps2, cp3 or whatever combination you want. Now if we could only have the region information.

Along with the rollback CHDs you can include those also in your sets too which is usually v3 with the older cores. A few games with CHDs run acceptably on the Pi 4.

Mame2003-plus has support for UNIBIOS up to 4.0 if you have a need, want to tweak a setting or experiment, it's a core option.