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Hello All,

I purchased a mame cabinet, running mame32 via a dell computer inside of the cabinet. It was running windows 2000. So i decided to upgraded the operating system to windows xp pro 32 bit, and install games to my taste.

I have never dealt with mame before, but I have been reading and trying different things to get it to work. Google lead me in all different directions, but i could not fully get anything to work. I don't think the newest mame (.147) works on xp? I have tried compiling and all different things, but everything has failed.

Is there a set of updated instructions for a true beginner? Ones that tell you setp by step how to install mame? Is there anything i could just basically install and run, with minimal editing, and with room to grow? I am not too particular on games but i like pacman etc,

I have a dell optiplex gx240 1.5 ghz sindows xp pro 32 bit.

Any help or direction would be gratly appreciated. Thanks!

are you sing a front-end, like MAMEUI? with no front end, it requires you to use the command line, which for a simple setup is unneeded. There are some, especially the online versions (usually denoted by a 'k' for 'kailerra') that are full installs of mame+frontend to quickly get you into the game.

i dont have anything now, but i want something like u mention to get me into it with knowing everything. where can i get this k. software? Also i was reading that i could add a jukebox also. is there a all in one?

You really need to talk to stinow. He is the undisputed master of this. You should search this forum for his posts on setting up mame, making cabinets and creating hyperspin collections.

He should see this soon and respond.

http://www.kaillera.com/download.php
both the MAME++119 and MAME32k.067 were good online emulator+frontends that I have used and are failry simple and quick to install and setup with no commandline usage.
a more recent (non-netplay) front end is MAMEUI/MAME32 http://www.mameui.info/ I haven't used it in quite a while, but MAMEUI32 used to be fairly easy to setup also.

SE7EN wrote:are you sing a front-end, like MAMEUI? with no front end, it requires you to use the command line, which for a simple setup is unneeded. There are some, especially the online versions (usually denoted by a 'k' for 'kailerra') that are full installs of mame+frontend to quickly get you into the game.

what do you mean by online play? will i not have to load any roms? what mame are you running?

what do you mean by online play? will i not have to load any roms? what mame are you running?[/quote]
online play (or netplay) is a .dll file, such as kaillera, that will allow some emulators to play multiplayer games online. You and another person could run a game like X-men vs Street Fighter or Armor Slug over the internet.
As far as the mame I run, I don't have any installed at the moment since I don't play the games that often, but I keep backups of several versions (and a large amount of roms) on my RAID drive. Besides the current version of MAME x64, I also have MAME PLUS 0.135 r4458 x64, MAME PLUS 0.143 r4891, MAME UI64 .145u8, MAME 32k 054, MAME++119, and mame32-067-414-ka09 archived. A lot of games have issues with various versions of MAME, so I like to keep several for the most compatibility.

Ok, I've made some progress, but I am having some issues after hours of searching for a clear answer. I have Mame with 6000 roms. I have installed Mala front end.

1. How do i launch the program from windows desktop? I dont see where it installed too. whenever i want to open it, i have to go to the exe and re-install all over again. I don't want the pc to boot straight to it yet for editing /set up purposes. Do I launch via mame or mala?

2. I setup different layouts, but they are never there/but i assume since i am installing everytime, it wont be there.

3.I also tried the Mala tree, how do i get the Roms into the correct categorie,s is Romlister the same thing? Is one better than the other?

4. do I need .chd files?

5. I know i am getting ahead of myself, but putting it out there. Is there a certain jukebox that will worl with mala and mame

I am not familiar at all with the MALA front-end, so I won't be able to help you much on that. You should be able to go to the installation folder (usually in C:\Program Files - possibly C:\Program Files (x86)) and run the program from there, or right click on it, and choose "send to desktop (create shortcut)". If you cannot find it, uninstall the program from your control panel, and when you reinstall, make sure to take note of the directory you are installing to. Other options would be a different front-end.
As far as .chd files, you do not 'need' them per se, they are similar to rom files (the zipped folder) they are just a different format (usually much larger) and you would need only the .chds for the games you want to play that require them, most games do not need them. Games like Killer Instinct 2, San Fransisco Rush, and some of the Area 51 games where large enough to be better suited to a disc/hard drive than a chip, and so were stored in a .chd instead.

Ok I will uninstall but the more I read the more complicated it gets.
I only see one version of mala and I have read that I need the correct version for the mame I am running version 122