Mame roms don't want to load...

[malouvious]

Hi there,

I love this site! I've been getting insane chuffties downloading all the old stuff I used to play.

However, I must be being immensely stupid as I just can't seem to get too many of the Mame roms to work :S I'd say around 95% of the roms I've downloaded don't appear to have the necessary files.

I have been able to get one or two to run, so something must be set up right, but the vast majority error with "exit code = 2 (missing files)"

Could anybody give me a nudge in the right direction? Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

Mal

(I've attached a screenshot of what happens when I use the ROMAnalyser in QMC2 for altbeastbl.zip)

[Hot Trout]

It is very hard to say but most likely is that you are using the wrong rom set for the emulator version. What version or whice emulator are u using?

[malouvious]

Thanks for the quick reply

I think they're the same versions, I'm using Mame 0.149 and the roms from
http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/index.php?folder=MAME/Mame-0.149/0.148u5%20to%200.149%20Updates

As an aside, I assumed (probably incorrectly ) that the versions would only be important going upwards (so, 0.149 roms wouldn't work with mame 0.148) Will roms from the 0.148 catalogue only work with mame 0.148?

[Hot Trout]

In most cases yes but there are roms from each set that are specific and never really work properly on other versions.

[silent sniper]

as a mame fan i can tell you a few things.

clrmpro is the way to go with room tools.

xml or mame.exe is better then random .dat found on the web

seems like you have bad mismatch of roms and emulator,the best thing to do is download a complete set of mame roms,the current set of 0.148/149 in merged mode is around 29Gb and split mode is around 44Gb.

download it once and forget about auditing and spending hours upon hours on rom audit.

keep in mind tough,that if you just want to play some games you better off downloading them one by one,mame have around 8000 roms,working roms are around 1500.

so if you don't want alot of non working roms or hundreds upon hundreds of casino/mahjong roms then stick to one by one.

and always use the right version for the right set

[malouvious]

Thanks for the help guys! Looks like I just need to play about with the versions a little more then

[Hierophant]

Hey malouvious

It looks like the problem you're actually having is that you've only downloaded an update set. Check it out:

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/inde ... older=MAME

The MAME 0.149 set here is only 768.44 MB, whereas the MAME 0.144 set is a whopping 41.41 GB. That basically means the 0.144 set is the most recent full set (not including CHDs), while the 0.149 set is just one of the update sets that has been offered since then.

An update set here only encompasses those ROMs which have been updated in MAME since the last full set. It helps save duplication of files.

You can either merge a full set with any necessary update sets by using clrmamepro (less work if you have many games but tricky to learn), or by doing it manually (a simple operation but could be a lot more work depending on how many games you want).

On the other hand, you could roll back your MAME version to 0.144 and get your games from the 0.144 set and be guaranteed maximum compatibility without the need for merging any sets.

[Hot Trout]

Also worth pointing out that if you can wait, later this year we hope to have more storage on the server which will allow us to upload the complete 0.150 Roms and CHD's.

[PMJPlay]

I am doing what I can to upload every derivative of MAME v0.150 for the full romset

[4irraid]

clrmpro is the way to go with room tools.

I second this

keep in mind tough,that if you just want to play some games you better off downloading them one by one,mame have around 8000 roms,working roms are around 1500.

so if you don't want alot of non working roms or hundreds upon hundreds of casino/mahjong roms then stick to one by one.

If you're like me, malouvious (or anyone else for that matter), wanting to find out what game a rom represents (especially after merging/splitting roms in clrmamepro) go here to check. This site's the only one I've found thus far that has updated info on roms. Happy hunting.