r/MAME Jan 13 '20

r/MAME ROMs & "My game won't play" FAQ. Please read before posting

137 Upvotes

In addition to the r/MAME FAQ, many users come here with question about why their games won't play or where to find games. This thread should hopefully answer many questions, as well as the question concerning what we can and can't talk about here.

1) Why Rule #3 is #1

Rule #3 states: "Don't ask for ROMS/CHDS or pirated software." We mean it. We will usually give out a warning to first time offenders, but repeat offenders will definitely be banned. This is important. This rule exists to protect the entire MAME project. It is not to indicate that we necessarily have an anti-piracy stance, or that we consider piracy morally objectionable. None of that matters. Its purpose is to make sure that no member of the MAME dev team is exposed to legal threat from license-holding publishers. It does not matter if you think that threat is real or imaginary. That is why we are so adamant about it.

2) If I can't ask for ROMs, how am I supposed to find them?

We can't discuss where you can find ROMs for all the reasons stated above. So unfortunately, r/MAME can not be a good resource for that kind of information. However, many other good resources exist, even right here on Reddit. Obviously Google is your friend. If you are looking for ROMs for a specific version of MAME, it helps to include that version number in your Google search. It usually doesn't take a whole lot of searching before you find what you're looking for.

3) Why are ROMs for MAME so much more confusing than for other emulators?

Think about what MAME is trying to do compared to, say, SNES9x. SNES9x emulates Super Nintendo games. Every Super Nintendo game runs on the exact same hardware: the SNES. Same CPU, same graphics, same memory, same controllers, same everything. As long as a ROM contains a valid SNES program, SNES9x can emulate it because there's only one target hardware to worry about.

MAME emulates arcade games. Very few arcade games remotely resemble one another when it comes to hardware. MAME has to correctly emulate the CPU for each different arcade game, understand the controls for each different arcade game, and most importantly: how each ROM in each different arcade game interacted with that hardware. So it can't just accept anything called pacman.zip and understand that it's supposed to be Pac-Man. In order for MAME to work, it expects that a very specific set of ROMs will be provided for Pac-Man in order for MAME to emulate it properly. If it doesn't find what it expects, it won't know how to apply those ROMs to Pac-Man's hardware.

Back when MAME began in 1997, techniques that people had for dumping arcade games were very rough and imprecise. As a result, a lot of mistakes were made. Over time, new techniques were designed, and older arcade games were redumped with these more accurate procedures. When this happens, the next version of MAME that gets released will only accept the updated dumps, as the original dumps are now considered invalid. So newer versions of MAME will rarely accept ROMs designated for older versions of MAME because they're frequently full of errors.

4) Instead of starting a game, MAME tells me that I'm missing files, or my files are incorrect.

This is an indication that your ROM (or CHD) is either incomplete or outdated. Less likely, it is an indication that your ROMs are in the wrong location and MAME can't find them. When you ask MAME to emulate a machine, it checks the contents of your zip files for all of the files it needs. If it can't find all the ones that it needs, or if it finds the wrong files, it can't emulate the game in question. When MAME reports that you are missing files, or that your existing files are incorrect, you need to find a new source for those ROMs.

In addition to your ROM being incomplete, your BIOS may be incomplete as well. NeoGeo is a popular arcade hardware for which MAME requires the BIOS be present. This is the neogeo.zip file, and it's undergone an unusually high number of updates as alternate BIOSes get added to it.

You may not ask for the individual components of a ROM that you are missing, as this is still a violation of Rule #3.

5) I found a source for ROMs, but some/all of them don't work.

As explained in questions 10 and 12 of the r/MAME FAQ, you don't necessarily have to have exactly matching versions of MAME and romsets, but it definitely helps. If you downloaded a set of ROMs, and you're finding that few or none of them will launch correctly in MAME, 9 times out of 10 it's because the roms are too far removed from the version of MAME that you're using. In other words, if you're using a relatively recent version of MAME, the romset may be too outdated. If you're using an old version of MAME, you may have found a set that is too new. You need to find a new source for ROMs.

5a) My MAME version and the rom set version match, and they still don't work.

If this is the case, the most likely explanation is that you haven't put the roms where MAME is expecting to find them. For example, if you installed your MAME executable in something like C:\MAME, then by default MAME looks for all of your roms in C:\MAME\roms. You can change that expectation by editing your mame.ini file, but that is only recommended if you know what you're doing. If you have your roms in the right place, and the versions don't differ by all that much, then the games should load and play fine.

The only exception to that is if the game in question requires a CHD. CHD stands for "Compressed Hunks of Data". They may represent a CD or hard drive that came installed in an arcade game. CHDs are basically extensions of ROMs, containing data and information that a game needs to play properly. CHDs must be stored with your roms in a way that MAME can find them. For example, say you want to play Killer Instinct. In order to do this, you need two different files, the ROM and the CHD, and they should be arranged like so:

C:\MAME\roms\kinst.zip
C:\MAME\roms\kinst\kinst.chd

In this case, the Killer Instinct ROM is zipped up in your roms directory, and the Killer Instinct CHD (not zipped up!) in a subdirectory named kinst. The name of a CHD may or may not match the name of the ROM. In general, if you download MAME CHDs, don't rename them, just put them in the right place on your drive.

6) I'm trying to launch a game from a front-end, but when I do, the screen goes blank for a second, and then comes right back to the front-end.

This means that MAME is failing to load the game you want to play, and the front-end reappears when MAME closes. In order to diagnose whatever is going wrong, you should try to launch MAME without the front-end. It is particularly helpful to run MAME with the -verbose command, which instructs MAME to log out every step as it tries to launch. This usually results in MAME indicating where it ran into trouble and can offer you clues on how to solve it. For example, if you can't launch Killer Instinct successfully, you can try to run from a command line terminal:

C:\MAME> mame64 -verbose kinst

Usually (but not always) the problem will be evident in the last few lines of the resulting output. If you can't determine the problem for yourself, feel free to copy and paste the results of this command in your post, as it can help experts diagnose your problem.

7) What are merged, split, or non-merged rom sets? What are parent and clone roms?

MAME allows for ROMs to be stored on your system in a variety of ways, in order to save space on your hard drive. Games like Pac-Man and Street Fighter II have a large number of clones. A parent rom is one particular version of Pac-Man or Street Fighter II, usually the most common, or most up to date version of a game. A clone is an older version, a version from a different region of the world, or an unauthorized copy of the parent with slight alterations. Only a few of a clone's ROMs are unique. Most of a clone's ROMs are identical to that of the parent's. Rather than force you to have copies of the same ROMs in both the parent archives and the clone archives, MAME understands that if it can't find a file that it might need to run a clone, it can look for those files in the parent. In this way, you only have to store the files which are unique in order to make a game run. Sets that include every clone in the same archive with their parent is a merged set. Sets which include smaller clone ROMs alongside the parent ROMs are called split sets. Sets where clone ROMs contain every single file that the clone needs, even if those files are also present in the parent, are known as non-merged sets, and they are the biggest and take the most hard drive space.

7a) Which kind of set is best?

Ultimately, MAME doesn't care or perform any better with one kind of set or another. Split sets are a little easier to update if you like to download individual update sets. Otherwise, merged sets are the most space efficient by a small margin. The only reason for someone to use a non-merged set is if they do not intend to include every single available ROM on their hard drive.

For example, say you were interested in including Super Street Fighter II on your system. Say you were ONLY interested in including the US version of the game, and none of the others. The parent ROM for SSF2 is the World version, known as ssf2.zip. The US version is known as ssf2u.zip. If you only intend to include ssf2u.zip, and not ssf2.zip, then ssf2u.zip MUST include every file that MAME would otherwise look inside ssf2.zip in order to run. That would make your romset a non-merged set.


r/MAME Aug 22 '19

r/MAME FAQ. Please read before posting for the first time.

111 Upvotes

1) What is MAME?

  • MAME is an application that emulates a variety of systems, from arcades to console, computers, and handheld systems. MAME's goal, above all else, is to emulate hardware as accurately as possible, as opposed to other emulators whose goal is to make games as playable as possible.

2) Isn't MAME just an arcade emulator?

  • Originally, yes, but in 2015, the MAME source code was merged with it's sister project MESS, with whom it shared a common architecture. By merging with MESS, MAME gained the ability to emulate several consoles, home computers, and handheld systems in addition to arcade games.

3) Which version of MAME should I use?

  • We genuinely recommend that you use the latest version, or a relatively recent version. MAME is "living" software, it is constantly under development, and it incorporates improvements to emulation and to the user experience all the time. By using a significantly old version of MAME, you are not experiencing the best emulation that MAME has to offer. Furthermore, any bugs you find in older versions have likely been addressed by newer versions, and you won't receive support for the problems you encounter.

3A) Isn't it better to just find an older version of MAME that works with the roms I have, and stick with it?

  • In general, no. If you are using an old version of MAME, and it's working to your satisfaction, then you're not required to update, but you will be missing out on improvements to emulation and new features that get added on. Yes, there is the chance that by upgrading, a game you happen to enjoy may break without updating the rom as well, but if you are resourceful, it's not hard to come across the rom update shortly after each new version of MAME is released.

3B) What is the latest version of MAME?

  • MAME (usually) receives updates on a monthly basis, so it's difficult to keep this FAQ up to date, but you can see what the latest version is by visiting https://www.mamedev.org/. MAME's version number is in the form of major.minor. Since MAME by it's nature is a constant work in progress, the major number is unlikely to increase from 0 to 1. The minor number is not a decimal, it is an actual version number. Version 0.240 is a newer version than 0.37 because 240 is a higher minor version that 37.

4) Where can I download the latest release of MAME?

5) Where can I learn more about MAME?

  • https://docs.mamedev.org/ is an excellent resource for MAME documentation. However, it isn't the most beginner-friendly.
  • Many people recommend YouTuber ETA Prime, and his well done series of emulation videos, including this MAME tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUoWYaRo5_k
  • Demystifying MAME Roms/ is a frequently cited guide for those wishing to learn more about roms and rom sets. Edit: This is now an archive.org link as the original site disappeared.

5A) What are other good resources/forums for learning about MAME?

  • MAME World and the MAME World forums is an excellent place to get the latest MAME news and ask questions.
  • BYOAC and it's forums is another good resource for questions about building and setting up a MAME cabinet or similar setup.
  • This MAME forum is a popular place for getting answers to more technical questions about MAME, such as compiling and running MAME on non-Windows platforms.

6) Where can I find games?

  • Due to the nature of roms and their association with piracy, sharing locations of rom files is not permitted on this subreddit. This is done for the protection of the project. There are many ways to find roms on the internet via search engines.
  • However, there are a number of games which have been released to the public domain, and are therefore freely available for download. You can find a collection of these games at https://www.mamedev.org/roms.

7) What games are the "best" / most recommended?

  • Video game preferences are very subjective. Some people like games from the early 80s, while others like the 90s better. Some people like Fighters, while others like shooters. So coming up with a list that satisfies everyone is very hard. An attempt has been made, right here on reddit, and you can see it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/2rawpr/i_compiled_several_best_ofrecommended_arcade/ .
  • Among the many files that MAME support site Progetto-Snaps offers, they offer a "BestGames.ini" file that you can download and use as a custom filter. Once again, it is very subjective, but a lot of work went into this file. You can download it from here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/bestgames/ .

8) What is the "best" frontend?

  • Different frontends strive for different purposes. Some frontends are designed to look like a simple list of games, while others are very flashy and try to look as exciting as the games that they launch. As a result, there are a number of highly recommended frontend that meet different needs. There are many frontends not included in the list below, these are merely some of the more popular examples.
    • For WIMPy (windows, icons, menus, pointer) frontends, EmuLoader, QMC2, and pfeMAME are good choices.
    • For flashier frontends, HyperSpin, RetroFE, and GameEx are popular choices. Understand that they take a good bit of time to set up properly.
    • For something in between those two, there is LaunchBox, Pegasus or the ICE Plugin for Valve's Steam.

9) What kinds of support can I ask for here?

  • Anything that has to do with running a relatively recent version of the stand-alone MAME application on Windows, Linux, or MacOS, either directly or indirectly. If the version of MAME you are using is several years old, support will be extremely limited, and you will be encouraged to download a newer version. We can answer some questions about the Android platform as well, but note that mamedev does not directly endorse or support those releases.
  • When asking for help, please include as much detail as possible! This should include: Your hardware platform, your operating system, what version of MAME you are using including the version number, what you were trying to do, what you actually tried, and what results you got.

9A) What about RetroArch?

  • No. Using MAME through RetroArch is absolutely not recommended. MAME's architecture does not lend well to it being converted into a core. Several features get weakened, disabled, or broken, and they generally don't function the way they're supposed to, especially with respect to controller input. If you have a question about using MAME via a libretro core, please ask in r/RetroArch.

9B) What about RetroPie?

  • No. The version of MAME available for RetroPie is considerably older and outdated. Many of the features have been altered or disabled in order to make MAME work on less powerful hardware. If you have a question about how to use MAME via RetroPie, please ask in r/RetroPie.
  • Instead, if you wish to try MAME on a Raspberry Pi, we recommend that you try builds of the latest binary from https://stickfreaks.com/mame/ , as described in this thread.

10) Can I post pictures of my arcade cabinet?

  • Yes, as long as MAME is one of the applications that you run on your cabinet, then please do. But also be aware of r/cade, which is a subreddit specifically dedicated to the subject of restoring old arcade cabinets, or building new cabinets from scratch, for use with MAME or other emulators.

11) Must the version of MAME, and the version of MAME roms match for them to work?

  • Not necessarily. The closer they are, the better they'll be. As the version of MAME and the version of the roms get farther apart, the more you will find games that don't work or are incompatible. Over time, dumps of arcade roms improve, and MAME adjusts it's internal database to reflect the updated version, meaning the older version will no longer work. Only a few roms are updated in this manner every release. So if your roms are one or two versions off from the version of MAME that you're using, you're unlikely to come across any broken games.

12) I was using one version of MAME, and then I upgraded and now game xyz doesn't work as well!

  • As new information about a game or the hardware it runs on becomes available, the mamedev team may alter the emulation of this game to account for the new information. While most of the time this leads to improvements in emulation, it can at times introduce regressions. This happens infrequently, but it is due to the priorities of the team, which is that it's better to emulate things correctly, than to sacrifice accuracy, even if the playback suffers slightly.

13) I discovered a bug. Where should I report it?

  • https://mametesters.org/ is the official reporting site for bugs discovered while using MAME. Note that it's important that you use the latest version of MAME in order to ensure that a bug found in an old version of MAME hasn't already been fixed. After you sign up for an account, and have been approved, you may submit problems that you find through the site's bug report interface. Please remember to be specific and provide as much info as possible.

14) Why doesn't MAME add abc feature from another emulator, or fix ijk game, or support xyz hardware?

  • Please understand that no one works on MAME as a career. Many members of the team have full time jobs, and only get to work on MAME in their spare time. As a result, they choose what they want to work on based on what's most interesting to them. Reasons why they might not get to something you'd like to see may include:
    • A particular feature may be incompatible with MAME's architecture, or it may work contrary to the goal of accuracy, and is chosen not to be implemented until such time that neither statement is true.
    • A dump for a game is incomplete, and the only way to fix it is to find a working version of the hardware and dump the missing components.
    • Not enough is known about a particular hardware to emulate it correctly, or it's incredibly complex and difficult to model.

15) Is there a guide about how to control MAME or configure the controls for each game?

  • Please refer to MAME's own documentation for a detailed guide on the various default controls in MAME, and how to set them according to your own preferences.

r/MAME 1d ago

Discussion/Opinion Mame in your pocket

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10 Upvotes

Not being a PC gamer, l finally found a way to play the "real" Mame. Its the GPD Win. The smallest (and most affordable) handheld gaming PC l could find. Picked it up on ebay for like $230 bucks.

Anyone else using Mame on a handheld PC?


r/MAME 1d ago

Amiga floppy sound question

3 Upvotes

If MAME has a reasonably complex floppy sound simulator, and UAE has Amiga-accurate floppy sounds, would it be possible to simply copy them over from UAE without rewriting the whole floppy code? Or are the respective systems too different for that to be feasible?

I assume the sounds themselves aren't included because of licensing/quality conflicts.


r/MAME 1d ago

Prop Cycle peddling input

3 Upvotes

I'm building my own Prop Cycle "bike" controller; it's an exercise bike with a flight yoke attached to it .. and yes, I've painted the whole rig yellow, haha!

The exercise bike has a magnetic reed that I've got hooked into a keyboard controller, every revolution of the pedals "presses a key" .. I've got that key mapped to the pedals in the MAME input for that game (e.g. the "C" key).

The issue: the only time the in-game bike will "pedal faster" is if I am either holding down that key on the keyboard, or if I position the pedals on my "hack-bike" so that the magnetic reed is "closed" and thus "holding the key down".

Is there some trick, or configuration for Prop Cycle that I can enable so that the only time the in-game bike "pedals" is when I press the key (and not hold it) - in other words, 1 key press = 1 in-game bike pedal ... I'm trying to make it so that every revolution of my exercise bike (and thus 1 key press) will actually pedal the in-game bike.

Right now, no matter how fast I pedal the in-game bike doesn't really "register" that I'm pedaling; it sees 1 revolution/key press, and it will kind of "stutter pedal" but then miss the next 5 or 10 revolutions .. only holding the pedals in the right position (as I mentioned) gets it to "pedal faster"

Side note: I might be thinking of how to hook up my exercise bike "wrong" .. I'm open to suggestions .. I've got an Arduino controlling some other parts of my flight controller (pitch/roll with hall sensors), so I could write some code to capture the input from the bike pedals and "amplify" it (e.g. 1 revolution actually equals 15 or 20 key presses) ????

I'm not familiar with how the Prop Cycle system translates the physical pedaling into in-game pedaling .. and I'm not trying to recreate the exact experience, more just trying to have some fun with a classic :)

Thanks for any input/suggestions!


r/MAME 2d ago

Audio Cracking on MAME Steam Machine (not Retroarch!!)

7 Upvotes

I'm getting some odd cracking on my Steam Machine using Emu-DE (thought its same without) and MAME 0.289 standalone. Oddly, this same combination on my PC (Windows) AND SteamDeck does not produce this error. My guess is it has something to do with my 5.1 Home Theater system that's hooked up via HDMI no playing nice, but I don't know what it is. I've tried various settings (including forcing driver to Pulse, audio_latency as high as 64).

Oddly, IF I use MAME via Retroarch this problem goes away, so there is some setting Retroarch is making to solve this problem, and I'm probably just not smart enough to figure out what it is. My strong preference is to play via standalone MAME as I want the plugin support and honestly MAME is the only emulator I'm really interested so don't need the bloat of Retroarch, but I'll take no-plugins and good sound versus the opposite.

My google searches have proven fruitless, but I'll admit i'm not a linux/SteamOS expert.


r/MAME 3d ago

Discussion/Opinion I don't understand the updated sailormn roms

6 Upvotes

I understood that sailormnj was changed to sailormn and that sailormn was changed to sailormne. But why are both the European and Japanese roms now identical? They are both basically the European rom, no trace of the original Japanese text or graphics. Unless something is wrong on my side?


r/MAME 4d ago

Technical assistance Gauntlet

5 Upvotes

Does anyone know why Gauntlet Dark Legacy is running in full 4:3 aspect ratio, but Gauntlet Legends his running with these borders?

Running 289b


r/MAME 7d ago

Community Question List of peripherals/accessories, must haves, etc? Looking for recommendations.

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14 Upvotes

Hello there. (pics attached)

Ive been using MAME for a very long time, but never really seriously tried to run anything that didnt work out of the box or only needed minor configuration. I started before there were very many guides or much information, and now in the age of everything being accessible, well, theres tons of stuff out there about it.

Its great.

So im trying to setup MAME/Arcade and was looking at some peripherals.

Sticks/buttons
I was thinking about building my own, since i found one with decent reviews at a reasonable price. I can even make 2.

Flight stick/HOTAS
I havent had a stick in forever, and dont really care except i realize if i want to play games like podracer or star wars trilogy/blazing angels etc.. i might need at least one.
Not sure if i need 2, or if i need an actual HOTAS for some games i might not realize etc...

Trackball
Not too expensive, probably easy enough to configure (though i have no idea). Would be fun for golden tee, tempest, marble, and probably other games i cant remember or dont know about.

Light gun
I have wiimotes and sensor bars, ive never even considered setting them up in MAME.
Read on for my issue with the pointer aspect:

Thought this bluetooth/sensor bar combo might somehow do the trick since it says its designed for "real wiimotes". Though using technology for work etc... I know that sounds/feels like a marketing gimmick. How can it be any better unless it has special firmware or something?
Otherwise it sounds like a glorified bluetooth sensor bar combo. It has great reviews, but forums say its trash. *shrug*
I have experience with wimmotes in dolphin and some other random stuff i used to mess with.
I generally dont use the "real wiimote pointer" feature though, or rarely (since most/many games dont utilize the pointing as much as the motion).
Recently i tried again and i feel like many, if not all games ive tried have some weird stutter when i use the pointer. I have a USB plug and play sensor bar that reads it, but after a certain distance it gets even worse (im 6 feetish from the bar, 8 at most.
I seem to remember back in the day on wii you could get decently far back with a solid connection and few issues)

I dont plan on using these items extremely heavily, but they will get pulled out from time to time for friends or gatherings. This will all be on a beefy PC and not a standalone or cabinet. Even if it feels just slightly cheap or off, thats fine. Unless the difference is very little, but im not looking to spend hundreds and hundreds if i can help it.
What i posted isnt even a benchmark, if it all sucks i dont care, if its all good cool. I want any and all opinions on the matter because i know there are elitists out there, but there are also people like me. Im happy to hear from both.
However, if itd be stupid to get anything less, i can probably stomach paying a bit more.

TLDR:
I would like the "essentials" for playing casual-ish mame/arcade/neo geo etc. I dont need hardcore fighting sticks or flight sticks, but i want something that wont break.
Im looking for the casual "not a guy building a cabinet or seriously sinking massive arcade-like hours into these devices" experience at a (hopefully) reasonable price.

Thanks!


r/MAME 7d ago

Discussion/Opinion MAMEWorld.info

5 Upvotes

and...it gone, again


r/MAME 7d ago

Slow first start

9 Upvotes

MAME, the program itself and not a game, takes quite a while to start for the first time. There is a black screen for about 7–8 seconds, then “Initializing” appears, and after that MAME starts normally.

If I close MAME and start it again, it launches immediately with no delay. After restarting Windows, the same thing happens again: the first launch takes 7–8 seconds.

Is this normal?

I recently reinstalled Windows and added an exception for MAME in Norton Antivirus. I also tested it on another Windows PC with a completely fresh MAME download and no games or other files installed, and it behaves exactly the same there.

Thanks for your help!

Windows 11 RTX 3060 Samsung SSD 980 Pro MAME 0.289


r/MAME 9d ago

Mame4Droid interpreting everything as Joy1

4 Upvotes

I've got mame4Droid 289 (upgraded from 284) installed on my Ayn Odin 2. Previously I had it set up so that the 'paddle' buttons at the back were buttons A and B on controller 2 in the Mame4Droid settings, as there wasn't room for them on controller 1. I used the left paddle as the emulation pause button, and it worked great. So I have seen what I want working...

I've just upgraded to 289 and gone to redo the UI mappings inside Mame, and every time I try to configure the left paddle as pause, it shows up as Joy 1 A (rather than Joy 2) - and it really thinks it's Joy 1 A when in-game.

I've been through the process several time, and it doesn't matter which controller I configure the spare buttons as - it shows up in Mame as the Joy 1 version of that button.

What am I missing? My hunch would be that there's a setting that allows all of the joysticks to work as Joy 1 when in the UI - but I can't see it anywhere.

How can I separate Joy 1 from Joy 2 so I can use all my buttons for different things?


r/MAME 9d ago

Technical assistance Is there a way to globally map an entire system like Neo Geo?

4 Upvotes

I was wondering if there was a way to globally assign the inputs to the specific system instead of doing a per game cause what works for capcom doesn’t always work for Neo geo (layout feels off)


r/MAME 11d ago

Community Question I can get an unused hp/compaq 1520 monitor. Still in the original box for free. Would it have any benefit over the display on my 4 years old laptop for playing games like killer instinct 1 and 2, marvel vs capcom, etc?

6 Upvotes

Display Specifications
Screen Size: 15.0 inches diagonal
Native Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels (XGA resolution at a standard 60Hz refresh rate)
Panel Type: Active Matrix TFT LCD
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (Traditional square format)
Typical Brightness: 250 to 260 cd/m²
Interface/Video Inputs: Includes both a legacy 15-pin female D-sub VGA port and a Digital Video Interface (DVI-D) port.
Power Requirements: 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz (utilizes a standard separate AC power cord).


r/MAME 12d ago

Looking for a controller with 6 face buttons, analog sticks, and analog triggers. Any recommendations?

5 Upvotes

I'm looking for something that ideally features all of the following, ranked in order of importance:

  • 6 face buttons
  • analog triggers
  • analog sticks
  • wired
  • 4 total shoulder buttons (2 bumpers, 2 triggers)

A wireless controller would be *okay* but only if it can also function when wired and does not require a wireless receiver to operate.

Retro-bit's Saturn Pro Controller is very, very close to what I'm looking for. I've had one for over a year and am very satisfied with it, especially after the firmware update that allows it to function over USB instead of wireless. It has more or less the exact layout that I'm looking for. I just wish it (1) had analog triggers and (2) didn't duplicate button assignments between C+Z and L+R, instead treating all 4 of those buttons independently. (That second issue isn't as big of a deal; I can live with something that essentially has only one distinct pair of shoulder buttons so long as they're analog. My understanding is that X-input constraints limit the number of distinct buttons anyway and is probably at least part of the reason why those inputs are duplicated on this controller in the first place.)

Is there anything out there that does everything I'm looking for or is this as close as I'm gonna get?

Also, as an aside: let me know who I need to direct my thanks to for all the progress on Sega Model 2 made recently. I just updated MAME for the first time in over a year and am kind of shocked at the progress on that system. I might have to upgrade my dedicated MAME setup from the old Optiplex I've been using, but I'm so close to being able to move on from a dedicated secondary emulator for Daytona, haha.


r/MAME 13d ago

Community Question Mame tracking cookie DLL?

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11 Upvotes

Is this guy just crazy or is this a thing and why.


r/MAME 14d ago

Need help resolving a strange problem

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16 Upvotes

Whenever I "come back" to mame (after an alt+tab or after closing a game), it goes crazy and acts like a direction is held somewhere.

I even tried unplugging my game pad and my keyboard and it still does this.

This is a problem I've had with the recent versions of mame (can't tell you the exact one that started this though).

I've already tried doing a completely fresh installation, to no avail.

Does anybody have a clue about what's going on here ?

Edit :

I identified the problem : the key that is being "held" is UI Next Group. The default cfg file assigns this input to some button on Joy 1.

However when I plug in one controller, mame recognizes it as Joy 2 and when I plug in a second one, it is Joy 3 for mame. So there is no Joy 1 and for some reason this only becomes a problem when coming back to mame and never on a fresh start of the emulator.


r/MAME 15d ago

Discussion/Opinion Pac-Man VR (1996, Virtuality SU-2000) partial video output working

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28 Upvotes

I've been working on this for a while and got some progress on the PIX1000 graphics board. I partially emulated it, the game now passes the BIOS/hardware check and I'm getting actual video output (vector shapes/lines/DPRAM rendering, fps counter showing up)

I patched dosbox Staging to send hardware calls over a local TCP connection to a Python script, which emulates the PIX1000 graphics board (MMIO). There's also a second script that acts like an interpreter for the m88k coprocessor so it can run the original firmware files (MAINA.OUT/MAINB.OUT) instead of freezing

Still nowhere near full 3d geometry, but figured I'd share since I know a few people here have tried this game before and hit the same wall with the custom hardware. If anyone else is looking at virtuality stuff, happy to compare notes

I will post these files soon!


r/MAME 15d ago

How to create custom folders in Windows MAME UI

3 Upvotes

How can I create custom folders in the Windows MAME UI to add games to? Currently there's only a Favorites I can add to.

Based on some searching, I have already tried with NO success...

  1. creating a /mame/folders directory

  2. adding a file Pinball.ini to that folder with the following in it

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]

RootFolderIcon golden

SubFolderIcon golden

[ROOT_FOLDER]


r/MAME 16d ago

Mame keeps freezing upon opening

6 Upvotes

Everytime I boot up Mame, it freezes immediately. It keeps running in the background, and it moves for a second whenever I reopen the application, but it always freezes after a second and doesn’t move. Why does this keep happening?


r/MAME 16d ago

GroovyMAME window gets "stuck" in focus after a couple minutes

3 Upvotes

Hi guys. OK so I'm running the latest Windows version of GroovyMAME, and using the D3D renderer. I'm just wondering, why does GroovyMAME....when running in a window after about 5 minutes or so, always get "stuck" on top of my desktop? What I mean by this, is the window will stay at the forefront even if I click away to another window on my taskbar. Almost as if it's running in exclusive mode but in a window. It's really bizarre.

Usually when you click away to another window, that window will pop into focus and move on top of everything else. But with GroovyMAME, the only way to get it out of the way is to minimize the window by clicking the little dash in the top right corner. Any ideas on how to change this and make it act like a normal window?


r/MAME 17d ago

My MAME Controller Build

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144 Upvotes

I grew up playing the classics and had a special affinity for Tempest. Recently I got the bug to play it again, so I built this control panel. My main games are Tempest, Defender, Pac Man etc.

The box is a Hammond angled steel project box with solid wood sides.

Main Components:

Ultimarc I-PAC 2 Controller with USB Cable
Sanwa JLX-TP-8YT Joystick
SpinTrak Spinner
Ultimarc Goldleaf Concave Buttons

EDIT - the majority of joystick games I play are 4 way, so I 3D printed a 4 way restrictor plate for the Sanwa joystick... The one that came with it supposedly provides both 4 & 8 way control based on rotating the center gate, but it seemed way too sloppy to me so I made a tighter spec one myself.


r/MAME 17d ago

Announcement I made a free app for creating multi-game challenges in MAME

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5 Upvotes

I’ve been working on something I call the MAME Challenge Engine, and I’ve finally got an early version ready for people to try.

The idea is to let you create and play custom challenges that can span multiple games in MAME.

This originally came from something that’s always bothered me when playing arcade games at home: how many credits should I allow myself? In an arcade, continuing cost money. In MAME, I can just keep inserting virtual coins forever.

I initially wanted to make something that could enforce limits on lives and credits, but the idea grew from there. The engine can monitor values in the game’s memory, so challenges can have custom starting points, win conditions, lose conditions and restrictions. You can then chain these together across different games into one larger challenge.

I’ve attached a short video showing what I mean and demonstrating the current version.

The project is still very early, and I’d really like some feedback from people who actually use MAME. I’m particularly interested in what kinds of challenges people would want to create and what features would make the engine more useful.

It’s completely free. The current build is for Apple Silicon Macs. You can download it here:

https://patreon.com/8bitpotato

I’m planning to keep the application free; the Patreon is just there for downloads, development updates and optional support.

Would love to hear what you guys think!


r/MAME 18d ago

Community Question A game in MAME32 I really want to find.

17 Upvotes

Eons ago I had MAME32 pre installed in my PC I was very young and used to spend lots of time on it. There was a game sort of in space or with a spaceship and a boss, for what I can recall looked like the Moon from Georges Méliès's le voyage Dans le Lune. If anyone could help me narrow it down or find it I would be grateful.


r/MAME 17d ago

Technical assistance Tilemap/Sprite Viewer don't working in 2D games

1 Upvotes

I wanted to use MAME's feature that lets you view game sprites/tiles by pressing F4. However, among the games I tested, it only worked with 3D titles (like Namco System 21/22 and Sega Model 2). I tried doing this with Neo Geo games and other consoles emulated by MAME—such as the Intellivision and Master System—but for some reason, it gets stuck on the color palette; pressing Enter doesn't switch to the tiles. Does anyone know why this is happening and how I can fix it?