MAME is a piece of ****

[TheRedEye]

Has anyone put together some kind of frontend that will utilize different builds of MAME and launch whichever one works best for each individual game? Seems like a cool project (though a huge pain in the ass I'm sure).

[Greg2600]

Has anyone put together some kind of frontend that will utilize different builds of MAME and launch whichever one works best for each individual game? Seems like a cool project (though a huge pain in the ass I'm sure).

No I'd call that pretty easy in fact. You're just assigning a path to each game in the front end. In fact, wasn't that the main piece of MAME years back? There was a windows launcher that launched the exe but would use didn't config files per game?

[Pyromaniac605]

Just like to say yeah HATTA has it exactly right. When I started with MAME it was touch and go for a long time. YES using a different revision of MAME form the ROM set causes many issues as MANY games appear to load only to notify about several "missing files" no need to complain about it, that is the way it is end of story. So if you have an older MAME ROM set you need the same version of MAME for the most compatibility. See HERE for a breakdown of different revisions, find the one that matches you ROM VERSION (I am not talking BIOS ROMS I AM TALKING THE ACTUAL SET OF GAME ROMS):

 

http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

 

 

 

If both the MAME program and the ROM set are the same you will notice that most games then load no problem!

 

The game ROMs dont have any version numbers either.

 

-Darren-

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Then to put it bluntly you are screwed. Were did you obtain these roms? You need to either download or get hold of a set of ROMS that you know the version of and then getting a matching version of MAME. If you are not technically inclined and due to the amount of post you have regarding various issues and problems I am gong to assume that is the case, your only hope is to get a hold of matching sets.

[Trooper]

Or just pick the games you want to play, download different versions of Mame and use the trial and error method to find what romset you have.

[Austin]

You are also going to have to really, REALLY dig for certain romsets that actually work, period.. Even then there will be some you just won't be able to get (in working order). That's just the way it works.. Can't complain too much considering it's free.

 

Again, in terms of Neo emulation, you're best off getting a dedicated emulator. I don't recall having many--if any--problems with romsets when it came to a dedicated Neo Geo emu. It's nice having everything in one spot, but it's also not exactly a ton of work to exit out of one program (alt + f4 on a PC) and loading up another..

[Classic Pac]

MAME is frustrating!!! I know I tried it and still can't get it to work for me. You know someone even told me I was using the wrong roms.

[Mirage]

I've never had any issue with MAME at all. I just get the proper version and proper ROM set and all is 100% smooth.

[SRGilbert]

I've never had any issue with MAME at all. I just get the proper version and proper ROM set and all is 100% smooth.

 

Same here, been lovin Mame since 1998!

 

Has it ever been perfect? Of course not. Is it free? Well, yeah! Could we have ever fathomed back in the golden age of arcade games that we could have access to 1000's of arcade games for free? Not in a million years, but we do!

[Ace_1]

MAME even has a fair bit of accuracy problems with Konami games(almost every game I emulate in MAME is made by Konami). Most of the time, the music is either too fast or too slow, the sound balance is wrong, the Stereo is backwards, and in the case of Salamander 2, the sound is weird, there's a graphical error, and lately, it won't even run full speed on my PC while it would run full speed on older versions of MAME. I'm currently running a self-compiled and modified version of MAMEUI v0.136 as a result. I demand nothing less than 100% accuracy with anything emulated.

[NE146]

I hate posting this because I know some people are sticklers about it, but it would be really nice to know where I could just download a good ISO or RAR with any version of MAME complete with tons of games. I used to have it, I used to play the old Star Wars vector game and Arkanoid.

 

I'd say "just get it off usenet". But if you're unfamiliar with that then forget it.

 

Otherwise, if you like torrents you can get whole current mame sets from http://www.pleasuredome.org.uk/

Edited March 21, 2010 by NE146

[jhd]

Maybe I was just lucky -- there are only a small handful of games I wanted to play in MAME. Basically, just titles that are not included in one or another PS 2 classic game compilation (mainly Zaxxon and Moon Patrol).

 

I downloaded MAME, I found the roms I wanted with little difficulty, and then I fired 'er up. My only issue was finding sound samples for a few of the games (for whatever reason, they were distributed seperately from the roms).

 

Are there games that will not run on this version? Undobutedly, but I can play the games that I want to play, and that is all I really care about.

 

As for Neo Geo games, the PS 2 collection includes King of the Monsters and that meets my needs 100%!

Edited March 21, 2010 by jhd

[akator]

Since I learned several years ago about getting the sound samples and making sure ROM versions matched the MAME version, I've had few problems emulating the games I've been interested in. Newer versions of MAME often add compatibility for later titles I don't care about, so once I've had a good working setup I rarely upgrade. I only upgrade if I'm force to when I upgrade operating systems and older versions of MAME are unavailable for my new OS. Of course, that doesn't happen often

 

Most of the arcade games I emulate are from the 70s through early-90s. There is no way in hell I could afford to collect, store, and maintain all of those machines. MAME isn't perfect, but with an X-Arcade controller it's the only realistic option I have available. I've built MAME cabinets over the years, and the only mild complaint has been that I didn't have dedicated cockpit cabinets for the racing and flight games.

 

There are a few "later" titles I haven't had any luck with in MAME, like Virtua Fighter and Ridge Racer, but it isn't a big deal to me because I have consoles versions of those same games that run fine on PSX, Saturn, and Dreamcast.

 

Like most emulators,MAME takes a little time, research, and experience to get things right, but once that happens it is an awesome, reliable, and enjoyable emulator

[SRGilbert]

Heck even a lot of the so called "official" compilations available from Atari, Namco and others aren't always 100% accurate, and these are games that Mame does pretty much dead on.

[Pyromaniac605]

Well im just not going to worry with it its to big of a hassle.

 

-Darren-

[Trooper]

Well it's your loss. As akator says it takes some time and research to get it running right but once you put some time into configuring it Mame is great. No it isn't "plug and play" but if that's what you want I'd recommend buying one of the official compilations for modern day consoles or just get one of the plug and play joysticks that are everywhere.

[Pyromaniac605]

Well it's your loss. As akator says it takes some time and research to get it running right but once you put some time into configuring it Mame is great. No it isn't "plug and play" but if that's what you want I'd recommend buying one of the official compilations for modern day consoles or just get one of the plug and play joysticks that are everywhere.

 

Well i've been thinking i might bug my dad to get the whole family for christmas a MAME cab or cocktail/table but they are $2K - $3K.

 

-Darren-

[Mirage]

Just get MAMEburners to send you a complete copy of the newest ROM set, then download that matching MAME package (or MAME32 or whatever they call it now, can't remember), and it should just work. If it doesn't, then it's probably something about your POS computer making it not work.

[S1500]

I hate posting this because I know some people are sticklers about it, but it would be really nice to know where I could just download a good ISO or RAR with any version of MAME complete with tons of games. I used to have it, I used to play the old Star Wars vector game and Arkanoid.

 

I'd say "just get it off usenet". But if you're unfamiliar with that then forget it.

 

Otherwise, if you like torrents you can get whole current mame sets from http://www.pleasuredome.org.uk/

 

I like torrenting the latest MAME release. Remember doing it several times. However, pleasuredome doesn't really tell you off the bat what the heck it is.

[+remowilliams]

I've never had any issue with MAME at all. I just get the proper version and proper ROM set and all is 100% smooth.

 

I've been using MAME forever and have very little issues as well. I use clrmame to scan and maintain the rom sets, which has been a huge help.

 

Has it ever been perfect? Of course not. Is it free? Well, yeah! Could we have ever fathomed back in the golden age of arcade games that we could have access to 1000's of arcade games for free? Not in a million years, but we do!

 

That's why I love when people take 10 minutes to look at MAME, and declare it a piece of shit. There's a bazillion hours of work the developers have put into this thing for free...

[Mirage]

That's why I love when people take 10 minutes to look at MAME, and declare it a piece of shit. There's a bazillion hours of work the developers have put into this thing for free...

 

This is pretty key right here. Plenty of people use MAME with no (or minimal) issues, so it's obviously not a "piece of ****" just because you (OP) happen to have an issue for whatever reason. After all the hard work so many have put into this, it's quite rude to say so when the issue is obviously something on your (OP's) end. It's not perfect, but it does work, and it's clearly not a "piece of ****".

[Derek]

December 2008, MAME version 32b-036, 523 working roms. Some don't have sound, others have wrong colors, but apart from Moon Shuttle, which has yet to be successfully emulated, Astro Blaster, which regularly crashes part way through a game, and Junior Pac, which simply won't work, this version has been the one that I stayed with. I have no interest in much past the games of 1987, when the arcade experience, that is new games appearing at an arcade, was no more. Really, expecting an emulator to run everything you ever played as a wee one in an arcade? All for free?

 

The best piece of advice I can give/agree with, as I think someone already suggested it, is to copy the version of MAME which seems to run most of what you want it to, along with the ROM's onto a cd. Then when you try other versions of MAME and the message pops up that older version of MAME is detected on your computer, it won't screw that version up when you accept using the new settings associated with whatever version you are trying out now. I haven't found a way to make the old one continue to work and try a new version. MAME seems to not have any interest in getting along with previous versions of itself, so if you don't back up what works, when you try a newer version, what you had before won't work like it did.

[Catsmasher]

I love MAME. I only emulate arcade games. Other systems are better emulated on other targeted programs. I'm no computer genius and I figured it out.

Complaining about free software is kind of silly. You get what you pay for and how much time you are willing to dedicate.

[SRGilbert]

I love MAME. I only emulate arcade games. Other systems are better emulated on other targeted programs. I'm no computer genius and I figured it out.

Complaining about free software is kind of silly. You get what you pay for and how much time you are willing to dedicate.

On the contrary, you get a lot more than you pay for with Mame!

[Catsmasher]

I love MAME. I only emulate arcade games. Other systems are better emulated on other targeted programs. I'm no computer genius and I figured it out.

Complaining about free software is kind of silly. You get what you pay for and how much time you are willing to dedicate.

On the contrary, you get a lot more than you pay for with Mame!

So true