Help me run MAME.

[+atari2600land]

So I want to test a homebrew Channel F game. I download MAME, which apparently has merged with MESS. I go to the folder that has MAME in it. I make a bat file that says "mame64 channelf hhhh" and it gives me a list of games instead of my game I want to try. So I replaced hhhh with "mame64 channelf slotmchn", and it gives me a stupid message:

I have these two files. Where do I put them? Why can't I try my own homebrew game? Why does MAME have to be so stupid and hard?!

Edited March 1, 2019 by atari2600land

[mr_me]

The message says it's looking in a folder "channelf" or an archive file in the roms path e.g. channelf.zip.

 

Under mame there should be a folder called ROMs. Create a new folder there called "channelf" and put your system rom files there. Cartridge rom files can be anywhere.

 

MAME does have a UI so you can launch mame and select Channel F through the UI. Once the emulator starts press the tab key and select File Manager to browse to a cartridge rom file.

 

The command line would look like this.

mame64.exe channelf -cart filenamepath

Edited March 1, 2019 by mr_me

[+atari2600land]

I get the same message about the list of games I can play. Why can't I play the one I made?

[mr_me]

What are you typing exactly? Why not try the UI?

 

---------

If using Windows try Mameui64. It has a nice interface.

http://www.mameui.info

[+atari2600land]

I got it running finally. Thank you for helping me

[Keatah]

Mame is hard because mame is stupid. It didnt used to be that way until all these developers decided they needed make-work. And fucked it all up.

[mr_me]

Why, was MESS easier to use before it was merged into mame? When was mame easier to use exactly?

[Flojomojo]

There's a windowed UI version that's easier to use, but it's never been very friendly. RetroArch, which has weirdness of its own, is more powerful, and in my opinion, easier to set up. www.libretro.com

[mr_me]

The latest mame in Libretro/Retroarch is based on v0.139; so it won't have Channel F or other Mame based home systems emulation. It also adds a layer of abstraction for controllers which can be problematic in some cases.

[Lordmonkus]

The latest Mame core in Retroarch is kept up to date with the most recent builds of Mame, it's the one without a year in the name, the ones with years in the name are snapshots of older builds.

Also getting non arcade stuff to work in the Mame core in Retroarch is a royal pain in the ass.

 

To get non arcade stuff working in Mame via command line you can use this reference page for what you need: https://pastebin.com/18W3EbD0

You need the system in the first column and the media type from column in brackets. For example with the Channel F you would want the command line parameter

channelf -cart

[mr_me]

The libretro core documentation is badly out of date. Does either the mess core or the newer mame core support libretro Netplay? Netplay, allowing two people to play together over the internet, would make dealing with Retroarch worthwhile.

Edited March 5, 2019 by mr_me

[Lordmonkus]

The Mame 2003 Plus core will do netplay, you can easily find a rom set for it on the internet archive.

[mr_me]

I'm assuming the mame 2003-plus core doesn't have mess integration. I'm looking for a solution for internet multiplayer home console play, specifically intellivision.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah it's just arcade stuff, netplay for consoles is a system by system basis, it just depends on the core.

 

I have done some netplay through Retroarch in the past and it can be hit and miss and can be laggy and problematic because of setup. You and whoever you are playing with will need to have the same core and rom and sometimes the same build of a core and even then it can be flakey. You will have better luck with something like Parsec https://parsecgaming.com/but it also has its own quirks.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Lordmonkus