LR-MAME not saving hi scores on Retropie

[John Stamos Mullet]

For all the Retropie/RPi users:

 

I just upgraded my RPi in my Arcade1up cabinet to Retropie 4.7.1 Buster, so I could get the latest version of MAME running - specifically for the discrete sounds/no samples version of Donkey Kong.

 

it's all working great, except it doesn't save hi scores. Apparently at some point recently, MAME switched over to some kind of LUA based plugin system for things like Hi Score saving. But the LR-MAME build in Retropie isn't set up for this, and doesn't include the plug-in files needed or the paths.

 

I've googled a ton, and read a bunch of descriptions of how to get it working, but they are all incomplete. None of them detail where the files/folders need to Go.

 

anyone else run into this?

[John Stamos Mullet]

In the end, I just ended up installing the current standalone (non-retroarch) MAME build and it worked much better for Donkey Kong. Fixed the hi score saving, easier control mapping, etc. Most games run like ass in The current build of MAME on a Pi, but they must have optimized the DKONG driver, because it's perfect - even on a RPI 3b+