MAME is being inconsistent?

[Lauren Tyler]

I'm wondering if this is because I have several versions of MAME on my second hard drive, but whenever I install a new version of MAME, some of the games that didn't get recognized with previous versions will work, while others that did work won't, meaning I have to switch between several versions to get one that plays, because one will say that a file or two is missing, while the other version won't.

 

What do I do? How do I fix this?

[+FujiSkunk]

Usually when a newer version of MAME "breaks" a game, it's because the contents of one or more of the game's ROM chips were being provided (sometimes incorrectly) by the MAME code itself in the older release, and the newer release now expects that ROM code to be provided by the game's ROM package along with the rest of the game's programming. This is why your newer MAME's auditing is telling you some ROM packages are missing files. You can solve this by downloading newer ROM packages for the affected games. Most places where you can download ROMs from will tell you what version of MAME each ROM package is intended for.

Edited September 28, 2006 by skunkworx

[JamesD]

I've noticed a lot of "refactoring" going on in MAME and MESS lately and it has broken all kinds of stuff in various emulations.

I think it's going to take a few releases to put features back in that someone decided needed to be taken out.

[Ze_ro]

You should probably install a program to audit/update your roms. I've heard clrmamepro is pretty good, although I've never used it myself. Just be careful what you do with it, as I've heard of a number of people completely screwing things up with it... you might want to make a backup of what you have just in case.

 

--Zero

[Lauren Tyler]

I guess there's no easy solution to this, but what would one expect with an emulator like this?

[Major_Havoc]

Roms get updated. Mame gets updated. Just download the new roms.

 

It's been this way since 1996 or so

[Lauren Tyler]

Unfortunately, the places I get my ROMs from seem to be behind in updating their ROMs.