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Extreme noob looking for guidence!


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Hi there all, fantastic site here!

 

I've just about finished building my very own arcade cab to be used for MAME + Pinball (at least thats the idea!) using an X-Arcade dual joystick for the controls.

 

No problems there...

 

But with the software I'm coming incredibly unstuck and I'm way out of my element! I've used emulators on my computer before to play things like NES games where you just load the selected rom up in the emulator and away it goes. Am I right in saying that MAME is nothing like this? I've got a handful of roms but I cant for the life of me work out how to get them to work. Just to have a play on my main computer I tried downloading MAME32 which installed fine and when I opened it was poplulated with a huge list of games (obviously there were no roms for them). I put the roms I did have in the roms folder I could work out how to play them, what have I done wrong?

 

Aside from that are there any step by step (really rreeeaaallly basic) tutorials for setting up a PC to use in a cab? Aside from above where I just tried to get a game working I also installed Lincade on a spare computer. The installation itself went fine but after that Im lost. I dont know how to load emulators or roms onto it to get it to work after the CD has installed itself. I'd really like my cabinate to be able to play MAME and Pinball (got the side buttons on the X-Arcade for it!) if I could just set it up right!

 

Sorry for such a nooby post, I've got a lot to learn and every google search I've done brings up answers that go way over my head!

 

Here's a pic of the Cab so far!

 

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1406/arcadecaboj6.jpg

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You need the roms to be compiled for the version of MAME you are running. Different versions tweaked different things for some games and required the roms be slightly different. If they aren't complete for that version they will not run.

 

Regular MAME runs from the command line if you don't have a frontend. The commands are simple and are in the readme file that is included with MAME from memory (it's been a while). That being said most people use a separate frontend for a GUI or several, such as yourself, go down the MAME32 road.

 

I haven't used MAME32 for many years but I'm pretty sure there is another view that checks what roms you have and greys out the games for that version that you don't have roms for. Generally if they wern't greyed out they worked OK unless the romset was incomplete. Again, been a while so I'm not entirely sure.

 

Not a great help I know but others wil have more info for you.

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Hi and welcome (man I cant keep up with saying it tonight, its a new member influx :) )

 

My advice is to slow down a bit with the software... you'll quickly lose motivation if you try and understand it all at once.

 

Step 1: Install MAME... the easiest thing would be to find MAME32 because it has a GUI interface and options so you can learn your way around the emulator itself... once you're familiar with that, ditch MAME32 and go for pure MAME (runs from a command line)....

Step2: Learn your way around the ups & downs of various front ends (the menus that launch the emulators and give it a nice look/navigation without any command lines or using the keyboard)

Step3: Whatever your next priority is, such as tweaking your setup in the front end (adding snapshots, sounds, pictures of the control panels for each game etc)... or perhaps its getting pinball working.

 

Just take it one step at a time.

 

As gemminislxau has already said, the 'need to know' for Step 1 (MAME) is to put the ROM (the zipped game) into the /roms directory of your MAME installation and LEAVE IT ZIPPED. Get a game or two from http://www.romnation.net for MAME to try it out.

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Get a game or two from http://www.romnation.net for MAME to try it out.

 

This is good advice. One of the first things I do when I setup a MAME PC initially before loading all my ROMS is installing just a couple of my favourite ROMS to ensure everything runs as it should. There's no point installing the lot of them if it won't run your test ROMS, whether it be a setup issue or resource issue.

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Hello and :welcome:

 

Use MAME32, like the others said put the zipped ROM files in the ROM folder. Also put any Sample files in the sample folder, these are sound files that a few games need.

 

In my version of MAME32 If you add new roms you have to "audit" them to make MAME32 recognise them.

 

So run MAME32, then click on "file", then click on "audit all games"

 

Then check the "Available" folder to see your games that will work. :)

 

Good luck!

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Hello and :welcome:

 

Use MAME32, like the others said put the zipped ROM files in the ROM folder. Also put any Sample files in the sample folder, these are sound files that a few games need.

 

In my version of MAME32 If you add new roms you have to "audit" them to make MAME32 recognise them.

 

So run MAME32, then click on "file", then click on "audit all games"

 

Then check the "Available" folder to see your games that will work. :)

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks to everyone for your replys! Extra thanks Foot, you solved my problems as far as playing the ROMS I've got. Once I chose the audit all games option the program discovered the roms and they seem to play fine :D

 

The cabs coming along nicely too, all bogged and smoothed ready for paint.

 

I'll do some more research into what to install on the cabs computer - that'll be another challenge for the next few months while I paint the cab :023:

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