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Default Rom Locations

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:01 pm
by Graham
Hi All

Is it possible to set the default rom locations for each console? For Mame, this can be done within the GUI but for each console, this seems random when using the file manager. My setup is as follows:-

/home/mame/..Console Roms
--- 2600
--- BIOS
--- Gameboy
--- Lynx

Currently, I'm manually browsing to the required folder and selecting the game to play.

From a legal point of view, is it ok for me to download the games I own for the above consoles to be used within Mame?

:)

Re: Default Rom Locations

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:31 am
by Tafoid
Graham wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:01 pm Hi All

Is it possible to set the default rom locations for each console? For Mame, this can be done within the GUI but for each console, this seems random when using the file manager. My setup is as follows:-

/home/mame/..Console Roms
--- 2600
--- BIOS
--- Gameboy
--- Lynx

Currently, I'm manually browsing to the required folder and selecting the game to play.
The setup I use which seems to be the easiest to maintain is to create a master "software" folder, then set that "software" folder as a rompath in your mame.ini. Inside that folder, you have folders named after each hash.xml file's <softwarelist name=" which in most cases for consoles match up with the actual machine name MAME uses to ID the system. In other instances where the items are not carts or CD, there may be additional info in the internal softwarelist shortname which defines where MAME looks for them.

rompath roms;bios;d:\software

Here are some examples:
d:\software\a2600\dodgeem.zip
d:\software\gameboy\kirby.zip
d:\software\lynx\xybots.zip
d:\software\a800_flop\ninja.zip
d:\software\megadriv\gauntlt4.zip

So long as the software list items mach the hash values listed in the HASH\softlist.xml file, the game will be able to be launched from within MAME easily, as well as command-line, most of the time without the need of using the media descriptors such as -CART, -CASS, -FLOP, -CDROM, etc.:

mame64 tg16 bonk
mame64 genesis sonic2
mame64 pce draculax

Hopefully, that is enough info to get you started.
Graham wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:01 pm From a legal point of view, is it ok for me to download the games I own for the above consoles to be used within Mame?
We cannot speak to the legalities of owning copies of actual hardware/software which may be in your possession. That said, the software lists are an attempt to take known working data captures and make a collective listing of them for archival use. Each individual may or may not use these lists leaving it entirely up to the end user to decide legalities based on region and local laws.

Re: Default Rom Locations

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:30 am
by Graham
Thanks for the helpful advice Tafoid. I didn't realise that the roms needed to be zipped to be playable from within the GUI as well as creating the actual folders for the games system to appear. For example, the folder "a2600" is now being listed in Mame's GUI whereas before it wasn't (having been named 2600).

The only problem I'm having now is that I am having to manually select "Available" rather than the default "Unfiltered" each time a different games system is loaded. Is it possible to change this?

:)