Starfiretbt
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:38 pm

How do you update M.A.M.E.

How do you update M.A.M.E? I saw a youtube video and it seems to claim that you need to update a rom package as well as the emulator together. I just want the emulator and the option to choose which roms I have. The rom packs seem rather large and full of a lot of games I am not interested in, at least the first rom package I got was.
The reason I really want to update M.A.M.E. is because I am hoping that the newer versions have gotten better at running "Contra." It seems the version I have has issues with that rom, mainly when my characters dye the timer remains on the screen even after I have re-spawned. The time does go away if bullets pass through the timer but it's still annoying.
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Tafoid
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Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Starfiretbt wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:25 pm How do you update M.A.M.E? I saw a youtube video and it seems to claim that you need to update a rom package as well as the emulator together. I just want the emulator and the option to choose which roms I have. The rom packs seem rather large and full of a lot of games I am not interested in, at least the first rom package I got was.
The reason I really want to update M.A.M.E. is because I am hoping that the newer versions have gotten better at running "Contra." It seems the version I have has issues with that rom, mainly when my characters dye the timer remains on the screen even after I have re-spawned. The time does go away if bullets pass through the timer but it's still annoying.

That bug still exists in current build versions so upgrading will not help this: https://mametesters.org/view.php?id=401

Installing MAME isn't a huge issue. Some people will simply make a new folder and uncompress the binary package to that folder. It is meant to be everything you need to start (less the roms, of course). Just reference your location of the romsets in MAME (via mame.ini editing, or using the UI to Configure Options) and you should good to go with your prior romsets. The only caveat is that there may be a chance your favorite machine may have additional romset requirements either due to correcting bad dumps, added emulation or other reasons. To read about romsets, there is a decent write up @ https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html. The documentation shown there should cover many questions you may have.
Starfiretbt
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Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:38 pm

Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Do you have a video link to "how to uncompress a binary package" or is it just copy over a file. Also because I emulate lots of different plateforms my roms are in a program called LaunchBox and that program just uses M.A.M.E. to emulate the program. Doesn't M.A.M.E. emulate the roms not the rom sets? I know SNES9X can emulate any rom that fits the program, I understand the Multiple Arcade Machine part makes M.A.M.E. a little different than snes but can't I just download a rom and emulate it? I take it when you mean "Machine" you mean the roms right?

EDIT: also is there a setting that will email me if somebody posts on this? Otherwise I have to routinely check this post to see if anybody answers and if anybody has anything new to add and I am not checking I won't hear about it.
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Starfiretbt wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:27 pmDo you have a video link to "how to uncompress a binary package" or is it just copy over a file.
It's what is called a 'self-extracting archive'. All you have to do to unpack it, is doubleclick the file (like you would with any other executable program). It will then ask you a location to extract the files to.
Starfiretbt wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:27 pma program called LaunchBox and that program just uses M.A.M.E. to emulate the program.
LaunchBox is what we call a 'frontend'. It's not an emulator itself, instead it starts other emulators like MAME for you. The emulators like MAME are what actually give you the game/machine/etc. You can run MAME without a frontend like LaunchBox, and many people do.
Starfiretbt wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:27 pmDoesn't M.A.M.E. emulate the roms not the rom sets? I know SNES9X can emulate any rom that fits the program, I understand the Multiple Arcade Machine part makes M.A.M.E. a little different than snes but can't I just download a rom and emulate it?
A full 'rom set' is the collection of all the roms that MAME currently supports. But if you don't want to play all of them, then you will not need them all. For example, if you do not plan to play pacman, than obviously you do not need to obtain the roms for pacman, and only the roms for the games you plan to play. What makes this a bit tricky is that it is not always obvious which roms are for what game, so that will require a little googling.

Also, please read the page that Tafoid already linked to for you: https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html
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Stiletto
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Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

mhoes wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:35 pm A full 'rom set' is the collection of all the roms that MAME currently supports. But if you don't want to play all of them, then you will not need them all. For example, if you do not plan to play pacman, than obviously you do not need to obtain the roms for pacman, and only the roms for the games you plan to play. What makes this a bit tricky is that it is not always obvious which roms are for what game, so that will require a little googling.

Also, please read the page that Tafoid already linked to for you: https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html
And there you'll see the following text: "For arcade games, a ROM image or file is a copy of all of the data inside a given chip on the arcade motherboard. For most consoles and handhelds, the individual chips are frequently (but not always) merged into a single file. As arcade machines are much more complicated in their design, you'll typically need the data from a number of different chips on the board. Grouping all of the files from Puckman together will get you a ROM set of Puckman. An example ROM image would be the file pm1_prg1.6e stored in the Puckman ROM set."

mhoes, it seems you and our documentation might disagree on the definition of "ROM set".

The point is, a single arcade game is typically comprised of a good dozen ROM chips, or ROMs. Each ROM is dumped by a ROM programmer individually. So you wouldn't describe a single arcade game as "a ROM". Compared to, say, a console game cartridge, which were often internally a single ROM chip or two ROM chips, but dumping game cartridges were often done through the connector back in the day, resulting in a single "cartridge dump".

All that said, unfortunately it's become common that the gamer community often calls a single arcade game as emulated by MAME "a ROM"...
- Stiletto
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Stiletto wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:52 ammhoes, it seems you and our documentation might disagree on the definition of "ROM set".
Perhaps, and perhaps not. But I was trying to respond to the original poster, in terms that he/she would likely understand (and showed no sings of reading the documentation he/she was pointed to). Also note that I said 'FULL romset', emphasis on the full. Which, by my definition (and I expected the original posters definition/expectation), would mean 'all of the roms that MAME currently supports', and not limited to the amount of roms needed to support a single game (which would conform to the documentation's definition of a 'rom set').

Anyway, my sincerest apologies for the confusion this may have caused.
Starfiretbt
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:38 pm

Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Alright I think I get it. I wanted to update M.A.M.E. but when the instructions said something that made me think I had to download one of those files that contained thousands of roms at a size of I think around 60 gigabytes. Since I already downloaded something like that when I first downloaded M.A.M.E. I didn't want to have to download another, I have a terabyte hard drive but even that will fill up quickly if I have to keep downloading such huge files so that's what I was thinking.
I was hoping M.A.M.E. would be like other emulators where you can download the roms you want and it sounds like it is.
If I can just update M.A.M.E. that's great and maybe a few files with it as well that would be great. My confusion was with words like "rom pack" or "rom package" which made me think of a collection of thousands of roms like the one I downloaded in the beginning.

Thank you guys.

EDIT: also if there's anything you guys can do to fix the emulator for the contra rom that would be great, that timer bug is kind of annoying.
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How do you update M.A.M.E.

Starfiretbt wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 11:41 pmI was hoping M.A.M.E. would be like other emulators where you can download the roms you want and it sounds like it is.
Yes, it is. You can choose only the roms you want, and you don't have to download the 60+GB that contains 'everything MAME supports'.
Starfiretbt wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 11:41 pmIf I can just update M.A.M.E. that's great and maybe a few files with it as well that would be great.
Yes, you can.

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