help

[mrmusic]

i see there are many consoles in mame but they say cartridge. how to do you set up mame to play those games are where can i get the cartridges to download? do i put the cartridges in the roms folder?

[Tafoid]

i see there are many consoles in mame but they say cartridge. how to do you set up mame to play those games are where can i get the cartridges to download? do i put the cartridges in the roms folder?

I'll try to break it down as best as possible.
Assuming your MAME setup is installed in C:\MAME folder...

C:\MAME\ROMS would contain your normal romsets expected for the games or if the console/computer/whatever needs extra BIOS data or not. Keep them in .ZIP files named after the shortname designated for them In MAME to be detected. The folders in your ROMS folder, by default, can also contain software or CHDs although some people add more ROMPATHs to keep them separated.

Examples:
Arcade game Donkey Kong (dkong): The required files for MAME should be found in C:\MAME\ROMS\dkong.zip
Console game for the Super Nintendo (snes), playing a game such as Super Metroid (smetroidu). The required file for MAME should be found at C:\MAME\ROMS\SNES\smetroidu.zip

Should everything be set up, you can use the internal FIle Manager (listed in TAB menu) to load additional games when a system is selected.

That's the down and dirty.
More in depth information is available here: https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/assetsearch.html