Mame Rom Sets
Ermelindo Klatt
MAME has several "rom sets" that are compatible with different versions of MAME. Probably your rom is incompatible with this version of MAME. You can either change the MAME version (involved, also a diff version of MAME won't be compatible with other AGS features, like upcoming high-score tracking) or use a rom set that is compatible.
The best way to solve your issue is to update your broken ROMs to versions that are compatible with the latest version of mame. This way you will be able to leverage the latest supporting features like leaderboards.
Handling and updating of ROMs and Sets used in MAME is probably the biggest area of confusion and frustration that MAME users will run into. This section aims to clear up a lot of the most common questions and cover simple details you'll need to know to use MAME effectively.
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.
As the MAME developers received their third or fourth revision of Pac-Man, with bugfixes and other code changes, they quickly discovered that nearly all of the board and chips were identical to the previously dumped version. In order to save space, MAME was adjusted to use a parent/clone set system.
A given set, usually (but not necessarily) the most recent bugfixed World revision of a game, will be designated as the parent. All sets that use mostly the same chips (e.g. Japanese Puckman and USA/World Pac-Man) will be clones that contain only the changed data compared to the parent set.
This typically comes up as an error message to the user when trying to run a Clone set without having the Parent set handy. Using the above example, trying to play the USA version of Pac-Man without having the PUCKMAN.ZIP parent set will result in an error message that there are missing files.
MAME is extremely versatile about where ROM data is located and is quite intelligent about looking for what it needs. This allows us to do some magic with how we store these ROM sets to save further space.
A non-merged set is one that contains absolutely everything necessary for a given game to run in one ZIP file. This is ordinarily very space-inefficient, but is a good way to go if you want to have very few sets and want everything self-contained and easy to work with. We do not recommend this for most users.
A split set is one where the parent set contains all of the normal data it should, and the clone sets contain only what has changed as compared to the parent set. This saves some space, but isn't quite as efficient as
A merged set takes the parent set and one or more clone sets and puts them all inside the parent set's storage. For instance, if we combine the Puckman sets, Midway Pac-Man (USA) sets, and various other related official and bootleg sets all into PUCKMAN.ZIP, the result would be a merged set. A complete merged set with the parent and all clones uses less disk space than a split set.
First, the BIOS set: Some arcade machines shared a common hardware platform, such as the Neo-Geo arcade hardware. As the main board had data necessary to start up and self-test the hardware before passing it off to the game cartridge, it's not really appropriate to store that data as part of the game ROM sets. Instead, it is stored as a BIOS image for the system itself (e.g. NEOGEO.ZIP for Neo-Geo games)
Secondly, the device set. Frequently the arcade manufacturers would reuse pieces of their designs multiple times in order to save on costs and time. Some of these smaller circuits would reappear in later boards that had minimal common ground with the previous boards that used the circuit, so you couldn't just have them share the circuit/ROM data through a normal parent/clone relationship. Instead, these re-used designs and ROM data are categorized as a Device, with the data stored as a Device set. For instance, Namco used the Namco 51xx custom I/O chip to handle the joystick and DIP switches for Galaga and other games, and as such you'll also need the NAMCO51.ZIP device set as well as any needed for the game.
A lot of the frustration users feel towards MAME can be directly tied to what may feel like pointless ROM changes that seem to only serve to make life more difficult for end-users. Understanding the source of these changes and why they are necessary will help you to avoid being blindsided by change and to know what you need to do to keep your sets running.
A large chunk of arcade ROMs and sets existed before emulation did. These early sets were created by arcade owners and used to repair broken boards by replacing damaged chips. Unfortunately, these sets eventually proved to be missing critical information. Many of the early dumps missed a new type of chip that contained, for instance, color palette information for the screen. The earliest emulators approximated colors until the authors discovered the existence of these missing chips. This resulted in a need to go back and get the missing data and update the sets to add the new dumps as needed.
It wouldn't be much longer before it would be discovered that many of the existing sets had bad data for one or more chips. These, too, would need to be re-dumped, and many sets would need complete overhauls.
Occasionally games would be discovered to be completely wrongly documented. Some games thought to be legitimate ended up being bootleg copies from pirate manufacturers. Some games thought to be bootlegs ended up being legit. Some games were completely mistaken as to which region the board was actually from (e.g. World as compared to Japan) and this too would require adjustments and renaming.
Even now, occasional miracle finds occur that change our understanding of these games. As accurate documentation is critical to detailing the history of the arcades, MAME will change sets as needed to keep things as accurate as possible within what the team knows at the time of each release.
This results in very spotty compatibility for ROM sets designated for older versions of MAME. Some games may not have changed much within 20-30 revisions of MAME, and others may have drastically changed multiple times.
If you hit problems with a set not working, there are several things to check-- are you trying to run a set meant for an older version of MAME? Do you have any necessary BIOS or Device ROMs? Is this a Clone set that would need to have the Parent as well? MAME will tell you what files are missing as well as where it looked for these files. Use that to determine which set(s) may be missing files.
Thus, a new format was created for these in the CHD file. Compressed Hunks ofData files, or CHD files for short, are designed very specifically around theneeds of mass storage media. Some arcade games, consoles, and PCs will requireone or more CHD files to run. As CHD files are already compressed, theyshould not be stored PKZIP or 7-Zip archives as ROM images would be.
To save space when multiple variants of a system or software item are present,MAME supports delta CHD files. A delta CHD file only stores the parts of thedata that differ from its parent CHD file. This allows large space savingswhen different variants share a lot of data. Delta CHD files can only be usedfor clone systems, devices with a parent ROM device, and clone software items.A delta CHD file must use a (non-delta) CHD file from the parent system, parentROM device or parent software item as its parent CHD file. The parent CHD filemust be present to use a delta CHD file, or MAME will not be able to read theshared data from it.
I remember inadvertently downloading a merged set for MAME 0.163. Somehow it didn't work. Then picked up a split 0.166 set (the first one with Raiden working) and the split set worked fine. Now the latest MAME 0.170 has swelled in size! And I do need since I am using a CRT based cab, Calamity's Emu drivers, and GroovyMAME which now has new dependencies. Looks like to squeeze it into my 500gb drives, I will have to pick up the merged sets.
Unless you are talking about the full set of CHDs; witch are at over 320 GIgs. (You should only download the CHDs you use(Most don't work), this will decrease the size my CHD folder is less then 30 Gigs)
If you get the merged set of roms, you must set Skip Checks to "Roms Only". This tells RocketLauncher not to panic if the selected rom name doesn't match the HyperSpin MAME database. This allows MAME to look inside the parent rom for non-matching roms. Obviously, you will have to use RocketLauncher to do this.
FYI, out of the six largest CHDs, only "cubeqst" is supposed to work. The other five are non-working repeats that have working versions in the Daphne Singe system. I say this because not downloading those 5 files saves around 1/5th the size of a very large download. To exclude the rest of the non-working you have to wade through about 650 files and deselect those you don't want. That's a lot of wading around.
For roms, I would suggest the "split" set. They are easier to work with unless disk space is that critical. I does sound like you may be in for an upgrade. Why were you thinking SSD instead of traditional HDD?
The problem is that Pl**s*re D*m* doesn't have 0.170 CHD set that is split. Trying to source another place for the 0.170 split CHD's. PM me if you have suggestions. Is there a way just to download the working CHD's? Like with clrmamepro?
Quite the opposite actually. I am building 5 CRT based arcade cabs to replicate the up to mid-90's arcade feel. I am going with SSD's since my hardware is 10 years old (Athlon X2, or Core 2 Duo based). I can use any speed boost I can get in terms of load times. Found a good deal on some 120gig SDD's ($5 each). Hopefully, there is enough capacity for just the games I need. The PC's are all donations from friends that no longer need them. They will be hard wired to the cabs, never taken out, and never used for any other purpose except for MAME inside the cabs. The PC's will be setup as follows:
c80f0f1006