Mame Can 39;t Find Roms
Robyn Ruder
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I have been working against a list of about 50 roms, Gameex detects NONE of them. I've tried a dozen different MAME versions and builds, every solution seen so far on this forum. If I step up to a set of 4,000 roms that I have on a separate drive, Gameex will detect about 78 of them. Obviously, my Rom folder is correct if it detects a subset of the roms... Nothing is working at this point.
Everythign was PERFECT until Sunday, when I paid to get a lifetime subscription. I'm at the point now where I regret that choice, and will probably have to seek a refund and switch to Maximus arcade, since I know that it actually works, whereas I have been completely unable to use gameex at all, no matter how much more I like it....
Given your description, it sounds as if something may have went South on you during the registration installation. Hopefully a reinstall will resolve the issue for you. I'm obviously biased, but I think if we can successfully work you through this, you will be much happier with a current, and supported product.
I'm sure I will. I loved the system prior to registering. I've just gotten to a point of frustration that I can't sort this out. I'm a configuration monkey for a living, so the fact that I can't get this working right so far is a double whammy, since it is hurting my ego as well. ?
One question I do have, though. It very well could be something that I screwed up in running through advanced configuration. I first installed gameex on Saturday, so would assume I have the latest version. I've done several "fresh" installs since, after deleting the gameex folders entirely, but a lot of my settings seem to stick from one install to the next... Is there any way to completely wipe these out so that I am truly starting fresh?
You should still be able to post it as an attachment. It would also be helpful to take a look at your log as all of this is going on. Seeing the information contained in these files will allow us to get a better picture of what's happening. Here are some instructions, if you're not entirely sure of how to get to that info. Don't go to MA dude, it's barely even supported anymore! (and there's almost certainly no hope of bug fixes/improvements AFAIK)
I recommend providing us with a copy of your gameex.ini and log.txt (Click here for additional information on how to find these files and others that may be required). If you prefer to attach the files, you can click on Use Full Editor at the bottom of your reply to this thread and click the Choose Files... button that will appear in the lower left of your reply.
Stuff like wack a mole and the like, it's filtered elsewhere, but if you have it verify, then it will check it to make sure it's 100% functional in every way. This really isn't necessary, and will exclude many titles!
MAME is not like regular emulators where you would just update to the latest .exe and keep on using your existing roms. With MAME your roms MUST match the MAME.exe version exactly to function correctly. You may get lucky by mixing but this is just pot luck and a sure-fire way to mess things up before you even start.
Also your later comment that "I have to turn off "only existing Roms" to get it to identify anything" is setting off alarm bells in my head. It basically confirms that your roms don't match your MAME version at all.
Ok, I have no idea what changed... Scratching my head on this, but suddenly this morning without making any further changes, it appears that everything is there... I'll do some further testing before I declare this one solved, but going to scratch my head for a while...
ok. So whatever I managed to do to fix it came from this thread. Since it didn't resolve immediately upon whatever fix I did, I can't give credit where credit is due, but basically here's the gist of it:
Ran update this morning with "Existing Roms Only" turned off, but "Verify Roms" turned on. It Gave me EVERY rom compatable with my MAME version, whether I had it in my roms folder or not... Went back to the configuration tool, turned existing roms only back on, updated the list, and now have the proper roms list...
The only thing that I KNOW is different from when I was having trouble is that I took the PC to my in-laws house to continue working on it, as we drove up to visit for the weekend... Geographic location is not likely to be the fix, but for some reason, things just start work properly in this house... May be it is the "ghost" of my wife's grandfather, they always joke around that he likes to play tricks on them...
So just realized one major difference, but not sure if it would have an impact, since MAME is configured to the correct mapping, and It just mimics keyboard inputs, but at home I do have the pc hooked up to an X-arcade dual stick controller, but since it is permanently attached to my arcade cabinet, it is not connected now... any weird and off the deep end chance that that would have an impact?
The Xbox one controller I ordered is in. It has two joysticks which I need for Robotron 2084 ( safe the last human family )
This controller is supported on Linux,and has a usb connection to hook it up to our pc,
One thing I notice and remember from before, if there is a problem with the roms, mame will tell you this, but as far as I can tell mame does not see the roms at all.
(The rom files are zip files and are copies from the original arcade machines rom)
I need to start the debugging tools, and then the debugging tools need to start the application. (mame)
So besides filing a bug report, I am gonna search for some read me files, which explains on how to use them.
When you see a constraints file, it can take some resources to build (looks like RAM, but limited to 4 cores, likely for debugging)! An hour to build with 4 cores, expect your will be at least 4 if successful.
I will have to check some more dependencies, build requirements called there, I am not sure if I already have all build requirements, but I do have most.
Using an dependencies list for Fedora though, I did expect some missing stuff.
My folder is in a different location, but he also states it does not matter were that rom folder is.
The weird part, when I add that folder in MAME , it seems like mame accepts it, it reacts different to folders were there are no roms.
And boom, Robotron 2084 (blue label what ever that means) started a hardware test, and told me the machine was fine.
Like that about mame and the original roms, how is does exactly what the arcade machine did when you turned it on.
- Leave MAME ROMS in .zip format.
- All MAME ROMs need to be played with the correct version of MAME.
- ROMS from non-merged ROM sets can be used stand-alone, because each zip contains all of the files needed to run that game.
- Find non-merged MAME ROM sets at archive.org.
I like to download whatever free software they have at Archive.org in their software section. I feel safe downloading from Archive.org. I feel sure that whatever software they offer must be 100% legal and virus free.
I bet 90% of people who have ever posted a thread on the internet to say "HELP! Can't get MAME to work!" could solve their problem simply by checking to make sure their MAME version and romsets are a match. This is why I always recommend to first find and obtain a complete romset, note the version, then go grab that version of MAME. Install and play... done.
If you start by getting the absolute latest version of MAME and go on a treasure hunt for specific games, you're bound to run into headaches because most sites distributing individual games don't provide any info on what version they are.
In the aftermath of the question about running the arcade Pac-Man ROM on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum I discovered that about the same time that was done, somebody else did the reverse, porting a classic Spectrum game to run on the original Pac-Man arcade hardware: Pac Manic Miner Man!
I thought that I could just rename it to pacman.zip and place it in the MAME roms folder and that MAME would warn me that the checksums didn't match but would then give me an option to run it anyway. It does tell me the checksums are wrong but I can't find any way to get it to ignore that and run the game anyway.
I'm using the regular mame64 version for Windows 10 straight from the MAME homepage. I've pored over the commandline options. I've looked at MAME's issues on GitHub. I've gone through all the options menus and I've wasted quite a bit of time Googling for solutions. Since MAME has been around for over twenty years and has changed a lot over that time it's a bit hard to home in on current stuff actually.
You have to run the game without the MAMEUI, in order to do that, launch your game in cmd windows, with (example) mame64 pacmanThis will give you an error if you don't have the correct cksum for the roms, but the game will start !Enjoy !Gerald (COY)
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