Which files to install for MAME engines?

[DJ Dekker]

Hello PicoChess users,

Two questions about installing MAME engines. I downloaded Randy's v4.1.3 image, followed the installation instructions from previous posts on the PicoChess forum and have got the retro engines running correctly. Now I'm wondering about two things regarding the huge .zip file that contains the ROMs.

1. The huge .zip file has got the ROMs in a rom folder in three different places: the root folder, the MessChess folder, and the MessExtra folder. Does it matter which of the three rom folders you choose for use with PicoChess?

2. The huge .zip file does not only provide the ROMs. It also contains some folders that are present in /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation as well, but with different content: artwork, cfg, hash, ini, and nvram. Would it make sense to copy these folders from the .zip archive to PicoChess as well, for example to improve functionality of the engines? Or would their contents be ignored?

Greetings,

DJ

[Randy Reade]

Hi DJ,

Use the ROMs from the MessChess/roms folder. You can check them in PicoChess to see if they are compatible with the MAME version in use by running:

./mess -verifyroms

No other folders/files should be used. The hash files are dependent on the MAME version and should match the official MAME ones. I only include the those that are used by chess machines. We also use custom artwork and MAME on Linux doesn't support .zip compressed custom artwork folders (although I haven't tested that in a while). Only a couple nvram files are used in our emulation in order to keep specific retro engines from crashing. .cfg and .ini files will be created when the machine is first run or if you make changes via the MAME graphical interface to a specific machine.

For a better explanation check the MAME documentation at https://docs.mamedev.org.

Randy

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[DJ Dekker]

Thank you Randy, this is very helpful.

The output of ./mess -verifyroms is a long list with the conclusion: 339 romsets found, 268 were OK.

Most of the "bad" romsets are throwing the same error message that the file hd44780_a00.bin (4096 bytes) is missing. The roms folder contains hd44780_a00.zip instead. Do you perhaps know how to solve this issue?

Greetings,

DJ

Op maandag 9 juni 2025 om 15:14:20 UTC+2 schreef RandyR:

[Randy Reade]

Try renaming hd44780_a00.zip to hd44780.zip.

[Randy Reade]

I think I was mistaken. Maybe we should be using the MessNew roms. Can you try that first, DJ?

On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM DJ Dekker <chess19...@gmail.com> wrote:

[DJ Dekker]

Thanks Randy – with the MessNew roms almost all error messages are gone. Out of 416 romsets, 414 romsets are 'good' or 'best available'. Only 2 romsets are 'bad'.

There are no more messages about this missing hd44780u_a00.bin file. Instead, this file "needs redump".

Greetings,

DJ

Op maandag 9 juni 2025 om 18:32:26 UTC+2 schreef RandyR:

[Manfred]

Hello everyone, 

can anyone confirm that the artwork and sound work completely with this? I haven't been able to get it working. Long sound passages, for example at  the beginning of Kishon Chess, are cut up.  Artwork won't start. Chromium browser won't start either. Is there a complete list of requirements?

Thanks

Manfred

[DJ Dekker]

Hi Manfred,

Sorry, I can't help you with that. I'm running PicoChess without screen and speakers, just the board with the DGTPi.

Greetings,

DJ

Op vrijdag 20 juni 2025 om 12:54:25 UTC+2 schreef Manfred: