Mame 2003 Plus Rom Set

[Rachelle Shriver]

My understanding was the main purpose of Mame 2003 Plus in Retroarch was its ability to use Run Ahead feature as the standard versions of Mame can not use Run Ahead?. Seeing as FB Neo also supports Run Ahead and uses newer builds of Mame is it regarded that FB Neo is more accurate than 2003 Plus?

mame2003 existed long before runahead. You should use FBNeo if possible (i.e., if it will run the games you want), up-to-date MAME if not (assuming your system/platform/feature-needs can handle it), and mame2003 if neither of those work for whatever reason.

So if you read the documentation _plus/, the mame2003-plus core uses MAME 0.078 as a base with some roms updated with the MAME 0.223 or later but I'm just going to use 0.223 in this post. I'm thinking using MAME 0.078 or MAME 0.223 might not recognize all the roms. MAME 0.078 would not pick up the update roms while MAME 0.223 will see many 0.078 roms as invalid. Of course the mame2003-plus rom set has many duplicate I want to filter out.

The MAME fullset importer requires a matching standalone version of MAME emulator for the import as we get the working games list from the emulator itself. As @Lordmonkus said though, mame2003 is a completely unofficial version of mame, and therefore does not have a standalone emulator for that exact game list that mame2003 contains. You can import the way that was in the reply though, just make sure that on the last page of the wizard you check the box that says something like "import using mame shortnames for emulators other than mame that use mame naming" I would also recommend pointing Launchbox at a actual mame emulator during the import, that will make sure you get the filters screen, and just highlight all the games once imported and change the emulator in bulk.

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NOTE: Don't fear how long the post is! Instructions are very detailed thats why it looks like so much to do. In fact you only edit 3 files and only very little code. The whole thing usually takes 10 minutes to do and 20-30 minutes to compile!

I just compiled Mame Plus 0.128 and I thought I would share the procedure with everyone. Now I know there are a lot of tutorials out there but it still took me some time to figure out what goes in the mingw directory, where to put everything ...

For me it was to remove the nag screens in mame. When gameex is displaying mame games in attract mode some games don't start because of an error message of incomplete emulation. I will show you how you can get rid of this!

Many other people use it also to get hiscore support back into mame (e.g. save your donkey kong high score even if you exit a game). Since Mame Plus already has this feature enabled we don't need to enable hi score support.

I STRONGLY suggest not using C:\ drive and using a different drive, because windows 7 is VERY picky about activities on C:\ and even with UAC disabled directories have lock icon and compile was unsuccessful.

By default. the latest stable version of Batocera, Batocera V30, will use MAME 0.228. You can change that at advance system options or advanced game options to use MAME 0.78 or MAME 0.138, or even FBNEO, that is excellent for Neo Geo ROMs.

II finally got my head around the mame thing, was driving me nuts, Im using a cleaned down rom set that you can do with launchbox, running the 0.299 set, everything runs, only ones that occasionally dont is if they need the chd, ive now got to find a way of just getting the chd for only the roms i have.

In Summer 2018, RetroArch added MAME 2003-Plus to the arcade section of its Core Updater. MAME 2003-Plus is a new arcade emulator core which prioritizes 1) usability and frontend integration, 2) performance, and 3) compatibility across the range of libretro-supported platforms including mobile devices, single board computers, and consoles. Unlike other libretro MAME cores which remain fixed at one MAME version, MAME 2003-Plus is actively backporting more recent game drivers and features.

MAME 2003-Plus is part of a lineage of codebase forks and ports: this core was forked from MAME 2003, which is itself derived from Xmame 0.78, the X11/Unix port of MAME 0.78. In addition to the games supported by MAME 2003, MAME 2003-Plus contributors have backported new drivers and substantial bugfixes for several hundred additional games.

There is a long tradition in arcade emulation of producing platform-specific and performance-optimized MAME builds. This core was first established when arcadez began adding games that were not available in MAME 0.78 to a new fork of the existing MAME 2003 emulator. In addition to contributions from arcadez, the core has also benefited from the contributions of new and veteran MAME hackers. The most current list of new and fixed games can be found in the CHANGELOG.

One of the other things that makes MAME 2003-Plus distinct from the other libretro MAME cores is an emphasis on integration between MAME 2003-Plus and the libretro API. For example, there is full support for remapping player controls in the libretro frontend rather than requiring users use the legacy MAME input binding system from standalone MAME.

While more than 95% of MAME 2003-Plus romsets are identical to MAME 2003 and MAME 0.78 romsets and can be used as-is, new and fixed games require romsets that are built for use with this core. Unless you are already sure that you have a romset collection that is correctly built for MAME 2003-Plus, you can consult the official docs for instructions on how to rebuild and verify your collection by using ClrMamePro.

As detailed in the building romset docs linked above, a ClrMamePro-compatible XML DAT file is maintained in the MAME 2003-Plus repository for users to download. One of the new features added to core also allows users to generate their own DAT via the MAME Menu. Generating a DAT ensures that it is an exact match for the version of the core that you are using.

The NES Classic Mini and the SNES Classic Mini have an active hack and homebrew community which helped make MAME 2003-Plus and other libretro cores available on that hardware. Thanks to gpstar, KMFDManic, and others in that community, MAME 2003-Plus supports alternate soundtracks for several popular arcade titles that were also released in other formats with high quality audio soundtracks.

These alternate soundtracks are enabled by first placing the appropriate audio sample pack within the mame2003-plus subdirectory of the libretro system path, and then activating the Use CD Soundtrack core option.

In the same way that content-aware core options only appear when they are relevant to the current game, MAME 2003-Plus has added support for content-aware control names. In other words, when remapping Street Fighter 2 controls, the libretro frontend can display the control names that were printed on the real arcade control panel like Jump, Strong Punch and Forward Kick instead of a generic labels like Up, Button 1, Button 2, etc.

Because our support for control names is relatively new and is derived from the third-party controls.dat project, control names need to be verified by a human being before they are activated. As of October 2018, dozens of games have these active control names, but hundreds more need to be double-checked before being enabled. Coders, and users who are willing to learn basic github commands, are invited to join in this effort as volunteers!

4-way joysticks are an essential aspect of the gameplay for many iconic arcade titles including games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Q-Bert. Because modern joysticks generally use 8-way designs, it is usually impossible to play these games well without special hardware. MAME 2003-Plus includes a core option to simulate 4-way joysticks. When enabled, this logic analyzes input from 8-way digital joysticks in order to render its position as if the joystick had a 4-way design. This simulation is not the same as using a real 4-way joystick, but it can make a significant improvement to playability.

MAME 2003-Plus is fortunate to have a small but active group of developers making contributions. However, there are several important opportunities to improve MAME 2003-Plus and its integration with the libretro API that remain to be addressed. Coders interested in working on these issues are very welcome to introduce themselves in the github issue tracker or in the #programming channel of the libretro Discord server.

Because MAME 2003-Plus does not yet implement the relatively new libretro lightgun API, the core currently supports lightguns only if they are configured to emulate a mouse. This bounty entails implementing the libretro lightgun API. Contribute to the bounty or read the corresponding github issue.

MAME 2003-Plus (also referred to as MAME 2003+ and mame2003-plus) is a libretro multi-arcade system emulator core which prioritizes 1) usability and frontend integration, 2) performance, and 3) compatibility across the range of libretro-supported platforms including mobile devices, single board computers, and consoles. MAME 2003-Plus is part of a long tradition in arcade emulation of producing platform-specific and performance-optimized MAME builds.

Unlike the other 'historic' libretro MAME cores which remain fixed at one MAME version, MAME 2003-Plus is actively maintained and has to date added support for hundreds of new games along with dozens of new features.

Some games require data from an internal hard drive, CD-ROM, laserdisk, or other media in order to be emulated -- those forms of media are packaged as CHD files. CHD files should be copied to subfolders within the folder where the romset zips have been installed: /libretro content dir/blitz/blitz.chd

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