can someone explain what a MAME .CHD file is

[kevo1321]

can someone explain what a MAME .CHD file is?

something about saving games or something... idk...

[Kangum]

i could very well be wrong but i recall someone telling me along time ago chd files were basically for games that used a hard drive. so that file is seen as a hard drive.

in my own experience almost none of the chd games run at full speed. you need a pretty fast computer for games that need chd files and to be honest most of the chd required games dont work anyway so I dont bother with them

[kevo1321]

yeah i read something about that but didnt understand it to be honest...

[RobbyMac]

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/5528
Compressed hard drive image. a snapshot of a hardrive or sorts.

Not all games using chd's require faster computers, but many do.
Gauntlet doesn't require a fast computer, yet gauntlet legends does. both use chd files.

[Kangum]

plain ol gauntlet doesnt require chd. i have no chd files and played it the other day.

[RobbyMac]

Oops my bad. I swear I had to dl a chd for it. Mustve been legends only.
While many newer games require chd's, I still don't think a chd in and of itself means you need a blazing fast computer.

[Thenasty]

CHD is not Compressed Hard DRIVE it's Compress Hunks of Data (CD, HD, LD etc.)

[kevo1321]

anyone know whats up with romworld? not a single rom from there is working for me... keeps saying missing files when i try to load them...

[vorghagen]

RobbyMac is right in that a CHD doesn't automatically mean the game requires a beffy PC. Might just need a massive amount of data, for example, all the beatmania games have CHD files for all the music.
Killer Instinct is another CHD game that isn't too processor intensive.

[Thenasty]

maybe that site don't have the full set required by the mame version your using (if Mame says it's missing, it's missing.)

[kevo1321]

well that sucks...

[Havok]

anyone know whats up with romworld? not a single rom from there is working for me... keeps saying missing files when i try to load them...

Just try an older Mame version.

As far as CHD games - Gauntlet Legends\Dark Legacy work fine on my rig; Core 2 Duo Windows 7 running Mame64 v137. In fact, every CHD game I have tried so far works great. I'm especially happy that Firefox works (Laser CHD) as I just hooked up my new Ram Controls Star Wars yoke - I'll be playing that on my cab!

[Jakobud]

Oops my bad. I swear I had to dl a chd for it. Mustve been legends only.

What is this downloading of chd's you speak off??

[bkenobi]

Oops my bad. I swear I had to dl a chd for it. Mustve been legends only.

What is this downloading of chd's you speak off??

I think he meant he had to download from the hard drive (sometimes called extracting).  I'm sure he wouldn't mean anything else, right?

[RobbyMac]

Actually it was downloaded from my 'server'. A local fileserver where I store all my files, media, games, etc.
I created a script for the various roms/chd's to be copied (and all assorted imagery, movies, etc).

[DillonFoulds]

The server that you store your personally extracted CHDs, i would imagine?

I think they're hinting for you to NOT mention downloading on this site

[RobbyMac]

 Well that would be the assumption.