fresh mala setup questions

[rexel]

HI all

Working on my first project with a fresh install of mame + mala.

Been following Uncle T's document + another How To on here.. but there some questions i still and was hoping to get some help with:

1) I read there is an issue with not using the correct mame version with Mala.
Im running mame 0143b from here:http://mamedev.org/release.html
Am i on the right track?

2) After fresh install of mala + mame.. when loading mala.. it shows that i have a ridiculous amount of roms already installed (i have none) - whats the go with this?

3) In Uncle T's doc - there is a reference to downloading mame artwork - can anyone share  a link to this? for the life of me, i cant find this

4) Im abit lost on where to from here.. ive got what appears to be mala + mame working (except the issue with all the roms that dont exist) and have installed a mala layout instead of the standard one....

so... what next? not sure exactly on what other configurations available i should consider? or is it just  a case of install roms and start playing?

THanks in advance..

[Louis Tully]

.

[rexel]

hm... i had already done that... for whatever reason.. after clicking show only working games + show only masters.. i still have a massive list of games.. many of which aren't working.... any ideas on what to do from here??

[Louis Tully]

.

[DaOld Man]

Did you try to refresh the game list (Im at work so cant confirm but I think it is right click on mala and refresh.)

[rexel]

yep i did a refresh list right after clicking those options..

typical errors are:

- runs, but then doenst run (if that makes sense)
- i manage to get a glimpse of a dos window popping up reading something like "rom files missing.. something.."

[rexel]

desperately needing more help or guidance with this one......

[drventure]

Well, first thing to do with mala is just completely take it out of the picture. Can you run Mame straight from the command line? That's the first step, because all Mala will do is start the Mame exe with some command line parms to tell it which rom to load.

Once you're sure MAME is running right, check your mala folder for any MLG files.

Those are the game lists.

If you've got one that's HUGE, that's the one that likely has all the games in it. It's just XML so you CAN just edit the file to your liking.

You might also grab a copy of ROMLISTER and use it to generate an MLG file of the roms you actually have.

But you should be able to the refresh list. I don't recall whether it'll remove games that are no longer there though.

What you might try is BACK UP your main game list, delete it, then run Mala and try the refresh main game list again.

[rexel]

ok
but how do i test the roms to ensure they are compatible with the mame version iam running....

i understand how to create a working games list... but nfi on how to make sure the two match in the first place...

cheers.

[drventure]

Now that is a totally different question 

CLRMAMEPRO is the tool of choice for that, but I've never had much luck with it.

[rexel]

ah ok

someone mentioned i could create a dat file from mame and that will help... does anyone know this trick

[drventure]

I think you're thinking of the -listxml command line option for mame

Just look up MAME COMMAND LINE OPTIONS for all the details.

You can run mame with -listxml and pipe the results to an xml file to generate a list of all supported games for that copy of mame.

I believe Mala does that automatically, other utils might also, it's been awhile since I've done that.