Cant get cheats to work in mame32 and mame

[equlizer]

In mame 32 ill check mark "use cheats" and i put the zip file in the main directory but says no cheats available when i try and use them in game.  How do you use cheats in regular mame?

[Thenasty]

MAME GAMENAME -cheat

I think CHEAT.ZIp need to be UNZIP (cheat.dat)

Also, some games don't have cheat.

I you want to see if a GAME is supported, just open up the Cheat file and search the ROM NAME of the GAME

[equlizer]

i never had to add -cheat to any game before.  I played years ago and just hit the TAB key then cheats and there were cheats for almost every game.  So your saying i need to load each game from a dos prompt to cheat?