My name is Rando, and I Compiled! And still have questions...

[Rando]

Man,
I must be an idiot, cause for the life of me I can't figure out where to even start to compile.  I'm running MAMUI32, I'd be happy to run regular MAME if it were easier.  I've been to Mr Do's page, I've been to other pages, and it's like Spanish to me.

I want to get rid of the nag screens, and I think use the hiscore thing if it does what I think it does which is to save hi scores in games that try not to each restart.

I tried to start earlier tonight, I downloaded and extracted something, thought I killed my system because everything ran SUPER slow after doing that.  Restart fixed my issue there, but I'm no closer to where I was.

Maybe I should do a step a day.  Is there a Idiots IDIOTS guide to Compiling??  

[Generic Eric]

This is fairly close to step by step

http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64

[Kangum]

generic erics post is the easiest way. its not that bad. you run the installer. once that is done you download the 144 mame source and set its path in the program you installed. then just make sure you download and apply all the official difference files in order THEN apply the newest difference file from this website last before you hit compile.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Don't feel bad, Rando.  I tried following the directions, got errors every time, then gave up and used the headkaze compiler program and it worked. 

[Well Fed Games]

+1. I've never figured it out, using various methods. I eventually... found...  a version that had what I needed, which was basically no nag screens, etc.

[yotsuya]

The Headkaze complier works perfectly for me. I get the source from Mamedev.org, the patches from here, put them where they need to go, hit the GO button, and 20 minutes later I have a working version of MAME.

[Rando]

Appreciate the feedback all, both constructive and supportive!    On the surface it sounds simple... "Just compile!  Follow the directions!" but with all the different dated versions of MAME, Source Code, HiScore files, the Diff () files, and other stuff, I have no idea what will and won't work together. 

So far, I’m following the directions on the Headsoft page (http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64) am down through step 5 so far.  I don’t know if my steps have been successful though, because of some of these issues.  I’m going to list out some of these questions so you can see the questions that a novice (like myself) may have to help instructions in the future:

Instructions
For MameUI 0143u3 follow these instructions (Skip the MameUI steps to compile standard Mame)

Yeah!  A question even before the first step!  I’m using MameUI 0142u4, which is earlier, so I need to actually read past the instructions to where it says:

Older Versions of MAME
For Mame versions earlier than 0143u1 you cannot use Mame Compiler v1.18 to compile MAME you must use v1.17. You can download Mame Compiler v1.17 from here.

So I’m good, I have an earlier version so I get Compilier 1.17, not an issue…

1. Install Mame Compiler

Done, woot, that was easy

2. Create a folder C:\MinGW\source\MameUI0143u3

Question, I don’t have version 0143u3, I have version 0142u4, should I rename it to be 0142u4 or 0143u3?  I chose 0142u4 because that’s the version I have, but this problem will resurface…

3. Download the hiscore hi_143.txt from here and copy it into the C:\MinGW\patches (you can rename it to hi_143.diff if you like but it doesn't matter)

This step doesn’t take you to a file, it takes you to another listing of instructions, but it mentions hiscore somewhere in the middle, so I follow another link, where I then follow another link to a download page.  I get to a highscore file, but it’s a dat file, not a text file.  Is this the same, I don’t know.  Step 3 says I can rename the text file to a diff file, but this is a dat file, and what is a diff file?  I’m not sure and downloaded the dat file, don’t know if this is right.

4. Download the mame0143s.zip from here and extract to C:\MinGW\source\MameUI0143u3

Again, I don’t have a 0143 version I have a 0142 version, do I try to find a 0142 file instead of 143?  Or should I just download what it says?  And again, should the folder be named for the version in the instructions or the version that I have?  Is any of this important?  I download the file is says and put it into my renamed 0142 folder.

5. Download the updates from here (0143u1_diff, 0143u2_diff and 0143u3_diff) and extract them to C:\MinGW\patches

There are more diff files that those listed above, so I download those as well, the instructions must just be out of date. But… what is a diff file and do I want/need it?  Do I need to download all the diff files or would just the latest one be fine?  No clue, download them all to my patches folder, which has other diff files already in there as well.  Exciting.

That’s as far as I got without knowing if what I was doing was right or not.  And the whole time I’m doing this I’m wondering if I should instead just update my MAMEUI version so I won’t have all of these version questions, or should I dump MAMEUI and go down to regular MAME since I’m using MALA as a FE anyway and therotically there is a performace boost that I will see if I do so since I’m running all of this on an old PC.

But anyway, there you go, some of the problems that I (and apparently some others as well it looks like) experience when trying the simple task of compiling.  See what I mean?

Thanks all!

[yotsuya]

Rando-

All good points. You just have to assume that the instructions are on a static page whereas MAME is still evolving. So yes, even though the instructions say one thing, you can get by with substituting for the most current numbers/source codes.

[Rando]

What does this mean:

Apply the official Mame patches 0143u1_diff, 0143u2_diff then 0143u3_diff. Apply them by browsing to each one selecting it from the file browser then selecting "Apply Patch"

If just in file explorer, windows doesn't know what to do with them.  If in MAMEUI, there is no apply patch option.  If I try to run the MAME Compiler program, I get a "Unable to find a version of the runtime to run this application" error.

I have NO idea what I'm doing, and I swear I'm trying.  Took me 15 minutes to get the right Zip app to open the damn 7z files. 
 

[Vigo]

It would be pretty sweet if someone made a Youtube tutorial on compiling mame, I checked and couldn't find one. (and I am in no way volunteering to do one...trust me, you do not want this kind of tutorial made by me.  )

What does this mean:

Apply the official Mame patches 0143u1_diff, 0143u2_diff then 0143u3_diff. Apply them by browsing to each one selecting it from the file browser then selecting "Apply Patch"

If just in file explorer, windows doesn't know what to do with them.  If in MAMEUI, there is no apply patch option.  If I try to run the MAME Compiler program, I get a "Unable to find a version of the runtime to run this application" error.

I have NO idea what I'm doing, and I swear I'm trying.  Took me 15 minutes to get the right Zip app to open the damn 7z files. 
 

I think what it means is that while you have mame compliler open, click the "..." button right below where it says "diff patch file", then you find the file in the explorer window that pops up. One it is selected, hit the apply patch button. Then repeat that process for every patch file. The next step then has you do the same thing again with the highscore patch file.

[Well Fed Games]

It would be pretty sweet if someone made a Youtube tutorial on compiling mame, I checked and couldn't find one.

+1! someone smarter than us be a BYOAC hero!

[yotsuya]

Rando-

I just compiled Mame0144u7 because I read that it fixed a bug with Firefox. Here's what I did.

1. Installed HeadKaze's Mame Compiler 64.
2. Downloaded the 144 source from Mamedev.org. I extracted the source .zip file into a folder called Mame0144u7 in the C:\MinGW\Sources folder.
3. Downloaded all 7 of the 144u1-7 updates. Unzipped them and put them into the C:\MinGW\patches folder.
4. Came here and downloaded MKChamp's No Nag patch for 144u7 (hi_144u7.txt). Put the .txt file into C:\MinGW\patches as well.
5. Fired up Mame Compiler 64. Left the MinGW Folder selection alone. Changed Mame Source Folder to C:\MinGW\Sources\Mame0144u7
6. Went to Diff Patch File selection box. Navigated to C:\MinGW\patches and selected the first .diff file (0144u1). Clicked on Apply Patch and watched the status box patch the source. Once it said 'Finished' on the bottom, I repeated this step with the next .diff patch (0144u2), applied it, and repeated in increments until I applied up to 0144u7. After that, I selected hi144u7.txt and clicked Apply Patch. Once this was run, the source was ready to compile.
7. Under Compile Options, I checked "64-bit Processor" and "Dual Core" because it applied to my machine. I also checked "Clean Compile" just because. I left the "Optmize for" pulldown alone because in my experience, it doesn't seem to work.
8. Once you're done that, click the long "Go" button. It'll start to compile. Go do something else, because it will take a little while (mine takes twenty minutes, I've had old machines take an hour). When it's done, it creates a new Mame binary called Mame64.exe that I rename to Mame.exe.
9. Finally, I navigated to my Mame folder. I renamed my old Mame.exe file to Mame144u4.exe so I know the version number. I put the newly compiled Mame.exe into this folder and run Hyperspin. No issues! I fire up Firefox, and sure enough, it works perfectly (well, as near perfect as it runs in Mame).

Hope this helps, friend!  

[Rando]

ok,
Started from scratch, worked with the latest version of basic MAME instead of UI, followed all of the Compile and patch steps.  Compiled, moved the MAME file, tried out some ROMS... and still get the nag screens.

Latest version of MAME, 32 bit Compiler, latest patches... any ideas on what I missed?

Also, what's the best way to test that the hiscore part worked?

[TopJimmyCooks]

Make sure you have a folder in your mame directory called Hi.  if hiscore works, go to a game that has working hiscore (galaga namco revision B works), play, get on the scoreboard , exit the game, shut down mame, restart and make sure you're still there.  there should be a file in the hi folder called galaga.hi which is where the scores are kept.

although if the nonag portion didn't work sounds like there was a problem with applying the diff overall. 

Note, even with working hiscore patch, some games don't store the scores properly.  Puzzle bobble comes to mind.

Again, this stuff kills me so don't take my word for it.