The easiest way to add Highscore support in MAME if you want to avoid compiling involve these steps:
#1 Obtain
Groovymame and place the executable in your MAME root folder. This is already pre-compiled with Highscore support and makes your games run smoother
#2 Obtain
Hiscoredat.zip from Mameworld
#3 Create a folder named
hi in your root MAME directory
#4 Unzip Hiscoredat.zip into the
hi folder you created containing Hiscore.dat
#5 Create a new
MAME.ini file by typing the command
Groovymame32 -cc (or Groovymame64 depending on whatever the executable is named) if you use command-line version of mame
#6 Make sure
disable_highscore_patch is set to 0 under CORE MKChamp OPTIONS in your newly created MAME.ini
Now just run a high score supported game like Donkey Kong, post a score, fully exit MAME, re-enter the same game again and your score will be there if it was successful.
IMPORTANT: If you are running a Frontend that uses a launcher like Hyperspin, you must disable it or your highscore saves will not work.
Hopefully this will help out allot of people. I had to go through this on my own since the Mame compilers would always crash before I could make a build.
