Move to mame 64bit

[Tonyjambo]

i just upgraded my pc and want to take advantage of my 64bit os , ive downloaded the latest mame 146 64bit build and want to know the easiest way to migrate without changing all my mala settings etc (it was a straight lift out of the old disk into the new machine give or take some ide/sata fun).  Can i just copy all of  the 64 bit unpack over the top of my old install and be all good ?

[BadMouth]

If you were running a recent version of MAME on your 32 bit system, I wouldn't unpack and replace anything.
(you might overwrite your preferred settings)
Most of the time you can get away with just dropping mame64.exe in your MAME folder and change the exe in mala to mame64.exe

[Tonyjambo]

thanks badmouth -  will give that a go tonight

[xefned]

newest version is .147 if it makes any difference to ya.

[Yenome]

to go from 32 to 64 i simply replaced the mame.exe with a 64bit version. Also with 147 there is a bug with the midway games not working right anymore so im sticking to 146 till they do a Diff update.

[xefned]

Ugh. Is there a good place to find the optimal mame build based on what ROMs you want to run?

I'm a newb to the ways of mame development and from that perspective it seems bizarre that new versions of Mame would break things that previously worked. It would be like a Photoshop upgrade that allows you to import pdf's but dropping support for importing jpegs. 

And yet, it seems to make sense to everyone else here. So I'm lacking the basic information about how it all works. Is there a beginner's reference that explains .stuff like the switch to .chd's, parent roms, which bios files are needed for various versions, and how to "update" romsets.

I have a CD of ROMS I burned in 2003 and I'm wondering what I need to make them work in recent versions of Mame.
Thanks if you have any suggestions.

[Yenome]

you can get older versions from the mame website but they are 32bit versions for the 64bit version you can compile the source code. With the developers of mame going for 100% correct emulation. sometimes they do make older games not work. but i believe with midway games it is a bug and not something they meant to change.

[xefned]

Thanks man. The feeling of wanting to learn everything all at once has me flustered. But I must chill. Like all new hobbies, it takes time to absorb the info.   

A google search last night turned up the easyemu guides - excellent beginners resource!

[Yenome]

im lazy so i use mame compiler 64 by headkaze it does everything for you all you need is the source code. its as simple as picking the dir with the source and checking a box or two then hit compile and wait for it to finish. even on my amd phenom II x4 956 it took 11mins or so to get finished, sure an intel i5 would be faster if you got one.

[xefned]

Compiling mame for yourself makes you anything but lazy. 

I've heard Headkaze's name spoken of with great reverence in this forum so I'll give his compiler a try. As soon as I learn how to build a PC, and install windows.    I'm getting a late start to this game.

[xefned]

im lazy so i use mame compiler 64 by headkaze it does everything for you all you need is the source code. its as simple as picking the dir with the source and checking a box or two then hit compile and wait for it to finish. even on my amd phenom II x4 956 it took 11mins or so to get finished, sure an intel i5 would be faster if you got one.

You're right. It was damn simple. Hail headkaze. 

Yesterday I assembled my budget MAME PC with a Pentium G620 dual core. 19 minutes 22 seconds to compile Mame .146 64-bit.
So your Phenom performs like a supercomputer by comparison. 

Thank you for the tip. And thank you headkaze for the tool.

[Yenome]

Yea ive done the compiling before by hand and his tool just makes it soo noob friendly i just use it now. took me a lil while to get it all done by hand one night. also with the tool when they release the diff patch for 147 that fixes the midway games you can use that tool to update 147 source if you feel the need.

[xefned]

Just this morning I compiled .147u1. Midway wasn't mentioned in the what's_new.txt file so I presume that's coming in a later update. I'll try it later today to see if it was fixed and codenamed elsewise.

In your experience, are the Mame support files backwards compatible? In other words, if I have controls.ini and history.dat from .147, will that work with the Mame binary from .145?

My roms are from .145 so I think that requires me to use Mame .145. But now I've got this weird combination of bios files from .146, Roms from .145, and support files from .147. I'm still figuring out how to piece them altogether into something that works. Should I bother trying, or is Mame strict about mixing versions?

[Yenome]

unless something changes then the older files work for the newer versions unless say something with a certain game changes. Like say they changed the name of a game or added a clone or parent rom of a game your old versions wouldnt know bout the new ones.
My roms are from like 145 havnt updated them yet but like the other stuff unless something changes then mame will be happy using the older roms cause unless something changes there is no diff between the diff rom versions. you can download the update packs for the roms and update em all to 147. only need i have ever know of to stick with an older version of mame is for support of a game that is broken with later versions or too keep down on the over all bloat of games. like if you only play classics from the 80's you could use like mame .98