Error could not play the game, not found (Mala + Mame)

[maximebeauvais]

Ok, I used to have a mame arcade but sold it last year. Over the last few year, I have tried different emulator (mala, mamewah, hyperspin...etc) and I know how to setup mala and mame. Not sure what version of mala I was using but I'm sure that the mame version was in the 0.130 somthing. Now the new version is 0.150.

Now, I'm trying to setup mala and mame on my PC.

However, when I try to run a game in mala, it said that file not found, error, could not play the game. It is pretty much the same problem as this guy:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,94953.msg998706.html#msg998706

However, this is the first time that I heard of a neogeo bios. What is that? Will this solve my problem?

Last night, I tried to setup mala and mame on my laptop. I did use only 1 rom (arabian, one of my favorite game). I got this one from romhunter web site or something like that since I was too lazy to go and get my DVD rom. YES it work. So then I download ghost and goblin, pacman....all FAIL some error message.

Anyway, I will try to read more about that neogeo bios to see if this is the solution.

If someone have any idea, that will be great.

PS: my rom are ok since they were working last time.

[NOP]

If one of your games works when launching it from MaLa and others don't, this is a problem with the version of mame you're using and the roms themselves. 
Mala is doing nothing wrong here.

MAME v.150 requires a romset for MAME 150.  In that romset will be a file called neogeo.zip.  It is a ROM, but it is not a game; it is support software that all neogeo games use.  If you don't have it, none of the neogeo games will run.

my rom are ok since they were working last time.

That is where you got off track.
If you are not using the *same* version of MAME you had working "last time", then there are very good chances your games will not work.  You have to either upgrade your rom set to v150, or downgrade your version of MAME to match your romset.   

This is an incredibly common pitfall that people make.  ROMs change as often as MAME does.   (not 100% true, but it sure seems like it)

[maximebeauvais]

so my problem was:

I was using my rom DVD (from 2006) with mame 0.150.

On my DVD, there were a mame version: 0.104.

So I have installed that version of mame with all the rom and YES it work.

I had no clue the we had to use the good romset with the good emulator.

THANKS