3. Maybe use SAVE STATE and load that STATE
Im not too sure what this is
It's a MAME feature that saves the current game state and allows you to reload that position/condition at will.
- Not supported in all drivers, so not sure if it works in Commando.
For example, if you want to practice fighting the 3rd level boss in a game you can either start each time from the beginning and play through all 3 levels to get to the third boss
or you can play through the first three levels once and do a save state just before you get to the third boss and load that save state to start right at the third boss as many times as you want.
In-game, press Left Shift+F7 followed by a number key to save the game state to that save slot.
- Save any time after the initial "only for use in Japan" text screen.
Press F7 followed by a number key to load the game state from that save slot.
https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/defaultkeys.htmlF7
Load a save state. You will be prompted to press a key or select from the menu to determine which save state you wish to load.
Note that the save state feature is not supported for a large number of drivers. If a given driver is not known to work perfectly, you will receive a warning that the save state may not be valid when attempting to save or load.
Left Shift+F7
Create a save state. Requires an additional keypress to identify the state, similar to the load option above. If an existing save state is present, it will also appear in the selection menu to allow overwriting of that save state.
To load a savestate from command line, use something like "mame commando -state 1".
https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html-state <slot>
Immediately after starting the specified system, will cause the save state in the specified <slot> to be loaded.
Example:
mame -state 1
Scott