Main > Software Forum
Confused
(1/7) > >>
arcade-mad:
Hello ive used mame for ages (mame32) and loved every minute of it but now ive built a few cabs using this emu i was wondering if someone could give me an idiots guide to using mamewah.
I know i will probably get flamed for asking a question that has been asked a million times before but ive used the search function and looked at various sites for my answers but im still in the dark its as clear as mud to me.

firstly if its not too much trouble could these few questions be answered please. If not ill try and search some more.

1.do i need a differant version of mame other than mame32 to get mamewah to work ?? (when i start mamewah it just says no games available)

2 do i need to make a rom folder inside my mamwah folder

3 how do i get to the options screens in mamewah (ive pressed all keys and nothing happens)

as you can tell from these stupid questions im not very computer literate and havnt a clue what im doing  :banghead:

if somone could point me in the right direction and tell me what to download and how to get mamewah going i would be extreamly greatfull.
i only want to run mame emulator so it shouldnt be too hard but im thick  :'(

thanks in advance for any help and please dont flame the new boy

cheers
unclet:
Funny, I was in the same boat you are in now ... but only two months earlier.   I used Mame32 only and loved it, however, I wanted a better way to switch between all the emulators I had so since everyone was talking about MameWah, I gave it look.   Yes, it seems very daunting since when you try to start it, then it really does nothing :>)

I will help you out the best I can.   I can help you set up emulators in MameWah if you want, however, I have not looked into using the screensaver, movies, CPViewer interaction, etc... which is possible with MameWah as well.  also, I have not created my own layouts either, I simply use the very nice ones which already exist.

What I would recommend is downloading MameWah1.62b9 (which is what I am using) and extract the contents into a MameWah directory.  This is a beta version so all support files (like the layout configuration EXE is not included in this ... but you will not need anything else at this point if you are learning MameWah from scratch).   Anyway, you can always grab the layout configuration tool from MameWah1.61 package ......     

As for your questions:

1) MameWah is a frontend and only interacts with command-line emulators, so since Mame32 is a GUI front-end which I believe does not allow itself to start a game via the command window prompt, then you must use the associated official command line version of Mame instead.   Go and download the mame.exe file related to the version you want to use.  Yes, you can use Mame32 since this can be started from the command line.

2) You can make a Rom folder whereever you want to .... you will simply create an INI file in MameWah specific to the emulator you want to use and inside the INI file, you will point to the folder which has the ROM files ....

3) Very basically, once you install MameWah into a folder (ie: C:\MameWah lets say) then  go into the CONFIG folder and you will see that MameWah is already configured for MAME.   Each emulator will have it's own folder under the CONFIG folder.   Inside each emualtor folder you will notice INI files.  The <emuname.INI> file is the main file, the <emuname-0.INI> file is always required to exist to show AllGames available and all other INI files (ie: <emuname-1.INI>, <emuname-2.INI> ...... <emuname-N.INI>) can exist which allow you to display only certain games you want (ie: NoClones, Favorites, Driving Games, Shooters, etc..)

What you want to do is go into the CONFIG folder, go into the MAME folder and edit the "mame.ini" file.  To get you started, set the following values for now (thus replacing the the "auto" text which is currently displayed)

rom_path = path to where Rom files are located
rom_extension = extension of Rom files (some emulators use different extensions)
emulator_commandline = How you would execute the emulator via the command line (plus add the {nodosbox}{nosafelaunch} stuff at the end for MameWah).
list_generation_method = which method MameWah should use to list games in the gamelist

Example:
rom_path                      "C:\mame\roms"
rom_extension               zip
emulator_commandline   c:\mame\mame.exe "[rompath]\[name].[romext]"{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
list_generation_method    rom_folder


NOTE1: MameWah replaces [rompath] with the path you indicated.  MameWah replaces [name] with the game file you select to play.  MameWah replaces [romext] with the extension you supplied ....   easy right !

NOTE2:  The {nodosbox}{nosafelaunch} helps MameWah launch into (and exit from) Dos nicely.  Some emulators need to be started with any one of the following combinations to work properly.  If you use the "wrong" combo, then perhaps the emulator will start in the background, etc... 

{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
{dosbox}{nosafelaunch}
{nodosbox}{safelaunch}
{dosbox}{safelaunch}


Now ...save the mame.ini file.

Now go into the CONFIG/MAME/JCROUSE folder and you will find a nice Mame layout created by Jcrouse which can be used in MameWah (note: jcrouse has tons of these nice looking layout files available at his cpviewer site for download for many other emulators ...these are what I use).  Copy these layout files into the CONFIG/MAME folder.    I guess these files do not currently exist in the MAME folder since some people might not want to use jcrouse's layout for Mame, they might want to use a different one or make their own.  However, it is nice MameWah includes one layout file set you can understand how to use them.

now if you double-click the MAmeWah.exe file then the application will start and it will find at least one layout file, so you should see the nice Mame layout display now.   

Ok, I believe MameWah can be set to use any keys you want but the main default keys I recommend using for now are the following only:

1 = make a selection
2 = brings up options menu
up arrow = scroll up one at a time
down arrow = scroll down one at a time
left arrow = scroll (up?) many at a time
right arrow = scroll (down?) many at a time

Now do this :

1) Press "2" so the options menu pops up
2) Press down/up arrows to go to "Game List Options"
3) Press "1" to select "Game List Options"
4) Press down/up arrowsto go to "Generate List"
5) Press "1" to select "Generate List"

MameWah should now have displayed all you Rom files in a game list format.   You can now scroll down to a game and press "1" to play one.

Let me know how it goes......


HINT (highly recommended):
Since MameWah is just a "frontEnd" for emulators, then what I do is open a command window and execute the emulator's EXE file (with all command line parameters I want/need) to first verify the emulator can start the game at the command line.  I also can see how the emulator starts up and can configure the actual emulator application itself with the options I want for it (ie: fullscreen, rotation stuff, key mappings, etc...) .   Once I get the emulator working how I want it to, then I add it into MameWah.


PS:  Once you get Mame working I would be surprised if you will "only" want to set up Mame .... since MameWah makes it so easy to switch between multiple emulators with ease....
ppilot:
Mamewah works fine with Mame32
unclet:
Learning something new every day ......
arcade-mad:
Hello unclet thank you very much for the advise and instructions  ;D

i will read it again a couple of times then give it all a go tonight.
thanks again ill let you know the outcome.

cheers  :notworthy:
Navigation
Message Index
Next page

Go to full version