trying to use an old Dmame version, getting missing/corrupt errors for ROMs

[Rudi]

I've got the following:

P2 350 Mhz, plenty of RAM and HD
DOS 6.22
DMame .107 and ArcadeOS

I've got about 30 ROMs, and thing work well for most ROMs.  Several of the ROMs are so slow that they are unplayable.  So, I try to use DMame .69.  Now a good chunk of the ROMS give me an error saying missing or currupt files.  They ran with the newer version of DMame, but not the older version.

I've read that people have problems with ROMS when they upgrade MAME.  Typically a program such as CLRMame Pro can be used to fix it.  Is this a related problem, but in reverse?

I don't know if I'm even on the right road.  Looking at ClrMame Pro it will not be an easy solution, even if this is the solution.

Is this a "ROM Manager" problem or another problem?  If this is such a problem, is there another program that will do the job other than ClrMame Pro?

-Rudi

[NOP]

There are a number of reasons things like this happens.  Sometimes a ROM is dumped incorrectly, or partitially, and the emulation code is written to use what was available at the time.  Then, when a more accurate dump becomes available, the emulator has to change, so there is now a disconnect between new ROMs and old software or vice-versa.

I think you can be assured that the newer MAME/ROM is certainly the better of the two, in respects to more accurate emulation, however, older versions can often play games at a better speed, so if you're willing to sacrifice accuracy to playability, then keep your old MAME and ROM sets handy.

You essentially need to get ROMs that are matched to the version of MAME you want to run.  It's a pain in the cheeks, but not as dire as having to keep complete sets for every version-I haven't really seen THAT many roms that changed.  YMMV.

-jeff!

[Rudi]

Thanks.

I'm probably just going to keep using .107 because it can play more ROMs overall.  I will lost performance, but such is life.  The only games I regret losing are Asteroids and Defender.  They're just too slow with .107 on my machine.  Well, that just means I have to build a faster one next.   

-Rudi

[daywane]

for the system you stated you have a much to high of Mame version
Mame 36 - 50 something more like it or Vantage or even callus

Vantage and callus can be found with out much problems
older versions of Mame Roms are getting harder and harder to find but it still can be done