MAME not remembering anything? Help!!

[javeryh]

I finally got everything set up in my cab but for some reason between last night and tonight MAME refuses to remember anything - high scores, dip switch settings, etc.  Every time I power on the computer I'm starting from scratch.  I have friends coming over tomorrow to play some games and I need high scores to work!!!

I am running a compiled version of MAME .119 with the high score patch/diff - it has worked flawlessly in this computer for at least a year and just last night it went bonkers.   Should I copy over the mame.exe file from my backup?  I can't remember what files are created when you compile MAME since it has been so long...

Any ideas???  Thanks in advance!   

[protokatie]

Prolly won't help, but since you said it just "all of a sudden" started doing this, I am imagining that it is more on the OS end than MAME.

Did you log into your computer under a different name or account that may not have write priveleges to the directory (or root directory) that you have MAME in? I found this to be a huge problem when dealing in Vista (until SP1). Dunno what OS you are using. Just on a lark, try running MAME using admin priveleges and see if that fixes it. Also might want to check dir/file attributes to see if they got switched to read-only for some odd reason.
If you are using MAME32 or MAMEUI, I have found that it often doesn't save anything if you just close the window with the "x" button, but will if you use the menu to close the program (although you said you made a custom compile, so I bet you are using command prompt MAME).

Another seemingly dumb question, did you use taskman to see if there was another copy of MAME sitting in the background? If that copy has ini/etc files open for writing, the copy you are using wont be able to write to those files.

EDIT: Even if a program has a file open for reading, it exempts (locks) it from being written to until the file is closed from reading. I forgot about the "File open for writing, program has exclusive access; File is open for reading, any program can open for reading, but no program may open for writing" thing.

[javeryh]

Thanks for the response.  I'm using TinyXP as my OS.  I did not log in under a different name or anything - I don't have the log-on screen when I turn the computer on. 

How do I run MAME using admin privileges?  Ideally I'd like to always be the admin, right?  This computer is doing nothing other than running MAME and MaLa.

The read/write suggestion is interesting - can I make entire folders read/write?  Everything is in the "C:\Arcade" folder.

I also didn't check to see if MAME was running in the background or anything - that is also a good idea.  I noticed this problem started around the time I told the computer to launch MaLa on startup (this is a setting in MaLa - I checked the box).  Perhaps this is causing some trouble?  I haven't started trying to hide XP or mess with the registry settings.  Although shouldn't it only be running once after booting up?  It should be shutting down when I turn the computer off, right?

I am using command line MAME (not MAMEUI or MAME 32).

Does any of this help?  I have about an hour tonight when I get home to figure it out before people start arriving!

Thanks!   

[Dr Zero]

You can right click the folder where MAME is and look at the properties and if you see the read only checked. Checking that box will make whole folders where they are just readable.

And to run as Admin right click on the program and there is a option to run as.

 

Oh the read only sometimes happens when you copy files from say a back up cd cause the cd is read only.

[javeryh]

Thanks - I'll make sure my entire "C:\Arcade" folder is writable (and not read-only).

Where do the high scores get saved?  In the "hi" folder, right?  What about highscore.dat?  I just don't know what I could have done to mess this up...

[severdhed]

you didn't move your mame directory did you?  I had a problem here the other day because i copied the mame directory from the cabinet here at work over to my desktop PC, but put it on a different drive.  so even though i was launching mame from e:\mame, there were things hard coded in mame.ini that was pointing to c:\mame

also, you said this seemed to start after adding mala to the startup folder....what happens if you skip mala completely and launch a few games directly via command line?  does it remember your hi scores?

if that works, go back into MALA and launch a game, get on the score table and then exit.  then launch that game again without rebooting....is your score still there?

i am assuming that you are allowing windows to shut down properly when you shut down...correct?(not just powering off)


yes, the hi scores are savedin the hi folder.   not all games support this though. (Donkey Kong does).  it could be something wrong with the hi score files as well.  you could try deleting all files in the HI folder and trying it again (back them up if you dont want to lose any existing hi scores)

[javeryh]

you didn't move your mame directory did you?  I had a problem here the other day because i copied the mame directory from the cabinet here at work over to my desktop PC, but put it on a different drive.  so even though i was launching mame from e:\mame, there were things hard coded in mame.ini that was pointing to c:\mame

also, you said this seemed to start after adding mala to the startup folder....what happens if you skip mala completely and launch a few games directly via command line?  does it remember your hi scores?

if that works, go back into MALA and launch a game, get on the score table and then exit.  then launch that game again without rebooting....is your score still there?

i am assuming that you are allowing windows to shut down properly when you shut down...correct?(not just powering off)


yes, the hi scores are savedin the hi folder.   not all games support this though. (Donkey Kong does).  it could be something wrong with the hi score files as well.  you could try deleting all files in the HI folder and trying it again (back them up if you dont want to lose any existing hi scores)

Thanks for the suggestions.  I didn't add MaLa to the startup folder - I just checked the box in MaLa that said start MaLa with Windows or something.  I just press the computer power button on and off to shutdown.  I have been doing it this way for ages without issue though.  I'm going to disable that check box and make sure MAME isn't running in the background via the task manager and try again.  I've had a crappy day at work, people are going to be at my house in less than an hour so I doubt I'll have time to fix the problem. 

 

[u_rebelscum]

you didn't move your mame directory did you?  I had a problem here the other day because i copied the mame directory from the cabinet here at work over to my desktop PC, but put it on a different drive.  so even though i was launching mame from e:\mame, there were things hard coded in mame.ini that was pointing to c:\mame

Not exactly "hard coded" in mame.  Usually it's set in the mame.ini or frontend settings files, all changeable.  You just have to find them. 

I just press the computer power button on and off to shutdown.  I have been doing it this way for ages without issue though. 

As long as you exit mame (into the frontend) before pressing the button (mame saves at exit), and the button triggers the soft shutdown (were windows gets to close all it's files, etc), this should be fine.

[fatfingers]

I have never checked the box to run MaLa at windows startup.  Any chance MaLa is now running from some directory other than the MaLa installation directory?  If so, any chance that MaLa is now finding a different version of MAME?

[severdhed]

you didn't move your mame directory did you?  I had a problem here the other day because i copied the mame directory from the cabinet here at work over to my desktop PC, but put it on a different drive.  so even though i was launching mame from e:\mame, there were things hard coded in mame.ini that was pointing to c:\mame

Not exactly "hard coded" in mame.  Usually it's set in the mame.ini or frontend settings files, all changeable.  You just have to find them. 

note, i didnt say "hard coded in mame" but "hard coded in mame.ini"



i hope you got it sorted out

[u_rebelscum]

Any chance MaLa is now running from some directory other than the MaLa installation directory?  If so, any chance that MaLa is now finding a different version of MAME?

The setting might have been accidentally changed or corrupted.  Double check MaLa's and mame's settings files. 

Hmm... or maybe an Antivirus update messing with something?  (Or the opposite: an unauthorized rouge app app running and messing things.)

Not exactly "hard coded" in mame.  Usually it's set in the mame.ini or frontend settings files, all changeable.  You just have to find them. 

note, i didnt say "hard coded in mame" but "hard coded in mame.ini"

Sorry, OT, and I don't like being picky, but.. "hardcoded in mame.ini" makes less sense than "hardcoded in mame", which is why I quoted as I did.

"Hardcoded" means something unchangeable without editing the source and recompiling.  Sure, mame is hardcoded to look in mame.ini.  And mame hardcodes the defaults for mame.ini.  But mame.ini isn't a source file, and mame doesn't need to recompile after changing mame.ini.  And even if mame.ini isn't changed, the setting can be changed from the commandline/frontend, or game (or parent or bios) specific ini files. 

So mame.ini doesn't meet any of the three conditions for "hardcoded": no need to recompile, isn't source, and the settings can be changed without editing mame.ini. 
(I'd probably concede the term if mame.ini was the only place to change the settings, though, with all the just in time compiling languages (java) and in-line scripting languages (javascript) redefining what "recompile" and "source file" mean now a days.  But that would be very boardline.)

[severdhed]

Any chance MaLa is now running from some directory other than the MaLa installation directory?  If so, any chance that MaLa is now finding a different version of MAME?

The setting might have been accidentally changed or corrupted.  Double check MaLa's and mame's settings files. 

Hmm... or maybe an Antivirus update messing with something?  (Or the opposite: an unauthorized rouge app app running and messing things.)

Not exactly "hard coded" in mame.  Usually it's set in the mame.ini or frontend settings files, all changeable.  You just have to find them. 

note, i didnt say "hard coded in mame" but "hard coded in mame.ini"

Sorry, OT, and I don't like being picky, but.. "hardcoded in mame.ini" makes less sense than "hardcoded in mame", which is why I quoted as I did.

"Hardcoded" means something unchangeable without editing the source and recompiling.  Sure, mame is hardcoded to look in mame.ini.  And mame hardcodes the defaults for mame.ini.  But mame.ini isn't a source file, and mame doesn't need to recompile after changing mame.ini.  And even if mame.ini isn't changed, the setting can be changed from the commandline/frontend, or game (or parent or bios) specific ini files. 

So mame.ini doesn't meet any of the three conditions for "hardcoded": no need to recompile, isn't source, and the settings can be changed without editing mame.ini. 
(I'd probably concede the term if mame.ini was the only place to change the settings, though, with all the just in time compiling languages (java) and in-line scripting languages (javascript) redefining what "recompile" and "source file" mean now a days.  But that would be very boardline.)

.


ok, so hard coded was probably not the proper word, i just meant that it was specifically mentioned in there, as opposed to not specified.

to get back to the problem at hand...

what happens if you launch the game from command line instead of mala, does it keep the hi scores?

[Beretta]

have the same problem with fastmame .98, it wont remember anything but then again i never have been able to get it to.. but that could have been something borked with the compile since it's not an official build.