Mala with multiple MAME versions?

[Zobeid]

I've got things running great with Mala, except for one small hitch. . .  I've got a couple of games that don't work, or don't work exactly right, with MAME 0.133, but they work OK with MAME 0.123.  Is there any way to configure Mala so it will call "mame123.exe" instead of "mamepp.exe" just for those couple of games?

I've been looking through Mala's many confusing and poorly documented options, and I haven't yet found anything that will do this, short of maybe setting up a complete new game list just for 0.123, which is something I'm not happy with.  I'd like for these games to appear seamlessly in the same list with the rest.

[Encryptor]

Did you get new rom versions for the new version of MAME?


Encryptor

[SGT]

Yeah you can run different versions of Mame with different roms by following the example here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68419.0



However if the problem is the games won't run due to outdated roms, it's much easier to get updated roms as Encryptor mentions.  Mala has its own forum here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=43.0

[TheShanMan]

Not directly, but you could write a batch file that mala calls instead of mame.exe, and then the batch file could decide based on the rom which exe to run.

You could also try MultiMAME, which is what I use. It's very flexible but not super simple. I use it to run a different version of mame for 1 or 2 games that don't work in the main version I'm using, and also to run daphne games without having to switch to a different emulator.

[Zobeid]

However if the problem is the games won't run due to outdated roms, it's much easier to get updated roms as Encryptor mentions.

Actually, I've found a few games (most notable being Dig Dug) where MAME 0.133 corrupts the graphics in cocktail mode (with the screen flipped), but 0.123 works properly.  Since I just got through building the cocktail-table machine, and updating to 0.133 at the same time, it's the first time I ever ran into this problem.

[Zobeid]

Not directly, but you could write a batch file that mala calls instead of mame.exe, and then the batch file could decide based on the rom which exe to run.

OK, this seemed like the simplest idea so it's the first thing I tried.

Problem. . .  Mala won't accept a batch file!  If I try to configure it to call my .cmd file, Mala complains that it's not a valid binary program.

(Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here.  I use a Mac normally, and my knowlege of DOS and Windows is near nothing.)

[SGT]

You may want to move this to the Mala forum.  The link is at the top.

If you have "Hide extensions for known file types" checked in Windows, you may be unable to see that the batch file you created actually has a txt file extension instead of cmd like it should be.

Open a folder on your drive C, at the top click Tools, then Folder options.  Click the View tab at the top. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".

If after doing this you see that the file is named mame.cmd.txt  rename it to mame.cmd.   Mala accepts cmd files with no problem, so that is the only thing I can think of at the moment.  You'll get a lot more help in the Mala forum because some Mala people rarely come over to this forum.

[Congui]

The problem is mala, when browsing for the mame executable only looks for files with exe extension, thus the message "Binary D:\mame\MameWrapper.cmd has an unknown format!  Please, select a valid file.", when used a batch file (extension bat or cmd); in my case my batch file is named MameWrapper.cmd.  The solution for this is to manually put the name (with its path) in the "Mame Executable" text box, as you can see in the attached file.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Congui