The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Front End Support => MaLa Frontend => Topic started by: gigapede on August 20, 2008, 05:26:24 pm
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MAME + MaLa
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Edited by Gigapede
OVERVIEW
This document explains how to install MAME and then MaLa on your Windows PC so that you can play arcade games (MAME) with a powerful launching application (MaLa). Your computer should have at least 256MB of RAM and be at least 500MHz. Faster machines will run more smoothly. Old operating systems don't take advantage of all the cool features MaLa offers. Still, these two applications require very little processing power, so don't melt your old PC for copper just yet.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
To provide a clean working environment, you should close all windows and applications except for this text file and whatever browser you tolerate. You will only use your browser to download the files you'll need to install these two applications on your system. Once you have these files you do not need to use your browser or the internet any more.
FILES
Create a folder on your desktop to hold these files:
MAME: http://mamedev.org/release.html (http://mamedev.org/release.html) <- Look for the latest command-line binary of MAME
MaLa: http://www.malafe.net (http://www.malafe.net) <- Look for the latest Official Release (http://www.malafe.net/files/download/MaLa.7z (http://www.malafe.net/files/download/MaLa.7z))
ROMs: You will need to find these online. Note: ROMs are not low-hanging fruit. They are copywritten code that have been extracted from the original ROMs of classic arcade games. You can find free ROMs for MAME here: http://www.mamedev.org/roms/ (http://www.mamedev.org/roms/)
CREATE THE DIRECTORIES
MAME and MaLa can be run from anywhere on your harddrive, and they don't install any strange .dll or invisible files. That said, they also point to folders and files internally, so you should manually create this proven directory structure in your root directory before starting:
C:\Emulators
C:\Emulators\mala
C:\Emulators\Programs
C:\Emulators\Programs\mame
Steps to Install MAME:
1) double-click on 'mame.exe' then install it directly into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\" directory. You can do this by clicking the '...' to launch the pop-up window and navigate to this directory, or by typing it in.
2) copy your ROMs into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\roms\” directory. KEEP THEM ZIP’d. MAME uses the .zip format to organize game files.
a) copy “catver.ini” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
b) copy "controls.ini" into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
c) copy “history.dat” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
3) Open a command line prompt window (ie: Start\Programs\Accessories\Command Prompt)
4) Execute the following command to go into the mame install directory:
cd C:\Emulators\Programs\mame
5) Execute the following command to produce a “mame.ini” file:
mame -cc
(Note: This file allows you to customize your mame emulator to the way you like it. You can ask questions at the BYOAC forum before changing it).
Steps to Install MaLa:
1) Copy the 4 unzipped MaLa files into "C:\Emulators\Mala\"
(bass.dll, emulator_presets.ini, MaLa.exe, MaLaKeyHook.dll)
2) copy MalaLayoutConverter.exe into the "C:\Emulators\Mala\" folder
3) Double-click on "C:\Emulators\Mala\MaLa.exe” and it should inform you that “This is your first start of Mala”, click OK button to bring up the Options Window.
4) Under the “Mame Config” basics tab click on the “...” for “MAME executable” and select "C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame\mame.exe"
This will inform you that MALA has “Found mame M.A.M.E V0.xxx”. Click OK to close.
5) MaLa will inform you that there is no .xml file associated with MAME. Click OK to create the file automatically. (Other files are automatically generated at this time, behind the scenes)
6) Click on the “...” button associated with the “Rom Path” line and select the following directory:
C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\roms
7) Under the “Mame Config” tab and in the “Pictures and Videos” subTab click on the “...” button associated with the “Snap/Title” line and select the following directory:
C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame\snaps
8) Click the OK button at the bottom of the MALA Options window now. This should result in a window popping up indicating “Your configuration has changed. Refresh main game list?” ....... just click YES and wait for MALA to refresh the gamelist (ie: reading in all the ROM file games). After this completes, MALA should be displaying the MAME gamelist with MALA’s default background image.
9) You should now have successfully installed MALA and configured the MAME emulator.
That's it, you're done!
You can try to select a game to play now. If no games are present, try RIGHT-Mouse clicking and navigate the menus and options.
GLOSSARY:
MaLa: Short for 'MAME LAUNCHER', MaLa is a fully configurable graphical 'DOS' for running MAME and other apps using an arcade console interface. Also called a 'frontend'. Originally written by Swindus, released July, 2006.
MAME: Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Originally authored by Nicolas Salmoria in 1997. There are other emulators that run console machines. MAME emulates the hardware of almost all of the coin-op arcade machines popular in the 80s and 90s. The only thing MAME needs to run those games are the ROMs.
ROM: Read Only Memory. These small zipped files have captured code from the chips that went into the original arcade machines. They should remain zipped because MAME automatically looks inside them for any required files. Do not attempt to compress them with other software, they arrive in working order.
Snaps: These are 'snapshots' that other layouts use to show a picture of a selected game. The default layout does not use snapshots, so do not be sad that your 'snaps' folder is empty. These files are used by MaLa's more advanced features such as custom layouts.
Special thanks to UncleT for writing this document originally! It was a lot more thorough and involves many more steps to get many more EMUs runnning. This process is fully compatible with his.
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Nice- work.. :cheers:
:applaud:
You might have to remove part about where to get roms as that is breaking the rules of this forum.. Sorry :-[
Special thanks to UncleT for writing this document originally! It was a lot more thorough and involves many more steps to get many more EMUs runnning. This process is fully compatible with his.
Yes he is a legend! :notworthy:
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Removed, and you are very welcome... :)
MaLa is a brilliant frontend and you're making it even better!
I'm working on an 'Advanced Features' document, but I'm still trying to figure out how the basic features work!
I have a thread for getting .avi files to work in MaLa without opening Windows Media Player that I'd appreciate anyone's help on.
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a) copy “catver.ini” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
b) copy "controls.ini" into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
c) copy “history.dat” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
Where are these found? I thought I followed the steps perfectly? "I've searched in every folder for them?
Thanks
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a) copy “catver.ini” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
b) copy "controls.ini" into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
c) copy “history.dat” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
Where are these found? I thought I followed the steps perfectly? "I've searched in every folder for them?
Thanks
I am looking for these too, any pointers??? Thanks. Nevermind - I found em.
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a) copy “catver.ini” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
b) copy "controls.ini" into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
c) copy “history.dat” into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
Where are these found? I thought I followed the steps perfectly? "I've searched in every folder for them?
Thanks
I am looking for these too, any pointers??? Thanks. Nevermind - I found em.
Where were they?
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http://mameworld.info/
scroll down the page and on the right hand side you will find support files, all can be downloaded from there
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b) copy "controls.ini" into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\” directory
Anyone have a copy of controls.ini? The link on Mame World is dead for the controls.
Mame World links to http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/controls.php for this file but the site is doa.
Anyone???
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I have it; it's for an older version, though. See attached.
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I can't download that controls.ini file anywhere. All roads lead to the same site and that site seems to be down. jfh2112 was kind enough to post his but for some reason I can not download that file either.
Anybody have a live link to that file?
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Mala is by far the easiest FE to set up,
Controls.ini is mame related, not Mala related.
@n88n
This link just now worked for me:
http://www.box.net/shared/dcgzo5ixoh (http://www.box.net/shared/dcgzo5ixoh)
If you cannot download it, PM me with your email address and I will email it to you
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@Honzo, thanks for your comment at least i feel better that I was not the only one having trouble. Maybe down the road I will take a look at Hyperspin.
@SGT, thanks so much for the file. Now I can continue with my initial set up.
I have a question for anybody that might care to answer. It seems so far that I have not really 'installed' anything and I am just filling up that root 'emulators' folder. So I would assume that this whole setup would be pretty mobile. I imagine i will build a PC for my cab when I finally get that close. So far it seems like I could just drop that 'emulators' folder on any pc and be good to go. Right?
thanks all.
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Yeah it should be mobile as none of the installers make any (important) changes to the registry that I know of. The only problem you might have is if you put it onto a computer with a different drive letter. You may have to make a few minor changes in Mala setup to run on a different drive letter from which it was originally setup for.
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:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Thanks for the walk-through. I am started another MAME cab, Vertical only games, and have never used any other F.E. besides M.A.
Thanks again,
MM
out
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Every time I try to do step 4 in the mala install part, I get an error saying "Unable to get file version!". What do i do?
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What version on MAME are you using? I believe if you have a newer version the XML gamelist (ROM) names have been changed. Search this forum and you should find some fixes.... I dont recall exactly where it is located.
Edit.... Found it.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,145865.msg1517120.html#msg1517120 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,145865.msg1517120.html#msg1517120)
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I'm using 174 of mame. The program will not create an XML file
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I made a XML file through the command line and tried what that link said, still having the same problem