hard-diskless mame cab?

[Keith O.]

Is it possible to make a hard-diskless mame cab? My current set-up is Game Launcher/Mame/Dos. I think it would be neat to have everything on a cd-rom so I could use my hard disk elsewhere.

[flemming]

Is it possible to make a hard-diskless mame cab? My current set-up is Game Launcher/Mame/Dos. I think it would be neat to have everything on a cd-rom so I could use my hard disk elsewhere.

There is a project to make a bootable XMAME CD.  You can find more info on it at: http://www.phased.co.uk/xmame/

It's Linux based but it does answer your question.

Robert

[u_rebelscum]

Is it possible to make a hard-diskless mame cab? My current set-up is Game Launcher/Mame/Dos. I think it would be neat to have everything on a cd-rom so I could use my hard disk elsewhere.

Yes, but note that you won't be able to change any settings if you use a cd.  Just make sure you already have the mame.ini, cfg/*.cfg, and nvcfg.*cfg files setup as you want them before burning the cd.

The rest is getting the cd bootable, like previous post noted.  You can also burn bootable windows cds.  Look up  "bootable CD windows" on google, there are hundreds of sites.

[StephenH]

Yes, its possible.  Create a bootable CD with your front-end, MAME, ROMs, DOS, and anything else you need in an auto boot configuration.  

The only issue is that you will not be able to save settings, high scores, battery RAM, NVRAM, or the like.

[JMDickson]

Just for fun...
 How about using a DOC or a CF2IDE adaptor to store settings?

[Howard_Casto]

I know I'm stating the obvious here, but a complete mame set spans multiple discs, not including the space you would need for the operating system.  Now with linux you might be able to get a farily small install, but with windows it's going to be 250mb+ That leaves a puny 400 mb to put emulators, front-ends, artwork,flyers, ect.  The artwork for mame alone takes up over 200 megs.  Just something to consider before jumping full steam into this.  Also if your thinking "well i can just put more roms on another cd"  Remember that unless you have multiple cd rom drives your going to need all of this stuff on each cd.  

Just something to think about... I almost went the route at one point, but that was when mame fit on 2 cds  

[Lilwolf]

If your going 100% dos, then the size of the OS wont make a difference.

But I think it would be a cool system to have a diskless one with each disk being originized by type... .then you could also configure your FE and setup based on the setup.

so have a fighter cd, a classic cd, an adult one (if you want)....

it doesn't take taht much time to bootup your system, especially in dos.  (make sure to disable the memory check and setup the drives to none... dont' boot to a, then cdrom... just cdrom...)

btw, if your going to do this, Linux might be a better choice... but I'm not sure if there is a Linux version of mame that doesn't require xwindows....  adding xwindows will make the linux os larger then the dos...

good luck and I would love to see your config files when you get done..

I would love to copy them (if you don't mind)... I have a ton of family members (and boss) who would love to have a few cds of games for their kids... just boot up and run!

[Elkor]

Advancemame under linux does not require X
(it does require svgalib and a couple of other non-standard packages though, but these aren't too big)
you could make a bootable cd with the os and mame/frontend binaries and config files.
just NFS mount the roms and hiscore directories.
once the roms are read there is no real I/O anyway.

-C

[_Iz-]

How about making a boot cd and hosting the files on another computer and accessing via network? Or have all the games and mame on a boot cd with one of those USB memory key things to store settings on? You can get a 32 or 64meg one fairly cheap...

[Lilwolf]

To create one under windows/dos, just find an extra old drive (about...humm...700mbs or so)... and set it up until you like it.  Then put your main harddrive as a D drive so you can populate it.

As for the linux solutions... I've heard that there is a XWindows version (XFree that is) that only has whats needed loaded and very very small... then you can add the modules that you want.  We are looking at it at the office for adding xwindows on embedded computers.  If we get it working at the office, I will try to get a minimum set of modules needed to get xmame running