GameLists: Multiple Versions of MAME

[IDDQD]

I think I read somewhere that this was possible, but I can't find anything about it -- is it possible to run one version of MAME for most games, and then have MaLa automatically run another version for specific games? In my case, Donkey Kong won't run in .125, which is what I'm using, but runs just fine in .112. Is there any way for me to tell MaLa to use .125 for all games but use .112 for Donkey Kong (and presumably others that run better as well)? I tried searching but found nothing... sorry if this has already been answered!

[NOP]

The way I did it was to use a batch file that called various MAMEs.
There is a thread around here about it, but I used a slightly different method:

1) in mala, instead of pointing the emulator to mame.exe, use mame.bat
2) move your various copies of mame.exe into their own folders - they need their own mame.ini files anyway, so they won't coexist in the same folder.  Note you will need ini and roms folders in each mame folder too.
3) in mame.bat, I examine the rom being passed in from mala, and branch appropriately.

(this is from memory)

Code:

if %1==dkong goto mame112
if %1==pacman goto mame125
if %1==looping goto mame112

rem default MAME launch
dmame %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
goto end


:mame112
cd mame112
mame %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
cd ..
goto end

:mame125
cd mame125
mame %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
cd ..
goto end


:end

Note that the "default" case is to run a renamed mame.exe right there in the root folder where this batch file exists. 

I will gladly post my actual batch file if anyone is interested, but this should allow you to branch to whatever version you want.  Works great for me!

-jeff!

[Ummon]

Looks neat an easy. IDDQD, there's also Multi-Mame.

[Dizzle]

I'd be interested in that batch file.    I was just searching the forum about the same issue!

[juggle50]

I love SGTs method.  It not only allows you to get multiple versions of MAME on your main gamelist but also allows you to have games from other emulators on the main gamelist as well as Daphne games on your main list!  It's very similar to NOP's method.

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

[Havok]

Psst:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,43.0.html

[IDDQD]

I've tried both of these methods, and in both cases MaLa doesn't want to take the .bat or .cmd file, as it's looking specifically for the mame.exe file. What do I do?

E: Nevermind, I had to set up the .bat properly and force it to take it by typing it in the line.

[IDDQD]

Okay, here's my mame.bat (in a zip file) that I made according to NOP's method -- it's awesome! I had to play around to make it work, but it works now and is totally worth it... one completely unrelated question, though, does anyone know why the Metal Slug games don't work in .112? I thought they were supported by then...

[NOP]

after having a look at my official mame.bat file, it appears my memory is as good as I hoped it was-it's virtually identical to what I posted and what you're using, except I have a longer list of games to branch off of, and I'm using 3 different copies of mame.

so, cool to hear that this worked for you too, and that there appears to be no need for me to post my official batch.

[IDDQD]

I expanded my list last night, so things are working better even than in that batch!

I also discovered that if you have a U360, you can have it program the stick for 4-way controls, 8-way controls, etc., from the batch file! I can post my .bat again with that update, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out, just cd to the right directory and then put the filename in the bat, and then run mame.

[NOP]

Excellent idea.

I'm using fatfingers' plugin for the u360 for my setup, but yeah, I could see that working nicely too if there is any misinformation contained in your mala game list that is telling the plugin the wrong U360 settings. 

If you use the retro arcade front end layout, it shows graphically what controls and buttons are used on each game, including 4way and 8way sticks.  (4way sticks have 4 little dashes around the joystick image)  If it's showing wrong, then it's passing the wrong data to the FF 360 plugin too.  This would be a great override for that. 

[pinballjim]

 

I spent -days- trying to figure out how to do this a few years ago (different front end, but same idea) and never got it to work.

 

[Dizzle]

IDDQD,

Thanks for posting the .bat file!    I'm gonna give it a whirl tonight to see how it goes.

NOP, thanks for your help too!!

[ncflagg]

Is there any way to get the batch file to run minimized or hidden?



- nevermind. Window state option in Mala Config.

[Lilwolf]

MultiMAME was designed to do stuff like this.  It brings multiple emulators into one mame looking exe file.  So you can have daphne called when you run "mame dlair" and also have the dragons lair stuff show up in your listxml output to populate the frontend.

http://multimame.wikidot.com/

It's not as easy as a batch file, but you can do a tons of things for it.  (even change the configuration for specific types of games, like swap around the 1-3 buttons and 4-6 buttons for all 2 player 8way 6 button games)

[TheShanMan]

Thanks Lilwolf. I've heard of it before but didn't realize it could do other emulators too. This is definitely worth looking at and may turn out to be helpful for me, so thanks for the quick summary!

[BobbyG66]

Is there a list of what game works best in which mame version?

[Ummon]

That's something totally unrelated to this topic. I'm suspecting the answer is 'no', though perhaps a better place to ask is 'main'.

[Todd H]

Any chance of maybe adding this as a feature to Mala in the future? I know you can do it with either MultiMAME or with the BAT file example in this thread, but it seems like it would be a neat feature to combine lists in Mala.

[Stormrider]

Great! I've used this batch file some games, which I prefer to run with a different version of MAME. I've also used this to add my mugen game. This needs editing mame.xml and catver.ini. It works perfectly.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

IDDQD, could you please go into some more detail on this whole process? I've never used a batch file before, and have very little programming experience (1 C++ class). Looking at the batch file it sort of makes sense, but I don't know where to put and how to actually use it. Thank you and  in advance.

[SGT]

If you look at NOP's example above, you will see references to %1, %2.  These variables are the parameters that Mala passes to the batch file.  So if you look in Mala for what the command line is, you will see %rom% variable which represents the rom name for the chosen game.  When the batch file receives this first parameter it assigns it to the %1 variable.  If there are any other variables in the Mala command line setting, they will be assigned %2, %3, and so forth.

Therefore using this method, you can branch off to different areas in the batch file based upon what the rom name is.  Of course you branch off to different areas in order to use a different version of the mame executable.

Some people will add the %path% variable (which will become %2) to the command line setting in Mala in order to branch off based upon which folder the rom is located in.  This is useful if you have a lot of roms that you want to run with different versions of Mame (or any other emulator).  Using this method, you simply move all the roms you want to run in with a certain version of mame to one folder.   This alleviates you from having to put a line for each rom in your batch file.

Hope that wasn't too confusing...

[BurgerKingDiamond]

@SGT. I understand that in principle, but I haven't got it to work yet. I'm actually trying to to it the way that you showed in your own thread, using the %path% variable. There are still some other parts of the mame.cmd that you wrote that I don't understand.

On the desktop I have a folder called MamewMala that has everything for Mala. Inside that I made a folder called other_emus. Inside that folder is another one called roms_2 with all the roms that I want to run with an older version of mame. I put the other executable (MameUI32) in other_emus (is that right?). Could you write me the mame.cmd file from this info? I think seeing it already written for me would make it easier to understand what's going on.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

@SGT, I got it working. Your guide is great. It was my computer ignorance to blame. Later tonight I'm gonna try to get my PC Touhou games to work. I may have a question or two for you about that. Thanks.