How do I run 2 roms with the same name in the one mame list

[sega_mad]

Hi,

I have just done the Donkey Kong Foundry hack. (which went very well).

What I want to do is run both the original version, and the hacked version on my Mame machine. The problem is that they both have the same rom name.

I've tried renaming the rom, but that doesn't work.  

Any thoughts,

Thanks

[WhereEaglesDare]

I believe that it has be changed in the rom files, not just the file name, and it also needs to be added in the MAME.exe so it will listed.

[sega_mad]

Thanks for the quick answer, but sorry I don't understand, are you able to spell it out nice and "simple" for me.

Thanks

[Lilwolf]

I don't know about the hack... but... all other clones have different names (not the file name in the zip, but the zip)

are you using the windows version or the command line?  If the command line, try misspelling the name, and it will show you all the closest roms by name. 

[sega_mad]

Hi. Have tried misspelling it, and then rename it (ie dkongo), but then all it does is play the dkongo version, even though it's the hacked file?

[nitz]

I'm sure there is a way to do this using batch files and such, but probably the easiest way is to just get MisfitMame and play it in that - IIRC MisfitMame supports that game.

Edit: Come to think of it, you'd probably still need to change the mame.xml and use a batch file if you wanted it to show up in the same list as mame games. I could try to walk you through making a batch file if you like.

[sega_mad]

Thanks for the reply. Already running a batch file, as I'm running 2 versions of Mame. Just need to add a 3rd
version. Just can't work out how to set up the Mame.cmd file.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Thenasty]

since running it a batch file...

why not just rename/copy over the file and just use one version?

have all 3 gameroms in a diff folder (game1.zip, game2.zip, game3.zip)

when you select GAME.ZIP (and it needs to be game2) copy game2.zip GAME.ZIP to the ROM PATH.

gee, hope I made sense (cause I do it myself with some games)

[sega_mad]

Sorry. You lost me on that explanation 

[nitz]

I'm sure what thenasty is suggesting would work, but I'm not sure how to change the rompath on the fly like that off the top of my head. Here is what I would do:

1) Create a file called dkongpatched.zip (or whatever you like as long as it's a zip file), and then drop that in your roms directory.

2) Edit the mame.xml file so that the rom dkongpatched.zip will show up in the list as Donkey Kong Foundry. Basically you could just tack the following onto the end of the xml file:

Code: [Select]

<game name="dkongpatched">
                                  <description>Donkey Kong Foundry</description>
                                  <year>1981</year>
                                  <manufacturer>Nintendo</manufacturer>
                                  <driver status="good" emulation="good"/>
</game>

You'll likely have to refresh the gamelist in your front end to get it to show up in your list.

3) Copy everything out of your mame folder, minus the roms folder, to another folder called (for example) mame2.

4) Create a folder called roms in mame2 and drop your patched dkong.zip in there.

5) Now, in your original mame folder, create a file called mame.cmd, and using notepad, put the following in it:

Code: [Select]

if "%1" == "dkongpatched" goto dkongpatched

mame.exe %1
exit

:dkongpatched
cd C:\emus\mame2
mame.exe dkong
exit

where C:\emus\mame2 is whatever the path is to your mame2 folder.

6) Point your frontend to mame.cmd instead of mame.exe.

This should work, I'm pretty certain it would work with MaLa which is what I use, but it should work with any frontend. If it doesn't, perhaps try changing %1 above to %2 or even %3 - it all depends what the frontend normally tried to pass to mame I guess.

If you try this, let me know if it works for you!


Edit: Changed step 1 as I realized part of it was not really necessary.

[sega_mad]

Ok, here's what I've done....and I've screwed it up!!

I used to run MAME 102 and 114, now I'm upgrading to 141, and still using 114 for some games (Donkey Kong Jr because the jump sounds are wrong in 141).

All I did was copy the 114 data over the 102 data, and then installed MAME 141 where 114 was, then edited the MAME command file to reflect the file name change. See screen shots.......please help...it's driving me nuts

Thanks

[sega_mad]

Solved!!

Even though the rom path was c:\emulators\other_emus\mame114

I also needed to have the roms in the MAME folder!!

 

[Gray_Area]

I'm glad I skipped down to the bottom.....