Is there a way to bypass the ROM boot sequence?

[xefned]

I've searched, but can't find anything. Either bad search terms or it's just not possible.

Encouraged with the ability to patch out the nag screen, I wonder can we patch out the boot sequence too?
Inquiring mofos wanna know.

[BadMouth]

no

[Howard_Casto]

you shouldn't be removing the nag screen either... it gives valuable information.  There are countless "thsi game doesn't work" questions on the net that could easily be resolved if the user just read the giant yellow/red info screen that appears prior to starting the rom. 

[nexusmtz]

Either bad search terms or it's just not possible.

A suggested search term would be skip_startup_frames.

As for it being possible, a longer version of Badmouth's response is that you can't bypass 'the' ROM boot sequence for three reasons. First is that there isn't just one ROM. There are thousands. Second, MAME doesn't know what differentiates a boot sequence from the main game loop. MAME is just running code. Third, most of the game's boot sequence is there because it needs to be. Testing sequences aside, if the code wasn't needed in order for the game to run, it wouldn't have been there.

Understanding that you can't just bypass the sequence, the approach that skip_startup_frames took was to run the first number of 'frames', e.g. 261 (configurable for each game) as quickly as possible without displaying the frames or producing the sound output, then switch back to running the code at normal speed with video and audio output. That gave the illusion that the games 'skipped' their boot sequence. That was nice, but it required work to document the frame numbers, and it went against the concept of MAME emulating the machine accurately.

That said, you'll find that if you restate your question in a more generic way, MAME provides what you're seeking for many games. What you want to ask (and I'll pretend that you did) is "How can I run an emulation to a point, and later resume emulation at that point?"

The answer to that one is to use savestates. Since savestates can be used to resume emulation at any point, not just immediately after initialization, that feature is much more useful than simply skipping frames.

Try working with savestates for awhile, and see if it makes sense to you why skip_startup_frames isn't needed anymore.

[xefned]

Thanks friends for the advice. I appreciate it.   

I'll investigate savestates, thank you. I respect MAME's dedication to accurate preservation so I'd never suggest other people skip the boot sequence.  On my home cocktail cab, I'm recreating my own personal arcade experience, and I'm thankful Mame makes it possible.

[Gray_Area]

AdvanceMAME has a feature, for most games, that fast-fowards to the attract mode, so it isn't a fixed number of time or whatever. Maybe that could be investigated and put into a custom build. (OR EVEN INTO THE MAIN LINE!  OHH.) It obviously wouldn't violate any rules.