Can't start a game (Mala v1.74)

[MagicMan]

I had to install a new PC in my MAME cabinet a while back. Went smoothly & all was working fine for a bit.

Now I can't seem to get a game to start in any emulator. I'm running Mala v1.74 w/paradise arcade controller. I verified, though the control panel in Mala, that the buttons are registering and are the # buttons they are wired up to be. I have tried setting other buttons for "start game", but that changes nothing. No matter what, every time I hit the button to start the game selected, it just goes back to the first game in the list starting with that letter when I hit the button.

I imagine it's something simple that I am missing, but I'm at a loss and frustrated now.

[ballboff]

Sounds to me like your command line is bust, have a play around with the built in scripts.  Some work with the game in quotation marks, some do not.

[MagicMan]

Sounds to me like your command line is bust, have a play around with the built in scripts.  Some work with the game in quotation marks, some do not.

I never messed with those before and have nfc how to anyway. I never changed the commands from when it worked properly.

[BadMouth]

If it weren't for the weird jumping in the list behavior, I would think it was a path issue from transferring files over to a different computer.

Check the path to the mame.exe and xml, then refresh the all games list.
If a game launches fine from the all games list after that, you'll have to delete and re-add it to any other lists you've made.
(in order to update the info in the mala gamelist file).

As far as the jumping back to the first letter thing, there is an option in Mala to map a button to jump up or down a letter (or x-up or x-down).
Make you don't have the same key mapped to that as you do start.

Any autohotkey scripts or xpadder running in the background to post different keys?

[Louis Tully]

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[MagicMan]

If it weren't for the weird jumping in the list behavior, I would think it was a path issue from transferring files over to a different computer.

Check the path to the mame.exe and xml, then refresh the all games list.
If a game launches fine from the all games list after that, you'll have to delete and re-add it to any other lists you've made.
(in order to update the info in the mala gamelist file).

As far as the jumping back to the first letter thing, there is an option in Mala to map a button to jump up or down a letter (or x-up or x-down).
Make you don't have the same key mapped to that as you do start.

Any autohotkey scripts or xpadder running in the background to post different keys?

I made sure no buttons were mapped to the same function.

No hotkey or xpadder.

[BadMouth]

longshot, but it could be some kind of joystick ID issue.

Do you have multiple controllers connected?

...or maybe multiple joysticks enabled in Mala?

[MagicMan]

longshot, but it could be some kind of joystick ID issue.

Do you have multiple controllers connected?

...or maybe multiple joysticks enabled in Mala?

There are 2 joysticks. I tried it with both enabled & also with just 1. Same result.

[BadMouth]

Further longshot, but the only other thing I can think of is User Account Control (UAC) in windows screwing stuff up.
Sometimes it will prevent a program from accessing another file or folder.

Can't really help with specifics, but you might try googling how to disable UAC and see if it makes any difference.
It's probably something simpler, but I can't think of any other simple things in Mala to check.

Are the emulators launching?  Mame will just flash then disappear, but some of the others like Model 2 will open and just not load a game.
I'm still laying bets on it being a path issue.

[MagicMan]

Further longshot, but the only other thing I can think of is User Account Control (UAC) in windows screwing stuff up.
Sometimes it will prevent a program from accessing another file or folder.

Can't really help with specifics, but you might try googling how to disable UAC and see if it makes any difference.
It's probably something simpler, but I can't think of any other simple things in Mala to check.

Are the emulators launching?  Mame will just flash then disappear, but some of the others like Model 2 will open and just not load a game.
I'm still laying bets on it being a path issue.

Yes, the game lists launch fine. I will look into the UAC thing, thanks.

[BadMouth]

Further longshot, but the only other thing I can think of is User Account Control (UAC) in windows screwing stuff up.
Sometimes it will prevent a program from accessing another file or folder.

Can't really help with specifics, but you might try googling how to disable UAC and see if it makes any difference.
It's probably something simpler, but I can't think of any other simple things in Mala to check.

Are the emulators launching?  Mame will just flash then disappear, but some of the others like Model 2 will open and just not load a game.
I'm still laying bets on it being a path issue.

Yes, the game lists launch fine. I will look into the UAC thing, thanks.

"game lists launch fine"?
I was inquiring if the emulator was launching without loading a rom.

[MagicMan]

Further longshot, but the only other thing I can think of is User Account Control (UAC) in windows screwing stuff up.
Sometimes it will prevent a program from accessing another file or folder.

Can't really help with specifics, but you might try googling how to disable UAC and see if it makes any difference.
It's probably something simpler, but I can't think of any other simple things in Mala to check.

Are the emulators launching?  Mame will just flash then disappear, but some of the others like Model 2 will open and just not load a game.
I'm still laying bets on it being a path issue.

Yes, the game lists launch fine. I will look into the UAC thing, thanks.

"game lists launch fine"?
I was inquiring if the emulator was launching without loading a rom.

Yes, that's what I meant. Emulators launch fine.

[BadMouth]

Yes, that's what I meant. Emulators launch fine.

If the emulator is launching when you start a game, but the game isn't loading
then it sounds like the path to the rom is set up wrong in the emulator.
(In the emulator itself, not Mala)
Mala doesn't tell the emulator where to find the rom, it just passes the name along to the emulator.

Do the games work if you try to launch them via command line or batch file?

[MagicMan]

Yes, that's what I meant. Emulators launch fine.

If the emulator is launching when you start a game, but the game isn't loading
then it sounds like the path to the rom is set up wrong in the emulator.
(In the emulator itself, not Mala)
Mala doesn't tell the emulator where to find the rom, it just passes the name along to the emulator.

Do the games work if you try to launch them via command line or batch file?

According to the config, it's looking for the roms in the right spot.

I have not tried via command line or batch.

[BadMouth]

According to the config, it's looking for the roms in the right spot.

I have not tried via command line or batch.

Which config, Mala's config or the emulator's config?
Mala only uses the location to make a list.  It has nothing to do with the game actually launching.

[MagicMan]

According to the config, it's looking for the roms in the right spot.

I have not tried via command line or batch.

Which config, Mala's config or the emulator's config?
Mala only uses the location to make a list.  It has nothing to do with the game actually launching.

Mala. I never messed with Any of the emulator's configs as they were working fine. This problem just happened out of the blue.

[MagicMan]

Further longshot, but the only other thing I can think of is User Account Control (UAC) in windows screwing stuff up.
Sometimes it will prevent a program from accessing another file or folder.

Can't really help with specifics, but you might try googling how to disable UAC and see if it makes any difference.
It's probably something simpler, but I can't think of any other simple things in Mala to check.

Are the emulators launching?  Mame will just flash then disappear, but some of the others like Model 2 will open and just not load a game.
I'm still laying bets on it being a path issue.

Turns out I already had UAC disabled.

[Vigo]

I think BadMouth might be right about the Mame Config. Try this: Go into the mame.ini file and put the directory you use on the rompath line. See if that fixes it.

For example:

old:
rompath                   roms

new:
rompath                   C:\mame\roms   [or whatever your rompath is]

[MagicMan]

I think BadMouth might be right about the Mame Config. Try this: Go into the mame.ini file and put the directory you use on the rompath line. See if that fixes it.

For example:

old:
rompath                   roms

new:
rompath                   C:\mame\roms   [or whatever your rompath is]

It's what it is supposed to be in the .ini file.

I think I just have to uninstall Mala & start over. All this work for nothing...

[MagicMan]

I reinstalled Mala & at least games load when I hit the assigned button now. However, my joystick & buttons do nothing now when in a game.

I keep getting an error about no controls.ini file assigned. I was on Mala's site & saw a link to download said file, but the link is bad.

So now what?

[Vigo]

Try this

http://controls.arcadecontrols.com/controls/controls_dat.php

[MagicMan]

My player 1 start button starts a game from the FE, but once the game starts my player 1 start button does nothing. I can't play a game unless I hit my extra player 2 button which acts as insert coin & then my payer 2 start button will start the game and always as a 2 player session.

What is going on here? None of this makes sense. One day all works as programmed & then I don't touch the machine for a while only to have this cluster ---fudgesicle--- the next time I turned it on!!

[BadMouth]

were the joysticks unplugged or extra joysticks plugged in before it started acting differently.

The joystick IDs MAME identifies them with can get messed up if they are unplugged.

[MagicMan]

were the joysticks unplugged or extra joysticks plugged in before it started acting differently.

The joystick IDs MAME identifies them with can get messed up if they are unplugged.

Nope, never unplugged them.

[eds1275]

This really sounds like either you need to remap controls for a particular game, or you need to remap the default controls for all games in mame.

[MagicMan]

This really sounds like either you need to remap controls for a particular game, or you need to remap the default controls for all games in mame.

How do I remap them all in MAME? It's been so long lol.

Also, in MAME v140, I can't seem to get out of the screen where you search for a particular game. Nothing I hit on my keyboard registers & I also have to control+alt+delete to quit MAME completely.

[eds1275]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+remap+controls+in+mame 

[Louis Tully]

.

[MagicMan]

This really sounds like either you need to remap controls for a particular game, or you need to remap the default controls for all games in mame.

How do I remap them all in MAME? It's been so long lol.

Also, in MAME v140, I can't seem to get out of the screen where you search for a particular game. Nothing I hit on my keyboard registers & I also have to control+alt+delete to quit MAME completely.

My bad, man. I should've said encoder where i said interface. I wasn't fully awake.


Let us know what happens when you run your games without the front end.

Just tried 2 different versions of MAME without the FE & no buttons register.

How did you try those different versions of MAME if you didn't map the buttons? 

I mapped them long ago when I put this thing together & never had an issue till now.

Turns out MAME remapped my buttons on its own it seems. I went in there today & things were not as I set them. I remapped the start & insert coin buttons & I'm back to playing. Thanks for your help everyone. Happy new year!! 

[Louis Tully]

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