upgraded to .77 from .67 and it seems that many things no longer run

[Pipercub]

Computer: Athlon 2200Xp 512Mb Ram, TNT2 AGP
DOS mame with ArcadeOS

Running 66 and 67 seemed to work pretty good, most everything ran and ran well. I just installed 77 and it seems like there are more games that don't run than run. Simple stuff like mario bros or Galaga run but games such as metal slug, D&D, TMNT all refuse to start, the grey box with the title comes up but the game never launches. Some games such as Golden axe start but freeze as soon as you insert a coin or demo mode begins. Is 77 this bad? Have others seen this sort of problem in upgrading? Or, have things worked fine after upgrading? My basic drivers, memory management etc. has no changed.

[SirPeale]

Have you run your ROMset thru ClrMAME?  Strange that some games would run, then freeze, though.

[Pipercub]

This is a complete set ordered from a tombstone burner, mameguy, who I have ordered my last 6 versions from and they have been prechecked.

Just wondering what other people's experiences have been with .77

[Howard_Casto]

There have been a ton of changes between 67 and 77...... It's debatable if your roms will work three versions from now, much less ten.  

[Silver]

If you have the .77 romset to go with mame .77 then obviously you would expect it to work.

If games start, then freeze, or mame loads all the roms happily (i.e. gives you disclaimers) then your roms are fine and it sounds like your system or configuration.

Try a fresh extration of mame - use the default config to test the games first.  If a loads of games are suddenly not working it could be problems initiating a certain resolution on your gfx card. Try forcing a resolution you know works for a game to see if you can run it.

As for freezing after the game has started - is the whole of mame locking up? (i.e. if the game freezes can you bring up the menu with the tab button?) I imagine it is as I know that the games you mentioned work fine on .77 for me. Any new frontends recently that may have updated your settings? If not - is your frontend (if you use one) compatible with the recent versions of mame?

Hope some of that helps!

[SirPeale]

This is a complete set ordered from a tombstone burner, mameguy, who I have ordered my last 6 versions from and they have been prechecked.

Just wondering what other people's experiences have been with .77

You mean 'requested', correct?  We Tombstoners (well, Lazarus Burners) don't sell them, we fulfill requests.

[Howard_Casto]

 If not - is your frontend (if you use one) compatible with the recent versions of mame?

Unless the fe you are running is really old or poorly coded this is not the case.  Fe's are not updated with builds of mame because mame is a self-sufficient program and so should be the front-ends themselves.  

[Silver]

Yes, well pointed out. Just trying to cover the bases... I think I had this problem (FE not liking new mame) once, but - if memory serves - it revolved around a major mame update (directx addition perhaps?) not liking some resolution instructions I had set up that the front end was sending to mame....

       .......and then of course there was the er... 10 minutes *cough* 2 hours *cough* I spent scratching my head wondering why not a single rom would load after a mame update, only to sheepishly notice that it was the P-pro optimised version helpfully named mamepp.exe and everything was expecting mame.exe.

And to think I work in IT support.