How do get CHD games to run.

[the3eyedblindman]

To start things off, I have all the chd roms on my computer, yet in mame, the only chd game even listed in "all games" is area 51, where are all the others. Also,  put all chd roms on my computer, turned them into rar files, like my other roms, and extracted them to the roms folder. when I click area 51 in mame32, it pops up the window that does the rom check, then when it is almost done right toweards the end, it says "required files are missing...area51.chd" What am i doing wrong, how do i get chds to run, and even be listen in mame?

[RacerX]

Do you have the file area51.chd?  It takes more than just the ROM images to run hard drive games.   It takes the hard disk images.

I am only running MAME .061b, but my area41.chd is not compressed, and it's in the diff folder under my MAME folder.  It isn't in my roms folder.  I don't know if it's the same for current versions of MAME or not.  But for the version I'm running, it works fine.

[lucindrea]

if the chd file you got is under 10MB ( and most are much larger ) , it's not a chd

[RacerX]

Yeah, you can say that again.  area51.chd is about 547MB.

[the3eyedblindman]

well i recieved the chd pack the same place i got my roms from, each chd game was in its own separate folder, and had a weird looking icon inside, so i right clicked and created a .rar archive out of all of them, which took 20 hours i think (literally) I then copied these to the roms folder, tried to run area 51 (other games arent even listed in mame) and it went through lighting the green like it was loading it, then it said error, area 51.chd not found. Dont know what im doing wrong.

[darkmavis]

theres ur problem...      if you look in your roms folder  there will be a .zip file allready for area 51, this one will call the the .chd (witch is a virtual hard drive) .. the chd files need to be in the folders you had on the disk (area 51 in an area 51 folder ect) in the rom directory  (not ZIPPED)  with the extention .chd and they will wok (slowly) but they will work 

[SirPeale]

On the CD you got the ROM images and the CHD files, what was the extention of the files the CHD images were?

[the3eyedblindman]

i have folders in my roms folder with the chd files inside of them, each are named the different game they are, should i put a copy of the .rar files of the games into those folders instead of the roms folder?

[the3eyedblindman]

also, the only chd game even listen in my "all games" directory in mame32 is area 51, how do i get all the others to even show up?

[SirPeale]

The ROMs themselves should be zipped, not rar'd.  But if it's still saying that it cant' find the chd file, are you sure it's not corrupt?  Did you run chdman.exe against it?

[Silver]

Get ClrMamepro, which can scan both your roms and the chd files. That will tell you if you chd file is correct or not.

In my setup, I have a file called area51.zip in my mame roms folder which is a small file that has all the area51 roms but NOT the chd file in it. I also have a sub-directory called area51 in my mame roms folder, and in this subdir is the file area51.chd.

Mame runs area51 fine like this.

[the3eyedblindman]

Ok, I will tell you exactly what I see...
In my Mame folder...I go to my roms folder.
In here I have a Rar file called "Area51", it is 1,258 kb. Also in my roms folder I have a rar file called "Area51a" which is 629 kb. I have another rar file, the icon on this one looks different though, its a white paper with a green, purple, and blue book inside of it (like the normal rar files) this one is called "Area 51" "CHD File" 530, 037 kb. Also in my roms folder I have a subfolder called "area51" in here is also the area 51 chd file I also have in my roms folder. When I go to mame and click on area 51, I get this. "Mame32 error, Area 51 CHD NOT FOUND, Error: required files are missing, the game cannot be run properly." Then, when I try to audit the games, it will go down the list until it hits area 51, then my computer will freeze and nothing will respond. I dont know whats going on. PLEASE HELP.

[Sephroth57]

http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#s07

this should make it pretty clear

[elvis]

http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/

This has VERY detailed tutorials on running MAME and ClrMAME Pro.  I strongly suggest reading both tutorials from start to finish, even for those who think they know what they're doing.  There's some great tips in there for newbies and seasoned pros alike.

[SirPeale]

The ROMs themselves should be zipped, not rar'd.

[the3eyedblindman]

Ok, I am just going to redo the hole chd disks and start over using that guide from easyemu. But my second question, which no one answered, why arent any of these games in mame 32? how do i get them to show up there, area51 is the only one. I will update once i redo the chds and say how it turned out.

[SirPeale]

Only complete games show up in the available menu.  If your ROMsets are rar'd, NOTHING will show up.  Mame does not support RAR!

[the3eyedblindman]

all of my games run rared, just not the chds, which is why im getting pissed off, I tried doing it your way too and it still doesnt work. Hello PC versions...

[SirPeale]

I don't know how your games run with the ROMs RAR'd, but if they're working, great.

Most of the burners I know supply the CHD images in a split format (in say, 20M chunks) so if there are errors on disk, instead of having to get the whole file again you can get just that one file.  Was this the case here, or were the CHD images whole on the disc?

If the CHD images are whole, have you run a utility on them to make sure they're okay?  ClrMAME will do it, but a stand-alone approach is chdman.exe which comes with the Mame distro.

[Quarters]

all of my games run rared

I suspect the files are zipped not rared. once winrar is installed .zip files will show up with the winrar icon. In windows explorer find folder options. In the view tab uncheck 'hide file extentions for known types'. then you will see the .zip extentions

Mame does not support RAR!

[the3eyedblindman]

ok, i went to my arcade computer, and put in my chd disk of area 51. All of the icons had the winrar icon. There was one small icon that had the .bin files in it. I copied that into the roms folder. Then there was like another 8 area 51 icons that were really big, each like 48 or somethin, totaling like 500. I suspected these were the chds because the were so big, so i copied those into the area 51 folder that was in my roms folder. I try to run the game, still nothing. All of my normal roms work.

[the3eyedblindman]

I don't know how your games run with the ROMs RAR'd, but if they're working, great.

Most of the burners I know supply the CHD images in a split format (in say, 20M chunks) so if there are errors on disk, instead of having to get the whole file again you can get just that one file.

[lucindrea]

all of my games run rared

I suspect the files are zipped not rared. once winrar is installed .zip files will show up with the winrar icon. In windows explorer find folder options. In the view tab uncheck 'hide file extentions for known types'. then you will see the .zip extentions

Mame does not support RAR!

i think the whole concept of an extension is eluding him ..
just because it has a rar icon , does NOT mean it's rar'ed , like it was stated before , they are ziped NOT rar , if they were rar , nothing would work , period!
open explorer , goto tools , folder options , view and uncheck hide known extensions and you will see what everyone here is telling you.

you NEED to extract the chunks so it's 1 chd file.

[Goz]

RAR archive will have extensions such as .RAR, .R01, R02, etc

If you copied in the files for Area 51 and you have 8 of them with these extensions they simply wont work. Right click the .RAR file or first .R01 file if no .RAR and select Extract files. Once extracted these files go in the Area 51 folder. The folder you have for Area 51 also needs to be named appropriately.

Hope this helps somewhat.

-Goz

[the3eyedblindman]

I did extrract them to one file, I now have one huge file in my area 51 folder in my roms folder. It says "Area 51" CHD File, 500 somethin mb. My roms are in the roms folder. It doesnt work. Im getting extremely irritated. Im just not gonna have chds, its not worth getting worked up over.

[lcddream]

didn't they change the location of the chd's in mame .90 to the root roms folder and not a separate chd folder?

try dropping the chd in the main roms folder

[SirPeale]

didn't they change the location of the chd's in mame .90 to the root roms folder and not a separate chd folder?

try dropping the chd in the main roms folder

edit::

i see that you do have what i wrote ...so drop the chd in a folder called area 51 within the roms folder

It's not changed, it's in addition to.   So chd images in the main ROM folder will work as well as having them in a directory off the main directory.

Those 20M files, open one of them with WinRAR.  It's a split archive.  It should show you what files are in the archive.  There should be just ONE file, area51.chd.  Place that file in your ROMs dir.

[the3eyedblindman]

still doesnt work, im just not gonna put the chds on, its not worth getting worked up over, ill pick up the pc version of area 51, and have to give up killer instinct.

[Goz]

KI plays better in U64 anyways.

-Goz

[the3eyedblindman]

anyone play area 51 pc? play like arcade version? any of you use u64 like gozur to play killer instinct? easy to set up?

[SirPeale]

*Shrug* I don't know why you're having such a problem with this, but it's probably a good idea to quit now.

[the3eyedblindman]

peale, would you be willing to walk me through this through AIM?

[Scott84]

If the files you downloaded were multiple .RAR files with diferent numbers on them.... HIGHLIGHT all the ones under the same name with all the numbers and right click and hit extract. you dont do it individually if its multiple rars for one game..

[SirPeale]

If the files you downloaded were multiple .RAR files with diferent numbers on them.... HIGHLIGHT all the ones under the same name with all the numbers and right click and hit extract. you dont do it individually if its multiple rars for one game..

Even if he did that, he'd be overwriting the same file, since it's a spanning archive.

3eyedblindman, we could try, but before you do that, post any errors you've been getting, as well as your directory structure.  Does it match what's noted in the tutorial for CHDs above?  Have you yet run chdman.exe against the area51.chd file?  I'd like you to do that first, to see if we have a viable file.

[lucindrea]

If the files you downloaded were multiple .RAR files with diferent numbers on them.... HIGHLIGHT all the ones under the same name with all the numbers and right click and hit extract. you dont do it individually if its multiple rars for one game..

doesnt matter , rar will look localy for the next file in the archive and keep extracting , wont tell you it's doing that UNLESS it cannot find the next file , then it gives all sorts of messages , but if all the files are their , it just goes ahead and extracts , and you cant extract from file 002 , 003 etc , even it you try to extract #3 , it just looks for the first file and goes from their as if you started from that file. RAR is a very good multifile spanning compression program , much better than others ( not to mention it saves space that zip doesnt in some cases ) but of course it's not supported by emulators and the chd file needs to be extracted anyway , rar is just used to make it eaiser to ..err .. transfer ( ya thats it ) from one system to the next

[DrewKaree]

all of my games run rared, just not the chds, which is why im getting pissed off, I tried doing it your way too and it still doesnt work. Hello PC versions...

It always seems to be an inability to explain HIS end fully, and an inability to comprehend what WE are saying.

I think, mr blind guy, that you should find yourself a simple and easy to run screen snapshot program (like SnagIt - HINT HINT) to take picutres of what you are talking about, as I'm 99.999999999999% positive all of your problems we try to diagnose involve faulty/incomplete/just plain wrong descriptions of what exactly you are looking at, and us, using they symptoms YOU describe, ARE fixing the problem you DESCRIBE, which in reality isn't your ACTUAL problem.

Giving us screen snapshots/captures would give us visual clues to begin to give you the correct and accurate diagnosis and solution to your problem.

While this may seem harsh, I really don't intend it that way.  It's something that came up when you said "all my games run rar'd" that should have tipped off everyone that you aren't really familiar with the terms you SHOULD be using and the terms we are giving you in order to help you.

Seriously, screenshots will allow us to help you FAR better than trying to interpret your words without knowing if you're correct in YOUR diagnosis.

Dig?

[GGKoul]

anyone play area 51 pc? play like arcade version? any of you use u64 like gozur to play killer instinct? easy to set up?

U64 is easy to set up for most people... but...

Just a question, what type of PC are you trying to run Area51 on?

[DrewKaree]

In addition to this, I am prolly betting that he's actually got zipped files.

If you remember correctly, when installing WinRAR, it installs by default handling zipped files, which means it'll use the same icon as his rar files, which is why he probably thinks he's got all his roms in rar format.

Again, yet another reason for a screenshot, as extensions either seem to be missing (leading him to only pay attention to the icon and assume it's correct) or he doesn't understand what we're talking about when we speak of extensions.


Also, in this instance, asking him to run ClrMame is simply asking for trouble, I believe, at this point.  When he comes back with hundreds of missing roms, you'll be asking him to explain what he did with THAT program (again, without ANY visual clues as to what he did) and trying to troubleshoot THAT from his explanations.

Someone recommend a free and easy screenshot solution - I dunno if "Print screen" will work on his PC, but someone get him on the path to giving us pictures.

[the3eyedblindman]

Later on I will tell you exactly what I see, the icons, names, and sizes of files when I put in the area 51 chd disk.  Theres not much more a picture could do...

[DrewKaree]

Theres not much more a picture could do...

....said the person unable to solve this problem and clearly stated to us that all his ROMS were in rar format (regardless of the fact that MAME doesn't use rar files  )


I don't know how it is that you think you're doing everything possible to obtain help, and yet still haven't been able to solve your problem.

[1]  Stop
[2]  Think to yourself "they haven't been able to help me yet, and I can't figure it out"
[3]  Read the tip I gave you to help YOU help

US to help YOU
[4]  Give up assuming you know how best to help US help YOU - it hasn't worked SO FAR, has it?
[5]  Figure out some way to take screenshots
[6]  Start taking SCREENSHOTS. 
[7]  Post those screenshots - add words that you think might help us
[8]  NEVER assume that you are able to explain in your own words better than a picture will show
[9]  Stop assuming you know better than the people who W-A-N-T to help you
[/list]

If your way works, why have you introduced more questions than answers?  Since your way has worked so well, you've got this problem fixed already, right? 

I guess your way HASN'T really worked so well, HAS IT?

You are sounding as if you think your way will solve it, when CLEARLY you seem to have SEVERAL problems you are unable to solve, and only seem to be delving into further problems that A PICTURE would have helped to clear up at least SOME of the questions we need answered in order to H-E-L-P you.

If you don't want to take my advice, fine, but I'm fairly positive that now that I've brought it up, others trying to help you wish you would have started with my advice.

This will help you not only today, but in the future as well.  Stop being so obstinant about your communication skills - in that area, you're a legend in your own mind.   


If it's too big of a chore to learn to use the "Print screen" button, how big of a chore do you think it is to HELP you with absolutely no clue what you are actually looking at?