HD images and frontends

[VicBond007]

OK, here's the deal.  I got MAME 0.62 (windows build optimized for pentium) and certain games like Area51 and Maximum Force require HD images and the ROM image.  I have both, however the fact that they're separate files is where my problem starts.

For example, I have the properly dumped Area51 ROM in a zip file, which is all fine and dandy, however the HD image for the game (500 and something MB) is a series of .rar files (19.07MB a piece.  Downloaded from mamefans) If I un-rar the HD image and unzip the rom image, I can launch the program properly using the command line only.  My current frontends of choice (Mame Classic and Mame32) will only play games that are in zip files, not extracted.  So I experiment and zip the ROM images and the HD image together into a mammoth zip file and yes, it runs, but it takes ages to load since it's trying to load 500+MB to the system RAM.

I think you can see my problem.  Is there any way to have the HD image load separately as needed (like a split set ROM) or a windows based frontend that will load ROMs both as zip files or as directories?  I need it to be windows based because I can not go to DOS.  I am using a fixed frequency monitor and the device timing is adjusted to only work at 640x480x16.  Likewise, the frontend should have the following features that are important to me: 1) in game mouse support 2) screenshots for the ROM selection menu 3) ability to set a standard display mode (640x480x16) 4) lightgun support (optional, but if I can get Area51 working smoothly then it will become mandatory ^.~)

Sorry about the long message but I wanted to get as much info out in the open as possible to avoid the "can we have more information on such and such?" posts ^.~

[waveryder]

There are three games in mame 0.62 with HD images. Maximum Force - Viscious Circle - Area51. I have also had lots of probs running these games from a frontend. I personally use Mamewah but have the same problems you recorded. Advance menu now works with the HD games hopefully we'll see an update to some of the others.

[mrhowell]

I use mame32 and put the area51 rom in the roms folder like normal and make a folder called area51 and use winrar to make the HD image and put that in the area 51 folder.  The area 51 folder goes in the roms folder like a ROM.  It loads quickly on my Celeron 800 but play is pretty slow.

[SirPoonga]

Ok, quick cheat to make it work with your frontend.  Here's what I see the problem is.  The frontend looks for the zip file of the rom, you extracted the rom and chd to the <roms>/area51 folder, right?   You shouldn;t have to extract the rom image.  Anyway, just make sure the area51.zip of the rom image is in your roms folder too then.

[)p(]

I use mame32 and put the area51 rom in the roms folder like normal and make a folder called area51 and use winrar to make the HD image and put that in the area 51 folder.  The area 51 folder goes in the roms folder like a ROM.  It loads quickly on my Celeron 800 but play is pretty slow.

exactly...this way you can keep the rom zipped in the main rom folder and should probably work with your current fe...i don't see any reason it would not...

peter

[Howard_Casto]

Yup.... the hd images are loaded by the rom itself AFTER the game is loaded.  Mame looks for the zip file with the roms and pretty much ignores the hd image initially, as does any fe or any variant of mame.  The hd images just have to be extracted and in a folder named after the rom as the others have stated.  You also need to have the rom path defined within mame if you are using a fe as only the zip file's path will be sent.   After the game is loaded mame knows to check all of your rom folders for a folder named after the rom.  It's sorta like the daphne emulator.... Most of the program code is in the roms but all of the graphical data is stored seperately.  Actually I take that back, the roms are more like computer bios, but you get the idea.  

[VicBond007]

thanks for the help everybody!  I'll give it a whirl and see what comes up.  I don't believe Mame classic supports extra directories, but it does have an option for neogeo roms and since mine are already in the same rom folder, I could use that to at least redirect 1 game ^.~

Hmmm, I hope my P3-700 will play it alright.  The HD is slow as all hell (5400RPM UDMA33 I believe.  I dunno, I got it for free ^_^)

[Howard_Casto]

ALL versions of mame support multiple directories.  

in your mame.ini under the "rompath" entry simply put as many directories as you like delimeted by a ;

like:

rompath      g:\roms\noegeo\;g:\roms\cps2\

in the guied versions of mame you simply keep using the "add path" button until you've added all of your directories

if you didn't already know this then i suggest you go read up on the mame faq and mame documentation

[VicBond007]

actually MAME Classic and MAME32 require all the files for each game to be in one zip, unless it's a split set (they say so in their readmes)

What I eventually ended up doing was simply making a shortcut on my desktop launch the games from the command line.

Now I need to figure out how to remap the reload option to an input.  Anyone know how to do this?  The current setup uses (I think) PORT_ANALOG to define where the reload region is.  wouldn't be so bad but all the inputs require 6 digit address, and the analog input only gives 2 4 digit addresses.  What's even crazier is that there are no port settings at ALL for Maximum Force in the cojac.c file.  Only Area51 and vicious circle, which confuses me further.

[SirPoonga]

actually MAME Classic and MAME32 require all the files for each game to be in one zip, unless it's a split set (they say so in their readmes)

You mean the chd and rom image in the same zip.  NOPE, this will not happen.  With the way mame works, the next version will verify the chd is not in the same zip as the rom.  You could easily crash a system that way by using all resources before the game fully loads.

[Howard_Casto]

that's not true

mame32 requires that there is only one zip file per game and only one folder per game.  In other words each game can have a set of zipped files and a set of unzipped files.  So as everyone has said about 4 times in this post, put the zip in your rom dir and put the uncompressed chd in a folder in the roms dir with the same name as a zip.   It works on every version of mame i've tried, including mame32.  

Btw mame32 is not a front-end, it's a guied version of mame.  Also it is readily confused with mame 32, which is the default mame build.  You need to refer them with description so we understand what you are talking about.        

mame classic is just a front-end, so i'm about 99% sure it'll work on it too.  All it does is launch mame, so as long as mame can see the rom and the game shows up in mame classics's gamelist then you are fine.  As I said in my previous post you HAVE to add the paths to the rom directories containing the chd files to the rompath entry in the mame.ini.  If you do not do this then it will not work.

It does work, trust me....  

[eightbit]

I'm gonna need a bigger hard drive. I tried removing the zip versions of those roms after I unzipped them to their folders but that didn't work. There is 3 gb for those 3 games alone. I think I'm up to like 9gb for my mame files with all the artwork and what not.

[Howard_Casto]

lol you've got off easy

not counting daphne i'm at 18 gigs with emulators' related roms and artwork

counting daph you can double that


everyone who wants to have all the latest games better upgrade the harddrive now as any modern game uses a hardrive or a cd.   In other words a couple hundered megs minimum.  

[VicBond007]

Or at least have very large ROMs.  A buddy of mine has a Tekken cab and it's all on the board.  I dunno too many modern games that use an HD aside from Dance Simulators (DDR, Parapara Paradise, Beatmaniacs...) and Soul Calibur 2 (Probably storage for Conquest data).  Alas.  I wish I worked in an arcade and had access to some machines so I could learn more/dump some boards

I'm still looking for the MRA (thought it was Memory Access Register but other sites call it MRA so I'm gonna roll with the flow ^.~) that I have to call to reload your weapon with a keypress in Area51.  I spent some time with the debugger and got nothing out of it (just a boatload of system crashes).

[eightbit]

My new lightgun has a reload button on it that works in area 51. Any chance that could help you? If you could tell me how to figure out where that button goes I'll try. It plugs in as a mouse and as a joystick. It also has its own hardware box that makes the screen flash.

[cdbrown]

lol you've got off easy

not counting daphne i'm at 18 gigs with emulators' related roms and artwork

everyone who wants to have all the latest games better upgrade the harddrive now as any modern game uses a hardrive or a cd.   In other words a couple hundered megs minimum.  

Mines at around 24 gigs, but I've got a lot of multiple copies of games for the different emulators which I need to consolidate. No Daphne or CHD's yet.  Might have two hd's in the cab when it's finished to hold all the mp3's as well