Mysterious Mamewah error!?

[Victor_Voltaire]

I have been trying to set up mamewah with some well functioning emulators and roms on my new laptop. In order to do this I have received help from a friend who has quite a lot of experience. Still I seem to have a typical rookie problem.

Everything is installed, I can run mamewah and I generate games list and all my games appear as they should. Mysteriously WHEN I CHOOSE ANY GAME WITH ANY EMULATOR all emulators give some error message saying they can't find the rom. For example VirtuaNes says "can't verify rom". My friend who ought to know hasn't got a clue, does anyone know what's the deal here?

[Fat_Trucker]

Off the top of my head have you checked the emulator specific .ini files in the Mamewah ini folder?. Sounds like your rom paths may be off.

If you are using standard downloaded .ini files for mamewah then you need to change the paths for your specific setup.

Double check that they are pointing to the correct place and that they are set to open the correct format (zip, bin or whatever your files live in).

For example your Virtuanes rom path should be something similar to C:\virtuanes\roms.

Have you got your virtuanes roms in a specific folder or just installed in the same folder with the emulator?. If its any help I use fceu and my ini for mamewah looks like this.

### nintendo.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

emulator_title                            Nintendo

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  c:\NES\roms
rom_extension                             zip
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method                    rom_folder

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       c:\NES\fceu.exe
commandline_format                        {8.3[rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]
game_specific_config_path                 

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path                      c:\NES\snaps
artwork_2_image_path                      c:\NES\boxart
artwork_3_image_path                      c:\NES\carts
artwork_4_image_path                     
artwork_5_image_path                     
artwork_6_image_path                     
artwork_7_image_path                     
artwork_8_image_path                     
artwork_9_image_path                     
artwork_10_image_path                     
movie_preview_path                       
movie_artwork_no                          1

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               0
saver_type                                launch_scr
movie_path                                c:\mamewah\ssmovie
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                30
wrapper_executable                       
wrapper_commandline_format                [name]
scr_file                                  c:\mamewah\ms_pacman.scr

### External Application Settings ###
ipc_file_or_path                         
app_1_executable                          c:\cpvw\cpvw.exe
app_1_commandline_format                  -b=c:\cpvw\images\nintendo.jpg
app_2_executable                          c:\cpvw\cpvw.exe
app_2_commandline_format                  -b=c:\cpvw\images\mamewah.jpg
app_3_executable                         
app_3_commandline_format                 
auto_launch_apps                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                                c:\mamewah\music
lcd_display_file_path                     
lcd_fe_text                               

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

[Victor_Voltaire]

I have the roms in separate folders for every emulator, I have double checked the paths many times since I believe it must be something like that but they seem to be correct (I have studied the setup readme and the paths for all emuname.ini files). Since the roms appear as they should these settings ought to be the correct ones, right? i don't use the mame.ini file but I have emuname.ini files for every emulator, is that a problem?

[Fat_Trucker]

Thats pretty much the way its supposed to work. Copy your nes ini file and paste it up here so we can have a nose.

 

[Victor_Voltaire]

I sure hope you can figure this out, I have spent A LOT of time on this before asking for help

### 1-nes.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

emulator_title                            Ninendo Entertainment System

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  C:\ROMS\NES
rom_extension                             nes
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method                    rom_folder

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       C:\EMULATORS\VIRTUANES\VirtuaNES.exe
commandline_format                        [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
game_specific_config_path                 

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path                      C:\ROMS\NES\SNAP
artwork_2_image_path                     
artwork_3_image_path                     
artwork_4_image_path                     
artwork_5_image_path                     
artwork_6_image_path                     
artwork_7_image_path                     
artwork_8_image_path                     
artwork_9_image_path                     
artwork_10_image_path                     
movie_preview_path                       
movie_artwork_no                          1

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               1
saver_type                                slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                30
wrapper_executable                       
wrapper_commandline_format                [name]{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
scr_file                                 

### External Application Settings ###
ipc_file_or_path                         
app_1_executable                         
app_1_commandline_format                 
app_2_executable                         
app_2_commandline_format                 
app_3_executable                         
app_3_commandline_format                 
auto_launch_apps                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
lcd_fe_text                               

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

[vibez]

you may have to add the rom path into this line

 commandline_format                        [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

eg


commandline_format         [rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}

[Victor_Voltaire]

If was just suppose to change to the row according to below, it unfortunally did not work. I have also tried to set up mamewah at another computer where I have the exact same error..

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       C:\EMULATORS\VIRTUANES\VirtuaNES.exe
commandline_format                        [rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
game_specific_config_path                 

Please, more ideas!

[darktemp]

My first suggestion would be to try a different emulator.  Go to http://home.comcast.net/~cpviewer/downloads.htm and download the nintendo emulator listed which is a hacked version of fceu.  Then use the nintendo .ini file on the site for reference to set yours up.

[jcrouse]

My first suggestion would be to try a different emulator.

[spriggy]

It sounds like the unfortunate Windows 98 compatibility problems that Mamewah occassionally has. Error 75 or "Can't verify roms" can be common".

..So the question begs to be asked...are u using Win98??  Their possibly is a fix for your problem!

[darktemp]

My first suggestion would be to try a different emulator.  Go to http://home.comcast.net/~cpviewer/downloads.htm and download the nintendo emulator listed which is a hacked version of fceu.  Then use the nintendo .ini file on the site for reference to set yours up.

Yeah, what he said!

 
John

Your site has helped me tons the past week John.  Thanks!

[Victor_Voltaire]

Thanks for all help!

The strange thing is that I have 5 different emulators with 5 different ini-files, and all of them gives this error but with a little different error messages. I have received all emulators and ini-files from a friend and they work perfectly on his computer. It is also fully possible for me to run a nes-rom if I start it with VirtuaNes directly but not through Mamewah. I run windows XP and I will now try the emulator proposed though I do have some doubt it will work.

[jcrouse]

Have you installed the system files from the MameWAH website?

John

[vibez]

Have a look in the mamewah log file. it will contain the comand line that it is sending to the emu.

Take that commandline & open a command prompt window & use the line from there. It might give you a better idea what is going wrong

[Fat_Trucker]

I think you are using the wrong rom extension. Working on the presumption that they are in zip files you need to change that extension to zip, not nes.

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path

[Victor_Voltaire]

I have installed the setup-files and the extension on my roms is (unfortunally *.nes not *.zip. When I run Mamewah everything seems to work fine till I choose a game, this is my whole log-file:

2005-06-19 23:55:10 MAMEWAH launched
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Cursor scheme: 3D-vit, Arrow: C:\WINDOWS\Cursors\3dwarro.cur, Wait: C:\WINDOWS\Cursors\hourgla3.ani, AppStarting: C:\WINDOWS\Cursors\appstar3.ani
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Desktop colour: 0
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Wallpaper filename:
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Display mode: 1680x1050 @ 60Hz, 32 bit colour
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Decimal symbol: ','
2005-06-19 23:55:10 Games list read: 1-nes-0.lst
2005-06-19 23:55:12 Layout selected: C:\MAMEWAH2\layouts\Arne\1-nes.lay
2005-06-19 23:55:12 Ctrlr file selected: C:\MAMEWAH2\ctrlr\default.ini
2005-06-19 23:55:20 Commandline run: CMD.EXE /c C:\EMULAT~1\VIRTUA~1\VIRTUA~1.EXE 1943 -verifyroms > C:\MAMEWAH2\files\verify {flags=17}
2005-06-19 23:55:29 Commandline run: C:\EMULAT~1\VIRTUA~1\VIRTUA~1.EXE 1943 {flags=12}
2005-06-19 23:55:51 MAMEWAH quit

It seems to me that the error is generated by the separate emulators but that would also be strange since it is generated BY ALL OF THEM?!
What should I try next, any ideas?

[Minwah]

Check this line is actually correct (and saved):

commandline_format                        [rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}

I can tell {autodosbox} is being used, as the '-verifyroms' part is only used when this is the case:

2005-06-19 23:55:20 Commandline run: CMD.EXE /c C:\EMULAT~1\VIRTUA~1\VIRTUA~1.EXE 1943 -verifyroms > C:\MAMEWAH2\files\verify {flags=17}

MAMEWAH thinks you are trying to run MAME and is therefore trying to perform an action which isn't possible for most/all other emulators. 

[Victor_Voltaire]

I have now changed and saved all my emuname.ini-files from:

commandline_format                        [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

to:

commandline_format                        [rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}

Amazingly this did not do the trick either... 

[jcrouse]

Different emulators require different setting. I have the INI files for quite a few MameWAH emulator settings on my website. Check out the downloads page at http://home.comcast.net/~cpviewer and look for your platform.

John

[Fat_Trucker]

Sounds a bit weird I know but try changing the ini title from 1-nes.ini to just plain old nes.ini.

Also, I don't know if this is a problem for mamewah but try having a more direct location for your nes emulator and roms. Eg C:\Virtuanes\Virtuanes.exe and C:\Virtuanes\roms.

[Victor_Voltaire]

Now we're talking, interesting wierd solutions is what I seem to need! I will try it instantly, Cheers!

[Victor_Voltaire]

Take a loock at this! I have attached a screendump from my computer, this is what it looks like! It seems like the roms are there, VirtuaNES starts and then this enoying error. What can be wrong How can I start over with a functioning setup, any ideas?

[Fat_Trucker]

Looks like Mamewah is launching VirtuaNes ok. Problem looks like it is with VirtuaNes rather than Mamewah (is it command line based?).
You could try a NES emu optimised for use with a FE. I use FCEU Link Here and it works fine with MameWah.

Using Zsnesw for SNES games.

If you decide to go for it add me to msn (fattrucker@fsmail.net) and I will send you my FCEU ini file for mamewah.

[Fat_Trucker]

Ok its not a compatability error with MameWah. I just dl'd VirtuaNes and it worked first time with Mamewah.

I just tried extracting the rom file from zip to nes, changing the ini to .nes and put it into the folder c:\roms\nes and managed to duplicate the error you have from mamewah.

Just going to see which variable is causing the crash and bob should be your mums, sisters, husband.

[Fat_Trucker]

Have a look at your NES ini in Mamewah. See where it says rom extension?......does your ini say .nes?

Try removing that dot from in front of nes. Thats how I managed to break it and get the same error you are posting. Just change the extension from

.nes

[Victor_Voltaire]

Many thanks for your fantastic help! Unfortunally it does not say . nes either... I will happily add you on msn!

[chemame]

commandline_format                        [rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}

Maybe I'm missing something, but the above line, as quoted from a post WAY back in this thread, has a typo, does it not?

There is a closing } after [romext], but no opening { to match it with.  And from the screenshot of the error, it looks like the closing } is then passed to the commandline itself?....

Chemame

[Minwah]

Maybe I'm missing something, but the above line, as quoted from a post WAY back in this thread, has a typo, does it not?

There is a closing } after [romext], but no opening { to match it with.  And from the screenshot of the error, it looks like the closing } is then passed to the commandline itself?....

Absolutely right I'd say.

[Victor_Voltaire]

The problem is now solved! Many thanks to all and every one! I was missing "{" in some ini files as mentioned above, it also seems that it is necessary to write "8.3" in the expression for the command line format, that did the trick!

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       C:\EMULATORS\VIRTUANES\VirtuaNES.exe
commandline_format                        {8.3[rompath]\[name].[romext]}{dosbox}{safelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]
game_specific_config_path