Can I??

[GrandMaster]

Is it possible to upgrade the mame that is being used in an arcade? The reason i ask is i bought a mame arcade machine off of a friend and i cant seem to get street fighter or mortal kombat to work so i was thinking maybe its an old mame version. If i were to upgrade to a newer mame would that mess up the way the arcade is working? any help would be great.

[GrandMaster]

i forgot to mention that it runs off of ultamame frontend. Works great, just cant get some games to run.

[Lilwolf]

No you can't.  Using MAME in an arcade is HIGHLY illegal.  We don't support it in any fassion.  Since it was your friend you probably wont turn him in.  But you might want to find who sold it to him...  And contact the authorities.

We only deal with home units here.  Where making money is never part of the equation.  Making money on someone elses time / effort is really kinda crappy.  (the original authors, the publishers of the games, the emulation authors, the frontend authors all feel this way)

BTW, is it an ULTRICADE?  If so this ignore all above... but the answer is still no.  Its a licensing issue.  You have to contact them and see if they have updates directory.  But this is the only known legal way to use emulation in an arcade machine (that I know anyway). 

You can get legal roms for home use only at starroms. 

[SirPeale]

No you can't.  Using MAME in an arcade is HIGHLY illegal.

Boy did you read that wrong.  Read again.  He isn't asking if he can use it in an arcade.  He's referring to the machine AS the arcade, and he bought it off a friend.

Quick answer: you can back up the old exe, and try replacing it.  The game in question may or may not work right off.  You may need to update that particular ROMset.

[GrandMaster]

Thanks Peale,
You are right its a machine in my house no money what so ever will ever be taken to play it, (thats what the illegal card room and bar are for in the next room) . So I already had a backup of the whole system so i tried what you said fired up the ultramame and black screen. So i copied the old version back in there and it works like it did before.  Sounds did work but no games or screenshots showed up. So im lost. Its great the way it is but i really wish i could play street fighter. Is there something else i could do to try to get them to work? OH and how do i now backup this file since it contains my only copy now?
Thanks for the help,
Tim

[SirPeale]

Without seeing it for myself, I can't help you much.

You should be able to back up your original mame.exe by renaming it (ie mame.bak) and copying the new mame.exe in it's place.

Your ROMs may need auditing.

Is this an Ultracade machine?

[GrandMaster]

no its not an ultracade. its a primal rage cab that has been converted. im already thinking about changing the way it is setup, but i dont want to be without a arcade while i figure it out so i might buy another computer and build it onthat and when its good to go just swap it out. And to think i just bought this on satuday and i already want to change it, no wonder the wife is always concerned when i take on a new hobby.

[Havok]

I would recommend making a full backup of everything - try a program like Symantec ghost to make an image of the hard drive, then mess with it. If you can't get it to work, re-image and voila! No harm done. you might also want to check out Ultrastyle's website, there have been updates to the frontend. Perhaps an update to Mame and Ultrastyle would fix your problem. You might also have to run Clrmamepro to fix your Rom's for the current Mame version...

[Howard_Casto]

Linguistics alert!!!

I only point this out because your wording is already causing confusion.  Not only that but after somebody corrected you you are still using the wrong terms.

An arcade is a room or venue that holds various coin-operated amusement devices. 

What you have is an arcade machine.  Also arcade cabinet, arcade cab, or just plain cab would be acceptable. 

When you say you have an "arcade" we assume you mean the place where kids come to waste their parent's money. 


Please get yourself out of the habit of calling it your "arcade" or else when you ask for help nobody is going to know what the heck you are talking about. 

[Tiger-Heli]

You might also have to run Clrmamepro to fix your Rom's for the current Mame version...

What he said.  SF and MK have been in MAME for quite a while I think.  Most likely you don't have the correct versions of the ROMS.

[Fat_Trucker]

I have a seperate Hard Drive on my PC for this very purpose.

It has an identical emu set up to my arcade machine and any time I want to do any updates, upgrades or make any changes I do it first on the comfort of my PC (usually by lots of cursing, swearing and trial and error) once I am happy that its all stable and works ok its a simple matter to just duplicate the process on my Cab.

Avoids all the stress of borking the cab and then having the frustration of getting it all working again and you can fiddle with your emu's, roms and front ends to your hearts content.

[Lilwolf]

Sorry about the mis-interpritation.

"Is it possible to upgrade the mame that is being used in an arcade?" does sound like your using it in a real arcade, not a home. 

As long as its for home use, you should be fine.  Many around here (me included) hate it when people start asking questions which sound like they are trying to profit from mame.   

And the answer is yes.  Of course you can.  Its just a computer inside.  You need to upgrade your version of mame.  Then you will want to audit your roms (to see if they are still valid... they change version / version when they find better dumps).  Use clrmamepro for this.   Then after that... you should be golden.