MAME confusion, why multiple versions?

[danmanx]

AdvanceMAME: Runs slow, can’t run Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Knights of the Round, TMNT 2, Red Baron, Mercs, Street Fighter II Turbo, X-Men, The Simpsons, Captain Commando at a decent rate. (From what I can tell its AdvanceMAME or its the fipsa one).

MAME4ALL: Runs beautifully, easy controls, great menu. (Just like the Android version)

Why oh why would we ever want to run a slow emulator instead of a fast one? Why is the default MAME *NOT* MAME4ALL???

Hours upon hours upon hours I spent trying to figure out why MAME was slower than honey pouring out of a jar. Conspiracy? I felt like the entire world lied about the speed of MAME on the Pi or its ability to run old arcade games. I literally thought I was going insane when I finally realized I was running another version.

Am I crazy?? Did I somehow mess up settings or was it because I used the .img file and didn’t set up my settings correctly?

Now look, I love my Pi and everybody on here has been very helpful and informative, but unless anyone can give a valid reason, please delete the other versions of MAME. There’s literally no point.

Any sort of clarification to this utter insanity is much appreciated. And my intention was not to insult. I sincerely enjoy RetroPie. It’s getting me interested in Linux. ;-)

P.S. Also, how do I get Emulation Station to use MAME4All?

[cacophony555]

I was wondering the same thing. MAME4ALL is 2-3x as fast for many games (Outrun, Paperboy, etc).

[kitchuk]

I agree. The default mame emulator in Retropie is the retroarch core version. I contacted Petrockblog a couple of months back of the mame4all-pi version and asked if he could add it to the setup script (he did!). Hopefully is should be the default on future versions as it’s Better in every regard. Also, I would recommend for Neo Geo and Capcom CPS games PiFBA. It’s pretty much flawless at 60fps!

[petrockblog]

It would be grat, if you could post your es_system.cfg settings as well as the input configurations for mame4all-pi and PiFBA. This would make it easy for me to add this to RetroPie :-)

[kitchuk]

This is what my mame4all-pi config looks like. My folder for the binary location in the pi is called ‘mame4all_pi’ but it might be different when the script installs it. Check what the folder is called once you install it form the script and change appropriately.

I don’t have a config file for the MAME input as it was all done inside the emulator via the ‘TAB’ key, but was very easy to use. The mame.cfg doesn’t seem to display controller info only keyboard.

DESCNAME=MAME
NAME=mame
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all_pi/roms
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP 
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all_pi/mame %BASENAME%
PLATFORMID=23

Note that the command ends in %BASENAME% instead of the usual %ROM%

Below is my PiFBA (Neo Geo & Arcade) config:

DESCNAME=NeoGeo
NAME=neogeo
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/neogeo
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP .fba .FBA
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 2 "/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/pifbang/fba2x %ROM%" 
PLATFORMID=24

DESCNAME=FinalBurn Alpha
NAME=fba
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/fba
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 2 "/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/pifba/fba2x %ROM%" 
PLATFORMID=23

I currently have two identical folders that contain PiFBA, one is ‘pifbang’ and the other is ‘pifba’. The reason I did this is because I wanted the control schemes different for Neo Geo (3-4 buttons) and Arcade/CPS (6 buttons). This way I could create two separate input configs that best suited each particular system. Below are the best control setups I found when using an Xbox 360 pad via xboxdrv.

Note: Also in the rc.local script I had included ‘dpad-as-button’. I did this so gpSP would recognise the dpad and I could map controls for that emulator.

Arcade/CPS (pifba):

[Joystick]
# Get codes from "jstest /dev/input/js0"
# from package "joystick"
A_1=6
B_1=5
X_1=7
Y_1=4
L_1=8
R_1=9
START_1=13
SELECT_1=12
#Joystick axis
JA_LR=0
JA_UD=1

Neo Geo (pifbang):

[Joystick]
# Get codes from "jstest /dev/input/js0"
# from package "joystick"
A_1=6
B_1=5
X_1=4
Y_1=7
L_1=8
R_1=9
START_1=13
SELECT_1=12
#Joystick axis
JA_LR=0
JA_UD=1

[cacophony555]

Awesome thanks kitchuk! That’s extremely helpful.

Dumb newbie question: If I have the complete 037b5 rom set, how do I know which games to play under PIMAME4ALL vs PiFBA vs PiBANG ? Or are all of those roms just for PIMAME4ALL and other roms are needed for PiFBA and PiBANG

[petrockblog]

That’s really great! I will try and add that to the upcoming update of the RetroPie Setup Script.

[kitchuk]

The 0.37b5 Romset will work for the mame4all emulator. PiFBA is another arcade emulator but leans more towards paying Capcom CPS 1, CPS 2 and Neo Geo games. For PiFBA you can search Google for CPS and Neo Geo rom sets. You don’t need any bios with the CPS roms but you will for the Neo Geo games. If your ever stuck either ask in these forums or the official Raspberry Pi gaming forums.

I started by Pi journey as a complete noob but I’ve learned SO much over several months!

[Anonymous]

Hey – so I feel like a total moron, but I’m having a huge issue with loading roms in MAME in my pi.

I just put retro-pi on, and it is up and running. I have tried 3 different rom versions of galaga (the whole reason I am building the arcade) and none of them are working. I am putting the files into the “mame” folder under the roms subdirectory. They show up, but won’t run. I don’t know whether this is the directory for advMAME or mame4all-pi, or both.
– edit: have used the 0.37b5 rom, as well as other versions and none will load

If someone could help me out with troubleshooting this I would really appreciate it

[cacophony555]

bairdo, how are you trying to load the roms? From the command line or through emulation station?

It would help if you would provide the exact command or emulation station’s relevant es_systems.cfg lines, such as:

DESCNAME=MAME
NAME=mame
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all_pi/roms
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all_pi/mame %BASENAME%

If you’re using mame4all, the MAME roms need to be placed in the roms directory within mame4all. They won’t work in the RetroPie/roms/mame directory. You’ll also need to make sure to use %BASENAME% instead of %ROM% like above.

[Anonymous]

Sorry – I am a super noob and am not sure what you mean by the relevant es-systems.cfg lines

I have tried running through the emulation station but the emulator doesn’t show up as an option – I think the mame option that is showing up is advMAME and isn’t opening anything.

When I go into startx I can find the mame4all-pi emulator and execute it, but it says no roms are available. I can’t find the rom folder for mame4all-pi anywhere – I have looked all through the emulator folder as well as the emulatorcores folder

[cacophony555]

The “roms” folder for mame4all-pi should be in the folder that has the executable you clicked on. If you copy your roms to that folder (probably /home/pi/RetroPie/mame4all-pi/roms) you should be able to see and launch them from the mame UI. That’s the first step… Give it a try.

[Anonymous]

that’s what I mean though – there is no “roms” folder in the directory with that exe. i’m in “root>home>pi>RetroPie>emulators>mame4all-pi” and the options are folders, obj_mame_rpi, skins, src, .git” in “folders” there is just a txt file, “obj” and “src” have a bunch of sub folders – none called “rom”, “skins” has “source” with nothing in it. I’m not sure where the exe would be looking for the rom files.

[whise]

Mame forgets the joyput input everystime i restart it.

I start a game, go into input config and set my joystick buttons, after i exit the game it forgets them and i have to do it all over again.

EDIT: Nevermind i just have to set the cfg path in the mame.cfg

[cacophony555]

@bairrdo, ah ok. The one included with RetroPie must be setup differently.
Can you try just making a directory called “roms” and putting your roms in it? You can either do that from X or the command line.

From the command line you would :

cd /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/
mkdir roms

(and then move your roms to the new directory)

If that doesn’t work, read on…

I’ve been setting things up manually myself so I’ll give you the instructions that I know work. Let me know if you have any questions.

Download the official optimized zip here:
https://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/

You’ll want this one, not the one for PiMenu:
http://mame4all-pi.googlecode.com/git/mame4all_pi.zip

You can unzip it on your computer and transfer the unzipped contents over to your pi. There should be a roms folder in that directory and everything should just work (though you may need to do the chmod command below)

Alternatively you can transfer the zip file to your pi and then do the following on the command line:

mkdir mame4all
mv mame4all_pi.zip mame4all
cd mame4all
unzip mame4all_pi.zip
chmod oug+x mame

Now you should be able to launch from the command line using:
./mame
or
./mame galaga (assuming that’s what the file is called. just don’t include the .zip extension in this command)

[Anonymous]

@cacophony

tried making roms directory in original mame4all-pi folder, no go.

So I put the unzipped folder into “RetroPie” directory, and tried to launch with ./mame – no such file or directory. same when I try chmod. Should I be putting the mame4all-pi folder into another directory? Sorry for so many questions, I am really just starting out with this and hit the road block with galaga not working.

Also, if I do get this working, is there a way to clean boot the pi into the galaga/mame4all-pi rom?

edit: I was able to put the zip file in home>pi and successfully unzip and run the emulator with the commands you gave, however it still will not run galaga. When I ./mame it opens and says no roms available, when I ./mame galagamame (both .zip and unzipped files are in roms directory) it flashes the screen then says “game ‘galagamame’ supported”. It is a 0.37b5 file version

[cacophony555]

Tough to diagnose much more without seeing your exact steps.

Maybe try going with the RetroPie default Mame emulator setup, which I believe allows roms to be copied into the /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame directory? You probably don’t need the performance boost of more optimized mame4all if you’re only playing older games like Galaga.

Or maybe the rom files you’re trying aren’t supported? You definitely don’t want to unzip the contents of the rom .zip files so that also might be creating problems.

[danmanx]

Awesome guys! Thanks for the responses! You guys really clarified a lot of the issues. I’m looking forward to future releases.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

@cacophony

I had originally tried the roms – both as .zip and unzipped – in the original /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame directory and none of the versions I had used worked. Is there any more info that I could give you that might help, or another build you might suggest?

[cacophony555]

@bairdo, if you want provide full console output showing all your commands and the results it may provide more insight. Especially if you do an “ls -l” on relevant directories to show the contents.

I’m also wondering if your roms are the problem. Mame is very picky with rom files, many roms aren’t supported, etc. So you could be doing everything correctly but need different roms.

[Anonymous]

@cacophony Sorry – again I’m a noob. To clarify: I should try running ./mame and the different roms and then type up the response code that is given (such as “no such game”), or is the console output something else?

I have tried about 6 different roms, all say they are for mame, two specifically say they are 0.37b5 file versions. I have found a few more tonight that I will try when I have time tomorrow.

[trimmtrabb]

Hi guys for anybody having problems loading roms, I have installed mame4all-pi via the setup script and the directories have changed from the guide in post #5. On RetroPie image 1.9.1, open es_systems.cfg to edit:
sudo nano /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
Replace this:

DESCNAME=MAME
NAME=mame
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/installdir/bin/retroarch -L /home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores/imame4all-libretro/libretro.so --config /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig /home/pi/RetroPie/configs/mame/retroarch.cfg %ROM%" 
# alternatively: COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 1 "/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/pifba/fba2x %ROM%" 
PLATFORMID=23

with this:

DESCNAME=MAME
NAME=mame
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/roms
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP 
COMMAND=/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/mame %BASENAME%
PLATFORMID=23

The roms need to go in /home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/roms (you need to create the directory)

So I can load roms ok but I have no sound on any roms, anybody else encountered this? Also has anybody managed to map controls to a gamepad and where is the config for this stored, mame.cfg does not specify any controls apart from the front end controls.

edit: just realised I didn’t update the RetroPie setup script before installing mame4all-pi, which may explain the naming difference of the directories

[cacophony555]

@bairdo, yes, that’s what I’m asking for. It’s hard to diagnose without seeing *exactly* what you’re doing. If you don’t have a way to copy/paste the output then maybe take photos of the screen that show the directory contents and exactly what you’re typing.

Also, where did you get the roms? If they’re all coming from the same source it’s quite possible that none of them are compatible b/c they’re mislabled, corrupted, etc.

[Anonymous]

@Cacophony

I will take pics when I get home. I am getting the roms from various sources – not all the same place. I don’t know if they are good sources or not, I’m just searching google.

I am going to try to do what trimtrabb has done and see if I can at least get them running — not sure how to change the script but will try to figure that out!

[movisman]

[quote=4447]
So I can load roms ok but I have no sound on any roms, anybody else encountered this? Also has anybody managed to map controls to a gamepad and where is the config for this stored, mame.cfg does not specify any controls apart from the front end controls.
[/quote]

Hi, not sure about the sound, but it seems on the 1.9.1 image the mame4all-pi installation is missing a few directories, a few of which are needed for roms/config files.

If you create a ‘cfg’ directory in the mame4all-pi directory, when you launch a game and change the general control settings (for all games) it should write a default.cfg file into the cfg directory. Any game you launch will also write it’s own config file in the same directory – I guess this is if you customise specific controls for that game.
If the ‘cfg’ directory doesn’t exist it seems any control configuration you make is forgotten next time you launch the emulator.

The ‘roms’ directory also needs to exist, as it looks in there for roms by default, unless of course you edit your mame.cfg file to point the rom path elsewhere (I did something like this with mine, can’t remember exactly though: rompath=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame).

If you download or are using mame4all-pi from the author’s website these directories should already be in place. Not sure if these were removed from the image for a reason, but it seems they need to be there to configure the emulator properly.

Cheers

[danmanx]

hey, try this:

force stereo=yes

This has something to do with HDMI not understanding mono sound. Also, I changed volume to 1, I believe.

[trimmtrabb]

Thanks guys, worked it out in the end and the sound was on a particular rom (though it worked fine on another tv…) Runs so much better than the default mame4all emuulator.

[petrockblog]

Recently, I have changed the RetroPie-Sertup Script according to the information within this thread. Thanks for that info and feel free to give further feedback on this topic!

[toasti]

Hello guys,
I’m also struggling with MAME roms, no one is working. After I start a game in Emulation Station, it’s kicking me back to the game list.

I created a roms folder in the mame4all-pi folder and changed the es-Systems.cfg as trimmtrabb suggested – but nothing is working.

I’m wondering what I have to change in my RetroPie config to get MAME running.

Other emulators are working great! Thanks for sharing this great project with us!

I’m so thankful for every help!!

[cacophony555]

@toasti, you’ll need to see the error output to determine what’s wrong, and this requires trying to launch from the command line.

Press F4 to exit emulation station. Then type the launch command manually:

/home/pi/RetroPie/emulators/mame4all-pi/mame paperboy
(replace paperboy with the game filename you’re trying to launch but do NOT include the .zip extension)

Report the output here.

If you want to relaunch emulation station just type “emulationstation”

[toasti]

Thanks for your help!

And what is required to do this?
The es_systems.cfg changed like above and the game in roms folder in mam4all-pi or just Standard config after RetroPie has installed and the rom in standard rom folder?

EDIT: Changed the es_systems.cfg, copied a rom in the self created roms folder in mame4all-pi and rebooted. When I now try to start it’s saying “mame: command not found”.

What’s wrong?

[cacophony555]

It doesn’t matter what your es_systems.cfg has for this test b/c you’re bypassing it entirely. But you do need your rom zip files in a rom directory within mame4all-pi.

[toasti]

OK, I did and please see above: mome: command not found.

[cacophony555]

Looks like you typed “mome” instead of “mame”

[toasti]

Sry, but only in the Forum, not on the Pi ;-)

It was mame and command not found.

I tried to start some games out of the emulation station and went back to the terminal to see the error Messages.

one time i have an error regarding
“68705.bin not found”

And one time that Rom files are missing. Maybe the games are not ok.
But I tried 10 or more and all games are not running.

[Author]

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