MAME 101
by
InsaneDavid
NOTE: There are over one hundred individual builds of MAME with even more
alternate releases and dozens of different distributions. The directions below
are for MAME32 v0.95, the version available for download from the official
Digital Press 2006 Mame Leage site. While you may use any version of MAME for
the competition that supports the provided ROM files, things may vary slightly
between builds of MAME. Individual ROM libraries also vary from build to build
so ROMs you download outside of the competition may not work with this or
another given build of MAME. For more information on the "bleeding edge" of MAME
development, check out MAMEWorld.net. Again, remember that you MUST use the
provided ROM file for each round of each tournament.
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Installing / Setting Up MAME32 v0.95
First, download MAME32 v0.95 from the "DOWNLOAD MAME32" link on the left.
After you download the install package, run it. You will be prompted to choose a
location where MAME32 will be installed - pick a directory where you have at
least a couple hundred megabytes of space free (shouldn't be an issue) so you'll
have plenty of space for ROMs and .inp files (more on those later).
In the MAME32 directory there will be a number of folders, only a few of them
you need concern yourself with...
/inp (if you save a video record of your games they will appear here by default)
/roms (this is where the individual game files, or ROMs, are to be put)
/snap (when taking screenshots they appear here in sequence)
Each round of each tournament will feature a different game, or ROM as they are
called in emulation terms. Each MAME ROM will come as a .zip file. DO NOT unzip
the files, leave them as they are. Download the current ROM, and put it in the /roms
directory.
Run MAME32.exe.
MAME32 should load up and you should see three columns. The left column sorts
ROMs by classification. The center column displays ROMs by game title. The right
column can be tweaked to display game screens, arcade cabinet pictures and more
- but none of these features have anything to do with the competition.
On the left column select "Available" - this will set MAME up so only games that
you have the ROMs for will appear in the games list in the center column. If
this is your first time running MAME and you already have some ROMs in the /roms
directory, MAME should do a check of all the games for you.
As you add new games you will need to perform what is called an audit. An audit
basically tells MAME to check everything it finds in the /roms folder against
its internal game list. To audit your ROMs, load MAME32 and select "File" then
"Audit all games." A prompt will come up and any files you have in the /roms
directory will be checked against the MAME32 v0.95 database. After the audit is
complete click "Close." Now any new games that were added to the /roms directory
will show up in the center column as ready to play.
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Running Games In MAME32 v0.95
To simply play a game, double click its title in the center column and it will
start up. Onscreen prompts will come up saying to type "OK" to continue
(wiggling the joystick, control pad, or arrow keys left then right will do the
same). As these are exact copies of the information on the chips in arcade
cabinets, many games may display odd graphic patterns or gibberish for a moment
upon start up - this is normal. If you were to power up a physical arcade
cabinet of a game this is what would happen, they are performing start up tests.
Once a game is loaded you may want to configure the controls to your liking.
Press the TAB button on your keyboard and a utilities menu will come up. Select
"Input (general)" to set up controls for every game. This is where you can
reconfigure the controls to work with a joypad, or change them around on your
keyboard. Simply highlight the function you'd like to change, press ENTER, then
the button you'd like to assign it to. "P1 Credit" is equal to putting a quarter
into a machine, "P1 Start" is the Player 1 start button, don't forget these -
defaults are F5 and F1 respectively. Press ESC to back up one level in the
configuration menus and press TAB again to exit it.
Press the button to deposit a credit (F5 default) and play!
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Taking A Screenshot Of Your High Score / Recording Your Gameplay
In the competition you must submit a screenshot of your high scores. To do this
simply press F12 when what you want to take a snap of is on screen. Screenshots
are placed in the /snap directory as .png files. They are usually named as the
first few letters of the game name and then the number the snap is, GAM0001 for
example.
Some people enjoy making recordings of their entire game to display and share,
there is a special "GALLERY" section of the 2006 Digital Press MAME League site
that showcases these. The recordings are known as .inp files. To make a .inp
file, highlight the game you want to play in the center column. Select "File"
then "Play and Record Input..." - you will be prompted to name the .inp file.
Use caution here so that you don't overwrite .inp's you may have already
created. Type in a name for the .inp and the game will start as normal. To play
back a saved .inp file select "File" then "Playback Input" and select the
filename of the .inp you wish to view. When submitting .inp files make sure to
zip/compress them with a program such as 7-Zip as they are quite large
otherwise. To keep .inp time length down you may want to create a new .inp or
overwrite the default one during each playthrough, retaining your high score .inp
under a different file name.