Hacking mame4all working games & settings

[codezer0]

Okay, I am definitely digging the availability of MAME for the DStwo, and the fact that it allows a lot of games to be played on the go.

However, the thing that still irks me is how even though I drag/dropped my existing mame rom list (which includes some bios files to be fair), most of the games don't list to begin with... and further, most of those that are listed won't play, with the emulator griping about this that or another thing. About the only one I've been able to play (Simpsons arcade) also seems to play poorly, but I don't know for sure what settings to use in order to improve playability.

So, I'm making this thread with the hope of getting some kind of positive result going, so that those that do use MAME4all for their DStwo's can have somewhere to go to see what games they can use, and so others can share what settings worked for them.

 

[raulpica]

IIRC mame4all uses the Mame 0.34/0.35 romset.

That's why your roms aren't recognized, they probably come from a newer romset.

I dunno if this post is still useful about converting (it's a bit old), but it should work:
http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topi...mp;#entry214621

Problem is, you need a datfile for this to work. I don't know if there's one included in mame4all DSTWO, but in case, you should be able to just search for a generic mame4all datfile, and use that one.

 

[codezer0]

This is also another reason why I *expletive* hate MAME in general. There's like ten billion identically named files and no way to verify it's going to work without downloading some other myriad of random files that's supposed to carry the requisite files the first rom needed.

 

[raulpica]

...I know, I'm a huge MAME fan, and every new version comes with a lot of changed roms

Also I hate clrmame with a passion. I just forget every single time how to use it decently.

IIRC, you could also try RomCenter.

 

[Buleste]

If you read the .txt files included with the download it tells you what MAME ROMs work with MAME4All also which version of ROMS you need (MAME 0.37b5) and how to convert newer ROMs. However at the moment New Zealand Story one and two is not working on MAME4all at the moment. AlekMaul is looking into this problem.

 

[Terminator02]

i'm pretty sure it's still the case that he won't work on it any more until team supercard opens up more details on the dstwo, as the sdk is limited

 

[Buleste]

i'm pretty sure it's still the case that he won't work on it any more until team supercard opens up more details on the dstwo, as the sdk is limited

I have had a PM from AlekMaul saying he will look into it.

The reason New Zealand story 1 & 2 don't work is not due to an issue with the SDK but because when you try to load them MAME4All on the SCDS2 loads a different ROM which is a minor programming error so no new information is needed from the Supercard team.

 

[Boriar]

...I know, I'm a huge MAME fan, and every new version comes with a lot of changed roms

Also I hate clrmame with a passion. I just forget every single time how to use it decently.

IIRC, you could also try RomCenter.

+1 about MAME/clrmame

At this moment i have forgotten all instructions for both programs although i was a BIG fan of MAME, but the continuous changes boring me to follow the new romset.
From time to time i said to me to redo my mame set to the new ones but.... ufff!! to many for me now

Well, sorry for that offtopic paragraph. I promise not to do it again

 

[Another World]

there was a great guide for converting the roms to the correct set using clrmamepro on the DC forums. sadly the article is now gone. I'll keep poking around and see if I can find it mirrored.

my suggestion is to find a torrent of the mame4all set. i can't recall the full size, it is somewhere around 7-12GB.

==edit
i can't find the article anywhere. i guess i should have made a pdf of the guide when i had the chance =P. mame4all requires the older roms. i think the set you want is from july 2000 (or around that summer). with each new update of mame the files actually change. they try to continually dump new versions which are 1:1 perfect as mame's whole goal is for perfect emulation that works just like the original hardware without tweeks and hacks. if you grab the 0.143 set and try to convert it you will find that many of the files you want are no longer in the zips. it will end up taking you much longer trying to convert than it would hunting down a full set which is already converted.

==edit 2
mame4all v2.3 is only 1.87GB torrent zipped.

-another world

 

[KidIce]

Download CLRMamePro and the .dat file for MAME 0.37b5, convert your ROMs w/ that. MANY of them will fail. For the ones you care about pay attention to what goes wrong and find downloads (older/newer dumps) that contain the missing files and such. Pay attention to the file sizes and so on and replace the missing/wrong sized file w/ the correct ones from any version you can find and re-process.

I have a mostly complete set (I ditched clones and non-US versions unless required to run a working clone or US version) that works w/ MAME4All on the SCDS2. I made notes about why a game wouldn't work, and when I just couldn't find a compatible version of said ROM... And I tried EVERYTHING on the gamelist that comes w/ the download from the SuperCard site, and searched endlessly for versions that would work.

Grab this: MAME4All SCDS.

"w" on the front means working
"x" on the front means I couldn't find or smash together a working ROM set, or I ditched it or didn't bother trying to make other sets because I got a working one
"b" means broken - you will NEVER get this to work on the SCDS2, reason is at the end (usually "Too big to decompress")
End comments like "Need to run (set 2)" mean that this set is required to run another version
End comments w/ a game name mean it is a clone or non-US version of that game

Anyone who has working versions of what I couldn't mash together, I'd love to hear from you and how you did it. I'll also do my best to help anyone else put together a working version of a ROM set I've got working. PM's please, or I'll probably never see your request.

 

[koimayeul]

If you dig for mame on the go i suggest you try another device like dingoo or something
This is barely playable and hardly enjoyable with multiple issues about sound and speed

GRANTED, it is a first release and has the merit to exist.. but that is it IMHO

For a working romset :

MAME GP2X_Wiz 2.2 Full Romset google me

torrent of 1,8 GB or so, all working roms for 0.37b5

 

[codezer0]

Thanks for the tip on the romset. And the key words that allowed Google to cooperate.

Much as I'd like to, it wouldn't make sense for me financially to go buy a separate handheld specifically for MAME. I'm just digging it as it is that I can get it on my DStwo.

I know it's not perfect, but I also hope that the dev would continue working on it and get it improved more. Then again, I also wish the people responsible for the original MAME would stop breaking damn near every ROM out there every time they update something. It was hard enough to find a working rom for Die Hard Arcade to play on my PC as it is. I dread the thought of then having to wait even more years for a new dump that would work after one of their updates breaks the game yet again. And that's just one of many examples I could list off.