Perfect mame setup

This selection of cores is valuable when it comes to getting old arcade ROMs to work. And in my RetroArch tutorial, I have dedicated sections that cover emulating arcade games. I can't say which emulator is better because they both have their pros and cons.

I recommend trying both to see what works best for your needs. I'm throwing a lot of names at you. I know this can be confusing for newcomers. So why not just use the original and latest version of MAME , and not bother using anything else? With Super Nintendo, for example, most of us just use Snes9x. We don't need to fuss with multiple emulators to get Super Nintendo games to work. So why is arcade emulation so complicated? The source of this problem is the original and latest version of MAME.

If you download a bunch of roms from a random rom site, they won't work with the latest MAME. The latest version of FinalBurn Alpha shares the same complications. Additionally, the latest MAME is not user-friendly at all. I classify it as an advanced emulator, so I do not recommend it for newcomers and casual gamers this site's audience. The arcade roms that are readily available in rom sites work on these 'old' arcade emulators.

Windows versions of MAME are all a standalone program so they do not have an install wizard. Not sure how to extract zip files?

Here's a video tutorial showing you how: how to unzip files on Windows. I recommend Documents , Downloads , or create a folder on your desktop. You need to download them separately.

In this list, notice the indented games. And notice that the first game of the same title is not indented. This is how all arcade emulators work with arcade ROMs.

That makes the addition of the shaders a very forward-thinking feature. Lastly, "pixel perfect" resolutions just aren't practical in a mame cab anyway Well different games run at different resolutions, sometimes even at different refresh rates. Unless you wish to tweak the settings every time to change games, you don't use the original game's resolution. What you do use is a true arcade resolution that works well with your monitor and a vasty majority of the games you play on it.

Sometimes, if you are lucky, your monitor will run a few resolutions without adjustment, but this is rarely the case. Keep in mind that regardless of a game's resolution, the monitor is supposed to be adjusted so that it fills the whole screen. So if mame is pixel perfect is sort of a moot point anyway, at least in terms of mame cabs.

Hi, Yeah, CRTs will became extint soon, it's sad, but true, and it doesn't make sense for the industry to keep supporting a costy old technology where there's a cheaper and more efficient replacement. But the important point here imho is to make people understand that LCDs are far from being a proper replacement, for technical reasons, and will never be the perfect display when it comes to emulate classic arcade games.

When CRTs finally dissapear, some of us "purists" pejorative? I don't think I'll manage to live with a digital display in my cabs, for me it will kill most of the fun of this hobby. Finally, it's sad that these points of view are usually defended from radical positions as torino's, who is actually using the correct arguments when it comes to the LCD problematic, but insists on attacking Mame It actually allows us to use nearly any imaginable video setup, unlike other emulators.

Steps to create a log: - From command line, run: groovymame. Quote from: Calamity on May 28, , am. Quote from: Blanka on May 28, , am.

Refresh I don't care about. Thought it was about resolution. The 5 games that are not 60Hz I do not play. Quote from: cotmm Quote from: torino on May 28, , pm. Quote from: cotmm on May 28, , pm. Quote from: Blanka on May 30, , pm.

Quote from: torino on May 30, , pm. Quote from: cotmm on May 31, , am. As long your system can handle all the games then frameskip should be turned off to draw every frame. Just a note about the previous argurment. I saw some mention of tearing. A ROM set version is a collection of ROM sets that are compatible with a specific version of their associated emulator. If you try to load a ROM set from a ROM set version that is not compatible with that emulator version, the game will not run.

The table below lays out the arcade emulators available on RetroArch, and which ROM set versions they are compatible with. A much better alternative would be to download the entire ROM set version. One issue behind this idea is that you will need a load of storage space in order to house all those ROM sets. Yes, this is indeed a stumbling block. Say goodbye to boredom and hello to late nights of arcade gaming. So, where can you get hold of these ROM set versions? That is a good question but before I answer that you need to consider where you will be storing these ROM sets.

An entire ROM set version potentially contains thousands of ROM sets so you will need to have a lot of space available. Generally, everything you need can be found in archive.

Once you have located your preferred ROM set version the speediest and most reliable method for downloading it would be via a torrent. The ROM set version was downloaded from www. For navigating around RetroArch the best method is to use your preferred controller as this is what RetroArch was designed to be used with. You can use other methods such as your mouse, or even the cursor arrows on your keyboard, but using your controller is the most efficient way.

Here you can select from a list of cores to install or update. You should select whichever emulator is compatible with the ROM set version you have.

The main folder you will be interested in is the roms folder. This is the folder that contains all the ROM sets and therefore the games you will be playing. If this folder is zipped up it will need to be extracted before you continue.

This may take some time, but it will be worth it. Another folder that is quite common within ROM set versions is the samples folder. Some games require additional sound or music files in order for the audio to function correctly. These additional files can be found zipped up inside this samples folder. This file is especially useful for rebuilding or even filtering your ROM set version so that you are only taking up your valuable disk space with the files you need.

This can be done using an online tool such as ClrMamePro. One final file format of interest to you would be. These files are generally associated with newer arcade machines and, as the name suggests, are repositories for graphics, sound, video and gameplay.