-----------------
mame [name of the game to run] [options]
For example:
mame robby -nosound
...will run Robby Roto without
sound
---------------------
-createconfig / -cc
Creates the
default MAME.INI file. All the following configuration
options can be
permanently changed by editing this configuration file.
-showconfig / -sc
Displays the
current configuration settings. If you route this to a
file, you can
use it as an INI file. For example, the command:
mame -showconfig >mame.ini
is equivalent
to -createconfig.
-showusage / -su
Displays a
summary of all the command line options. For options that
are not
mentioned here, the short summary given by "mame -showusage" is
usually
sufficient.
-[no]readconfig / -[no]rc
Enables or
disables the reading of the config files. When enabled
(which is the
default), MAME reads the following config files in order:
-
MAME.INI
-
$MY_MAME.INI (i.e. if MAME was renamed MAME060.EXE, MAME
parses
MAME060.INI here)
-
MAMED.INI (if this is a debug build,
i.e. MAMED.EXE)
-
VECTOR.INI (for vector games only)
-
DRIVER.INI (based on the source filename of the driver)
-
PARENT.INI (for clones only, may be called recursively)
-
GAMENAME.INI
The settings
in the later ini's override those in the earlier ini's.
So, for
example, if you wanted to disable hardware stretch in the
vector games,
you can create a VECTOR.INI with the "hwstretch 0" line
in it, and it
will override whatever hwstretch value you have in your
MAME.INI.
-[no]verbose / -[no]v
Displays some
diagnostic information at startup. IMPORTANT: when
reporting bugs,
please run with mame -verbose and include the resulting
information.
It can be very helpful in tracking down problems. The
default is off
(-noverbose)
----------------------------------
IMPORTANT: Please use the path, directory and file
options ONLY in MAME.INI.
Otherwise, the outcome may be unpredictable and not
consistent across releases.
-rompath / -rp
You can give a
path (list of directories seperated by semicolons) of
directories to
be searched for roms. The default is ROMS (that is, a
directory
"roms" in the current directory).
-samplepath / -sp
You can give a
path (list of directories seperated by semicolons) of
directories to
be searched for samples. The default is SAMPLES (that
is, a
directory "samples" in the current directory).
-inipath
You can give a
path (list of directories seperated by semicolons) of
directories to
be searched for INI-files. The default is .;ini (that
is, search in
the current directory first, and then in the directory
"ini"
in the current directory).
-cfg_directory
After running
a game, MAME stores some user changeable settings into
cfg_directory/gamename.cfg. Additionally, on the first
start of MAME a
cfg_directory/default.cfg is created. The default is CFG.
-nvram_directory
The original
hardware of some games use non-volative ram chips to
save
their
configuration. The contents of these are saved into this
directory. The
default is NVRAM.
-memcard_directory
The original
hardware of some games supports so-called memory cards.
The contents
of these are stored here. The default is MEMCARD.
-input_directory
Input
recordings created by "-record" will be saved here and loaded by
"-playback".
The default is INP.
-hiscore_directory
If there
exists a file HISCORE.DAT in the MAME directory, highscores
may also be
saved for games that do not have the original hardware to
support this.
The quality of this feature depends on the accuracy of
the externally
available file HISCORE.DAT. The default is HI.
-state_directory
MAME supports
state saving for some games. These states will be saved
here. The
default is STATE.
-artwork_directory
Some games
used extra artwork not created by electical circuits.
MAME
supports such
artwork in PNG image format, located in this directory.
The default is
ARTWORK.
-snapshot_directory
Screenshots
will go here. The default is SNAP.
-diff_directory
Directory for
hard drive image difference files. The default is DIFF.
-ctrlr_directory
This directory
holds controller-specific input port mapping .ini files.
The default is
CTRLR.
-cheat_file
The default is
CHEAT.DAT. Modifying the default may not work at the
moment.
---------------------
-[no]autoframeskip / -[no]afs
Automatically
determines the frameskip level while you're playing the
game,
adjusting it constantly in a frantic attempt to keep the game
running at
full speed. Turning this on overrides the value you have set
for -frameskip
above. The default is ON (-autoframeskip).
-frameskip / -fs
Specifies the
frameskip value. This is the number of frames out of
every 12 to
drop when running. For example, if you say -frameskip 2,
then MAME will
display 10 out of every 12 frames. By skipping those
frames, you
may be able to get full speed in a game that requires more
horsepower
than your computer has. The default value is -frameskip 0,
which skips no
frames.
-[no]waitvsync
Waits for the
refresh period on your computer's monitor to finish
before
starting to draw video to your screen. If this option is off,
MAME will just
draw to the screen at any old time, even in the middle
of a refresh
cycle. This can cause "tearing" artifacts, where the top
portion of the
screen is out of sync with the bottom portion. Tearing
is not
noticeable on all games, and some people hate it more than
others.
However, if you turn this option on, you will waste more of
your CPU
cycles waiting for the proper time to draw, so you will see a
performance
hit. The default is OFF (-nowaitvsync). This option
requires
-ddraw.
-[no]triplebuffer / -[no]tb
Enables or
disables "triple buffering". Normally, MAME just draws
directly to
the screen, without any fancy buffering. But with this
option
enabled, MAME creates three buffers to draw to, and cycles
between them
in order. It attempts to keep things flowing such that one
buffer is
currently displayed, the second buffer is waiting to be
displayed, and
the third buffer is being drawn to. Unfortunately, due
to some
DirectDraw issues, this doesn't always work out as well as it
should. This
is still being investigated. The default is OFF
(-notriplebuffer). This option required -ddraw and -nowindow.
-[no]window
Run MAME in
either a window or full screen. The default is OFF
(-nowindow).
-[no]ddraw / -[no]dd
This is really
just for testing. It disables the use of DirectDraw,
which removes
a lot of the features of the video system (-triplebuffer,
-waitvsync, -resolution, -refresh, -switchres,
-switchbpp, -resolution,
-hwstretch all
won't work). It will generally run really slowly. If
anyone has a
legitimate use for this option, we'd be curious to know.
The default is
ON (-ddraw).
-[no]direct3d / -[no]d3d
Use Direct3D
to display the image. This does not render 3D games using
3D hardware,
it just uses 3D hardware to display the image, and apply
effects to it.
-triplebuffer, -waitvsync, -resolution, -refresh,
-switchres, -switchbpp, -resolution
all work with this option. This
option
overrides -ddraw and implies -hwstretch. The default is OFF
(-nodirect3d).
-[no]hwstretch / -[no]hws
MAME uses the
hardware stretching abilities of modern graphic cards to
scale the game
image to the requested resolution. Depending on the
quality of
your graphic card and its drivers, this may be a fractional,
antialiased scaling (nice) or an integer, blocky scaling
(not so nice).
In any case,
you can disable this stretching altogether and let MAME do
the scaling in
software, which is probably slower, though. The default
is ON
(-hwstretch). Note: Vector games may actually look better with
"-nohws".
-cleanstretch [option] / -cs [option]
Stretch the
image to integer ratios only. This may leave a black border
around the
image in fullscreen mode. The options are:
none
disable. This will cause artifacts when using
scanlines.
auto let
the blitter decide. The d3d module will select
the best option.
full
always stretch to integer ratios both horizontally
and vertically.
horizontal always stretch to integer ratios
horizontally.
vertical always stretch to integer ratios
vertically.
The default is
AUTO (-cleanstretch auto). This option requires -ddraw
or -direct3d.
-resolution wxh[xd] / -r wxh[xd]
Specifies an
exact resolution to run in. In full screen mode, MAME will
try to use the
specific resolution you request. The width (w) and
height (h) are
required; the color depth (d) is optional. If omitted or
set to 0, MAME
will determine the mode auomatically. For example,
-resolution
640x480 will force 640x480 resolution, but MAME is free to
choose the
color depth. Similarly, -resolution 0x0x32 will force 32-bit
color depth,
but allows MAME to choose the resolution. The string
"auto"
is also supported, and is equivalent to 0x0x0. In window mode,
this
resolution is used as a maximum size for the window. The default
is auto
(-resolution auto). This option requires -ddraw for full screen
resolution
switching.
-refresh
Specifies a
particular refresh rate to set your monitor to. If the
refresh rate
is not found, or if this parameter is 0, the default
DirectDraw
refresh rate is used. The default is -refresh 0. This option
requires
-ddraw and -nowindow.
-[no]scanlines / -[no]sl
Enables the
classic MAME "scanlines" effect. The default is OFF
(-noscanlines).
This option requires -nohwstretch.
-[no]switchres
Enables
resolution switching. This option is required for the
-resolution
option to switch resolutions in full screen mode. On many
modern video
cards with hardware stretching support, there is little
performance
penalty at higher resolutions, so it is nice to be able to
get rid of the
monitor resync time when you run in full screen mode.
This is also
useful on LCD displays with a fixed resolution. The
default is ON
(-switchres). This option requires -ddraw.
-[no]switchbpp
Enables color depth
switching. This option is required for the
-resolution
option to switch color depths in full screen mode. This
option is
useful if you normally run at 16, 24, or 32 bit color depth
on your
desktop, and want to keep that color depth when you run MAME.
The default is
ON (-switchbpp). This option requires -ddraw.
-[no]maximize / -[no]max
Controls
initial window size in windowed mode. If it is set on, the
window will
initially stretch to the maximum supported size when you
start MAME. If
it is turned off, the window will start out at the
smallest
supported size. The default is ON (-maximize). This option
requires
-window.
-[no]keepaspect / -[no]ka
Enables aspect
ratio enforcement. When this option is on, the game's
proper aspect
ratio (generally 4:3 or 3:4) is enforced, so you get the
game looking
like it should. When running in a window with this option
on, you can
only resize the window to the proper aspect ratio, unless
you are
holding down the CONTROL key. By turning the option off, the
aspect ratio
is allowed to float. In full screen mode, this means that
all games will
stretch to the full screen size (even vertical games).
In window
mode, it means that you can freely resize the window without
any
constraints. The default is ON (-keepaspect).
-[no]matchrefresh
Enables
refresh rate matching. When enabled, MAME will try to find the
closest
refresh rate match that is greater than the game's refresh
rate. For
example, if the game runs at 57fps, and you have 60, 70, 75Hz
refresh rates,
MAME will choose 60Hz. If the game runs at 61fps, then
it will choose
70Hz. This is intended mainly for those who have tweaked
their video
card's settings to provide carefully matched refresh rate
options. The
default is OFF (-nomatchrefresh). This option
requires
-ddraw and -nowindow.
-[no]syncrefresh
Enables speed
throttling only to the refresh of your monitor. This
means that the
game's actual refresh rate is ignored; however, the
sound code
still attempts to keep up with the game's original refresh
rate, so you
may encounter sound problems. Again, this is intended
mainly for
those who have tweaked their video card's settings to
provide
carefully matched refresh rate options. The default is OFF
(-nosyncrefresh). This option requires -ddraw.
-[no]throttle
Configures the
default thottling setting. When throttling is on,
MAME
attempts to
keep the game running at the game's intended speed. When
throttling is
off, MAME runs the game as fast as it can. The default is
ON
(-throttle).
-full_screen_brightness / -fsb
Some video
cards adjust the brightness/gamma when they switch into full
screen mode.
To counteract this, you can specify the
-full_screen_brightness value, which is a number between 0.1
and 2. 0.1
means 1/10th
as bright as the default, and 2 means twice as bright.
Note that the
hardware support for this option is not present on all
video cards.
If you set a non-zero value, you may get a warning if MAME
was unable to
set the brightness on your card. The default is 0, which
means that
MAME will not attempt to adjust the brightness on your video
card at all.
This option requires -ddraw and -nowindow.
-frames_to_run / -ftr
This option
can be used for benchmarking. It tells MAME to stop
execution
after a fixed number of frames. By combining this with a
fixed set of
other command line options, you can set up a consistent
environment
for benchmarking MAME performance.
-effect
Apply various
blitting effects to emulate the look of Arcade monitors.
Using these
modes comes at the cost of reduced emulation speed, which
is inherent to
these modes. The current implementation is already as
fast as
possible, using self-modifying assembly code. For some of
these, MMX is
required. Possible values:
none no
effect (this is the default)
sharp no
effect, but gives a sharper image
scan25
25% scanlines
scan50
50% scanlines
scan75
75% scanlines
scan75v 75% scanlines (vertical)
rgb3 a
certain "monitor mask"
rgb4
another one
rgb4v
another one (vertical)
rgb6
another one
rgb16
another one
rgbtiny another one. Choose the one you like best.
-screen_aspect
Give a screen
aspect ration in the form X:Y where X is the horizontal
and Y the
vertical part. Examples are 4:3 for most resolution settings
on computer
monitors, 5:4 for the 1280x1024 resolution or 3:4 for
turnable LCD's in the turned position. The default is 4:3.
--------------------------------
-zoom [z] / -z [z]
Try to get a
resolution that enlarges the emulated game z times. The
default is
-zoom 2. MAME determines the resolution automatically. This
option only
works with -direct3d.
-[no]d3dtexmanage
Let Direct3D
handle conversion of the image to a texture (required to
display it
with Direct3D). This is more compatible, but can be
(significantly)
slower on some hardware. The default is ON
(-d3dtexmanage).
Using -nod3dtexmanage can eliminate a loss of
performance
that may occur with some graphics cards when using
-direct3d.
This option requires -direct3d.
-d3dfilter [f] / -flt [f]
Select the
type of filtering to apply to the image when stretching. 0
is point
filtering, 1 is bi-linear filtering, 2 is bi-cubic filtering
(flat kernel),
3 is bi-cubic filtering gaussian kernel), 4 is
anisotropic
filtering. Note that very few graphics cards support
bi-cubic
filtering, and that older graphics cards may not support
anisotropic
filtering. The default is bi-linear filtering (-d3dfilter
1). This
option requires -direct3d.
-d3dfeedback [i]
Select the
feedback effect intensity in percentages. 0 is disable,
higher values
feed back the previous frame to the current one at the
specified
intensity. The default is DISABLE (-d3dfeedback 0). This
option
requires -direct3d.
-d3dscan [i]
Select the
scanline effect intensity in percentages. 0 is black lines
between
scanlines, 100 is disable scanline effect. The default is
DISABLE
(-d3dscan 100). This option requires -direct3d.
-[no]d3deffectrotate
Apply rotatation so that any effects are rotated along with the
game
image. The
default is ON. This option requires -direct3d.
-d3dprescale [option]
Pre-scale up
the image with point filtering before fitting the image to
the screen.
This gives an only slightly fuzzy image even at high
display
resolutions. The options are:
none
disable.
auto
adaptively apply a moderate pre-scale effect,
depending on other efects
used.
full
adaptively apply an agressive pre-scale
effect.
n
(where 2 <= n <= 4) pre-scale the image n times.
The default is
AUTO (-d3dprescale auto). This option requires
-direct3d.
-d3deffect [preset]
Select an
effect preset. Valid presets are:
none no effect (this is the default)
sharp no effect, but gives a sharper image
scan25 25% scanlines
scan50 50% scanlines
scan75 75% scanlines
scan75v 75% scanlines (vertical)
rgbmicro a certain "monitor mask"
rgbtiny another one
rgb3 another one
rgb4 another one
rgb4v another one (vertical)
rgb6 another one
rgb16 another one
rgbminmask another
one
dotmedmask another
one
rgbmedmask another
one
dotmedbright another
one (extra bright)
rgbmaxbright another
one (extra bright)
aperturegrille another one. Choose the one you like best.
auto adaptively selects a special preset
based on
zoom
level.
The default is
none (-d3deffect none). This option requires -direct3d.
-d3dcustom [custom preset]
Supply a
custom preset. The format is <-d3dcustom
1,0,0x0100,0xC0,0,0,0,0x22,-1,8x8_mame_rgbtiny.rgb>.
The meaning
of the mumbers is:
1 RGB
effects mode: 0 is off, 1 is multiply mode, 2
is add and multiply mode.
2,3,4,5 pattern preprocessing; use mask, white
level, black
level, desaturation,
respectively.
6
image attenuation
7
feedback (0 is don't use)
8 prescale. bit 4: prescale horizontally, bit
0:
prescale vertically.
9
maximum scanline intensity.
10
pattern filename, including path.
The filename
must start with XxY, where X and Y are the dimensions of
the pattern in
pixels. Each pixel is represented by 4 bytes, red,
green, blue,
and mask, respectively. mask is an on/off value, where 0
is off. This
option requires -direct3d.
-d3dexpert [settings]
Undocumented
settings intended mostly for developers. This option
requires
-direct3d.
--------------------
-[no]sleep
Since MAME is
running in a multitasking environment, it should be nice
to its fellow
processes. Therefore, if MAME does not need all
processing
power to emulate a game, it gives back already granted
processor time
to the operating system. This may not work in every
case, so it
can be disabled and MAME turned once again into a CPU hog.
The default is
ON (-sleep).
-[no]rdtsc
Prefer RDTSC
over QueryPerformanceCounter for timing. The default
is
OFF (-nordtsc). -rdtsc sometimes causes problems on laptops, and
-nordtsc may cause problems on desktop computers. If MAME
does not
operate
smoothly (and you are sure you have enough CPU power for
the
emulation), try toggling this.
-[no]high_priority
Increases the
thread priority so MAME runs better. The default is OFF
(-nohigh_priority).
---------------------
-audio_latency
This controls
the amount of latency built into the audio streaming. By
default MAME
tries to keep the DirectSound audio buffer between 1/5 and
2/5 full. On
some systems, this is pushing it too close to the edge,
and you get
poor sound sometimes. The latency parameter controls the
lower threshold.
The default is 1 (meaning lower=1/5 and upper=2/5).
Set it to 2 (-audio_latency 2) to keep the sound buffer between 2/5 and
3/5 full. If
you crank it up to 4, you can definitely notice the lag.
-wavwrite <filename>
Writes the
final mixer output to the given <filename> in .WAV format.
--------------------
-[no]mouse
Controls
whether or not MAME looks for a mouse controller to use. When
this is
enabled, you will not be able to use your mouse in Windows
while playing
a game. If you want to get control of your computer back,
you will need
to pause the game, or quit. The default is OFF
(-nomouse).
-[no]joystick / -[no]joy
Controls
whether or not MAME looks for joystick/gamepad controllers.
When this is
enabled, MAME will ask DirectInput about which controllers
are connected.
The default is OFF (-nojoystick).
-[no]lightgun/ -[no]gun
Controls
whether or not MAME treats mouse inputs as lightgun inputs.
Note that most
lightguns map to the mouse, so using -lightgun and
-mouse
together may produce strange results. The default is OFF
(-nolightgun).
-[no]dual_lightgun / -[no]dual
Controls
whether or not MAME attempts to track two lightguns
connected
at the same
time. This option requires -lightgun. The default is OFF
(-nodual_lightgun).
-[no]offscreen_reload /
-[no]reload
Controls
whether or not MAME treats a second button input from a
lightgun as a
reload signal. In this case, MAME will report the gun's
position as
(0,0) with the trigger held, which is equivalent to an
offscreen
reload. The default is OFF (-nooffscreen_reload).
-[no]steadykey / -[no]steady
Some games
require two or more buttons to be pressed at exactly the
same time to
make special moves. Due to limitations in the PC keyboard
hardware, it
can be difficult or even impossible to accomplish that
using the
standard keyboard handling. This option selects a different
handling that
makes it easier to register simultaneous button presses,
but has the
disadvantage of making controls less responsive. The
default is OFF
(-nosteadykey)
-[no]keyboard_leds / -[no]leds
Since MAME
uses an input device (keyboard) for output, this sort of
belongs here.
Using this option enables/disables simulation of the game
LEDs by the
keyboard LEDs. This works fine, but can lead to problems
after exiting
MAME (i.e. CAPS LOCK remains ON), so you can disable it
here. The
default is ON (-keyboard_leds).
-led_mode <ps/2|usb>
For Windows NT
and later systems, determines how LEDs on the keyboard
are
controlled. In PS/2 mode, MAME uses the low-level keyboard driver
directly to
control the LEDs. In USB mode, MAME attempts to post fake
keypresses on the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock keys
in order to
induce the
LEDs to change. If you have a PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mode is the
more reliable
approach. Default is PS/2.
-a2d_deadzone / -a2d
If you play
with an analog joystick, but the game requires digital
input, MAME
needs to convert the signals. Here you can give the ratio
of movement
along an axis that accounts for a digital signal. This
option expects
a float in the range of 0.0 to 1.0. The default is 0.3.
Note: the
current handling is not precise, as it does also implicitely
set the size
of the arc which is interpreted as diagonal movement. This
is a known
problem but it requires some major rework of the input
handling code
to fix it.
-ctrlr <controller>
Enables
support for special controllers. Configuration files are
provided for:
hotrod
HotRod
hotrodse HotRod SE
slikstik SlikStik
xarcade X-Arcade
-paddle_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun> / -paddle
-adstick_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun> / -adstick
-pedal_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun> / -pedal
-dial_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun> / -dial
-trackball_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun> / -trackball
-lightgun_device <keyboard|mouse|joystick|lightgun>
Each of these
options controls autoenabling the mouse, joystick, or
lightgun
depending on the presence of a particular class of analog
control for a
particular game. For example, if you specify the option
-paddle mouse,
then any game that has a paddle control will automatically
enable mouse
controls just as if you had explicitly specified -mouse.
Note that
these controls override the values of -[no]mouse, -[no]joystick,
etc.
-digital <all|none|j<N>[a<M>[a<K>...]][,j<X>[a<Y>...]][,...]>
Controls which
joystick axes are considered digital. If MAME knows that
a given
joystick axis is digital, it can make much better decisions about
how to treat
that axis. If you are using a digital gamepad with MAME,
you will want
to use this option. There are a number of ways to do this:
-digital all
means that all axes of all connected joysticks will be
treated
as digital.
-digital none
means that all axes of all connected joysticks will be
treated
as analog (this is the default behavior).
-digital j2
will treat all axes of joystick #2 as digital; axes on all
other
joysticks will be treated as analog.
-digital
j1a0a1 will treat axis 0 and 1 on joystick #1 as digital; all
other
axes will be treated as analog.
-digital
j1a0a1,j2a5 will treat axis 0 and 1 on joystick #1 as digital,
as well
as axis 5 on joystick #2; all other axes will be treated
as
analog.
Make use of
the information provided by -verbose to determine which
joysticks and
axes you should be configuring this way.
-----------------------
-[no]norotate
-[no]ror
-[no]rol
-[no]autoror
-[no]autorol
-[no]flipx
-[no]flipy
These are the
standard MAME rotation options. They are all OFF by
default.
-gamma
This controls
the global gamma correction in the game. It is the same
gamma that is applied
when you bring up the on-screen-display within
MAME. The
default is 1.0.
-brightness / -bright
This controls
the global brightness correction in the game. It is the
same
brightness that is applied when you bring up the on-screen-display
within MAME.
The default is 1.0.
-pause_brightness
This controls
the brightness level when MAME is paused. The default
value is 0.65.
------------------------
-[no]antialias / -[no]aa
Antialiasing for vector games. The default is ON (-antialias).
-[no]translucency / -[no]tl
Enables or
disables vector translucency. Colors of crossing vector
beams will be
merged. The default is ON (-translucency).
-beam
Sets the width
in pixels of the vectors. This option expects a float in
the range of
1.00 through 16.00 as argument. The default is 1 (1 pixel
wide).
-flicker
Makes the
vectors flicker. This option requires a float argument in the
range of 0.00
- 100.00 (0=none, 100=maximum). The default is 0.
-intensity
Sets the
intensity correction for the beam. Higher values give a
brighter beam.
This option expects a float in the range of 0.5 through
3.0 as
argument. The default is 1.5.
-----------------------
-samplerate / -sr
Sets the audio
sample rate. Smaller values (e.g. 11025) cause lower
audio quality
but faster emulation speed. Higher values (e.g. 44100)
cause higher
audio quality but slower emulation speed. The default is
44100.
-[no]samples
Use samples if
available. The default is ON (-samples).
-[no]sound
Enable or
disable sound altogether. The default is ON (-sound).
-volume / -vol
Sets the
startup volume. It can later be changed with the On Screen
Display (see
Keys section). The volume is an attenuation in dB: e.g.,
"-volume
-12" will start with -12dB attenuation. The default is 0.
----------------------
-[no]artwork / -[no]art
Enable or
disable usage of additional artwork (backdrops, overlays,
etc.). The
default is ON (-artwork).
-[no]use_backdrops /
-[no]backdrop
Enables/disables
the display of backdrops. The default is ON
(-use_backdrops).
-[no]use_overlays /
-[no]overlay
Enables/disables
the display of overlays. The default is ON
(-use_overlays).
-[no]use_bezels / -[no]bezel
Enables/disables
the display of bezels. The default is ON
(-use_bezels).
-[no]artwork_crop / -[no]artcrop
This will crop
the artwork to the game screen area only. The default is
OFF (-noartwork_crop).
-artwork_resolution / -artres
Scale the game
by this factor to accommodate for higher resolution
artwork. The
default is 0 (auto).
-[no]cheat / -[no]c
Cheats, like
the speedup in Pac Man or the level-skip in many other
games, are
disabled by default. Use this switch to turn them on. The
default is OFF
(-nocheat).
-[no]debug
Activates the
integrated debugger. During emulation,
press the tilde
key (~) to
activate the debugger. This is available only if the program
is compiled
with MAME_DEBUG defined. The default is OFF (-nodebug).
-playback / -pb
Expects a
filename as parameter. Play back all game inputs from from
file INP/filename.inp. The gamename is contained in this file,
therefore a
gamename needs not be given on the commandline.
-record / -rec
Expects a
filename as parameter. All game inputs are written to the
file INP/filename.inp.
-[no]log
Creates a log
of illegal memory accesses in ERROR.LOG. The default is
OFF (-nolog).
-[no]oslog
Outputs error.log data to the Windows debugger instead of to a
file.
Default is OFF
(-nooslog).
-[no]skip_disclaimer
Forces MAME to
skip displaying the disclaimer screen. The default is
OFF (-noskip_disclaimer).
-[no]skip_gameinfo
Forces MAME to
skip displaying the game info screen. The default is OFF
(-noskip_gameinfo).
-bios
Expects a BIOS
name as the parameter. -listxml will list the
possible
BIOS names for
a game/system.
-state <slot>
Starts MAME
and loads a saved state immediately from the specified slot.
----------------------------
Note: By default, all the '-list' commands below write
info to the screen. If
you wish to write the info to a textfile
instead, add this to the end of your
command:
> filename
...where 'filename' is the textfile's
path and name (e.g., c:\mame\list.txt).
-help / -?
Displays
current MAME version and copyright notice
-listxml / -lx
List
comprehensive details for all of the supported games. The output
is quite long,
so better redirect this into a file. The output is in
XML format.
-listfull / -ll
Displays a
list of game directory names + descriptions.
-listsource / -ls
Displays the
source file (in the drivers directory) containing the
driver for the
specified game. Useful for finding which driver a game
runs on in
order to fix bugs.
-listclones / -lc
Lists clones
of the specified game. When no game is specified, this
generates a
list of all MAME-supported clones.
-listcrc
List CRC32
checksums of rom files
-listroms
Displays ROMs
required by the specified game.
-listsamples
Displays
samples required by the specified game.
-verifyroms
Checks
specified game(s) for missing and invalid ROMs. Adding
"*"
checks all
available games.
-verifysamples
Check selected
game for missing samples. Adding "*" checks all
available
samples.
-romident
Attempts to
identify ROM files, if they are known to MAME, in the
specified .zip
file. Can be used to try and identify ROM sets taken
from unknown
boards.
-isknown
Very terse romident.
----
Tab Toggles the configuration menu
Tilde Toggles the On Screen Display. Use the up
and down arrow keys to
select the parameter (global volume,
mixing level, gamma
correction etc.), left and right to arrow
keys to modify it.
P Pauses the game
Shift+P While paused, advances to next frame
F1 Toggle crosshairs for games that use them
F2 Service Mode
F3 Resets the game
F4 Shows the game palette, decoded GFX, and
any tilemaps
Cursor left/right changes between palette,
GFX and tilemaps
Cursor up/down cycle through valid
palettes
Page up/down scroll through the palette
and GFX
Page up/down, D, G scroll the tilemap
display
Ctrl & Shift are modifiers to change
movement speed.
F4 or Esc returns to the emulation.
Note: Not all games have decoded graphics
and/or tilemaps.
F6 Toggle cheat mode (if started with
"-cheat")
F7 Load a 'Save State'. You will be requested
to press a key to
determine which Save State you wish to
load. Note that the 'Save
State' feature is for developing drivers
and not intended for
users. It is incomplete and works only on
a number of drivers. Use
at own risk.
Shift+F7 Create
a 'Save State'. Requires an additional keypress to identify
the state.
F8 Decrease frame skip on the fly
F9 Increase frame skip on the fly
F10 Toggles speed throttling
F11 Toggles speed display
Shift+F11
Toggles profiler display (debug builds only)
F12 Saves a screen snapshot. The default target
directory is SNAP.
ESC Exits emulator