Mame32
Support Documentation v.2001-01-16
this is
a copy of the document prepared for the distribution package, it lives at: www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/support.htm
Beautify your Mame32: the Mame32
Art Packs
Mame32 Recommended Graphic & Sound
Settings
Support, Testing, Bug Reporting
Mame32
runs on Win9x, WinME, WinNT, and Win2k.
Ensure you have at least DirectX5 for Win95/98 usually the higher
version the better. SP4 or greater for NT4. (both available for download at www.microsoft.com). Note for
Windows 95 users [and NT4SP3]! Windows 95/NT may need the common
controls update, available from the Microsoft web site, to prevent property
sheet errors when going to options for the games or options/default options
menu, it is called 401comupd.exe and was available here at the
time of this writing: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/ie/comctrlx86.asp
1.
Download the zip file of mame32 from these official sites:
1.1.1.
www.classicgaming.com/mame32
1.1.2.
www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa
2.
Create a directory/folder on your hard drive i.e. c:\mame32
3.
Open this directory and copy the just downloaded mame32 zip file into
it.
4.
Using an archive program like WinZip or Pkunzip, extract the contents of the mame32.zip
(ensure you use the -d option in Pkunzip to get recursed subdirectories) In
WinZip select Extract from the Actions menu, be sure the Use folder names
checkbox is checked.
5.
Place your game roms (readily available in convenient zip format) into
the sub-directory called c:\mame32\roms, which you may have to create [note
game roms are not distributed w/ Mame32]. It's preferable to
leave the roms in their zip format, and just dump them into the \mame32\roms
directory.
6.
Some games require sampled sounds.
Place your sample zip files in our example into the sub-directory called
c:\mame32\samples that you may have to create [note that the sample zips will
have the same name as the game roms] Donkey Kong's roms are called dkong.zip
and Donkey Kong's samples are also dkong.zip but they go in different
directories.
|
File Name |
Location / Description |
|
Icons.zip |
http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/ This contains icons for every game in Mame32 and the tree
control on the far left. Place it in the
\mame32\icons directory. |
|
Snap.zip |
http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/ This is the file that contains in game screenshots of every
parent game in Mame32. Download the split
packs and combine them into a single snap.zip, place that in \mame32\snap
directory. [display by clicking/toggling on the screenshot area] |
|
Bkground.zip |
http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/ This contains numerous images that are used as the
background windowpanes for the Mame32 GUI. Download this and place it in
\mame32\bkground. [rename the one you want to use bkground.png and place that
single file in \mame32\snap. |
|
Flyers.zip |
This contains images of the original promotional material
sent to arcade owners when the games came out, exhorting them to buy the
games. Place this file in
\mame32\flyers. [display by
clicking/toggling on the screenshot area] |
|
Cabinets.zip |
http://arcadeart.emuunlim.com/ and http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa
These contains images of the actual arcade machines themselves, showing what
they looked like in their native habitat. I am now making mine available in
addition to the Guru’s, w/ help from X-Ray’s flyers database [I rework them
in Photoshop and black out backgrounds, clean things up, and provide uniform
dimensions]. Place these files in \mame32\cabinets, combine the contents and
call them cabinets.zip. [display by
clicking/toggling on the screenshot area] |
|
Marquees.zip |
http://closet2mame.vintagegaming.com/marquees.htm This contains the art for the arcade game marquee at the
top of the machine. Place this file in \mame32\marquees. [display by clicking/toggling on the
screenshot area] |
|
History.dat |
This file contains text history of each game, including
tips, tricks, designer’s names, etc. Very interesting. Place this file in \mame32 alongside
mame32.exe. [note: history.dat information will only display in screenshot
mode, not during flyer/cab/marquee mode] |
|
Mameinfo.dat |
http://www.mameworld.net/mameinfo/ This file contains bug, WIP, driver author, and version
information. Place it in \mame32
alongside mame32.exe. This
information will display under history.dat entries, and as above, only during
screenshot mode. |
|
Hiscore.dat |
http://www.mame.net/hiscore.html This file facilitates the creation of hi scores in a large
number of Mame32 games where they didn’t in the arcades. Place this file in \mame32 alongside
mame32.exe. |
|
Rotate.zip |
http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa This program rotates your bkground images so you can have a
new look for Mame32 everytime you run it.
See the enclosed batch file for a quick reference. The batch file grabs an image from the
\mame32\bkground directory and copies it to the \mame32\snap directory. |
Mame32's
flexible GUI framework allows for some beautiful customization including font color,
icons, and background images that tile around screenshots, take a look: www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/gallery/gallery.htm.
For Mame32's official art packs including icons of all working games,
screenshots for all games - including game addition to Mame info, and afore
mentioned background images please see: www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa. Icons.zip goes
into \mame32\icons, screenshots stay in a file called snap.zip [this file can
contain .bmp and .png images] - this goes into \mame32\snap. And finally, the
background images [bmp or png] files go into the \mame32\bkground directory,
rename the one you want to bkground.png and place it into \mame32\snap. You may also wish to consider using the
rotate.exe program available at the link above to randomly or sequentially
rotate your bkground.png image for a new look to Mame32 each time you start the
program.
Optimal
sound settings; these are toggled in the \options\default options\sound &
input dialogues. With the new 44/16 samples for Mame it sounds better to crank
the sample rate and sample bits. Your mileage may vary.
|
Windows NT |
Windows95/98 |
|
Sound System: Midas |
Sound System: DirectSound |
|
Sample Rate: 44100 |
Sample Rate: 44100 |
|
|
|
|
Windows 2K |
|
Optimal
graphic settings are full screen with no doubling options. Most classic arcade
games do not have analogous video modes/resolutions with today's video drivers.
As such say you are trying to play Donkey Kong, its native original resolution
was 224x256, the closest DirectX mode of most video cards today would be
512x384. Because of the disparity, Donkey Kong will play with black bands to
all sides because it is less than the chosen resolution and cannot be
'stretched' at this point w/out a DirectX re-write/update to the code. If you
prefer to play your games in a window on your desktop, note that GDI mode tends
to be the faster especially as your desktop color depth increases. I’ve also found it smoother in most games to
have frameskipping turned off, if your machine can handle it.
Current
Recommended Settings for Mame32: See Sound settings above. FMSynth/off .
Frame-skip/unchecked [draw all frames] . DirectInput for keyboard &
joystick/on . DrawOnlyChanges/on . DirectDraw/off . Disable MMX/unchecked.
Remember:
These
are general recommendations; you may find that on your system with your
hardware and drivers, other sound systems or video options work better. Don’t
be afraid to experiment. Also, not all video cards support the triple buffering
option, and it is best-used fullscreen, 16bpp, doubled. Mame32 will attempt to force your
monitor/video signal to the refresh of the game in question.
As with
any program there are bound to be some hiccups, here are some suggestions to
common perceived difficulties. Also, please remember, Mame32 is based on the
core MameDOS code - if a problem exists in the MameDOS code we inherit it.
Always ensure before reporting problems with Mame32 that it *doesn't* happen in
the DOS version. If it does, there's not much we can do about it. A note on the
betas: In between full final releases, [.33b and .34b for example] MameDOS and
Mame32 will release betas. These releases will typically add numerous new games
but may tinker with the internal mechanics of Mame such that at times a driver
is broken or things slow down. It is likely that these are known issues so
please don't complain about them, if you must play a game that was broken
return to the previous full release version or wait for the next beta.
1.
'My roms aren't being seen, the roms I had in
version x don't work anymore.'
1.1.
This is the question that gets asked the most, why do my old rom sets no
longer work w/ newer versions of Mame32?
Mame is a documentation project, sometimes old rom sets are found to be
missing previously miss-dumped or damaged roms, those will be replaced as
found. Small color proms are also still
trickling in. As new versions of Mame come on board the developers add support
for new iterations and often add these files for missing games [or they will
delete redundant files], this necessitates using that new updated set. Examples
you might see are donkey kong, pacman, etc. from .33b. Run an audit on the game
in question [highlight game, use alt-a to audit], it will tell you what files
you are missing. Those will likely have
been added or altered recently. You will need to locate the changed files or
download a new updated set. Note: do not email the Mame or Mame32 teams
about roms.
1.2.
If you're getting the corrupt ROM message, secondary click on the game
in the list and choose properties, do an audit on that game and you will likely
find that you are missing a file or two. See item 1.1. above, it's probably a
missing prom.
1.3.
F5/Refresh in the GUI. (do this anytime you alter your roms, renaming
etc.)
1.4.
Ensure you have the appropriate folder view toggled, i.e. 'all games'
and it doesn't have filtering on it to stop the display of the game you're
looking for.
1.5.
Use the options | reset to default menu choice and check all of the
items, restart Mame32.
1.6.
Final option, manually delete the registry key for Mame32:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\MAME32
2.
Crashes & Non-Functioning Topics
2.1.
Delete the .hi and .cfg files for the game that's troubling you.
2.2.
Check to see that you have a valid zip file and it's not corrupt or
read-only.
2.3.
If you're crashing during an audit or an F5 refresh, you probably have a
corrupt .zip, extract it and re-zip. Pkunzip -t *.zip. Note the file that dies
during the audit and concentrate on that one. Also verify that if you do not
use zips that the folder is not empty, or contains partial or damaged roms.
2.4.
DDraw errors? Always ensure you have the latest DirectX video drivers
for your cards, install the latest DirectX from Microsoft. Some Diamond cards fall into this category.
Also consider upgrading to the latest DirectX core engine if you haven’t.
2.5.
More DDraw errors? That’s the system telling you that your video card
won’t handle the resolution / color depth being asked of it. Choose a set resolution, turn off doubling,
turn off triple buffering, possibly force 8bpp or 16bpp instead of auto color.
2.6.
If seeing crashes, try disabling running background apps [in Win98, use
msconfig.exe], Norton Crashguard, popupkiller, viruscans, fast find, the office
bar, Intellimouse, even IE subscription updates, etc, try moving Mame32 away
from compressed [DriveSpace, DoubleSpace, stacker] drives. IntelliMouse and Office Toolbars are a known
offenders in this category.
2.7.
Odd flashing, non-syncing, or other video problems? Try specifying a set
resolution like 640x480 instead of leaving it set to ‘auto size’. Your monitor may not be able to handle the
resolution Mame is requesting.
2.8.
Funky or
inverted colors in game? Try selecting a specific resolution instead of
autosize, your video card drivers may be trying to use a res. it doesn’t care
for.
2.9.
The game audits fine w/ Alt-A, but attempts to run it produce the
‘missing roms’ message box [which is more of a generic error message than
missing roms in this case]. This typically means the driver is broken on the
MameDOS side, check mametesters.com to verify it before reporting against
Mame32.
2.10.
Games may crash or quit if you are using the BLIT option in default
options | Advanced. Not all cards
support BLIT, and it’s usually not used anyhow.
2.11.
If you’re seeing the Mame32 info screen go white, black, or red with
strange colored text, that usually means you have an errant conflicting
background application running that’s intercepting the calls, the Microsoft
Office toolbars tend to do this. CD Player in the task tray can also do it.
2.12.
Use the options | reset to default menu choice and check all of the
items, restart Mame32.
2.13.
Final option, manually delete the registry key for Mame32:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\MAME32
3.
Performance Related Topics
3.1.
You can sometimes cure sound scratchiness in Mame32 by hitting the ‘p’
pause key, waiting a couple seconds, then un-pausing.
3.2.
Mame32 will start stuttering and frame skipping heavily if you are
really low on resources or your memory for that setting has becoming very
fragmented. Quit Mame32 and restart, or, optimally restart Windows. If a game
is stuttering, you also may not have enough physical memory to prevent paging
to a swap file, KOF98 at 97+ megs for example.
3.3.
Things jerky and slow? Try toggling off the DirectInput for joystick and
keyboard.
3.4.
Turn off animated cursors in Windows, sometimes they adversely affect
Mame32.
3.5.
In Win2k it’s preferable to run Mame32 with the least background
processes conflicting with it, in addition to shutting those down, you can also
change Mame32.exe’s process priority.
In taskmanager you can secondary click on Mame32.exe and set it’s
priority. We currently default to
‘normal’ but you can ratchet that up to ‘above normal’ ‘high’ or ‘realtime’ this
will in increments prevent anything from taking cycles away from Mame32. If you want to do this automatically, you
can launch Mame32.exe from the command line [or create a batch file/shortcut]
that says ‘start /realtime mame32.exe’ substituting /realtime with
/abovenormal, or /high. I tried /realtime and with a HotRod there are some
ghosting issues and button press sticking so I think the Intellitype software
isn’t getting enough cycles. <g> Experiment to find your sweet point, I’m
using /abovenormal at the moment. I
don’t recall if this was possible on WinNT.
3.6.
In Win2k you may get scratchiness in game when Win2k in the background
tries to save information to the large, hidden in root, hibernation file, to
stop this, disable hibernate in the power settings control panel.
3.7.
Games tend to bog down if you choose windowed mode, doubled. Do not double if you want to play in a
window.
3.8.
If you’re experiencing scratchy sound after a certain amount of play time,
verify that you don’t have any indexing services going on like fastfind, or
indexing in Win2k on an NTFS drive that wait for ‘idle time’ before starting
their work.
3.9.
Some machines’ sound starts to stutter if you use the combination of
triple buffering and doubled display size.
Do not use triple buffering in this case.
3.10.
Informal testing has shown a 10% FPS increase if you do not use the
joystick options [USB joysticks should not cause as high a degradation].
3.11.
If games are stuttering, try disabling your joystick [uncheck ‘use
joystick’] to see if it could be a driver issue.
3.12.
Some sound cards
produce better Mame32 output if you decrease their hardware acceleration slider
in their respective control panel dialogues.
3.13.
Keyboard keys or
HotRod joystick sticking/ghosting in Windows2000? Get SP1 and turn on
DirectInput for Keyboard in Mame32.
3.14.
Scratchiness
with triplebuffer and DirectSound w/ SBLive? Get at least Liveware v.3 from
Creative Labs.
3.15.
Seeing visual
tearing onscreen with games that do a lot of scrolling? Try enabling triple
buffer on the options | default options | display tab. Triple buffering works
best when you force 16bpp mode, and double the image size [with no scanlines].
This may cause scratchiness in sound on some soundcards.
3.16.
If seeing stuttering, verify that you don’t have a second instance of
Mame32 running, use NT taskman or ctl-alt-del in Win9x. If Mame32 crashes sometimes it can leave an
instance in memory.
3.17.
If seeing intermittent slowdowns, try disabling running background apps
[in Win98, use msconfig.exe], Norton Crashguard, popupkiller, viruscans, fast
find, the office bar, Intellimouse, even IE subscription updates, etc, try
moving Mame32 away from compressed [DriveSpace, DoubleSpace, stacker]
drives. IntelliMouse and Office
Toolbars are a known offenders in this category.
3.18.
Sometimes fps w/ f11 will ‘jump’ initially, this is a side effect of
frameskipping, turn that feature off for better control.
4.
Joysticks and Gamepad Topics
4.1.
Remember you need to toggle it on the first time you run Mame32, options
| default options | sound & input.
4.2.
Mame32 relies on DirectInput for joystick support, ensure your game pad
is seen as present and active in the game controller control panel: start menu
| settings | control panel | game controllers.
4.3.
Some Win9x joysticks are not digital, try disabling DirectInput for
joysticks for those.
4.4.
Some USB joysticks produce wrong directions when their d-pads are pushed
in Mame32. Disable DirectInput for joysticks to fix this.
4.5.
Verify your joystick is seen as ID #1 in the game controllers control
panel rather than being assigned a higher number.
4.6.
If you are seeing game wide slowdowns w/ joystick enabled, try toggling
the DirectInput option for keyboards and joysticks off or on.
5.
Misc. Issues
5.1.
Getting property sheet errors on setting defaults or game properties?
Get the Microsoft common controls update here: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/ie/comctrlx86.asp, or update to IE4
or greater.
5.2.
To play the Exidy gun
games you may need to disable Dinput for joystick and keyboard.
5.3.
The way the current
cheat module is written in the DOS version causes problems when compiled in
Mame32 [speedy or too slow movement through the cheat menu, etc.]. Workaround is to disable auto-frameskip.
5.4.
If you are seeing
icon palette corruption in the GUI when returning from a fullscreen game, try
bumping up your desktop color depth to 24bpp or 32bpp.
5.5.
Background artwork
not showing up in-game? [asteroids deluxe, armor attack, lunar lander, etc.] be
sure the *.png files are freestanding and not in zips with their names. Or, all the *.png files are in a large zip
called ‘artwork.zip’.
5.6.
There may be some
issues using the pure white color in the GUI as a font color choice or as a highlight,
try silver or a slightly off white.
5.7.
Seeing corruption in
the screenshot/flyers/cabinets images? Resize the viewable area; Mame32
decimates the image if the area to display the image in is too small, resulting
in colored patterns. [you can increase the viewable screenshot area by turning
off status bar, and toolbar].
5.8.
If you’re having
trouble saving your keyboard mappings and configuration, verify that the *.cfg
files are not read-only.
5.9.
Tab menu no longer
working? You’ve mapped it accidentally to something else apparently; delete the
default.cfg file in the \mame32 directory.
5.10.
Some games like Star
Wars require you to turn off joystick input if you have it on.
5.11.
If a game quits
immediately, you might try removing its entry [or remarking it out] from the
hiscore.dat file. Examples are Phoenix and Pac-Mania.
5.12.
My hi-scores aren’t
being saved anymore. For non-NVRAM
games get the hiscore.dat file from www.mame.net.
Remember not all games are converted to this method yet, see the hiscore.dat
file itself for the list of supported games.
For
breaking information on troubleshooting techniques or issues related to the
latest release as well as updated art, icons, and screenshots go to the Mame32
QA/Test & Art Dept. www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa .
To
report bugs or discuss Mame32 go to the official message board: http://pluto.beseen.com/boardroom/q/18365 .
The
current list of Mame32 issues can be found here: http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/m32_testing.xls
There
is also a text list of current open / active issues on the Mame32qa site down
towards the middle of the page if you don’t want to fire up Excel. These bug
entries do not include DCRs [Developer Change Requests / Feature Requests].
Remember;
always ensure that the problem doesn't happen in the DOS version before
reporting a bug. Check MameDOS bugs here: http://www.mameworld.net/mametesters/report.html
.
john iv
mame32qa@hotmail.com
[note: put 'mame32' in the subject line or you will be spam filtered. ;-)]
This
document was previously quickstart.htm, but it evolved beyond getting the app up
and running hence the name change.