MAME Compiler Beginner

[MNMax21]

Ok, I have just ventured into my first compiling of MAME on my own. The version of MAME I had before was .143. It now appears to be up to .153. I am just wondering what files I need to update in my current mame directory in order to update it to run .153. Basically, what files do I move from my compiler files to my MAME files location?

(I imagine it will be a simple (hopefully!) copy and replace type deal into my main MAME directory of the applicable files...)

[Adultery]

After you finish compiling MAME, you just move the mame.exe over in most cases.

[MNMax21]

I ended moving from MAME to MAMEUI64. I moved over pretty much everything and just copied and replaced, thinking I'd need extra stuff using a different deal. It's working great so far. Outside of when I needed to locate a qsound file for 1944. That was easy enough.

[MNMax21]

I also saved the files I had already somewhere else, just in case. It's my first time compiling in MAME, but not first rodeo. Big props to HK. That was a breeze.

[DazzleHP]

It's a great program ain't it? I started with HK's Compiler too - MAME compiling can be a bit intimidating to first timers. I do it manually these days, simply coz i can and i like to know how things are done. There's no reason why anyone can't use the Compiler forever though

That's a big jump you made there! Don't forget to update all your support files and point GameEx to them too:

Support files:

mameinfo.dat

*history.dat

catver.ini

nplayers.ini

command.dat

controls.ini

*As you compiled .153 you may aswell save yourself some headache and grab my fixed version from the download section

Also, you updated your romset to .153 too right??

[MNMax21]

Hahahaha. The romset part was something I hadn't really thought about until I updated. Then I had about 80 stop working as they were missing bins. I'm steadily fixing that up with romcenter and updates to the old roms in a separate file. Argh, tedious but I kind of enjoy the work. Thanks for the history heads up. I ended up just moving everything from the MinGW file to my main Mame32 file so I wouldn't have to change the paths in gameex. I just copied and replaced everything when it asked. Were the above files you mentioned included in the compile and I just overwrote them or do I need to grab them at a different location?

[DazzleHP]

Were the above files you mentioned included in the compile and I just overwrote them or do I need to grab them at a different location?

They are maintained by the non Mame Dev community so they are scattered all over the net they are not too hard to find though as you can imagine they are popular files the top 4 i listed i would say you should always have, the bottom 2 are less important but will add to your MAME experience. Once you have them (wherever you like, i usually put them in the MAME directory) then go to MAME Settings in the Setup Wizard and scroll all the way to the bottom to set each of their paths

[tthurman]

Getting ready to compile 0.153, and I haven't done this in several years. Last time around I used the method over at Mr. Do's, but thought I would use HK's compiler.

Since this is inline with this topic, I thought I'd just ask here vs. starting a whole new thread.

mameinfo.dat and history.dat are release specific, but what about the others?

Okay to compile using the fixed history.dat?

I'm curious to as to why the high score diff wasn't mentioned, or is it already included in one of the others?

[MNMax21]

You need to update all of those files. I used HK's compiler and ended up using Mr. Do's website to find all of the .dat files and what not. Just make sure to grab the most recent file and grabbed the fixed history.dat from DazzleHP above. Some of them have not been updated in awhile.

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame.php

High Score files:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64298.0

[Draco1962]

It is mentioned on Headkaze's site here (step 4). Follow the link and 0.153 version is available.

[tthurman]

doh, didn't think to look there!

Thanks!

[tthurman]

So I had a little time to start into this today, and got to the part about MAMEUI. Previouslly, using Mr. Do's method, I simply used the 64 bit version of MAME. Is it necessary that I use MAMEUI to launch? I would prefer to keep things as lean as possible.

[Adultery]

Just use vanilla mame then and skip that step.

[tthurman]

Cool, thanks man!

[GeorgeT]

Hmm, I just got a new PC, i7 - 64bit so I'm thinking about compiling my own version of MAME with hiscores. I tried Headkaze method once before with no luck, maybe this time is the charm.

[MNMax21]

It works for me. Make sure to make the hi score file. I used the mameui portion of it.

[Draco1962]

I have used the MAMEUI builds many times in the past without any problems using Headkaze's compiler and, when I have run across an issue, it was either user error or because there was a change thanks to MAMEDev that needed an update with the compiler, so be sure to let him know.

[GeorgeT]

tried again this morning..pretty sure I followed all the steps correctly (except v153 doesnt have any update files?) and the darn thing didn't compile

I.fail.

[DazzleHP]

Do you have anything set in "Optimize for" if so try it with None selected and also try without any of the processor options ie Dual Core, Quad core etc (they don't affect the final build, just speed up the compile)

[GeorgeT]

Ok Dazzle, I did had all that quad-core stuff selected thinking it would compile the finished result for a quad-core pc. I'll give it another go soon

[tthurman]

Okay, been a while since I did this, but I believe everything went well.

Followed the HK steps, omitting the MAMEUI part, so the build is vanilla.

C:\MiniGW

C:\MiniGW\source\mame0152\mame

C:\MiniGW\patches\high_153txt

20 min 12 sec on my Q9550, and when finished it opened the "mame" folder in the above path, with what I suppose is my newly compiled version of MAME 0.153, which for all intents and purposes is nothing more than a compiled version with the high score feature added.

Sound correct?

Why is the target OS Win 32 with MAME compiler 64?

What is the source version, 32 or 64 bit? I thought there was some advantage to running 64 bit.

[tthurman]

Never mind, the mame 64 executible is there bigger than life in the folder!

[MNMax21]

See you in the high score forums then. I have been MIA over there though.

[GeorgeT]

Okay, been a while since I did this, but I believe everything went well.

Followed the HK steps, omitting the MAMEUI part, so the build is vanilla.

C:\MiniGW

C:\MiniGW\source\mame0152\mame

C:\MiniGW\patches\high_153txt

20 min 12 sec on my Q9550, and when finished it opened the "mame" folder in the above path, with what I suppose is my newly compiled version of MAME 0.153, which for all intents and purposes is nothing more than a compiled version with the high score feature added.

Sound correct?

Why is the target OS Win 32 with MAME compiler 64?

What is the source version, 32 or 64 bit? I thought there was some advantage to running 64 bit.

I get the following:

Compiling Mame...

Using Parameters TARGETOS=win32 TARGET=mame OSD=windows

Error Compiling Mame.

CompileMame(): The system cannot find the file specified

My paths look exactly like yours, skipped the GUI as well. I don't get it, I suck

[tthurman]

When you extract the mame source, it creates Mame0153, with a sub folder of mame. Are you pointing to this mame sub folder, or the parent Mame0153 folder?

That could be all it is, as I noticed this wasn't exactly detailed on HK's instructions, as it's possibly some subtle change that was made in the souce codes directory structure since the directions where written.

C:\MinGW\source\Mame0147u3

is how the directions detail it, in our case it is C:\MinGW\source\Mame0153\mame

This is what immediatley comes to mind, as I had an error too before I corrected this. As soon as I started looking at it I realized if twas looking for mame in the wrong place.