advancemame and multiple mame version

[enoch]

First off, I have a log in question: I'm not erasing my cookies, I have 'keep me logged in' checked, and every time I come I have to re-log in. Why?

Now to the topic:

1. I can't get advancemame running. Why do I need a regular version of Mame, also? There's not much documentation on configuration, so I set up mame, it worked. I set up advancemame, neither work. FIXED - didn't notice there needed to be a path denoted for mame roms in 'advancemame options'.

2. I want to have multiple Mame versions. I tried setting up others in 'emulated games' but they don't run. I'm obviously missing the exe path, though I tried to specify it in the 'command line'; wondering this is even available for this application. ?

3. probly a question for the Daphne folks, but I noticed I had to make framefiles for the other games that didn't automatically list. Anyone know what they are? Should I just upgrade my version of GameEx and this will be solved?

4. Also, some of the roms (which are in the rom folder, and listed in the game list ini) aren't showing in GameEx. ?

[bkenobi]

1) You need plain jane mame because it's used to generate the list of roms and such that work. I don't think this is included in adv mame. As far as getting it working, there is a walk-through on the main page that is really detailed (Link search for "Advanced MAME").

2) You can definitely set up other versions of MAME as emulators. Go to the same link above to see how to configure emulators. Also, if you search in the forum, there are multiple topics that talk about setting up dedicated Neo Geo, etc emulators in just this way. In general, though, plane jane MAME does a really good job with most games and gets the most updates, so it's probably best to just stick with that...

4) The only reason a rom doesn't get listed is if you have it filtered out or if your version of MAME doesn't recognize it. Check the above link and search for "filter"). The typical situation is that you have 6000 roms, but only 2000 show up. That's because you have it set to hide clones.

Good luck

[enoch]

Well, notice I did get Advancemame to work. The doc just tells you what you need to do, but if you're not familiar with cmd functions and stuff, then you won't, I didn't anyway, know to put that in the options line, and only found out by accident.

Second, I have a large two-player panel. I don't like to be restricted to one side of the panel while playing some two-player games, which you can by yourself, alone, so I want a version for single player and another for two players. Also, I want different video modes for different versions. So, I'll at least have two, but maybe three or four. Having to make bats or whatever for game lists though seems a tedious thing. Hm.

Game list: I thought about filters. I have 'show clones' set in GE. I have absolutely no filters set in Mame. I don't like filters. The ini's for the cmd version of Mame I'm using for GE are copied from the equivalent version of Mame32. All the games show in Mame32, but don't in GE. Dunno.

Another things that's interesting is, whereas some other FE's will use Mame32 as just an exe, GE makes Mame32 go into its embedded front end. Anybody know why on this one?

I still can't get VP going. What are your (or anyone else's) path settings?

Lastly, say I want to use two different versions of Daphne. Do I use the same process as for any other 'emulated games'?

[bkenobi]

Well, it is possible to have multiple versions of MAME as I said before, but I've never done it. You shouldn't have to have a batch file for each rom, that would be really silly. You should just be able to create separate rom dirs for each version of MAME and point the "emulator dir" to that one.

Another option is if you have to reboot to change control panels, you could have different .ini files for gameex that point to different paths for MAME. I don't know how that would work with listing games (it may have to rebuild the list each time, which would make this option close to unusable).

Another option you could consider is setting up MAME so that there are multiple inputs for each control. I do this with my cabinet actually so that I can have my gun 1 trigger button and P1B1 both mapped to button 1 in MAME. That way I don't have to worry about setting up each gun game, it just works right out of the box.

As for MAME32, I know that a lot of people are using this instead of the command line version for their primary MAME executable. I haven't done this, but it's supposed to work just fine. My guess is that you just have to get the correct command line options in there and it will launch the rom correctly. In fact, it's possible these are the same command line parameters for both MAME and MAME32 since they are based on the same code.

Sorry don't know what VP is and I don't use Daphne at the moment.

[popcorrin]

Second, I have a large two-player panel. I don't like to be restricted to one side of the panel while playing some two-player games, which you can by yourself, alone, so I want a version for single player and another for two players.

What exactly do you mean here? You have different versions of mame that utilize different controls for 2 player games?

[enoch]

popcorrin: I mostly play games by myself. (One reason I have a two-player panel is for dual-stick games.) I play in the center of it - for example, using P1 stick with P2 buttons. But occasionally I might have someone over and don't want to have to remap the controls for two-player games, so I just will use a different Mame. Which is why bkenobi's last suggestion won't work (as far as I can see), because my button presses would do actions for mine and theirs at the same time. I think there might be a batch file process or something that would change keycodes for the panel upon game load-up, I think I remember seeing somewhere someone was interested in that, but I've never done that sort of thing at all.

bkenobi: by 'creating separate rom directories' do you mean in the rom path? Because it when I set the rom path (using a spot in 'emulated games' for another Mame entry), I get the rom names. They won't load, though.

That brings up another thing with Mame configuration: setting the working path will automatically set the other paths in page 1. But in page 2 of basic settings, you'd think the game lists would be set for, also, as they're often in the same Mame folder. At least mine is.

VP is Visual Pinball.

[popcorrin]

popcorrin: I mostly play games by myself. (One reason I have a two-player panel is for dual-stick games.) I play in the center of it - for example, using P1 stick with P2 buttons. But occasionally I might have someone over and don't want to have to remap the controls for two-player games, so I just will use a different Mame. Which is why bkenobi's last suggestion won't work (as far as I can see), because my button presses would do actions for mine and theirs at the same time. I think there might be a batch file process or something that would change keycodes for the panel upon game load-up, I think I remember seeing somewhere someone was interested in that, but I've never done that sort of thing at all.

Okay, now I understand. If you have a programmable keyboard encoder you could always have gameex reprogram those buttons when you want to switch between 1 player and 2 player setups.

[enoch]

Oh. I wondered why there were 'input' settings for various FE's. I'm assuming that's where it is. I'll look.