MAME 2016 and MAME-current: how to use "softlist" romsets about docs HOT 7 OPEN

Happy to tackle this when I have some free time. Have a few PS1 games to patch with translation. Strictly 1 thing at a time these days.

Anyway I will leave some notes here for when I start.

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Overview:-

There are two methods to achieving non-Arcade emulation with Libretro MAME Cores based on mainline MAME post version 0.162 from May 2015.
Currently these are the “Arcade (MAME)” or “Arcade (MAME 2016” Cores.

Note: There are other cores that will emulate non-Arcade content based on the MAME project these include:- (insert list). Those will not be covered here but may function in a similar way.

Prerequisites:-
The MAME emulator and therefore the Libretro MAME Cores are built to work with specific romsets. It is always advised to match your romset version to emulator version to avoid compatibility issues. See here for more details
(link MAME emu guide)

Method 1:- Authentic MAME
Using the internal Software List functions of MAME.

For this you will need some supporting files from the mainline MAME emulator. Download the windows MAME emulator here(link). Making sure to get the correct version you require.

Extract the contents and remove the “hash” folder and it’s contents. If your device has limited storage just take the files relating to the system you want to emulate.

Folder structure:-
Folder structure/naming is very important for this use of the MAME Cores. The naming will depend on the machine you are trying to emulate but the folder structure will be the same. The example below is for the Atari 5200.

“YourPath” is the location of your Retroarch and games folders.

Create the following folders in your Retroarch installation or your specified “system” folder

YourPath/Retroarch/System/mame

Copy the hash folder acquired earlier to the above location.

YourPath/Retroarch/system/mame/hash

So for Atari 5200 you would have

YourPath/Retroarch/system/mame/hash/a5200.xml

(Check about .hsi file or use another example)

Create the following folders in your games directory (these will be mame naming dependent)

YourPath/Games/Atari 5200/a5200

(The last folder MUST be named as MAME requires, in this case “a5200”)

Place any .zip games and .zip bios files required here

YourPath/Games/Atari 5200/a5200/a5200.zip
YourPath/Games/Atari 5200/a5200/boogie.zip

(You May also extract the bios file to their own folder within the games directory)
YourPath/Games/Atari 5200/a5200/a5200/5200.rom)

Now Load Content and browse to the game files and launch with a compatible core.
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Need to do a fresh install and confirm minimum files needed

Add note about SoftList xml specifying the game names and crc and only supporting only those specific file names.
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Method2: Frontend Friendly

CMD or command line file launching.

This method follows the same folder structure as above but you can use custom naming outside of the hash file included with MAME.
It utilises some custom additions to the Libretro MAME Cores. Specifically the use of text files (.cmd) to replicate sending command line actions as you can with mainline MAME.

To do
Deciding on contents of the cmd file

Cmd file example

Test on clean install

from docs.

@thatman84: You've got me excited enough to be looking around for more resources.

Have you seen this one? https://forums.libretro.com/t/guide-play-non-arcade-systems-with-mame-or-mess/17728

@zach-morris and @te_lanus are two people who I notice have been helping others with this topic on the forums.

from docs.

This is awesome and will change many lives for the better.

I would like to suggest adjusting the terminology from Authentic MAME and Frontend Friendly to MAME Frontend and Libretro Frontend

from docs.

@hizzlekizzle could we add the MAME softlist hash files to the RetroArch Content Downloader? It seems like a similar situation to the dolphin-data.zip that is already available in the downloader.

from docs.

theres plenty of explanations in the forum, I am starting to write mine up. Will try to Pr the base tonight and research the other posts + fill it out before exposing to mkdocs.yml

from docs.

Thanks for this thread and the guide a couple of comments above.

Used it to get myvision games working.

from docs.

Would an update to the docs more or less compiling that forum post (and the other methods) pull request be something that would be considered if I make it?
If so, how would the team prefer it be linked? The methods are essentially the same for all versions of mame 2014/15 or newer, so it could either be a separate doc linked where necessary or copied info into each core's docs

from docs.