And The Newbie's head explodes!

RitchieTheBrit · Post by **RitchieTheBrit** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:22 pm

Hey there, can anyone point me in the direction of a guide that explains the basic dynamics of MAME? I don't mean the type you find at easyemu, et al, but more a description of the interaction between MAME, FE's, DAT files, CATVERS etc.

I know that most people will dismiss me as a bonehead, but I only started mucking aorund with MAME a few weeks ago, and a lot of the info available on the net makes the preconception that you already know that -listinfo has been removed, you need XXXX tpe of dat to create a gamelist in XXXX frontend etc.

This is really starting to give me a migraine. At the moment I'm trying to set up MAME0.84 Command Line with the latest version of Mamewah and Mamewah Setup. I've got a full set of roms (I haven't copied the chd's over yet though), and I've generated a dat file using the command MAME -LISTXML|XML2INFO > MAME.DAT.

This gives me the required dat file, but it would seem that it's incompatible with Mamewah! Wouldn't it have been easier for everybody if the MAMEDevs left listinfo intact and just perfected the listxml switch to give you the choice?

This seems a nice, friendly forum, so please forgive my adject niavety, I'm gonna have a run through with RC and see if that makes a little more sense to me than ClrMamePro. It's not that I don't understand the program, I've scanned my ROMS and corrected a lot of errors (I was informed that the set had already been scanned, so is this normal?), and finally produced a dat that was half the size of the one produced by the XML2INFO exe. Again, I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but this didn't work either!

Is it really neccessary to create your own dat files, or can I just download a widely acceppted 'perfect dat'? Correct me if I wrong, but I'm under the impression that the dat is simply the equivilant of using a check list to verify that your roms are the structural mirror of the roms used by the devs, and to inform you of an out of date set etc.

Damn, I've been and gone and confused myself now?!?1

Even if you reply to tell me to get a life, your time will be appreciated.
(ps, I had a life until this MAME fixation took over!)

RitchieTheBrit · Post by **RitchieTheBrit** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:22 pm

Guys, ignore the above... This prog rocks!

I ran my .84 mame set through it (and I only had to consult the HELP once!) and immediately found which roms were good etc! The help file is outstanding!

I'll be using this instead of ClrMamePro!

Post by **Logiqx** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 8:14 am

It seems like you have sorted your own problem before I saw it.

Anyway, just to clarify something about XML vs. Listinfo:

Listinfo was created many years ago and XML was introduced slightly over a year ago as a replacement. There was a long period during which both options were available, allowing people to update their tools/frontends for the new format but a lot of people assumed that listinfo would be kept forever. The last release of MAME (about a month ago) finally removed listinfo and not everyone has caught up yet. That should explain why the guides you read lack information about listinfo being removed. It's probably not that they assume you know about listinfo being removed, they probably just haven't been updated.

Logiqx

RitchieTheBrier · Post by **RitchieTheBrier** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 4:56 pm

Heh, I'm starting to get it all now! Just gotta' get my head around getting the catver to work!