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112 lines
4.3 KiB
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112 lines
4.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
Using MAME
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----------
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If you want to dive right in and skip the command line, there's a nice graphical
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way to use MAME without the need to download and set up a front end. Simply
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start MAME with no parameters, by double-clicking the **mame.exe** file or
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running it directly from the command line. If you're looking to harness the
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full power of MAME, keep reading further.
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On macOS and \*nix-based platforms, please be sure to set your font up to match
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your locale before starting, otherwise you may not be able to read the text due
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to missing glyphs.
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If you are a new MAME user, you could find this emulator a bit complex at
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first. Let's take a moment to talk about software lists, as they can simplify
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matters quite a bit. If the content you are trying to play is a documented
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entry on one of the MAME software lists, starting the content is as easy as
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**mame.exe** *<system>* *<software>*
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For instance:
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**mame.exe nes metroidu**
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will load the USA version of Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
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Alternatively, you could start MAME with
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**mame.exe nes**
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and choose the *software list* from the cartridge slot. From there, you could
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pick any software list-compatible software you have in your roms folders. Please
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note that many older dumps of cartridges and discs may either be bad or require
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renaming to match up to the software list in order to work in this way.
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If you are loading an arcade board or other non-software list content, things
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are only a little more complicated:
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The basic usage, from command line, is
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**mame.exe** *<system>* *<media>* *<software>* *<options>*
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where
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* *<system>* is the short name of the system you want to emulate (e.g. nes, c64,
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etc.)
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* *<media>* is the switch for the media you want to load (if it's a cartridge,
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try **-cart** or **-cart1**; if it's a floppy disk, try **-flop** or
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**-flop1**; if it's a CD-ROM, try **-cdrom**)
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* *<software>* is the program / game you want to load (and it can be given
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either as the fullpath to the file to load, or as the shortname of the file in
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our software lists)
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* *<options>* is any additional command line option for controllers, video,
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sound, etc.
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Remember that if you type a *<system>* name which does not correspond to any
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emulated system, MAME will suggest some possible choices which are close to
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what you typed; and if you don't know which *<media>* switch are available, you
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can always launch
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**mame.exe** *<system>* **-listmedia**
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If you don't know what *<options>* are available, there are a few things you
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can do. First of all, you can check the command line options section of this
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manual. You can also try one of the many :ref:`frontends` available for MAME.
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Alternatively, you should keep in mind the following command line options,
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which might be very useful on occasion:
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**mame.exe -help**
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gives a basic summary of command line options for MAME, as explained above.
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**mame.exe -showusage**
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gives you the (quite long) list of available command line options for MAME.
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The main options are described, in the :ref:`mame-commandline-universal` section
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of this manual.
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**mame.exe -showconfig**
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gives you a (quite long) list of available configuration options for MAME.
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These options can always be modified at command line, or by editing them in
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mame.ini which is the main configuration file for MAME. You can find a
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description of some configuration options in the
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:ref:`mame-commandline-universal` section of the manual (in most cases, each
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configuration option has a corresponding command line option to configure and
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modify it).
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**mame.exe -createconfig**
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creates a brand new **mame.ini** file, with default configuration settings.
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Notice that mame.ini is basically a plain text file, so you can open it with any
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text editor (e.g. Notepad, Emacs or TextEdit) and configure every option you
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need. However, no particular tweaks are needed to start, so you can leave most
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of the options unaltered.
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If you execute **mame -createconfig** when you already have an existing
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mame.ini from a previous MAME version, MAME automatically updates the
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pre-existing mame.ini by copying changed options into it.
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Once you are more confident with MAME options, you may want to adjust the
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configuration of your setup a bit more. In this case, keep in mind the order in
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which options are read; see :ref:`advanced-multi-CFG` for details.
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