MAME 2016 (0.174) is missing in release 5.23

Andearoid

Hello,

I'm using Batocera x64 for a while and I upgraded my 5.22 release to the newest 5.23. With the 5.22 release I was using the MAME 2016 (0.174) core.

Unfortunately I cannot start anymore games since I upgraded to the 5.23 release. But I can launch some of them with MAME 078Plus Core and MAME 0139 core.

I installed a new fresh 5.23 release onto a separate hard drive. And I seen MAME 078 core and MAME 0174 core aren't more available in the Batocera's advanced games options menu.

Are they definitively removed from Batocera ? Or can I add them manually in a Batocera's config file ? Some of my games require a MAME 2016 core to be playable.

Dragu

Andearoid
I told them this already over 2 month ago, they just dont believe you. They screw Batocera just by elimination of needed components, anyway we are small humble idiots compared with the shining light of experts. Unfortunatly I made alot of money with IT long time ago. And I can tell you, that in my teams even the beginners had the same voice as the staff. And sometimes the nobodies came up with solutions that nobody else was finding. 😉

BZZ

Andearoid I am not negating this just pointing out that BZZ ... You however have previously Andearoid ;-) No matter as this has gone of topic twice over ;-)

lbrpdx

Dragu Frustration seems to taint a little bit your judgement 😉
All the cores that where removed in 5.23 were removed for a reason -- and in most cases, because they wre not maintained any longer.

All ROMs that were working with MAME 078 must be working with 078Plus that is still present in the distribution. If they are not working, it might be an issue with the ROM itself. The vast majority of ROMs with 0174 should be working with the current MAME version. Try out your ROM that was using MAME 0174 with the current "MAME" core (mame_libretro.so).

If the ROM is not working, it might be because your ROM is outdated or has been badly dumped. Take a look at this website - if you can go beyond the horrendous CRT font, their explanation makes a lot of sense. https://choccyhobnob.com/demystifying-mame-roms/

Dragu

lbrpdx
No frustration, it takes alot more as gaming software to frustate me.
Now, I am always on 5.20. As this version works for me. But as I told already, also my last Recalbox version is 180713, and believe me, I am not the only one in this.
Now, if you say, wrong roms, wrong mame version and so on. I am not wet behind my ears anymore. 🙂
There are some games that works just with some Mame versions. Sure you can prove me that I am totally silly but then find me a version of Mame where "Carnevil" will work !
There is NO REASON to dump an emulator with the argument "not developped anymore". If this emulator is able to deserve games that other versions dont deserve. This dumping is just a bad idea coming from bad information or knowledge without testing the result by yourself.
To finish I like the thumb up for you, from danish member "BZZ", as I was always thinking that they are mostly great in cheese. 🙂

Andearoid

lbrpdx Thank you for your reply. You talk about using "mame_libretro.so". I seen in the changelog for the Batocera's release 5.23 : bump: libretro-mame to 0.212 and add support for - Pine64 rockpro64 - Asus Tinkerboard - MQmaker MiQi.

After changing Mame's core in Batocera's setup to Libretro+Mame (and restart my compter otherwise I get an error and freeze), I can now run more games. Probably because Retroarch use the newer MAME 0.212 core.

I make a fresh MAME 0.213 fullset last week. I'll try to rebuild a 0.212 set with Clrmamepro to get clean roms and import them into Batocera, instead of my oldest 0.174 set. It shouldn't be too difficult to rebuild.

When using Mame it's important to use the good rom version with the same core version. Because sometime roms are remanaged. This means a rom working with 0.78 or 0.174 can be unworkable with a 0.212 core.

Do you have a trick to make a .dat file with only Playable/Imperfect games ?
I think I don't need to import Not Working games into Batocera. It can save many disk space.

BZZ

Dragu "To finish I like the thumb up for you, from danish member "BZZ", as I was always thinking that they are mostly great in cheese." ? Was that an attempt to insult me ?

lbrpdx

Please take a look at the article I linked above: there is actually a good reason why MAME is still evolving, as the ROM sets are evolving too. A lot of early dumps were just incomplete/wrong/etc... and nobody noticed until someone went far enough into the game to see that the game dump actually is incomplete.
In the best case scenario, only the last MAME version should be supported, as it provides the best compatibility with complete and accurate ROMs. But older versions are still maintained on Batocera (MAME 078+ / MAME 0139) because they run better on less powerful SBCs.
And from a support and maintainability perspective, another good reason is that it's easier to concentrate our effort on a smaller set of emulators.

Andearoid

I can now manually load the MAME 2016 (0.174) core in Retroarch.
But it's a long trip.

In Batocera's setup go to Games Settings > Advanced > Mame.
Set Emulator to "auto" and Core to "auto".

Try to start any game (retry until you get a game starting).
Then press HOME + A buttons simultaneously to access Retroarch's setup.

In the Retroarch's menu, go down to Overrides. And make "Save Content Directory Overrides".
Retroarch will create a MAME config.
Quit Retroarch.

Go to "/userdata/system/.config/retroarch/config/MAME 2003-Plus" directory of your Batocera file system.
Then edit the file named "mame.cfg" and add this 3 lines and save :
menu_show_load_core = "true"
menu_show_online_updater = "true"
menu_show_load_content = "true"

Now you can access online update's options in Retroarch's setup.

So. Start again the game you launched previously. And press HOME + A buttons simultaneously to access Retroarch's setup. Press B button to go back. And go to Load Core > Download a Core.
Search for "mame2016_libretro.so.zip" and download it.
After auto-extracting press B button to go back.
Go to Load Core again and choose "mame2016_libretro.so".

Take a look at the botton right of your screen. You will see "1.7.7 - MAME 2016 0.174".
This means the MAME 2016 (0.174) core is loaded and ready to be used in your Retroarch.

Now to launch a game with the MAME 2016 0.174 core, go to Load Content in the same menu > Start directory.
Then browse your Mame's roms path to "/userdata/roms/mame" and choose the rom filename you want play.

Eachtime a game required the MAME 2016 0.174 core, you have to start any game, manually load the core and start the good rom via the Retroarch's menu.

Retroarch provides MAME 2003 (0.78), MAME 2015 (0.160) cores as online update too.
I'm sorry if this mission is only for John Rambo, but it's the only bypass method I found for now.

iratash

Yes I found that in 5.23 beta and never bothered to upgrade because of it. All said and done, form my limited experience as a programmer, I cant see how keeping that core in 5.23 would have broken anything, but hey ho. Ill just stick to 5.22 instead of acquiring 60+GB new set.

Andearoid

I was able to export a clean gamelist (without roms having the not working status) with MAME.

Download MAME 2012 from its official website :
https://www.mamedev.org/oldrel.html

Unzip and execute the mame.exe program file.
A fullscreen window is opening.

Click "working" in the left menu, all playable (and almost playable with minor bugs) games will be list.
Now, click the floppy icon and double click Export list in XML format (like -listxml) to export the playable gamelist. The screen will freeze for few seconds.

Then exit the window using the Escape key two times.
Get your XML gamelist file (named export.xml) in the \UI of the Mame's folder.

If you're working with Clrmamepro like me, rename the .XML into .DAT and import it in your Clrmamepro's \datfiles folder.

The MAME 0.212 fullset (with only playable games and unperfect) is downsized to 198Go instead of 560Go (including Samples + CHDs).

AlbertoNavarro

Well, I found a Youtube video where this issue is explained really well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK_rup0MEY4

DON'T LOOK AT THE DESCRIPTION

iratash

AlbertoNavarro Thanks man, and you already know we didn't look at the description 🙂