How to play MAME ROMs (games) in OS X

hello,

mame doesnt work for me most of the time. when i try to load a game it says that some files are missing and that i should look at the log file or something. any clue?

it only worked with alex kidd but with scratches on the sound. And i couldnt play, none of the buttons were working. Only P for pause.

thanx

Dennis

im having the same problem with the missing files and auditing the file didn’t work. i downloaded marvel vs capcom highlighted it and clicked audit selected games and tried to play it after it was done but it still didn’t work

@Andrew -

Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed that it’s kind of ‘hit and run’ when it comes to some games. They work no problem in Windows MAME, but in OS X they don’t launch at all…. I’d say it’s even as high as 25%
don’t work…

According to what Ive found, its supposed to mean that your missing a .CHD (Core Hard Drive) file, sound files, or some other file, I dont know how or where to get these files, but its what it says (too bad I didnt figure that out before I got my hopes up for a 46 mb metal slug game)

guys go to mininova.org and get the mame chd torrent and the mame roms torrent, both required, and will have it all!!! you can even get 1.20 roms and 1.19 chd, its all good

This page ends up being the top listed item for many of my searches for a OS X version of MAME, so I figured I’d post this in case someone else has the same problems I have.

Anyway, I was a bit confused, and had the same problem as Andrew. MAME OS X did the complete audit thing, and then gave me a huge list of games, most of which I knew I didn’t have. Trying to play the ones I did know I have gave me errors telling me the files where missing, same as Andrew. The ROMs where in the right place.

Looking at the logs – it’s calling for quite a few missing files. I unzipped the ROM in question, and all of those missing files are there, so I assumed it’s not seeing the ROM file.

So anyway, long story short – I went into the preferences, and re-pointed the application to the ROM directory manually, setting that directory as the same one it *should* have been looking at from the beginning, and had no problems since then. What was any different, I don’t know, but since then, I’ve had no problems.

I can not get any of the games to start and I cant drag any of them to unzip them. If you have any advice on unzipping the rom from the list and getting it started please let me know. Thanks

Does street hoop works on macmame? Any ideas?

OK it doesn’t like my cordless Logitech keyboard. Got the old Apple one out of the box and am currently playing Pang!

OK Guys, this is my theory so far. I’m pretty sure the missing files are contained within the APPLICATION, that’s why there’s an entire list of games already in the app, and that’s why the same roms will work on a PC but sometimes not on a Mac. Because the PC version is constantly updated. If you look online, you’ll see a lot of rom bundles with a particular version number, and they’ll usually tell you to use the same version number of the app. So that’s why I think you need to keep up to date with your app.

Also **VERY IMPORTANT**, when you first launch Mame OS X, it creates a ton of folder in your home directory’s Application Support/Mame OS X. This is where you should drag all of your ROMS. If not, it won’t know where to look. OR if you have them store somewhere else, go into prefs (like Joshua did) and select the proper location.

**Also Important** for space saving, You DON’T have to UNZIP your roms! The app can read the zipped files easily.

well this is a great guide, it was one of the things i was going to miss about the pc to mac switch but this beauty has changed all that does anyone know how to get street fighter 3 to run in mame osx? theres a guy here that has apparently managed (http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=150120) but this thread seems more active so i thought id try hear first

ill keep messing around an let you know if i work it out

Some ROMS work; others open but display a distorted screen. How can this get corrected?

Help.

I’ve got Rampage to run but the frame-rate is really slow & jerky.
How do I make it smoother?

Also, how do I configure the controls?

Thanks folks.

I was VERY VERY excited to play an old fav called Wardner. Got an adaptor to use PS1 controller. Plugged it in and it worked. Problem was, it was using an unusual button arrangement so I went into the menu that alters the controls for the game. I went to Button 1 and hit enter, it awaited the new button input. I hit the square button on the controller… nothing… I hit all the buttons… nothing. I hit the spacebar. It added the spacebar to the list of buttons that it would now consider to be button 1. I somehow figured out that holding function and escape would restore the button to default. However, now the game no longer recognizes my PS1 controller AT ALL.
Please help

Thank You

spidey

Just to let everyone who comes across any problems playing games that all games work. Theres a link up top where the games can be found but in order for them to work you must download their “parent” zip file. For example if you wanted to play street fighter you must download the zip that contains all the files necessary which will be a zip in MB not KB. If you wanted to play a different revision of the game then you would download the files that are in kb. HAVE FUN!

I’ve switched to a logitech controller. Controller problem solved. Also, I’ve found a way to get nearly all of the MAMEs to work. You download all of the MAME files for a game. Then open all of the zip files. Cut and paste the newest files into the folder containing the next newest files. Then Cut and paste all of those files into the next newest folder of files. Keep doing this until all of the files have been copied/overwritten into the oldest file. Then cut and paste all of those files into the (now empty) newest folder. Delete the empty older folders. You now have one folder that contains all of the files for the game, and any updated files will have overwritten any old files. Convert this new folder to a zip file. Now put the zip file into the appropriate place and play the MAME of the same name. Using this technique I’ve found that instead of 20%-40% of the games not working, now only about 3% won’t work. You see, I think that only one of the MAMEs for a given game contains the applications files needed to run it, and the others are add-on files that don’t work by themselves. Using this procedure you’ll end up with the application files plus all of the add-ons. In fact since your new super file contains everything. You can usually copy the zip file and rename it to correspond to any of the MAME names for the particular game and most will work. In fact, you should do this if my initial procedure fails, I’ve still gotten it to work by making as many copies of the “super” zip file as there are MAMEs for the game, renaming each one to correspond to each MAME name on the list for that game, put the all into the appropriate folder, and then just try playing each MAME for that game until I hit the one that works.

Could anyone advise me as to where to place the static graphics files that some games need e.g. the side of the case in Battle Zone or the backdrop in Asteroids Deluxe. It seems to have changed from when I had MAME32.

I have tried placing the files in a Cabinet Art/ folder in their own sub-folder of the same name as the ROM and it still does not seem to pick these up. I have checked that MAME OS X is looking in the right folder under Preferences but it does not seem to use any of these in the above 2 games. Do the artwork files need to be in an unzipped format?

Hey I was wondering if someone can Email me a bug fix for MAME OS X. I keep getting this error saying I’m missing .bin files or something like that. No matter what I do it’s always the same error. Can someone please email me? Thanks

Hello. I followed Joshuas advice, but I can not get my Pac Man game running. I put all those files in a different folder and relocated it but it still does not work. HELP!

I really need a detailed roadmap about trying to get this to work. Joshua Price’s info gets me so far, but I can’t get much farther. If you know how to open any of these games, and get past the missing files problem, I need step by step info on where to go. Sorry I’m not a computer genius.

Cavolo qui mame scatta di bruutto,non capisco come si possa risolvere sta cosa!!!

I am a big fan of the Daytona USA series. That’s why I downloaded MAME.

Ofcourse I find it cannot play any of the Daytona games, files missing etc. One began to load and told me there were serious problems and that there is no point in trying to play this game.

Has anyone els experienced this, or did anyone get to play Daytona through MAME. I’d love to know from anyone if it is possible to make it work. Don’t make me shell out for the actual arcade machine, I can’t afford it.. and have no room for one..

“Blue, blue skys I see.. Dayyytonnnaaaaaaa..”

I have Gauntlet working on my mac but I can’t seem to control the game in any fashion. It seems like the game responds to keystrokes because it skips along the opening sequence. But I can’t seem to get the game started.

Any help out there?

Thank you!

Nick that is your safari, just use firefox or camino.

Brad.

Hit the TAB button to open the menus that will not only allow you to see which buttons do what, but you can also remap the buttons there too.

ok guys i’ve been trying to get STREET FIGHTER 3rd stike to run….however….i seem to have all of the files…the LOG just tells me that it cannot find the 33s000.chd file BUT ITS CLEARLY inside the HARD DISK IMAGES folder where i put it. I tried re-directing in the PREFERENCES but nothing seems to work…..wtf!?? i have downloaded 2 versions of the CHD file and put it twice in the folder….i even ZIPPED it….but nothing…. any ideas as to why the log wont find my file even though its where its supposed to be??

Eu queria saber como fazer para instalar no meu computador o jogo mame no os x.Se tiver que pagar.AI NÃO

I would like to know how can i install the neo geo bios files in mame osx! Thanks in advance!

Tommy wrote: “Hey I got it working too.Does anyone know how to play online in MAME OS X?If so please email me.”
———-

You can’t.

I downloaded mame0sx and all my downloaded roms work but killer instinct doesn’t work and that really hurt me because it was the main reason why I downloaded mameosx.
PLEASE I NEED HELP. I NEED KILLER INSTINCT FOR MAMEOSX.

I am having a lot of problems with this. I can never understand these things.
I didn’t bother to audit the games, instead, I audited the games I want. After that, I click on the game from the list & it reads it cannot read the file. Also, there is no folder in my username library that has “ROMs”.
So what do I do?? I really want the experience to play MAME.

Ok so I have a few questions regarding MAME OS X. Primarily, I downloaded it so I could play “Guilty Gear XX Slash (Rev A).” I got the CHD for it and put it in the right folder I assume since it doesn’t tell me that file is missing anymore. The other files are different, however.
The ROM is not in ROM format, it is 317-5111-jpn.data, and while I have that in both zipped and unzipped versions in the ROMs folder, it says it can’t find them. It also asks for a slew of files in the form of epr-21576x.bin. I have all of the files it asks for but I don’t know where to put them and it says it can’t find them. I also have this problem with the file fpr-23489c.ic14.
SO, what I am asking is: what do I do with the .data file? where do I put the .bin files? and where do I put the .ic14 file? Thank you very much!

hello all, i thank all of you for the posts and support as i went throgh all of them just now, some wer handy, but in the other hand iv got the game i need to work but somthing still bugging, the game is “street fighter III 3rd strike”, it didnt run firstly but i tried several stuff and now its working, now when it starts it gave a green window says it wont work correctly, i opend the log file and here is what i found:
”
10 WRONG CHECKSUMS:
EXPECTED: CRC(ba7f76b2) SHA1(6b396596dea009b34af17484919ae37eda53ec65)
FOUND: CRC(77233d39) SHA1(59c3f890fdc33a7d8dc91e5f9c4e7b7019acfb00)
WARNING: the game might not run correctly.”

so is this a bad rom? or should i try download all game vr. to skipp some file missing pain?

will be verry verry thankfull if u help and share some suggestions.
thank you

I’m doing exactly what this says and nothing opens. It just keeps telling me that I have missing files

Guys I REALLY NEED help with this. I downloaded Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker for Mame os x but every time I put it in the ROMs folder in the mame os x, it just doesnt open. The log says it’s missing required files but it’s all there. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Hello, I’m having trouble auditing games. The ROM is in ZIP format, and is in the ROMs folder. But when I clock audit, it doesn’t audit the game. The emulator should be able to find it in the ROM folder but it is not Please advise!

Hey guys I’ve got yet another problem. I have the .zips in the rom directory for metal slugs 3 and 4, but they apparently have missing files, according to the log. the missing files are:

000-lo.lo NOT FOUND
sfix.sfix NOT FOUND
sp-s2.sp1 NOT FOUND
sm1.sm1 NOT FOUND

i have downloaded roms for these games at a couple different sites, and the zip never had these files in it, so i was wondering how i can get these, or what i have to do, or whatever.

thanks

could someone please? Every time I try to launch mame os x, i get …Error mame os x aborted unexpectedly. I really want to run roms on my ibook but seem to be to ignorant to get it going.

wait so im supposed to drag it to the ROMs folder WHILE its still a zip file and then zip it while its in the folder?

Some MAME emulators supposrt certain games and other versions do not, look for the MAME program, (There should be a back catalogue of previous MAME’s) that will support your game. I owned a PC before I hopped over to MAC, but Im sure the principal is the same.
GAUNTLET will run on one MAME but not the more current. So I just made a disc of that MAME program that could run MAME. Hope this helps

Its in your users library, which may be hidden

I cant find MAME OS X on application support

mame osx is gay can’t play any games why not have file open like snes9x which works
I’ve tried everything it’s stupid

If you can’t see Library folder,

1. Open terminal
2. Type this in,

chflags nohidden ~/Library

then you can see.
Have a gg