Yes. It needs a user disk. It is just a blank disk. I copied and renamed the Kyrandia user disk to “FMTownsDiskette.hdm” and put it inside the “ppersia.zp”, then modified the MAME hash to include the floppy.
I have uploaded the new hash to your folder so you can compare, and the new “ppersia.zip”. You can use this method in the future.
Indeed with your hash it works, what I do not understand is because modifying mine the same as yours does not work for me 
It is the user disk I think. Did you try doing just the hash before? It would fail then. I had to try multiple disk images before I found one that was a blank. I think the standalone UNZ emulator has the ability to generate a blank disk image, then it needs to be formatted with an installed OS.
This method was easier but I got lucky.
No, it was my fault, I was missing one thing in the hash, specifically this part name=cd rom interface=fmt_cdrom
Sure, by not putting that, it was running but it asked me for something from the CD in Japanese 
By the way, it also works for prince of persia 2, I modified the hash and used one that I had called Prince of Persia 2 (user disk) .hdm, the process is the same, you get to the menu, format the disk and play, me they have killed twenty times until I realized that the sword was drawn with both buttons at the same time
For the most novices, a good tutorial would be needed because it is quite difficult at first if you do not have the right thing to do.
Yay! I’ve edited the hash file too and I’ll leave the screenshots below for those might find it easy to understand.
Here is the part where I copied from The Legend of Kyrandia hash 
and here is the Prince of Persia hash before edit and I drew orange line indicating where you should put the lines you copy from previous step
and this is how it looks like after the edit
After the game launches selected the third option which is about creating User Disk
and this is supposed to be Play button
Finally the game starts!
EDIT:
I think it’s worth to mention that I had Kyrandia user disk in .xdf format but I replaced the extension with .hdm and it seems it didn’t complain 
OK then, that was a bit of fun! 
I think it is important to clarify, at this point, that this little MAME adventure was exactly the kind of thing that I was trying to avoid. 
I am glad we figured out that the current MAME core “requires” CHDs to be inside a “game name” folder. I will be doing a general “standard method” guide for MAME SL and including it in the repo. (This is more than I intended, it should be enough that the machine runs.)
I will not be doing any kind of guide or supplying any hash or ROM examples for trouble-shooting FM-Towns. Nor do I plan on including any info about getting controllers to work in various SL machines.
I refuse to take on support for the MAME core. I have enough on my plate supporting my presets and the shader.
That being said, I will keep my custom MAME build handy, and the method. Just in case something breaks down the road. 
BTW. From MAME 0.221 whatsnew_0221.txt.
-Various core clean-ups: [Vas Crabb]
Seems they just cleaned things up and made changes, lots of path handling stuff with consequences that we had to figure out the hard way, Sometimes MAME just… 
This is what disgusts me the most about MAME, so much change, I don’t understand why they make so many changes to each version and change so much, it is the same as with the name of the roms, it is very tedious to have to download romsets of specific versions, the raspberry is a headache because certain roms only work with certain versions of mame, I know that romsets can be updated but honestly … I have my custom romset, everything that is slot machines I don’t want them, I do it all by hand and then I find that the names have changed 
To be fair, I update my MAME ROMs and SL every month. I keep a set of each of the various ROMs handy. (2003, 2010, 2016 etc.)
When I set up my HTPC or some other device, (Android, Pi, ODROID) I freeze it and don’t update anything. This is the way it is in the MAME community.
AFAIK the MAME team hates Retroarch.
I think hate is a strong word. 
There is a MAME core after all.
I was just referring to the ROM management methods used by members of the MAME community. We are used to regular monthly updates. I would have personally found it tragic if the MAME 2003 ROM set had been the last update ever.
I decided that since I succeeded in compiling a custom MAME core, that I would do a MAME 2021 core based on the MAME 0.232 source, freezing it like it is today since everything seems to be working.
I also figured that, while I was in there, there was no reason to not apply some of the customization I did to the stand-alone MAME, back when I created the private version of my original raster PDP-1 graphic. So…
Here is a shot of it running on the current MAME core…
And here is a shot of it running on my MAME 2021 core.
The first shot uses Grade to Hue shift the entire output and a Cabinet Glass Layer to tint the screen back to green.
The second uses no Grade, I changed the color of the lit and unlit lamps in the code. I am still using the Cabinet Glass Layer to tint the screen, because i want to, not because i need to.
I briefly thought of stopping there and seeing if I could get the code merged into MAME, but I am changing a color that they seem to (theoretically) be saving for when they add pen support. (Personally I think they are done working on this machine, but there are hints in the code.)
I would have to add a color to the fixed panel palette and I can’t figure out how they are getting the color definitions from one place to the other, I am just not savvy enough.
So since there is nothing stopping me I will probably move the center column of lamps to the right and the right group to the left, to more accurately reflect the original machine.
They have them the way they are to make room for panel text, which I will be doing away with.
The change will create a lot of work for me, modifying the graphic. I will keep the version I have now for the current core and do a second modified version for my custom core.
hi @Duimon, i was wondering if you plan to produce a generic psd file for Amiga users outside of the work of @TheNamec ? …or maybe you have one in a secret stash 
Here is my Retroarch core list the way it stands.
As you can see there are only two systems left before I start work on some Amiga systems. In all honesty, I will probably have to do the CD32 at some point as well, or the project wont feel complete.
After that there are 13 MAME SL systems to do.
If I understand you correctly, I don’t have plans for a generic Amiga.
tks for your answer; i said generic to not bother you to much the todo list is really, really intersting
Tks again
PS: no 1200 on the list ? a shame 
PS. I am excluding many models out of respect for @TheNamec’s set. The models I have selected are actually at his request.
Here is a new WIP.
@akuma22 Surprise!!
Fujitsu FM Towns!!!
I know it was near the bottom of the list but I couldn’t resist. (I wanted to have some fun.)
I honestly think that when it comes to sexy computers, the FM Towns II gives the x68000 a run for it’s money.
This thing came together like a dream, I just couldn’t seem to make a bad decision. 
(The LEDs are some of the coolest I have done, I really like them!)
I think I have some highlight fixing to do on the monitor version, but this should be done soon.
On a sad note. The current MAME core wants to reload the shader multiple times during the boot process. The 0.220 version doesn’t suffer from this, so it looks like the 0.220 will be my recommended core after all, unless I can solve the issue with some MAME settings.
It is incredibly beautiful, I knew that it would look good on you because of how attractive it is but I did not expect it to look so good, it is fantastic.
A pity about the current core, with all the effort that it cost us to make FMTOWNS work in the current core it is a pity not to be able to use it at the end.
Yes it is.
I am glad that I compiled a 0.220 core that can gracefully coexist with the current core. I may recompile it and call it MAME 2020.
I still have yet to do any testing with the current core setting. Maybe we’ll get lucky.
Hopefully we are lucky because otherwise even my Arcade project would be damaged.
