How to save high scores in MAME2016

Libretro Cores
#1

Hi all, I’ve searched on Libretro forums. But they all use MAME2013 plus. Does any one knows how to save high scores in RetroArch with cores “MAME2016”?

Thanks a lot.

#2

It should de sufficient to place the hiscore.dat file from here: https://github.com/libretro/mame2016-libretro/tree/master/metadata in your /system/mame2016 or folder.

I know this works on mame2003 and mame2003-plus, but it should work on mame2016 as well.
Only the newest mame core needs a different configuration:

It seems that mame2016 uses the new lua plugin system and therefore this guide should work:

I will test this soon and report my findings later

1 Like
#3

It will save to gamename.hi automatically using mame2013-plus core. I try every ini files and hiscore.dat to any path. It doesn’t work using mame2016. Does anyone have any suggestions?

#4

Answered in the guide thread. A bit of annoying this thread-jumping

#5

Thanks a lot!! I will try it again.

#6

Also will this work on any other cores?

#7

So mame2003 saves hi scores automatically?

#8

I’ve tried mame2013-plus with Retroarch. It will be saved hi-score automatically.

#9

@Fishman MAME cores bevore 2016 needs only the appropriate hiscore.dat in the /system/mame(xxxx)/ folder and it should work. (search for them on the https://github.com/libretro/your_core page)

mame2016 and newer has the lua plugin system and therefore you have to follow my guide.

[EDIT] atm of writing i was not able to make hiscores work in mame2016. I will continue to test again.

[EDIT2] mame2016 gives me some lua errors and i don’t know how to fix them:

[LUA ERROR] D:\RetroArch\system\mame2016\plugins\boot.lua:7: module 'json' not found:
        no field package.preload['json']
        no file 'D:\RetroArch/plugins/json.lua'
        no file 'D:\RetroArch/plugins/json/init.lua'
        no file 'D:\RetroArch\json.dll'
        no file 'D:\RetroArch\..\lib\lua\5.3\json.dll'
        no file 'D:\RetroArch\loadall.dll'
        no file '.\json.dll'

@pogolin do you mean mame2003-plus? AFAIK there is no mame2013-plus core.

#10

@ImnoTapLumber Sorry! yes, I mean mame2003-plus core. Thanks for your help

#11

@ImnoTapLumber I had download the source of mame2016. I found json/init.lua in plugins folder.

#12

Yes, i know, but it doesn’t work like the current mame core.

So either mame2016 isn’t build with lua support, or it needs different configuration, what i haven’t figured out yet.
The mame2015 core gives me headache as well. It should work with the hiscore.dat but it seems not even to save the normal *.cfg files. If i create the necessary folders manually the *.cfg files are created, but i was not able to make hiscores work.

I know, it is not the sollution you are looking for, but is using a combination of mame2003-plus, mame (currently 0.215) and fbneo a option for you? Have you a complete 0.174 romset or only a few roms you want to play?

#13

@ImnoTapLumber Thanks for your help. I downloaded the source of mame2016. It seems it will load lua engine. I will check why it doesn’t load hiscore plugin. If I have any updates, I will post it on this discussion. Thanks again.

I write a simple front-end to load libretro cores. And for mame games, I use mame2016. Because some rom can’t run on mame2003-plus.

1 Like
#14

@ImnoTapLumber I found how to enable hiscore using mame2016. The following steps are what I do. Step1 : add a ini file. plugin.ini. for my retroarch. this file will place into ./system/mame2016/ini. The content of this file. data 1 hiscore 1

Step2: copy plugin files from below link

mame2016 plugin Please copy both json and hiscore plugin. place them in ./plugins

Step3: copy hiscore.dat from “.\plugins\hiscore” to “.\system\mam2016\hi”

Step4: modify the init.lua in ./plugins/hiscore folder. …

function hiscore.startplugin()

local hiscoredata_path = ".\\system\\mame2016\\hi\\hiscore.dat";
local hiscore_path = ".\\system\\mame2016\\hi";

…

If your score is higher than current high score, it will write a hi file(xxx.hi) in .\system\mam2016\hi. You can modify this hi file in hex mode.

2 Likes
#15

Nice find @pogolin.
I didn’t thought to put the hiscore.dat in the /hi/ folder.
I tried to put it in the /system/mame2016/ like in mame2003 but not in the /hi folder.

Do you had to created a mame.ini as well, or has RA detected the location of the plugin folder automatically?
As i noticed in my mame guide, the default paths are different on Windows and Linux

#16

Hello, I’ve tried the method outlined by @pogolin, but it doesn’t seem to work. No matter what I do, MAME2016 does not seem to recognize the plugins at all. Any tips?

#17

Your instructions are not clear enough @pogolin. Is that for Linux? Windows paths use / instead of \\ I thought. And is data 1 hiscore 1 on one line or two? Is plugins supposed to be in retroarch root or the mame2016 system folder root?

We really need a guide for this, as I can’t find any information on it at all - doesn’t anyone use MAME 2016? No highscore support is crazy considering scores have been a feature of MAME for over 20 years.

All this time, I thought it was saving my scores, but it’s not. Tf.

1 Like
#18

@pogolin Could you please give me more details? Especially the paths. Is system /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS? I can’t get this to work. I have retropie with lr-mame2016. The game: 1943 (the battle of midway - EURO)