Loading MAME .DAT/.XML on NVIDIA SHIELD TV

I have been working through a lot of topics on building MAME romsets, etc., and I think I have a pretty good understanding of what I need for MAME to function properly on RetroArch.

  • Romsets built - Check
  • Playlist files built - Check
  • MAME .DAT/.XML file obtained - Check
  • Everything available to the MAME Core? - Wait a minute…

Making the romsets and playlists available to the MAME core are simple enough. The problem is with the .DAT/.XML file. As far as I can tell (but I can’t seem to verify), the path seems to be buried in the internal (root) of the Android OS and not in the Internal Shared Storage.

Is anyone able to confirm one way or another where this needs to go? If it does need to be in the main OS, are there any alternatives to storing this there besides rooting your device? Any other tips for getting MAME to work with RetroArch on an Android TV device?

Edit: I am trying to use the MAME2003-Plus core

I don’t know of any cores that need resources outside of the user-owned areas. Typically, stuff is stored either in the ‘system’ directory or ‘saves’.