MAME core crashes on 'some' games not others

RetroArch General
#1

Hey Guys,

I’ve gotten the MAME core up and running, and I thought everything was working great.

However, not that I’m filling out my game-library I’m noticing that certain games just do not load.

For instance Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 both load, but not ultimate 3 (4 loads as well) or Street Fighter and Street Fighter 2 load, but not Super Stret Fighter 2 Turbo or SF3 either. Captain America doesn’t load… nor does Alien vs Predator but Spider-Man and Battletoads both load.

I feel like I have to be missing something because it seems completely random that some of these wouldn’t load.

I “think” I have all the BIOS files. I tried downloading a set to put it in my roms folder but it said they all already existed.

No idea what’s going on, please help?

#2

start by verifying your romsets to match on the mame core version used.

#3

Does it have to be an exact match, or does it just need to be that or higher?

Also, how do I check the core version? I am using just the mame_libretro.dll no year or anything.

#4

mame and fba romsets has to match the core version used for best compatibility. you can check the version by loading the core, it should show the core version (e.g. mame 0.191 or fb alpha 0.2.97.42). when verifying(mostly using clrmame) use the DAT file specific for that version.

#5

Just wanted to follow up here.

I hav eno idea what version I was using before, but I downloaded a full 0.185 set of the roms and already like 90% of the stuff that wasn’t working is golden now.

I plan on using update packs to get it to 0.191… not sure where to get a real pack that’s up-to-date… however my Data Cap was almost maxed out already for November when I tried to download the CHD files (0.185)

So, come december, I’ll finish downloading CHD’s and then use update packs to bring everything to 0.191

Out of curiosity, any idea if the CHD’s update like the regular roms? I’m having a lot of trouble finding a solid answer on that via google.

#6

I was having an issue like this, but it turns out to be BIOS related.

I’m running the Windows 64-bit version 1.6.7, using roms from the .139 MAME Reference Set, running Windows 10 Pro build 15063rs2.

After a lot of trial and error, I got RA to correctly generate a playlist for my MAME 2010 ROMs, but whenever I’d launch a game like Metal Slug, it would load then crash.

I made sure all appropriate BIOS files were verified and stored in my System folder, but for some reason I could not get RA to recognize that.

Instead, I had to copy the BIOS files into the same directory that the ROMs were in. Or use un-merged ROMs with the BIOS included in each ROM (but unmerged ROMs that also include the BIOS aren’t recognized by RA’s database files for MAME, so that solves one problem but creates another).

In case it was a fluke, the very same behavior was happening on my 2017 16GB Shield TV running Android TV 6.1 and RA version 1.6.7. And the solution was exactly the same, putting the BIOS files in the same directory as the ROMs.

Any ideas if I’m doing something wrong RE: my System/BIOS directory?

#7

MAME treats BIOSes more like parent ROMs, as you’ve found. That is, it looks for them alongside the regular ROMs and loads files from them at load time.

#8

Yeah, far as I can tell I have all the BIOS already in the rom folder. I even downloaded a BIOS pack and threw it in there and it asked if I wanted to overwrite them all.

I definitely think it was the romset, 'cause the 0.185 set had the majority of games that weren’t working now running.

I gotta wait for my stupid data cap on this month to be up and then I can get the rest of the CHD files for 0.185 and THEN I can start using upgrade packs.

Anyone know if the typical upgrade packs you see affect the CHD files? I can’t seem to get a solid answer anywhere on that.

#9

probably since chd are also arcade/hdd dumps. best way is to check your romsets with suggested DAT version and see whats missing, wrong crc etc…