Emulating the Arcade (MAME) - LaunchBox Tutorials 

Thank you!

You're very welcome Claudio! :)

+Claudio Carneiro Yes, you're welcome. I hope it helped you out.

+Tom A. Hawk Yeah as soon as I saw the video come up in my feed I knew it would be slightly over my head. As usual, they totally made this easy and fun to figure out. Now I actually have mame working for once. Refreshing and exciting!

+RunningRiot1999 Well thank you very much for the kind words!

The place that I went to was more like a family fun center style of place. It had the Arcade, Go Karts, Mini Golf, Batting Cages, Laser Tag, a Maze and Bumper Boats. I think what that Tuesday was, was a way for them to drum up more business. I was going in 2002/03, so clearly after the Arcade Crash kind of happened. I don't know how this place stayed open as long as it did, but it eventually went under (I wish I had money for the cabs back then :O). I was in 7th and 8th grade at the time. I may have gone once or twice once I hit highschool, but it was mostly from the 7th to 8th grade Summer, and then the 8th Grade to Highschool summer. Once I had moved it was mostly over. $10 unlimited arcade, and $15 unlimited Arcade + Go Karts. Of course everything else cost money, so that's probably how they made their money back. I made a few friends at the Arcade, and it was a really fun time.

+Willem Jones MESS is outdated as it's long been incorporated in to MAME now and the MAME core in RA is based on 170 or 171, so it should have MESS. However, if I did do MESS it would only be for the 1 or 2 system's I have interest in but can't currently emulate them any where else.

+mikem4887 Thank you very much, Jason (the developer) and I greatly appreciate the kind words. I am glad I was able to help you out.

Mine does to, have you figured it out?

no, i just used retroarch

when it crashes it means mame is not compaitable with that specfic game version, u gotta get a different region of the game

Do you have bios?

every time i do a tutorial this guy who's talking always fucks my shit up. The ETA prime guy, my shit runs perfect everytime.

+Jason Burns Hi Jason, sorry for the late reply. The CHD files go in the same folder as your ROMs, but in subfolders named by the name of the ROM. For example: MAME oms\calspeed\calpseda.chd

LaunchBox OK, So I have to manually create all of those folders and put each CHD in those folders. I was hoping I could just point it to a directory full of CHD files and LaunchBox would do it for me. I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me! lol Thanks for the reply.

Get the correct naming and folderstructure from ple*** dome so you dont have to do it yourself

Got it from somewhere else, but found one. Thanks!

They're just like I showed off in the video, there are the rom files which are in a zip and never come out, then there are the chd files which are inside of folders named after the rom files, all of that is in the same MAME Roms folder.

***** Oh I see, I misheard you in the video, thanks.

Ah, I apologize then. I probably explained it differently in the video, sometimes when I'm trying to record something at that second, it doesn't always come out quite right.

No it should be there. If it's not, type it in manually and make sure you check the box "Force using MAME Metadata" or something along those lines. It really should be there, unless Jason recently removed it. As long as you check that MAME box, it should go through the same.

+Fenris Wolf Hi Fenris, absolutely, we can help. But hit us up on the forums because troubleshooting something like that here would be tough: www.launchbox-app.com/forum

ok thank you sir !! will do

Also, my roms are zipped. LaunchBox has no issue with the names or the roms. It finds everything just fine during the setup. Even my MAME.exe can seem to recognize and unzip the games before it runs them so I think I am all good there.

They're supposed to be zipped and play in their zips, they should not be being unzipped. Is that option checked for your MAME Emulator entry in LB? If so, that would be why they're not launching. MAME Games do not get unzipped. As long as you got a MAME Rom pack though, I would say a minimum of .174 (but they're on .181 now), with the matching version of MAME nothing else should really need to be done.

Sentai Brad I am on the very latest version of MAME and have a matching romset. I am not unzipping them but there is a checkbox option within MAME that says "unzip before playing" or something similar to that. I believe that is checked within MAME but I have tried it both ways. The roms run fine when launched from within MAME. Can't figure out why they wouldn't be working with LaunchBox. I also have the latest version of LaunchBox, but the tutorial is for an older version, although the install seemed pretty straightforward. I just wish it was working. lol

The versions shouldn't matter, nothing has changed really. If you import your games, set MAME as your emulator, and make sure the box to unzip roms is unchecked in LB (It's all those check boxes when you edit an emulator , it should launch just fine. I do also forget that there are settings it should automaticlly do, LB should fill these in automatically, but just in case this is what my MAME emulator looks like in LB. i.imgur.com/EsKzYnV.png

i am also having the same issue 3 days and no fix yet.

+DOS76 Ah, thank you for the clarification Derek. I Knew it was more recent but I didn't know specifically.

Does MAME know where your games are? They should be in the MAME/roms folder, you import them in to LaunchBox (A MAME split or non-merged rom set), and you're good to go.

Hi Angelo, most likely it's because the associated platforms on the Retroarch emulator are not configured correctly. Hit us up on the forums and we can help: www.launchbox-app.com/forum

Just posted on forum,. Thank you

+Lucas Feliciano ha glad it worked for you. Took me an hour to figure it out. For anyone else with the same problem, go to Manage Emulators in LaunchBox and in the RetroArch settings uncheck the box that says unpack rom.

+Angelo Bodetti Ah yes, this setting needs to be disabled for Arcade games.

We suggest Windows 10, but LB/BB works with Vista onward. Vista support will drop when Microsoft drops support for it.

The list from version to version thankfully doesn't change too much, but no it doesn't know what version you have. There is an internal list that we have that is based on a few versions back that we need to update from time to time.

MAME supports multiple rompaths, but you would have to dive into the mame.ini file and set them up manually, separating each path with a semicolon.

@@UnbrokenSoftwareLLC Thanx for the tips. Will look into that. Nice videos you have.

Well sure, yea, everything is more simple the more steps you remove, but even then with LaunchBox it's still as simple as we can make it to make a beautiful Front End. RetroArch is technically a front end to the back end which is libretro, so it might be a bit false to call RetroArch an emulator, but for all intents and purpose it's an emulator. RetroArch rides that line because it's still mainly a UI for an emulator, but it does act more like a front end than regular UI does (mainly because it can be used with a controller). However, LaunchBox performs tasks well out of the scope of RetroArch, but RetroArch still provides a better emulation experience compared to a lot of other stand alone emulators. In this specific scenario, I offered up MAME in RetroArch as an alternative, I do prefer MAME standalone, but the regular MAME Core in RetroArch still has some pro's that MAME Standalone doesn't, like automatic controller mapping. So sure, more simplified to just use regular MAME? In most cases I agree, for MAME I agree, but there are users who love RetroArch, myself included, and it's still a perfectly viable option for MAME. Treat RetroArch like an emulator, because first and foremost (at least in my mind) it is. Strip away the RetroArch portion and you still have the command line that needs to be set and properly configured in LB, but then you also need to manually edit ini files for every single option you may want to change.

Honestly, as far as I know, it should just work. If you've set up all of the proper controls for each controller, then it should work. I've seen people mention that the internal controller ID's could change, so from time to time the controller might change. So what was once player 1, now might be player 4 today. I am not 100% sure though, as this is something I don't do. Please feel free to make a post on our forums though, someone who has experience with this is more likely to respond.

No, it's still there. I explained how to get it to automatically show up, and that is by using "MAME" as your emulator. When you do that, LaunchBox will show that up automatically, but otherwise, on the second to last screen there is a check box to force using mame metadata that will make that screen then pop up. All of this I should have mentioned.

I know I'm replying late, but I had the same issues. I don't recommend using retroarch for mame, would be better to use the mame program itself. Just download the same version of mame that your romset version is and run that instead. I've tried all the mame cores on retroarch and couldn't get it working either, so I just use the regular mame.

You want to filter games better? Jason does want to work on Nested Filters to make sorting easier than it is now, but there is some stuff you can do. In LaunchBox, in the left pane, at the top there is a drop down menu. Select Genre from here. It will give you the genre for your whole library, what ever is tagged with that genre, but it's something. In Big Box you can go back in to the menu and and select genre's too. If you have Premium (and thus Big Box), you can also try Custom Filters (in that same drop down), but it's kind of broken currently, and nested filters is supposed to replace it. If you can get it to work in the time then yay, but it could crash LaunchBox, especially with a larger library.

Thanks Sentai Brad that helped 🖒

I would honestly stick with regular MAME, but the core I believe is under Arcade now. Make sure to get the core with no year after it, just the standalone MAME core. The MAME Importer only comes up in two scenarios, when the emulator is called MAME (or the platform is called Arcade, I can't exactly remember, but it's one of those 2), then it will automatically show up. The platform should be called Arcade regardless for scraping purposes. However, you can call the platform what ever you want, as long as you scrape it as Arcade (which pops up if you use a non-default platform name). Otherwise, on the screen right before the MAME Importer, if it wont automatically show up then you need to check the box "Use MAME Metadata". In the video it's not there because it's going to automatically use it, because it knows I am using MAME. For the other arcade tutorials you need to check that box manually because LaunchBox only automatically tries using it for MAME / Arcade.

How do you know which rom set to use with the latest Arcade (MAME)?

They are usually labeled. So MAME .179 is out, so you find a split MAME .179 rom set and you are good to go.

Hi dday, you can force this option by checking the box to "force using MAME metadata" (or similar).

Didn't even realize that. Thanks!

I'm not sure. Did download a recent .182 split rom set? If so, I think the .182 split rom set is broken, and a .182 non-merged set is required. If some games are working and others aren't, that's the only thing I can think of, the set is off in some areas.

Hello my friend, and the paulao from Brazil, okay, the program is very good, congratulations the team, now, responding, already had the roms in the computer, now my big doubt and which version of the mame, to use ??? Which auxiliary programs. Etc ... because I find it very complicated to configure the mame, and should be simpler ... and the mame always the error, one hour works one thing and another not worked anything ... hugs to all.

I would say to download the latest MAME rom set you can find. If all you can find is a MAME .178 split rom set, then download that and MAME .178. I wouldn't go too far back, MAME .174 would be the oldest I would suggest. The ideal solution is to find a MAME .182 non-merged rom set, and download MAME .182 from the MAME site. If you do find MAME .174 to .181, make sure that it's called a split rom set. If you find MAME .182, make sure to grab the non-merged set.

+Emmett Hi Emmett, hit us up on the forums and we can help you out: www.launchbox-app.com/forum

+tutorialesTACHABI Hey there, your best bet at this point is to create two different Emulators. One Retroarch, and one Retroarch (MAME). Then you can set the MAME one not to auto-extract and the regular one to do the auto-extraction.

Unbroken Software, LLC Already tried that, no luck. :/

+tutorialesTACHABI Make sure you remove the associated platforms that apply for each emulator, and hook the games up to the right emulator. You can do that in batch by selecting all the games and then right click Edit. Hit us up on the forums if you're still having trouble: www.launchbox-app.com/forum

Ok ill try it thanks

It only skips the Game Info, not that screen. To skip that you need to get what's called a No Nag version of MAME. This will either skip both dialogues at the start, or skip the first one and "skip_gameinfo" will skip the second one (I don't quite remember).

ah okay gotcha thank you

Of course, no problem!

That sounds like an error with a RetroArch setting or a setting within LB for RetroArch. To be honest, I still suggest that users use regular MAME instead of the RA core, especially because the RA core is outdated. It's on .174 last I checked and MAME is on .180, so just use regular MAME.

Me too, any advice?

I'm not sure I completely understand your question, you just tell LB where your roms are and it imports. As for MAME roms specifically, they must be ran through the MAME importer so that the name conversion works. This is best done with a split or non-merged rom set, and it takes the whole rom set for the filtering to work properly. If you have a specifically custom rom set (I hope you figured out all the dependencies and BIOS), then you could run the importer multiple times, each time unchecking all of the boxes and doing multiple regions. That should theoretically work, and LaunchBox will already ignore games that are already imported so you wont have duplicates; Unless you have multiple files for a single game, in which case you need the parent child rom structure, and then were back to a full rom set and filtering things properly.

Awesome! ::)

LaunchBox is not an emulator, it's just a front end. You can install it on a home made arcade cab, and with something like Big Box control it completely with a controller or with Arcade Controls on a PC. You still need to supply MAME and all of the roms, they just get imported in to LaunchBox to make things easier to manage and make it look much more beautiful.

So I am a bit confused, but I will try and help you. So the Platform should be labeled Arcade, and the Emulator can be labeled what ever you want, but in the video I've named it MAME. The platform can even be called what ever you want, but Arcade is the simplest. You could call the Platform MAME and scrape it as Arcade, but just calling it Arcade is easier. I hope that helps!

so Associated platform name can be anything as long as default command line parameters is the emulator

Yes. The System names need to match in the Associated Platforms if you're using the command line there, like RetroArch or MESS, but if you use commands on the main emulator screen (the first tab when you edit an emu), then it's less of a big deal. You should still match the Associated Platform to your System and check the default box during import so that it sets the emulator correctly for the import. Changing emulators after your import is done with the Bulk Edit function and not in the Associated Platforms tab.

okay I got some of them to work I guess I just got to figure out the other ones like Battletoads and Metal Slug

+Mandoe1 A MAME set based on the version of MAME, so .172. When MAME gets updated to .173 there will be a .172 to .173 upgrade pack.

+Waleed Bassim Hi Waleed, the cloud feature is covered here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jg2T9vA5v5U.html

+Unbroken Software, LLC tnx to your response ☻

Well, it depends. If you're only concern is 2D / early Arcade titles (maybe up to the mid 90's?), it's going to be a lot different then if you want to play 3D intensive games that started coming out in the mid 90's through the late 2000's. It all really depends, and I am not quite sure. If you want to run PS2, GameCube or Wii (what I would consider to be somewhat on the level of mid 2000's 3D MAME games), a CPU from within the last 2 or 3 generations, so an Intel i5 or i7 4000 series, maybe even a high 3000 series (though the later the better). I've seen a GTX950 push out some decent PS2, Wii and GameCube as well. You'll want a decent amount of RAM, as well, 64bit Windows 10 (the most performant OS out of 7, 8.1 and 10) will want 4GB of RAM. So a healthy amount, assuming you assigned 4GB to LaunchBox, would be like 12-16GB of DDR3 (preferably DDR4), RAM. An SSD for the OS would be great, with another internal SATA3 hard drive for all of the games. A MAME install, full MAME CHD Merged and MAME Rom Set Non-Merged would be around 450-480GB, but also consider that LaunchBox will take up a decent amount of space after images and video. I personally have a SATA3 8TB 5400rpm drive for my entire 30k library, and that's just what is inside of LaunchBox while also using compression for a lot of systems. There is an unconventional compression tutorial on the channel too. So I couldn't give you a price, but that is about the range I would be comfortable saying. There might be a little bit of a variance in there, you might be able to push it lower, but give the 64bit OS some power, LaunchBox / Big Box, and what ever system you are emulating, you'll want enough head room. I have an i7 6700, a GTX 970 (soon to hopefully be a GTX1070), and 32GB of DDR4 2300 RAM. I can do Wii U stuff (provided the emulator isn't giving me crap since it's in Alpha) at full speeds, so. It REALLY all depends. If you wanted to up to basic 3D games, the requirements would be MUCH lower, but also, at a certain point older hardware becomes more expensive ironically, or the price difference is very little to the point where there's no reason to not get semi-recent or decent hardware, at least within the last year or two (things move fast).

Thanks a lot man! That was a lot of info! I'll be doing a laptop upgrade in the near future, as I need it to work and I'm thinking about moving the current one to the MAME cabinet. From what you told me, it should be more than enough! Any tips on how to download the massive sets all at once? The only reliable website I was able to find so far with stuff that works is planetemu.net, but it has to be done in one by one, and that will take forever!

We can't really give out that info publicly, so I am sorry. Searching for MAME .182 non-merged sets (.182 split is broken right now), should result in some sites. The best place to look will be torrents.

Sentai Brad thanks a lot. sorry for asking aomething like that! ive already syarted the build process and it looks promising! keep an eye out at the forums, it will be there soon!

No, it's ok! Not everyone knows our stance on that, so it's fine. I actually dislike having to tell people no more than anything else, so I should be apologizing. Will do, I love seeing the builds people create!

Yea, it can take a while. There are A LOT of small files, and the importer recently had more logic added (so that roms can be combined during import). Between the actual import process, and if you're downloading everything possible from the LaunchBox Games Database and EmuMovies, especially on wifi I assume, it can take a while. If you've got giant libraries like that, you can import first and not download any art (use the uncheck all button, keep the check boxes for the Databases checked), then use the media downloader afterwards to grab media in steps. For example, Import with no media, then use the downloader to grab all Arcade flyers and clear logo's. Then do it again, but choose different stuff.

Thanks for reply, its all done now, laptop is 6 years old but it quite happily runs mame and 16bit era and below which given im over 40 is my preferred era of retrogaming anyway :)

Lightspeed still exists, but has changed, and it's not something I suggest needing to use, though someone can if they really want. Otherwise, the tutorial is more or less the same even if some of the menu items have changed. You put your MAME rom files in your MAME/roms folder, you tell LaunchBox to import from that folder, you name your Platform Arcade, the emulator MAME, and this will make the MAME Importer run. On the second to last screen, if there is a box that exists that says "Force using mame importer", that means LaunchBox is not automatically choosing to use it, so check that box to force using it. You select your preferences, and it imports. Nothing has really changed. Grab a MAME .183 non-merged or split set (non-merged is prefered, merged wont work correctly), grab the corresponding mame version, and import. Also, don't unarchive the games, MAME requires them in their rar files. I also don't make the tutorials anymore, but I hope this response has helped you out.

Sentai Brad but can the LaunchBox native importer use the information that I already have (like frontends, cabinets etc) my concern is that I have a very large name library and I will take forever if the importer is slow.

The import shouldn't take too long. The MAME Importer utlizes an internal process to convert the names and provide the info in LaunchBox. If you are worried, you could always download the media afterwards. During import, uncheck all the image and video check boxes, but make sure to keep the LaunchBox Games Database box checked. Then afterwards, click on your Arcade platform on the left, then click on a game, Ctrl + A to highlight everything, then go to Tools -> Download Metadata and Images. This will rerun the media downloader from the importer. Select the media you want (Arcade uses Flyers as it's front box art since there is no front box art), and it should download everything you need. The actual import process it's self doesn't take too long, but it can take longer depending on your PC, and the downloads can take long depending on your internet connection and location relative to our and the EmuMovies servers.

Gotcha. Thank you very much.

Of course! If you have any more information then feel free to ask! Our Forums are also available if you need even more help.

So for MAME, use the core without a year after it, so just MAME. You should import like normal, and not need to do anything special. When playing a MAME game in RetroArch, you can press Tab like regular MAME to get some mame specific settings. I honestly don't use RA MAME, even though I love RetroArch a lot, as I find regular MAME to be much easier. MESS (in MAME) is certainly much much much easier in MAME Standalone too, so since I use MESS, I might as well use MAME too.

You can edit a single game and download the artwork for that game, or you can select multiples and use the updater in Tools -> Download Images and Metadata. You can click on a game, then use Ctrl + A to highlight everything in your view. Selecting the second option in this wizard will download media for games that are missing in that category. So it wont re-download everything all over again.

awesome, exactly what i was looking for. thanks tons!

No problem, you're welcome!

Does this work for games that had no entry on the wiki or LB database or just ones missing parts of the data

It works for games that were never associated before as well. It works on all games. For the best results, choosing the first option, (which is to download all new and replace all) is probably your best bet, but it will re-download everything.

It comes included with a MAME .182 rom set, and the split rom set seems to be broken for .182, so grab a non-merged set.

Hi Shadow, the LaunchBox forums are the best place to go for help. Hit us up here: forums.launchbox-app.com

Help meeeee My naomi wont Boot up to the Game screen, it just boots to demul

This issue has been discussed on the forums, it's a quick search. Essentially (if I recall), you need to set up a few versions of Demul, and set the proper settings in the options for each one.

is there an example for any demul other than 0.7?

Unless they've changed something, it should still work.

Not sure if it really works for me, only on 0.7 but not all games work with it

like for an example i have demul 0.57 and i want to launch it from launchbox. when i do, it launches to the demul menu instead of The game. but on 0.7 it launches just fine how woulf i lanch it for 0.57

In this case, no. I still suggest regular MAME, but if you want to use RetroArch you need to manually add the line. We need to update our list of suggested emulators and the list that we populate in the Associated Platform menu for RetroArch.

thanks for the quick answer sir

They update when I update my set. So if the BIOS updates between versions, then I do when I update that.

ok I was asking cause the website I go to first for roms had bios that were not labeled for a version of mame.

Hi Stephanie, LaunchBox actually just chooses the best option of the four if you select all four videos. Really the latest versions of LaunchBox don't even present all those options anymore. :)

Hi Michael, this should work on either one.

I'm certainly not against remaking tutorials, but the thing with this one is, is the tutorial would be exactly the same. I would skip the Lightspeed stuff too, since that has severely changed. Some of the LaunchBox stuff has changed a little around it, but it's still just the same. Put your MAME games in the MAME Roms folder, import games as Arcade, use the MAME Importer, add MAME that matches the latest version (which I said make sure to match versions even in the future), and finish the import. If something major had changed, I would honestly think about remaking it.

***** my problem was solved by splitting the same retroarch install into 2 emulators. one with zip checked. and one with no zip check.

thank you for all you do. btw forum searching does not work in tapatalk. use your web browser. and liberetro forums. are no longer working. expect a grate need from your fan base.

Yea we've been feeling them being down, we're 100% dedicated to helping though. As for RetroArch MAME, yea RetroArch doesn't play nice with MAME to be honest (so regular MAME is suggested), but past that, that option to un-archive games was there even when I made the tutorial too, but I didn't expect anyone to turn it on for MAME.

You don't really. You need those. You download a MAME rom pack (MAME .183 split or non-merged (i suggest non-merged)), and you use the MAME Importer like in the tutorial. Only the games will import, and then all of your files (imported or not), stay in the MAME/roms folder.

No, but it's pretty much exactly the same. Use a Neo Geo emulator, get a Rom set for that emulator, import the game and run the MAME Importer. Pretty much every arcade system runs through the same process, the only difference might be that each emulator might have a rom set or bios just for it.

+Sentai Brad I planning to use mame as well. The only issue is that I have my neo geo roms mixed up with my mame roms.

Why exactly it's better?

+Chaosmountain1 Hi Chaos, sorry for the confusion. It's the 5.10 beta version. The official 5.10 should be out in a couple days, or you can check the box to upgrade to beta releases under Tools > Options > Updates in LaunchBox and restart the app.

+Unbroken Software, LLC Cool thanks! I was thinking it was either a beta or some kind of add on from what it says on the bottom of that menu screen, "Need more customization options ?" etc. I only had a problem trying to get FBA to run in LB not MAME, but I receive Emails when new video tuts are released and when I saw that part I was like HEY!! LOL!! Nice videos and I like that new option!! Now we just need a good video tut on setting up FBA in LB, wink, LOL!!

+Chaosmountain1 Ah, that's a new request! Okay, we'll look into it. :)

You need to check the MAME / Arcade box during import or call it Arcade for the options to pop up. There is also currently a bug where if you use the force mame data box on anything other than a MAME Arcade rom set (like Sega Model 2 or 3), then the last screen that shows you the games that will be imported will be blank. If it's just a regular MAME set though, check the box or call the system Arcade. Calling it Arcade will also get you the best scraping results.