
How to use mame bios files with emulator code#
When QuickPlay calls MAME (or MAME-in-RetroArch), it doesn't 'need' filepaths: it calls 'mame.exe mamename' where mamename is a code the mame team made up to launch a particular game with ('bublbobl' for the game 'Bubble Bobble' for instance).

Now you understand how that works, let's think about what happens when you load a MAME game from QuickPlay

So once these romdata files are printed, no more interaction with MAME happens until you actually play games. If you want to change anything in them, its easiest to just delete them, change some option, and print all of them again (you will lose any customisations you made to the romdatas though, if in doubt, diff them) These romdatas are 'printed', once, in QuickPlays data folder as romdata.dat files and displayed in QuickPlay.

How to use mame bios files with emulator software#
You then tell QuickPlay to print a set of Arcade Romdata files and/or a set of Software List Romdata files, and QuickPlay uses that file it made when it scanned the MAME XML. Read on for why you might want it:īefore we start, it helps to understand how the MAME functionality in QuickPlay works - so i'll try and explain how everything gets printed one-time upfront at first, and then remains static:įirst you scan a MAME XML as a one-off thing into QuickPlay, creating a subset of that massive file (plus info from any ini files in your mame extras folder) that QuickPlay uses to print things with. It is optional, you can just leave the filepath printing tickbox unticked and carry on. In Mame Options, there's a section 'Arcade and Softlist Path Printing Options'. Understanding the MAME Path printing option

In the case of console emulators, CHD files usually contain the whole game, so you can “open them” in the emulator and start playing. If they are backups of games for the original PlayStation or some other console that used optical discs, they should, in most cases, be placed directly in the emulator’s ROM subdirectory. If your CHDs are MAME ROMs, they should (usually) be stored in folders with the same name under MAME’s main ROM folder.Īlso read: Are Game Emulators Legal? Everything you Need to Know
