Adding A Game To Mame

[elvgren]

Hi, one game I really like is Dragon Spirit, unfortunatly its not on the MAME list at start up.

Is there a way of adding this to the menu?

for instance do i just manually add to the list of games and dat file?

If so how do I find all the info needed to add this game, for instance donkey kong looks like this

name dkongjp
description "dkongjp"
year ""
manufacturer ""
rom ( name 5f.cpu size 4096 crc 0x424f2b11 )
rom ( name 5g.cpu size 4096 crc 0xd326599b )
rom ( name 5h.cpu size 4096 crc 0xff31ac89 )
rom ( name 5k.cpu size 4096 crc 0x394d6007 )
rom ( name 5k.vid size 2048 crc 0x3684f914 )

thank you for reading and any info would be of great help.

E

 

[linoleum13]

I think that if the game is not listed as supported then you can not play it with this version of MAME.

Im not sure how to add games specifically but I found this:
http://mamedev.org/docs/drivers.html

The guys here will probably be your best bet though:
http://www.talfi.net/gp32_franxis/

 

[slaanesh]

You cannot add a new game by simply adding new text descriptions in a confgiuration file.

The MAME executable needs code and data structures for each and every game that MAME can run.

If you want to add a new game, you have to modify the source code and rebuild the executable.
To do this, you need some understanding of the way MAME works, 'C' coding experience and a suitable compilation environment to build the executable.

The difficulty of doing this ranges from trivial to impossible. GP2X MAME is based on MAME 0.34 so the other factor is the game you want to add and when it was added to MAME.

The game you would like to add, Dragon Spirit, should be possible, as it was introduced in 0.36b4 which is not too many versions ahead of 0.34.

I much better solution (though considerably more work) would be to move GP2X MAME to the 0.36 base and we'd get many more games working. I think this is entirely possible. PalmMAME and MAME CE both use 0.36 as their base with excellent results.

 

[suj]

isent MAME 0.36 the final version where all games worked 100%, would be great to see the gp2x version upgraded to this.

You can also play Dragon Spirits on the GP2X using the PC Engine emulator

 

[slaanesh]

isent MAME 0.36 the final version where all games worked 100%, would be great to see the gp2x version upgraded to this.

You can also play Dragon Spirits on the GP2X using the PC Engine emulator

Well if it was, then we wouldn't be up to MAME v0.109 (as of 13/10/2006)?

MAME 0.36 was an excellent release though and includes hundreds of new games not available on 0.34/0.35.

Some notable games include Space Harrier, Outrun, Raiden, R-Type, Galaga 88 and of course Dragon Spirit.

EDIT: Oh and yes, they'd be quite playable on GP2X, I'm sure. They work great on PalmMAME and MAME CE.

 

[suj]

Sorry I ment all the games listed in MAME 0.36 worked 100% (i.e all games had sound and no graphical corruptions etc)

Anyway would be great to see a newer version on the GP2X..

 

[DTH]

Anybody knows a list of games introduced in 0.36?

 

[elvgren]

Thank you for the well explained replies.

Well looks like im going to have to wait until one of the gurus can sort this as its way beyond me.

I do play on the PC Engine version but I just like the MAME version a bit better.

thanks again all

 

[GP34]

Wow I was about to post the same topic. I want to play 1945 III Strikes really really bad!

 

[elvgren]

Is that the neo geo game? if so you can play it today with gngeo and unlike pc engine Dragon Spirit port it is the same game, Im sure as I play it frequently.

edit: this is in reply to strikers 1945 from GP34 post.

 

[krosfyah]

MAME 0.36 was an excellent release though and includes hundreds of new games not available on 0.34/0.35.

Some notable games include Space Harrier, Outrun, Raiden, R-Type, Galaga 88 and of course Dragon Spirit.

EDIT: Oh and yes, they'd be quite playable on GP2X, I'm sure. They work great on PalmMAME and MAME CE.

That little list of games made me drool.. talk about all-time classics.

Is anyone even remotely considering a 0.36 version?

 

[GP34]

Is that the neo geo game? if so you can play it today with gngeo and unlike pc engine Dragon Spirit port it is the same game, Im sure as I play it frequently.

edit: this is in reply to strikers 1945 from GP34 post.

Ahh I didn't know it was a Neo Geo game. Thanks a lot man I'll try it out asap.

 

[gaterooze]

The Neo Geo one is Strikers 1945 PLUS (s1945p), and you've just reminded me to check it out

 

[vampire8bit]

Franxis is doing a fantastic job on mame 0.34 hope he ports 0.36 at some point