GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

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cools
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

Ta. I've used vdub plenty in the past but never for image editing. I actually really like tmc's layout in that link. Yours is a good base but a little "custom stick" for my liking. I've just noticed MaLa allows you to rename games in the list - which means I'm able to use MESS Software Lists and not just display the ROM name, plus the name files can be imported and exported as straightforward text. I can live with this for now I think.

The really nice bit about Hyperspin is that you can use the videos directly and distort them on the fly - though I never quite managed to get them to sit perfectly with it doing the same idea as you.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by pubjoe »

I'd used vd a lot for converting, but not like this. Very powerful program.

Yeah tmc made a nice theme. Mine is obviously E2 coloured and the Mai picture is certainly very custom stick, yeah. I've gone off it a lot now come to think of it. I might just scrap the bgimage altogether. Images under text look so floaty. The trouble is, iirc, I stupidly included barely visible background in the videos, so I have the fun of redoing them. Or, maybe not, you can get away with a lot of scruffiness on CRTs. That's what made me fail to notice in the first place. I ran the job using the arcade monitor.

I'm probably going to change cabs soon, but I think I'll stick with the E2 menu. :think:
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

Right then, for now I'm going to go with text, in MaLa. It's the only one that won't be a butt-ton of work to set up UME with.

I can process CSVs exported from http://www.progettoemma.net/mess/" into name lists, then import them into the game lists. Job done.

Word of warning - MaLa completely chokes with UME as its MAME source. It also falls over if you're filtering by available ROMs with a recent MAME build.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by baddy »

Cools, if you don't mind, I'd love a small tutorial on UME/MESS and how to sort roms for console systems for use with Mala :)
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

It's all clrmame but very labour intensive. It took a lot of experimenting to find a fool proof method.

Briefly: load up clrmamepro with a UME binary. Go the rebuilder, and goto the Systems paths editor. Every single one of those lines needs a unique folder! How you choose to set these up is up to you - I went with the following (from memory, so may be inaccurate).

roms\standard
roms\mechanical
roms\device
roms\bios\3dobios
roms\soft\32x
etc...

All of these folders need to be in your UME.INI ROMs path!

Configure each system as a new emulator in MaLa pointing to the UME.EXE, with the ROMs path pointing to the appropriate folder and the command line (Sega Master System example): sms %rom%

Let MaLa generate the All Games lists, then use these to create a game list and rename the ROMs to the proper names, and disable the All Games list.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

Ok...just had a very quick look at Mala....firstly...can't point the executable to groovymame as it comes up file version not found

As I don't have an XML file currently I also can't point Mala to that....off to a good start then :lolno:

On a side note, any image work needs doing give us a file or a link and what your thinking and I may be able to knock something up work pending! ;)
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

Worked fine with all my exe's... Mala will generate one for you.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

cools wrote:Worked fine with all my exe's... Mala will generate one for you.
Ok on xml generation...but did you try a groovymame.exe coz I still can't get it to work with my groovymame.exe....says can't get the file version? :eh:
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

Ahh, I've only used GroovyUME come to think of it - not tried MAME.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

cools wrote:Ahh, I've only used GroovyUME come to think of it - not tried MAME.
I think normal mame.exe is fine...groovymame.exe is a no go as far as i can see, i don't get this file version comment? :eh:
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

Ok so wasn't getting anywhere with Mala so I decided to flip to Mamewah.....what a mistake that was!! :lolno:

Clunky interface and horrible layout genertor that doesn't seem to want to let me add an image for some reason...the options are ever dwindling.... :cry:

On a side not was playing splatterhouse yesterday, didn't take long for me to notice the stuttering music...nevermind, looks and plays fine!!
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by pubjoe »

I'm sorry I can't give better advice, but when I used Mala years ago, I know there were lots of potential settings you could get wrong when using mame variants. As well as some funny ways to work around problems.

I seem to remember a dummy .exe with dos prompt launch options to point to something.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. I do remember accumulating many many many hours setting up the **** thing. Iirc Mala was basically mamewah with a lot more options.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by pubjoe »

With hindsight. Next time I'm going to try and set mala/mame up on a seperate drive using only child directory strings (IE: "/Mame" instead of "C:/Mame"). That way I can just easily swap the hdd into any fresh install. With all the layout files and other funny business it's too easy to break otherwise, and very hard to re-tweak from memory after four years.

I nearly achieved this when copying it onto a friends laptop, I tested it working and launching roms, but he later ran into problems.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

pubjoe wrote:With hindsight. Next time I'm going to try and set mala/mame up on a seperate drive using only child directory strings (IE: "/Mame" instead of "C:/Mame"). That way I can just easily swap the hdd into any fresh install. With all the layout files and other funny business it's too easy to break otherwise, and very hard to re-tweak from memory after four years.

I nearly achieved this when copying it onto a friends laptop, I tested it working and launching roms, but he later ran into problems.
Sounds like a good plan mate!, don't sweat it, tbh I need to play around a bit more as accordinging to one or two sites some people have mala up and running with groovymame.
Prob is finding the relevant info on it, I'll keep digging... :think:
On a side note if splatterhouse was stuttering I'm pretty sure some of the Konami shmups will be too as their quite fussy buggers...!
Looks like I need to think about getting a cab again at some point! :awe:
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

Quick update on the frontend side...

Sooo...thought I would give maximus a try as I had read that someone had got this running with GM and low and behold I managed it too!!

Basically I set mame up inside maximus to point to groovymame.exe to start with, rescaned roms and unfortunately It returned the usual message mame location incorrect?

Then decided to point maximus towards the mame.exe within the same folder instead of groovymame.exe. This time it worked but of course wasn't running all the nice groovymame effects and defaults.

So, don't ask me why, I decided to re-point maximus towards groovymame.exe and this time it accepted it and is now running properly within maximus!! :)

Not really the result that we wanted and I couldn't tell you why it managed to accept it second time around but maximus is now infront of groovymame.

re the sound sync issues I notice groovymame no longer has the sound sync option as it's been incorporated within syncrefresh which I am going to have a play with tomorrow to see if it fixes the splatterhouse sound skip issue, if it does, pretty sure there will be noticable pitch changes in the music but i'll have a look anyways.

On a another not i see they have created a downloadable groovymame to incorporate onto a bootable pendrive running linux on a partition.....and if im not mistaken someone has managed to get a radeon hd5*** running with the crt_emudriver...also win7 in the works already at beta... :awe:
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

So finished on the little setup for mo...needs tweaks but there's always time for that later!!
custom maximus theme, stripped down to titles..that's it!!

Running on a 21" barco calibrator crt @ 640x480

Cheers to all especially cools for the setup help! 8-)

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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by pubjoe »

:awe: Nice menu.
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by joeblade »

pubjoe wrote::awe: Nice menu.
Cheers mate!! Just wanted something simple that i can use in both tate and yoko with no fuss or thrills... :)
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by cools »

Hmm. Anyone any good at creating and editing dingbat fonts? I want this: http://www.dafont.com/taito-all-stars.font" but with a greater range of characters, and some glyphs moved around (the numbers and / specifically)
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Re: GroovyMAME/UME for dummies

Post by trev1976 »

joeblade wrote:So finished on the little setup for mo...needs tweaks but there's always time for that later!!
custom maximus theme, stripped down to titles..that's it!!

Running on a 21" barco calibrator crt @ 640x480

Cheers to all especially cools for the setup help! 8-)

Just what id be looking for , Ive got a copy of maximus but can i get this custom theme anywhere ?

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