M.A.M.E. - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator Copyright (C) 1997, 1998 by Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team MAME32 Copyright (C) 1997, 1998 by Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team. MAME32 Release Notes -------------------- This is release 0.30 of MAME32, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator for Win32. MAME32 is simple to use--put ROM files in the subdirectories specified in README.TXT, and run MAME32. MAME32 requires DirectX 3.0 or higher to be installed on your system. If you get the error 'error loading dinput.dll' when you start MAME32, go to http://www.microsoft.com/directx and download the latest DirectX runtime (version 5) for Windows 95. If you use Windows NT, install Service Pack 3. Requirements ------------ - Windows 95 or Windows NT 4. - DirectX version 3.0 or higher. - Pentium class cpu. Usage ----- MAME32 [name of the game to run] [options] options: -noscanlines Use alternate video mode (not availble in all games). Use this with -nodouble if the default mode doesn't work with your monitor/video card. -vesa N/A for MAME32. -vesa2b N/A for MAME32. -vesa2l N/A for MAME32. -XxY Where X and Y are width and height (ex: '-800x600') This is the preferred method for selecting the resolution. For some possible X/Y combinations see below. -320 Same as above, video mode is 320x240. -512 Same as above, video mode is 512x384. -640 Same as above, video mode is 640x480. -800 Same as above, video mode is 800x600. -1024 Same as above, video mode is 1024x768. -1280 same as above, video mode is 1280x1024. -1600 same as above, video mode is 1600x1200. -vesascan Is obsolete and no longer supported. frontend authors: use '-vesa -800'. -vesaskip N Is obsolete and no longer supported. use '-640x480 -skiplines N' to get the old behaviour. -skiplines N Since most games use a screen taller than 240 lines, they won't fit in the screen. The parameter 'N' sets the initial number of lines to skip at the top of the screen. You can adjust the position while the game is running using the PGUP and PGDOWN keys. -nodouble Prevents pixel doubling, if you like miniaturised arcade emulation. It's also faster than the standard pixel-doubling modes. -vgafreq n N/A for MAME32. -vsync Not implemented in MAME32. -rotate Is obsolete and no longer supported. -ror Rotate the display clockwise by 90 degrees. -rol Rotate display anticlockwise. -flipx Flip display horizontally. -flipy Flip display vertically. -ror and -rol provide authentic *vertical* scanlines, given you turn your monitor to its side. CAUTION: A monitor is a complicated, high voltage electronic device. There are some monitors which were designed to be rotated. If yours is _not_ one of those, but you absolutely must turn it to its side, you do so at your own risk. ****************************************************** PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR MONITOR WITHOUT ATTENTION IF IT IS PLUGGED IN AND TURNED TO ITS SIDE ****************************************************** -soundcard n Select sound card (if this is not specified, you will be asked interactively). SEAL only. -sr n set the audio sample rate. The default is 44100. Smaller values (e.g. 22050, 11025) will cause lower audio quality but faster emulation speed. -sb n set the audio sample bits, either 8 or 16. The default is 16. 16 will increase quality with certain games, but decrease speed. This is a software setting, not hardware. The sound card will always be used in 16 bit mode, if possible. -nojoy Don't poll joystick. -nofm OPL chip for music emulation not implemented in MAME32. -log Create a log of illegal memory accesses in ERROR.LOG -help, -? Display current mame version and copyright notice. -list Not implemented in MAME32. -listfull Not implemented in MAME32. -listroms Not implemented in MAME32. -listsamples Not implemented in MAME32. -romdir Not implemented in MAME32. -nomouse Disable mouse support. -frameskip n Skip frames to speed up the emulation. For example, if the game normally runs at 60 fps, "-frameskip 1" will make it run at 30 fps, and "-frameskip 2" at 20 fps. Use F11 to check the fps your computer is actually displaying. If the game is too slow, increase the frameskip value. Note that this setting can also affect audio quality (some games sound better, others sound worse). Maximum value for frameskip is 3. -vg Is no longer supported. It's now the default when using vesa for vector games. -aa/-naa Not implemented in MAME32. -cheat Cheats like the speedup in Pac Man or the level skip in many other games are disabled by default. Use this switch to turn them on. -debug Activate the integrated debugger. During the emulation, press tilde to enter the debugger. -record nnn Not implemented in MAME32. -playback nnn Not implemented in MAME32. -savecfg Not implemented in MAME32. Config info is saved in the registry. -ignorecfg Not implemented in MAME32. Config info is saved in the registry. MAME32 specific options. All the above plus: -noddraw Uses Windows GDI to display in a window instead of using DirectDraw -window Display in a window. -screen Display fullscreen (default). -nosound Turn off audio. -midas Use the MIDAS Digital Audio System for audio. Try this option if the default SEAL audio sounds choppy or slows down mame. This can happen if your audio drivers don't provide DirectSound hardware support. -gamma n Specify gamma to use for the display. (Default is 1.0) -vscanlines Use vertical scanlines. -quit Quit after running the first game. Useful when specifying a game on the command line. -autopause Pause game when window loses focus. The following keys work in all emulators: 3 Insert coin 1 Start 1 player game 2 Start 2 players game Tab Enter configuration menu. Press Tab or Esc to get back to the emulation. P Pause F3 Reset F4 Show the game graphics. Use cursor keys to change set/color, F4 or Esc to return to the emulation. F7 Not implemented in MAME32. Use the Windows control panel to calibrate the joystick. F8 Change frame skip on the fly (60, 30, 20, or 15) F9 To change volume percentage thru 100,75,50,25,0 values F10 Toggle speed throttling F11 Toggle speed display F12 Save a screen snapshot. The default target directory is BMP, you have to create it yourself, it will not be created by the program if it isn't there. numpad +/- Volume adjust left shift + numpad +/- Gamma correction adjust ESC Exit emulator Known problems -------------- MAME32 can perform poorly under Windows NT. DirectX under NT can be very slow, especially sound and joysticks. You may get better performance by disabling sound, joysticks, or by changing video modes. Sorry, Chris loves NT, but its support of DirectX isn't very fast right now. Each time you play a game, MAME32 wastes some memory. If you play dozens of different games without quitting and restarting MAME32, this could slow down your computer. If this happens, just quit MAME32 and run it again. Also, some game drivers don't initialize properly or clean up on exit, this may cause MAME32 to become unstable. MAME32 runs slow in a window if your desktop is at 16 bit or 24 bit or 32 bit color depth. This isn't a problem, it's just a fact--moving around that much more video memory takes a long time. Chris optimized the 16 bit color depth version a bit, so it's about as fast as it can get. MAME32 runs slow in a window at 8 bit color depth if the game changes the palette (some of the Williams games such as Joust and Robotron, some of the MCR games such as Tapper, and others). Changing the palette is slow, unless you play full screen. Some DirectDraw display drivers don't support locking the primary surface. MAME32 will perform blits from a back buffer in this case. Note that this is slower than writing directly to the primary surface. Version 5.33 of the Info-Zip groups UnZip.dll is case sensitive when matching filename entries to extract from the .zip file. UnZip.dll version 5.32 does not have this problem. Contacts -------- Nicola Salmoria: MC6489@mclink.it Mirko Buffoni: mix@lim.dsi.unimi.it Michael Soderstrom: ichael@geocities.com Christopher Kirmse ckirmse@ricochet.net MAME home page: http://www.media.dsi.unimi.it/mame Michael's MAME32 page: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/7110/mame32.htm Christopher's MAME32 page: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/8706/mame32.html MIDAS home page: http://www.s2.org/midas SEAL home page: http://www.egerter.com/seal