MAME4ALL

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MAME4ALL
Platform(s): Dingoo-Linux
Download(s): Openhandhelds archive
Developer(s): Slaanesh
Version: 1.1
Status: Released and functional
Homepage: MAME4ALL release thread

MAME4ALL is a MAME Arcade emulator

Contents

[edit] Introduction

MAME4ALL Dingoo is a port of MAME 0.37b5 emulator (originally by Nicola Salmoria) for the A320 Dingoo running Linux. MAME4ALL is also available for the GP2X, Wiz, PSP and GP32. Please refer to the MAME license at the end of this document.

MAME4ALL Dingoo currently emulates most arcade games supported by original MAME 0.37b5 plus some additional games from newer MAME versions. Some larger games currently do not work due to lack of system RAM.

Official web page for news, additional information and donations:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/mame/dingoo/ (broken link 2010-05-24 - please replace with an active one)

[edit] Installation

Simply copy the MAME4ALL directory somewhere on your filesystem in the local folder and run the executable.

To launch it with dmenu use this in your dmenu.cfg (adjust your folders accordingly): 

   MenuItem MAME4ALL
   {
       Icon = "res/emulators/mame4all.png"
       Name = "MAME4ALL"
       Executable = "./autoexec.dge"
       WorkDir = "/usr/local/emulators/mame4all"
   }

[edit] Controls

Standard in-game MAME controls:

  • D-Pad: UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT.
  • Buttons A,B,X,Y,L,R: MAME buttons 1,2,3,4,5,6.
  • Button SELECT+START: Insert credit.
  • Button START: Start game.


Extended controls in game (to access menus and options) All use the SELECT button + an additional button. This is analagous to pressing "SHIFT" and another key on a regular keyboard.

  • Buttons SELECT+L: Show profiler.
  • Buttons SELECT+R: Show FPS.
  • Buttons SELECT+A: Enter/Exit MAME menu.
  • Buttons SELECT+Y: Enter/Exit MAME menu (Same as above, alternative).
  • Buttons SELECT+B: Enter/Exit Volume menu.
  • Buttons SELECT+X: Pause.
  • Buttons SELECT+L+R: Exit (to frontend menu).


The "MAME menu" (see above) can be used to:

  • Redefine DEFAULT keys for all games.
  • Redefine keys for the current game.
  • Display game information.
  • Set Auto-fire options.
  • Enable cheats.

Controller Notes:

  • All keys can be redefined, including the "shifted" SELECT keys.
    • In some cases this is essential. ie. Robotron.
  • To type OK when MAME requires it, press LEFT and then RIGHT.

[edit] Game Selector

MAME can be run directly from the 'mame' executable by using command line options. However, a far easier way of running MAME is using the 'mamefront' Game Selector. This will launch 'mame' with the options chosen.

The Game Selector will automatically save specific options for each game.

The Game Selector will search for MAME ROMs found in the ./roms directory. Games found will be displayed in the game list.

  • Use UP and DOWN to select a game.
  • Use LEFT and RIGHT to page up and page down.
  • Press A to select the game to play.
  • Press SELECT+L+R to exit.

After selecting a game, configuration options are available:

  • Use UP and DOWN to select the option you want to change.
  • Use LEFT and RIGHT to change the option.
  • Press A to start the game (and save the configured options).
  • Press B to go back to the game list.

[edit] Configuration options

[edit] Dingoo Clock

300 - 420 MHz options are available. 336 MHz is the standard value. Use greater values at your own risk!.

[edit] Video Depth

Sets MAME's internal video depth (NOT the Dingoo's video depth). 8-bit is generally faster though some games require 16-bit. Some games may be faster in 16-bit mode - it's dependant on the game driver! Auto: The emulator uses the most suitable video depth. 8 bit: MAME uses 8 bit color (DEFAULT). 16 bit: MAME uses 16 bit color.

[edit] Video Scale/Aspect

The video aspect is configured with the following combination of options:

[edit] Normal

Nominal video resolution (320x240). Games with a resolution less than this have a black border. Games with a resolution higher are cropped.

[edit] Scale Half Size

Useful for high resolution games like Rampage and Tapper, etc. 8-bit video mode is quickest as extra pixels are just truncated. 16-bit mode does pixel mixing resulting in a nicer, but slightly slower display. Should still be quick enough for most games.

[edit] Scale Horizontal

Useful for games like R-Type and Final Fight, etc. Other smaller resolution games will stretch out to fill the screen. Take from MAME4ALL Wiz version (code originally from Notaz & Franxis).

[edit] Scale Best

This is a generic rescale that can resize any screen to fit the Dingoo's native 320x200 resolution. It produces the best quality scaled display as pixels are merged both horizontally and vertically. The downside is that it may be slow.

[edit] Scale Fast

his is a generic rescale that can resize any screen to fit the Dingoo's native 320x200 resolution. It produces a good scaled display as pixels are merged horizontally. Speed should be somewhat quicker than "Scale Best".

[edit] Rotate

The display is rotated from landscape to portrait orientation. All the above scale options are present for screen rotation.

[edit] Video Sync

Normal: Single buffer and dirty buffer is used (DEFAULT). VSync: VSync activated (Unlikely to be ever implemented due to lack of hardware support). DblBuf: Double buffer without dirty buffer (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET). OFF: No video synchronization, use manual frameskip.

[edit] Frame-Skip

Auto: The frameskip is adjusted automatically in real time (DEFAULT). 0 to 11: The frameskip is manually adjusted. The selected frames each 12 are skipped.

[edit] Sound

The sound options are the following ones: ON: The sound is activated. 8, 16, 24, 32 KHz sound mixing rates are available in both mono and stereo, (16000hz mono DEFAULT). OFF: The sound is disabled. This can vastly improve the speed of the game. Fast sound: Improve performance at the cost of sound quality.

[edit] CPU Clock

The clock of the CPUs can be adjusted from 50% to 200%. The nominal value is 100% (DEFAULT) and the CPU is emulated accurately. The clock can be safely underclocked to about 80% to gain performance in almost all games (be careful because some games could not run correctly). Use lower values to get more performance but probably several more games would not run correctly. Also the clock can be overclocked up to 200%.

[edit] Audio Clock

The clock of the audio CPUs can also be adjusted from 50% to 200%. The nominal value is 100% (DEFAULT). See "CPU Clock" above.

[edit] CPU Cores

(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

[edit] Volume

Set the starting volume of the game. Most games start very loudly! Use this to save your ears.

  • Max: Full volume (DEFAULT).
  • Medium: Volume reduced a bit.
  • Low: Volume reduced more.
  • Quiet: Most likely barely audible but depends on the game.

[edit] Cheats

ON: The cheats are enabled. To access in game press SELECT+START and enter the "Cheats" menu. OFF: The cheats are disabled. Note: The high scores are not saved if cheats are enabled!!!.

[edit] Auto-Fire

To access the auto-fire configuration, during game press SELECT+START and enter the "Auto-Fire" menu.

[edit] Supported Games

The original version of MAME 0.37b5 supported 2260 romsets. For more details, see "gamelist.txt" file. Games must be copied into the <installdir>/roms/ folder on the SD card. For example if mamefront and mame are installed in /mnt/sd/mame4all then the roms dir would be /mnt/sd/mame4all/roms

Neo Geo games are currently not included.

[edit] Rom Names

Folder names or ZIP file names are listed on "gamelist.txt" file. Romsets have to be MAME 0.37b5 ones (July 2000). Additionaly there are additional romsets from newer MAME versions.

Please use "clrmame.dat" file to convert romsets from other MAME versions to the ones used by this version for Dingoo, using ClrMAME Pro utility, available in next webpage:

http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/

NOTE: File and directory names in Linux are case-sensitive. Put all file and directory names using low case!.

!!!! THE MOST COMMON PROBLEM FOR NOT GETTING A SUPPORTED GAME TO RUN IS INCOMPATIBLE ROMS. !!!!

[edit] Sound Samples

The sound samples are used to get complete sound in some games. They are placed into the 'samples' directory compressed into ZIP files. The directory and the ZIP files are named using low case!.

The sound samples collection can be downloaded in the following link: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,5,2511

You can also use "clrmame.dat" file with ClrMAME Pro utility to get the samples pack.

[edit] Artwork

Artwork is used to improve the visualization for some games. Download it here: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,5,2512

[edit] Skins

The frontend graphic skin used in the emulator can be changed by adding two new files: 

   skins/dingoosplash.bmp   -> Game selector intro screen.
   skins/dingoomenu.bmp     -> Game selector background screen.

Bitmaps MUST be 320x240 pixels x 256 colors (8 bit). The resulting file should be exactly 77878 bytes in size. If it is not, then it's not in the right format. Paint Shop Pro saves BMPs in the correct format.

[edit] To-Do

In order of priority:

  • Improve support for existing games.
  • Add support for larger games.
  • Use faster CPU cores for M68000 and possibly Z80.
  • Other speed optimizations.
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