Mame is an arcade machine emulator. Started in 1997 by Nicola Salmoria, mame started out as a series of emulators for individual games. This series of emulators was combined into a simgle multi-game emulator. This is the current form of mame; no longer a one-man show, there are over 100 contributors to the project.
Mame was created by Nicola Salmoria.
Also see the official mame readme file (readme.mame)
Mess is just like mame---a virtual machine emulator, only it doesn't emulate arcade machines but rather computers and consoles.
Also see the official mess readme file (readme.mess)
Xmame/xmess are the Unix/X11 ports of the mame and mess projects. It makes mame/mess available on *ix machines using the X11R6 X-Window System (and SVGAlib/ggi/XF86-DGA/OpenGL/SDL too).
Mame was orginally ported by Allard Van Der Bas, Dick the Ridder, Juan Antonio Martinez, and Hans de Goede.
Xmame/xmess is currently maintained by Lawrence Gold.
None significant.
Xmame/xmess is based on the mame/mess source code. Due to technical reasons beyond the scope of this document, the mame/mess source may not compile under Unix. That's why the xmame/xmess project exists. Each time mame/mess is updated, the code is tested (and patched if needed) under Unix. This way xmame/xmess releases are always the same as their mame counterparts.
There are no plans for the independent development of xmame/xmess.
Xmame runs on both little-endian and big-endian CPUs, using aligned integer access if needed and is compatible with 64 bit CPUs. The current list of supported CPUs in the makefile is:
Adding support for another cpu (if necessary) should be trivial.
The following Unix platforms are specifically supported:
The generic unix entry should work for any reasonable standard Unix variant, but lacks sound since there is no single Unix sound standard.
On all platforms, zlib is now needed since the core uses it. Ff you don't have zlib, use the included one by uncommenting the appropriate line in Makefile.
The following display methods are supported. X11 is the only one which works on all platforms, except for OpenStep which only works with Openstep bitmaps:
The following is a list of arch/os/display combinations, with maintainers,
for arch/os/display combinations which are actively supported. Please mail
the maintainer of the arch/os/display combination for compilation and other
arch/os/display specific problems. Mail Lawrence
gold@aros.net for generic (e.g., X11) problems.
<gold@aros.net>
<gold@aros.net>
<sgoethel@jausoft.com>
<gold@aros.net>
<gold@aros.net>
<cpg@aladdin.de>
<cpg@aladdin.de>
<ldardini@usl4.toscana.it>
<sid@skater.htu.tuwien.ac.at>
<sid@skater.htu.tuwien.ac.at>
<c9710216@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au>
<dave@dtsp.co.nz>
<cpg@aladdin.de>
<rosenhau@mailserv.sm.go.dlr.de>
<xmame@frogface.ddns.org>
<pete@toybox.twisted.org.uk>
<jolletx@cybercable.fr>
<ddingus@uswest.net>* These are supported using the generic unix entry of the makefile, and thus lack sound.
We are always looking for people willing to test and answer questions about
xmame on a new arch/os/display. This takes very little work and could help
other people tremendously. If you're interested, mail Lawrence
gold@aros.net.
Xmame/xmess should run on 8bpp Pseudo Color displays and on 16, 24 and 32bpp True Color displays. If your X-Server does not support any of these display types, xmame/xmess will not run.
You can verify your X-Server support by starting your X-Server and running the xdpyinfo program. See the xdpyinfo manual page for more information.
A normal xmame/xmess invocation looks like:
xmame pacman -sound -nojoy -frameskip 2 -heightscale 3 \
-widthscale 2
Most of the time, you will want to use the same configuration for each game. xmame/xmess will read this file for default values for the parameters that you can set. This way the only parameters you need to express on the command line are the ones you want to override.
Another reason for xmamerc/xmessrc is keyboard remapping. Some Unix keyboards are very different than their PC counterparts. To compensate for the changes, xmame/xmess allows you to remap keys that are not available on Unix keyboards to keys that are available.
The syntax is quite simple:
"keyword value"
See xmamerc.dist for most keywords. Allmost all commandline options can be used as keywords (without the -), use value 0 or 1 for commandline options which have a negating (-no[option]) counterpart. As usual lines begining with "#" are comments.
You can also generate a configfile with all the current settings to use as a template by typing:
xmame -showconfig > ~/.xmame/xmamerc
Xmame/xmess uses a ":" seperated rompath to find out which dirs to search for roms/samples.
The default rompath is XMAMEROOT as defined in Makefile during compile.
This is overwritten by any rompath in xmamerc/xmessrc, which can be overwritten again with the -rompath commandline option.
Xmame/xmess searches every dir in this path for roms/samples in the following way:
<dir>/gamename.zip (containing filename.ext)
<dir>/gamename/filename.ext
<dir>/gamename/filename.ext.gz (containing filename.ext)
<dir>/gamename/filename.zip (containing filename.ext)
So let's say that we are searching for rom0001.1, which is part of pacman. Then xmame/xmess would search every dir in your rompath for
<dir>/pacman.zip (containing rom0001.1)
<dir>/pacman/rom0001.1
<dir>/pacman/rom0001.1.gz (containing rom0001.1)
<dir>/pacman/rom0001.zip (containing rom0001.1)
Note: If your neogeo games can't find neogeo.rom, put it in a dir called neogeo somewhere in your rompath, or put it in neogeo.zip somewhere in your rompath.
This section only applies to xmess emulations which support read/write diskette images and thus try to open the image read/write.
Xmess first searches for read/write images with the name specified on the commandline:
<path>/image.ext
where path is the path specified with the image on the commandline. This way, absolute and relative filenames can be used directly on the commandline for an image which is not in the rompath.
Then xmess searches every dir in the rompath for roms/samples in the following way:
<dir>/image.ext
Note that (g)zipped images are not supported for r/w images.
Xmess begins by searching for cartdriges/disks from the current dir in the following way:
<path>/image.ext
<path>/image.ext.gz (containing image.ext)
<path>/image.zip (containing image.ext)
where path is the path specified with the image on the commandline. This way, absolute and relative filenames can be used directly on the commandline for an image which is not in the rompath.
Then xmess searches every dir in the rompath for carts/images in the following way:
<dir>/image.ext
<dir>/image.ext.gz (containing image.ext)
<dir>/image.zip (containing image.ext)
Finally, xmess searches the rompath as desribed above using the systemtype for gamename.
So let's say we want to play mario.nes on the nes emulation of xmess. We would then type: "xmess nes mario.nes". Xmess then begins by searching the current dir for
mario.nes
mario.nes.gz (containing mario.nes)
mario.zip (containing mario.nes)
After that, xmess searches each dir in your rompath for
<dir>/mario.nes
<dir>/mario.nes.gz (containing mario.nes)
<dir>/mario.zip (containing mario.nes)
And finally, xmess searches each dir in your rompath for
<dir>/nes.zip (containing mario.nes)
<dir>/nes/mario.nes
<dir>/nes/mario.nes.gz (containing mario.nes)
<dir>/nes/mario.zip (containing mario.nes)
Since xmess first searches for cartridges/disks from the current dir you can also specify cartridges/disks not in your rompath. For example:
"xmess nes ../mario.nes"
Xmess then searches for
../mario.nes
../mario.nes.gz (containing mario.nes)
../mario.zip (containing mario.nes)
and will also search the rompath as described above with ../mario.nes as the image name but this is not that useful.
Xmame/xmess searches every dir in the rompath for artwork in the following way:
<dir>/artwork.png
<dir>/artwork.png.gz (containing artwork.png)
<dir>/artwork.zip (containing artwork.png)
Then xmame/xmess searches the rompath as in roms/samples.
So let's say we want to play foo which uses bar.png. Xmame/xmess then begins searching each dir in your rompath for
<dir>/bar.png
<dir>/bar.png.gz (containing bar.png)
<dir>/bar.zip (containing bar.png)
And then xmame/xmess searches each dir in your rompath for
<dir>/foo.zip (containing bar.png)
<dir>/foo/bar.png
<dir>/foo/bar.png.gz (containing bar.png)
<dir>/foo/bar.zip (containing bar.png)
Xmame looks for the following configuration files and parses each one found. Files parsed later can overwrite options in previously parsed files:
XMAMEROOT/xmamerc
XMAMEROOT/xmame-DISPLAY_METHODrc
${HOME}/.xmame/xmamerc
${HOME}/.xmame/xmame-DISPLAY_METHODrc
${HOME}/.xmame/rc/<gamename>rc
XMAMEROOT is defined during compile time, see Makefile.
DISPLAY_METHOD is the DISPLAY_METHOD for which xmame was compiled, this
can be one of: x11, svgalib, ggi, xgl, xfx, svgafx, openstep, SDL.
For xmess of course replace xmame by xmess. ;)
Game configuration files are kept on a per-user base in:
${HOME}/.xmame/cfg/<game>.cfg resp
${HOME}/.xmess/cfg/<game>.cfg
Game state files are kept on a per-user base in:
${HOME}/.xmame/sta/<game>.sta resp
${HOME}/.xmess/sta/<game>.sta
NVram files are kept on a per-user base in:
${HOME}/.xmame/nvram/<game>.nv resp
${HOME}/.xmess/nvram/<game>.nv
Mem cards files are kept on a per-user base in:
${HOME}/.xmame/mem/<filename>.mem resp
${HOME}/.xmess/mem/<filename>.mem
Where <filename> is given by the game-driver.
Screenshots, which can be made by pressing F12, are saved as png files in the directory from where xmame is started (cwd).
This can be overidden by the screenshotdir entry in xmamerc/xmessrc, which
can again be overidden by the -screenshotdir cmdline-option.
They are saved as:
<screenshotdir>/<game>xxxx.png
Where xxxx is a number.
Highscores are stored in XMAMEROOT as defined in Makefile when building.
This can be overidden by the spooldir entry in xmamerc/xmessrc, which can again
be overidden by the -spooldir cmdline-option.
So only give a
drwxrwsr-x root games <spooldir>
permission and setgid xmame/xmess to "games" to get it to work. Note this doesn't work with suid root versions (svgalib & XF86-DGA), suggestions welcome.
For now use ${HOME}/.xmame or $ {HOME}/.xmess
as the spooldir in xmamerc/xmessrc for suid root versions.
Note: For highscores to work, xmame must also be able to find hiscore.dat.
If you want to use highscores mame needs to load hiscore.dat to get highscore info.
The default is XMAMEROOT/hiscore.dat . XMAMEROOT is set during compile-time;
see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the hiscorefile entry in xmamerc
if present, which can again be overridden by the cmdline-option -hiscorefile.
hiscore.dat is available from the mame homepage:
http://www.mame.net
If you want to use cheats mame needs to load cheat.dat to get cheat info.
The default is XMAMEROOT/cheat.dat . XMAMEROOT is set during compile-time;
see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the cheatfile entry in xmamerc
if present, which can again be overridden by the cmdline-option -cheatfile.
cheat.dat is available from the mame homepage:
http://www.mame.net
If you want to display some nice background info on games, mame needs to load history.dat.
The default is XMAMEROOT/history.dat . XMAMEROOT is set during compile-time,
see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the historyfile entry in xmamerc
if present, which can again be overridden by the cmdline-option -historyfile.
history.dat is available from the mame homepage:
http://www.mame.net
Input logs are saved/read under the name specified after the -record /
-playback option; this name is relative to the current path.
Type "xmame/xmess -showconfig | more" and check that the rompath
and spooldir shown are correct and readable/writable. Otherwise recheck xmamerc/xmessrc.
Remember that xmess also searches the current dir.
To start xmame, type
xmame [options] <gamename> [more options]
For xmess, type
xmess [options] <systemname> [more options] \
<disk/romimage(s)> [more options]
All options are optional. ;)
Xmame/xmess supports most dos command line options (see readme.mame / readme.mess) as well as a few of its own: Type xmame -help | more for a complete list.
With xmess, some systems don't require a disk/romimage, but most do.
To see a list of available parameters, type:
/usr/games/xmame -help | more
Xmame/xmess supports most of the command line parameters as the DOS version as well a some of its own.
See the file readme.mame / readme.mess for more information about the command line parameters.
Xmame/xmess uses the same key-bindings as the DOS version of mame: The following keys work in all emulators:
` or ~ Enter On screen display to change volume, brightness etc.
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.
F8 Reduce frame skip
F9 Increase frameskip
F10 Toggle speed throttling
F10 + shift Toggle idle sleeping
F11 Toggle speed display
F11 + shift Toggle profiler display
F12 Save a screen snapshot
ESC Exit emulator
Xmame has 2 different auto frameskipping algorithms. These can be selected with the -frameskipper option and with key combos:
Key combo: Gives you the:
left-ctrl + insert standard dos frameskipper
left-ctrl + home William Barath's frameskipper
Xmame's display scaling can be controlled on the fly with the following key combos:
Key combo: Result:
left-shift + insert Increase widthscale
left-shift + delete Decrease widthscale
left-shift + home Increase heightscale
left-shift + end Decrease heightscale
left-shift + pageup Increase scale
left-shift + pagedown Decrease scale
Under X11, xmame can switch to and from different modes during runtime:
Key combo: Warps you to:
left-alt + insert Normal window
left-alt + home DGA fullscreen mode
Under SDL, xmame can switch to and from different modes during runtime:
Key combo: Result:
left-alt + enter Toggles between windowed and
fullscreen modes.
Under X11 in a window, you can also grab the mouse. To be able to play with the mouse, press left-alt + page-down to grab the mouse, and press it again to release it.
With the -bufsize commandline option or the bufsize configfile keyword,
you can specify the number of frames of audio to buffer. The default is 2 frames.
This value should be ok for everyone, but if you still have problems, read on.
If the buffersize is to small, this causes the buffer to get empty between frames which in turn causes clicks/pauses in the sound. If this is the case, increasing the -bufsize value to, for example, 2.5 should help.
If, however, you make the buffersize too large, then so much audio becomes buffered, that the sound could become lagged. E.g., you would hear the coin drop sound 0.5 seconds after pressing the insert coin key. In this case, lower the bufsize to, for example, 1.5.
Please let me know if you need to change this setting, since I'm planning on removing it in a future release.
-fakesound command line parameter.PROMs contain game-specific information that used to be built in to mame in versions prior to 0.34. This information has been extracted and is now included with new versions of ROM files for games that require this information.
If you want to use your current ROM files, you can obtain just the PROM images in one large file at:
Xmame/xmess is a compiled C program that is emulating hardware. Software emulation of hardware always incurs a speed penalty. Here are some things you can do:
You can also try recompiling xmame/xmess with more optimal settings. The following suggestions may not work or may not be appropriate on some machines and in some installations. However, in cases where they do work, there can be a noticeable increase in overall performance of xmame/xmess.
These "enhancements" simply require editing the Makefile that is distributed with xmame, and then recompiling the source. If you are compiling the source for the second time you will need to do:
make clean
make
make install
after editing the Makefile to set your new settings.
Try enabling inline compiling by commenting and uncommenting the following lines:
# IL = '-DINLINE=static inline'
IL = -DINLINE=static
For a big boost, try enabling DGA by uncommenting the following line:
DGA = 1
Then start xmame as root, and press left-alt + home to switch to dga mode; that should be a lot faster, and doesn't need/use xsync. ;)
To get back to a window without exiting, press left-alt + insert.
The benefit of DGA is that it is Direct Graphics Access and therefore writes directly to the framebuffer (think DirectX versus GDI under MS Windows). So it should be a tad faster, unless you've got a really really well accelerated X-server, which could be just as fast. Try pressing F11 to see the actual framerate, although it might be hardly noticable (visually, at least), it should give you some speed increase.
Besides that, it automatically switches to the right mode and removes any window manager stuff, but that can be done without DGA too. (I might add such a feature later, since it allows easy fullscreen without running as root.)
Adding a 320x240 mode will most definitely get you a very nice fullscreen display at scale = 1. ;)
Don't forget that you still need to set up the Modes line of the "Display" subsection of the "Screen" section in your X11 config file if you want the games to fill the screen in DGA mode. Xmame will pick the best mode it can find, so if you have a line like
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "320x240" "256x224"
then any game which fits into a 320x240 screen can be displayed in that resolution, and so on. Don't forget your X11 config file might have a number of different "Screen" sections in it, and you will need to add Modes to the one that is actually active with your Xserver is running. And of course it's not always that easy, since you also need to tell X which monitor settings are required for these resolution modes. This is done through Modeline entries in the "Monitor" section of your X config file.
You can check out the /contrib/tools/modelines file for a set of crazy
modes made especially for xmame in DGA mode. They should work on any reasonable
multisync monitor, but don't use them on an old fixed-frequency monitor. (And
if you can't resist trying, I won't pay for a new one!)
You can also try installing nasm and compiling the asm core, that helps a bit too.
Not much. Xmame is a single-threaded port of a single-threaded DOS app. Some degree of speedup will hopefully be found on an SMP machine since xmame is more likely to get to hog its one CPU for longer. But of course the same applies to any CPU-intensive program. And all the things one would normally do to any application to give it more CPU time (higher priority, kill or renice unecessary process, etc.) will work with xmame.
Now you may at this point be thinking, "Surely you could have one thread doing emulation and another thead doing graphics to get a speedup." Yes, but there are some serious issues to consider. The first is synchronisation between the threads, which needs to be pretty tight. If not done smoothly. the overhead will blow most of the benefit away. Also, it needs to be implemented with a portable threads interface ... which basically means POSIX threads. In a nutshell, it's a lot of effort for probably not much gain. But of course if you are feeling particulary energetic and in the mood to code, then patches can always be submitted to the xmame devel mailing list ... :)
Xmame/xmess uses autocalibrating, but you could try to use specific programs to calibrate it (jscal that comes with joystick module works fine....).
You need to edit XF86Config to enable the XInput section. See the manual page for XF86Config.
Easy. If you want to read the manual page for XF86Config, type: man XF86Config
Xmame/xmess versions newer than 0.35 use zlib for some compression routines. Unfortunately, a lot of Linux distributions have an old version of zlib installed as /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a, and the new version installed as /usr/lib/libz.a. If this is the case, it's harmless to remove /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a. If you're not sure whether this is the case, just move /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a to another location.
Removing or just moving /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a should fix this problem.
Also see: FAQ: Why do I get zlib.h not found?
Xmame/xmess versions newer than 0.35 use zlib for some compression routines.
Zlib is standard on most Unix versions. For those who don't ship with zlib or ship with a version that is too old, xmame/xmess now comes with a stripped-down version of zlib. Uncomment the appropriate line in the Makefile to use this.
Are you running a recent version of KDE, such as 2.1.1? It appears that there's a bug with KDE's window manager that prevents some X11 apps from popping up their main window. You can either run the SDL version of xmame, or try the following workaround, which several people have reported as being successful:
xmame.x11 -rid `xwininfo -root | grep xwininfo: | awk '{print $4}'`
Update: I have been told that as of KDE 2.2b1, this problem has been fixed.
The xmame/xmess Home Page always has the most up-to-date version. The address is
See Mail of this document.
Please check the offical mame and mess readme files to see if that answers your question:
If that doesn't help, then ask your question on the mailing list or send it to the xmame/xmess maintainer, see Mail for contact information.