is it safe to add mame?

[skeptic]

I've read through the two threads I know of and the wiki.  It appears that I can safely add mame using the directions on the wiki, but before I do it I just want to make sure it's safe and I'm not going to risk messing stuff up.

[tschak909]

go for it. you should get my bins:

skip all the compile instructions on the Mame Installation page on the wiki, instead:
http://www.localeconcept.com/pub/linuxmce_mame.tar.gz (extract to /)
http://www.localeconcept.com/pub/MAME_Player.tar.gz (extract and copy to /usr/pluto/bin)

please follow the mame installation instructions as best you can, taking into account that the binaries are above, and you'll be okay.

-Thom

[skeptic]

Cool, thanks!  I'll give it a shot and report back any issues I run into.

[skeptic]

One update to the instructions, you must run ldconf or the plugin will not find the .so.

Also getting a lot of errors similar to:

Code: [Select]

01      10/18/08 13:58:28.821           Could not get Rom matching ROMName: DDRAGON2.zip <0x8f1fbb90>                                                           
01      10/18/08 13:58:28.821           Table_Rom::GetRows Cannot perform query [select `Rom`.* from Rom WHERE Romname = 'DDRAGON2.zip'] MySQL server has gone away reconnect: 0 result2: -1 <0x8f1fbb90>
Not sure if this is normal, or if there is an issue with case.  The ROM in question is named DDRAGON2.ZIP (uppercase ZIP), which doesn't match the log entry.

At the moment, all games within LMCE come up as "No Matching Rom".  I'm still playing around, if I get a game to play I'll report back what it took.

edit:In the wiki you mention a process spiders through the rom files, what exactly should I see in the log file to indicate this is going on or complete?

[skeptic]

Did more messing around, things like changing filenames to .zip, adding in a bunch more roms in various upper/lower cases.  After changing the names of the all uppercase roms to GAMENAME.zip, I had to go in through media sync and tell each and every one it was a LMCE game.  Newly added rom zip files seem to have been set automatically, but I haven't gone back to see if each and every one was done.  At this point, some games show up with a picture of the game, some do not.  Some games play, but most just quietly exit all the way out.  Every single game shows up with the name "No Matching Rom".  I also need a controller or something to actually play the games.  You can actually start playing a game via remote control, but it's not really playable that way. 

I may setup mame on my desktop and sort through the games there, only putting the known good ones (working and worth playing) on LMCE.  Short of deleting the games that don't work, manually adding pictures, and manually changing the name of every single game I'm at a loss as to how to make it look nice as in the screenshots/demo vids.  I suspect my setup is not quite right.  Any ideas?  I'd really like to get it like the demo vids, but I don't want to spend hours manually fixing stuff up if I don't have to.

[tschak909]

Your setup isn't correct.

If you actually followed the instructions, you'd find a reference to getting two very large files that contain the MAME metadata and screenshots..

And zip files are automatically noticed as MAME roms, so updatemedia should have found them, and the MAME_Plugin should have automatically spidered them..


*hmm*

even though the code isn't finished, THIS part should have worked as mentioned.

-Thom

[skeptic]

Actually, I did download and untar a couple large files (in addition to the ones you linked above), mamedata.tar.gz and snap.tar.gz and untar'd them per the wiki as well as wget'ing and running the two .sql files.  Basically, I dl'd and extracted the two files you listed above, then followed the wiki starting at "Getting the MAME metadata in place."

The zip files were automatically identified as Mame roms, but based on error messages I thought there might be an issue with upper/lower case so I renamed them.  The renamed files were not automatically identified as MAME roms, but when I added more those new ones showed up as "LMCE game" in media sync.  Most of the games do not have screens shots, but some do. 

When I get back home and get a chance, I'll go back through the wiki and try to see if I missed something that causes all the names of the games to not be found.  I'd be happy to look at anything you can think of, or even go through and remove all the ROM images via media sync (horribly slow to do one at a time, but I don't know another clean way), and just add a few ROM images.

BTW, should every rom work as long as it's for mame 0.125 or older? Is it possible you have done something else during your programming/testing?  Perhaps something as simple as a permissions issue?

[tschak909]

we tested the instructions with multiple installs and tweaked until we got repeatable results consistently.

It is also important that the lmce_game database is created and that there is data inside of it. This is where the plugin gets its metadata.

-Thom

[skeptic]

I think I may see the issue.  As I said, I used your binaries and started at the "Getting the MAME metadata in place" part of the wiki, below all the compiling stuff.  Now that I look back through it more closely, I see

Code: [Select]

wget http://www.localeconcept.com/pub/lmce_game.sql
echo "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS lmce_game; CREATE DATABASE lmce_game;" |mysql -uroot
mysql lmce_game -uroot < lmce_game.sql
in the middle of the compiling special libs secion that I probably missed. 

[skeptic]

quick update.  After getting those other sql entries in and removing all the existing rom entries from the database (over 1000, one at a time, ouch), it is working on the core/md.  I also figured out why some roms worked and some didn't.  After installing xmame on my desktop and trying them, it turns out some (most?) of my roms were bad.  Not sure if it's a version thing or what, but the "same" rom from a different source works.

Now I'm trying to see why MAME_Player isn't starting on a non-core MD.

Quick question, in the tgz files you provided, why are there two /usr/local/bin/MAME_Player binaries?

[tschak909]

the one in which there is a mame_player by itself, is an update, removing my hack for the x-arcade tankstick joystick.

and that file needs to go into /usr/pluto/bin btw.

-Thom

[skeptic]

the one in which there is a mame_player by itself, is an update, removing my hack for the x-arcade tankstick joystick.

and that file needs to go into /usr/pluto/bin btw.

-Thom

Ok, cool.  I did put it in the correct location, just wondering why there was a second tgz with the same file in the same location.

FWIW, a quick ldconfig and a reboot fixed the MD.  Not sure why I had to reboot both the core/md and the second md before either would load MAME_Player, but it's likely do to me missing a step or two before regen/reloading the MDs.  Now that I have good rom files everything is working, I just need a decent (and cheap) controller and trackball.

[tschak909]

http://www.x-arcade.com/

Nuff said.

-Thom

[skeptic]

http://www.x-arcade.com/

Nuff said.

-Thom

I was looking at those.  Pretty cool, and look really well built.  Right now I just want a hand held controller, and possibly a smallish desktop trackball.  Ok, so I want an x-arcade controller, but I'm going to wait until after I move from Utah to Oregon and have a dedicated area, likely spring/summer '09.  Those x-arcade controllers are just too big for now and we are starting to reduce large stuff (replacing a 43" rear projection HDTV with a 32" flat panel from the bedroom as soon as our new bedroom 26" flat panel shows up this week or next).

"The Move" is why I'm cheaping out on a lot of stuff. 

Anyway, any recommendations for a handheld controller, preferably wireless, that works well with mame?  Wifey wants to play centipede, so something that works well with that would be great.  Perhaps an analog stick controller would work well?  Personally my fav game is Asteroids, so a quick remap of keys on any old keyboard and I'm set.  It would be nice to have something that works well for Defender, but I think for that I'll need to wait until I have space for an x-arcade controller before I can get the classic video game feel.  Can you still buy those mini joysticks that stick to the side of a keyboard?  That may work as a temp solution...