INSTALLATION

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

In order to keep this document from being outlandishly long, I can't try to teach you how to use your computer. I will therefore assume you know a few basic things about your PC. You should know how to navigate your hard drive and copy files and folders from one window to another. This CD isn't some fancy-schmancy commercial disc with an installation program, but I'll make it as clear as possible for you to get up & running in short order.

To keep things simple, I will assume that you'll be installing MAME in the directory, C:\MAME. Of course, you can install it wherever you like, so if you choose to install in some other folder, wherever I mention C:\MAME, substitute your directory of choice. Also, I'll often refer to this disc residing in your CD-ROM drive as D:\ -- but very often the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive may be different. If your drive has a different assignment, just substitute it for D:\ wherever it appears in these instructions.

GETTING THINGS READY

If your PC supports auto-insert notification, then the MAME CD Interface should have popped up. If so, then click on the button marked BROWSE MAME CD. A window will open up showing you all of the contents of this CD.

If for whatever reason the MAME CD Interface is not readily available, then follow these instructions to browse the MAME CD. Open the My Computer icon on your desktop, and then find the the MAME CD, labelled Mamecd and/or D: in your CD-ROM drive. Right-click on the CD's icon, and when the menu pops up, select Open.

INSTALLING MAME

In the MAME CD window you just opened, you'll see a file named mame32b-036.exe (or depending on your computer's configuration, it may appear without the .exe extension as mame32b-036). Double-click on this file and will open a self-extractor ready to install MAME in the new directory, C:\Mame. Unless you're changing the location of your MAME Folder, just click on the Unzip button, and once it's finished, click the Close button.

NOTE: In order to comply with the MAME32 distribution guidelines and honor the wishes of the generous MAME authors, this file has been removed from later versions of the MAME CD. If you don't find the above file on this CD, you will be able to find the original .ZIP archive at one or more of the sites in the Links section of this document.

Ta-daa! MAME32 is now installed. But you're not quite done -- we've got to give MAME some ROMs to work with.

Before we move on, let's open up your newly-created MAME Folder on your hard drive. Open the My Computer icon on your desktop, and double-click on your hard drive, C:. Then find the new folder called, Mame and double-click on it. You should now have three windows open: these instructions in your browser, your MAME Folder, and this CD (and possibly a fourth, the MAME CD Interface which you may close now if you like -- we're done with it).

A CRUCIAL DECISION

You now have a very important decision to make. MAME needs its ROMs to operate, and for a very few games, audio samples & background artwork. You have two choices: copy all of this information to your hard drive (over 600MB) or tell MAME to look on this CD for it.

If you have the space, copying all of the files to your hard drive is best, because not only will the games launch quicker, but you won't need this CD in your drive to play them. If you'd rather not fill your hard drive space with MAME's files, then the latter option is for you.

If you want to copy the files to your hard drive, then read on. If you've decided to run MAME from the CD, then skip on down to the next topic entitled, "TEACHING MAME TO FIND THIS CD."

So you've got the spare hard drive space, eh? Good for you.

Your work is almost done, then. All you need to do to complete MAME installation is to copy the three folders named roms, artwork and samples from this MAME CD to the MAME Folder on your hard drive. That's it.

Once you're done, jump down to the topic later in this document entitled, "GIVE IT A TRY."

TEACHING MAME TO FIND THIS CD

So you've decided not to fill your hard drive up with old games, eh? I can't imagine what better to fill your hard drive with, but to each his own. Thankfully, MAME32 provides a very simple means for you to redirect where it will look for the crucial files needed to run your old favorites.

From your MAME Folder, where you just installed MAME32, run the MAME executable file called mame32.exe (or depending on your computer's configuration, it may appear without the .exe extension as mame32). This is the main program file that you'll use from now on to launch MAME.

Once MAME runs an initial scan and finds no games, we'll tell it where to look. From the menu, under the Options, select Directories.... Under the heading, "Show directories for..." the item ROMs should already be selected from the pull-down menu. If it's not selected, do so.

Now click the Browse button, and from the requestor that pops up, find your CD-ROM (probably D:\), and open it to find this CD. On the MAME CD, select the folder called, roms, and then click, "OK." The directory, "D:\roms" should now appear in the list.

You've now told MAME to always look on the CD for the ROMs it needs. There are only two other folders on the CD that need the same treatment; samples and artwork. Just follow the same procedure for theese folders. Add "D:\samples" as a directory for Samples, and add "D:\artwork" as a directory for Artwork. Note: The Samples & Artwork selections are just a few items down from Roms in the same pull-down menu. The other directories listed must reside on your hard drive, since MAME writes to them occasionally to save information. But they're already where they need to be, so you don't have to tell MAME where to find them.

Once you've completed redirecting all three of these items, click on OK and then exit the MAME32 program completely.

GIVE IT A TRY

From your MAME Folder, where you just installed MAME32, run the MAME executable file called mame32.exe (or depending on your computer's configuration, it may appear without the .exe extension as mame32). This is the main program file that you'll use from now on to launch MAME.

No matter which path you took, MAME should now do a scan of the ROMs available to you.

This will take awhile the first time -- just be patient.

Once it's done, double-click on a game in the list and start playing!

If you don't see any games listed, then go back and carefully re-read this page. If you absolutely can't get it to work, you can email me and I'll try to help (you will find how to contact me on the Contact page of this document).