XMAME-ARM-SDL README
BUILD
The instructions for building and running xmame-arm-sdl are almost the same as xmame-arm.
- Open the terminal
- Install necessary packages
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libgnome2-dev libsdl1.2-dev libxv-dev libxv1 git
- Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/BryanHaley/xmame-arm-sdl.git
- Build the executable (this may take several hours)
cd xmame-arm-sdl
make
RUN
Run games the same way you would MAME 0.106 via the command line. Theoretically, it may even be compatible with existing MAME front-ends, provided they can be successfully built on armhf Debian. I have not tested any at this time.
You can download a free, noncommercial ROM from mame.net to test. For example:
cd ~/xmame-arm-sdl
wget -P roms www.mame.net/roms/supertnk/supertnk.zip
To run it:
./xmame.SDL ./supertnk.zip
Many of the commandline arguments for MAME 0.106 should work (many others do not, however). Run ./xmame.SDL -help | more to see them.
Of particular note:
- Use
-fullscreento run the game in fullscreen mode. - Use
-scale <float>(e.g. '-scale 1.5') to scale the display (see known issues). - Use
-fsr 1to enable the enhanced frameskipper. This can reduce slowdown in some games. - Use
-joytype 5to enable the usage of SDL-compatible gamepads/controllers/etc.
So, for example:
./xmame.SDL ./supertnk.zip -fullscreen -fsr 1
Or, to fill more of the screen:
./xmame.SDL ./supertnk.zip -fullscreen -scale 1.5 -fsr 1
KNOWN ISSUES
- Sound is relatively quiet by default. Turn your volume up and/or boost the volume within MAME. I will investigate a better fix later. UPDATE: The issue is caused by this fork of MAME’s outdated sound code looking for an OSS Mixer (which only has legacy support on Linux and does not seem to be present on the CHIP). I am looking into solutions.
- Scaling the game display to a higher resolution than your CHIP is running at will cause an exception.
In addition, currently the game display can only scale by integer values. This is particularly a problem on composite displays, as most games run at a resolution just slightly higher than half the CHIP's resolution, meaning they cannot be scaled up and also only take up a relatively small amount of the screen (see planned features). Therefore, use VGA or HDMI if possible, or don't use fullscreen mode.Fixed. - While scaling up by non-integer values has been implemented, scaling down by non-integer values (e.g. 0.75) is not yet working. If you’re on composite, I strongly suggest running the chip in 720x480 mode if possible; very few, if any, games will exceed a vertical height of 480.
PLANNED FEATURES
Allow non-integer display scaling. Though not ideal as it may make images blurry, this will improve compatibility greatly with composite displays.Added possible non-integer scaling modes of 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and 4.5. Forcing video modes has also been fixed.- Add an autoscale option to automatically choose the largest scale factor possible without breaking fullscreen.
- Add the ability to use buttons connected to GPIO pins as in-game inputs.
NOTE
Xmame-arm-sdl derives from MAME 0.106. You will need MAME 0.106 compatible ROMs. It is possible to convert ROMs for newer versions of MAME to be compatible for 0.106 using clrmamepro.
ORIGINAL XMAME/XMESS README
Quick Readme by Matt Lowry Last Updated : 12th April 2001
Q: What is xmame? Q: What is xmess?
A: Xmame/xmess is the Unix and Unix-like port of the highly esteemed MAME/MESS system.
Q: What is MAME/MESS?
A: MAME stands for Multi Arcade Machine Emulator. As the name suggests, it is a program that emulates the hardware (and low-level firmware) of a massive variety of arcade machines. MESS stands for Multi Emulator Super System. It is an emulator for the hardware of many different games consules (e.g. Sega, NES, SNES, etc.) as well as many different old games-oriented home computers (e.g. C64, C128, ZX80, etc.) While the two programs are conceptually different, and have different development teams, they share a lot of code and are distributed together.
Q: I'm interested! Where can I get more info?
A: You will find documentation (of sorts) in the doc/ subdirectory. You will probably want to go straight to the xmame/xmess doco: doc/xmame-doc.lyx -> Source LyX file. doc/xmame-doc.html -> Top level page for HTML version. doc/xmame-doc.sgml -> For those suitably persuaded. doc/xmame-doc.ps -> Here's some Postscript we prepared earlier ... doc/xmame-doc.txt -> Plain old boring text. Don't be fooled by the name, the above doco is for both xmame and xmess.
There are also some Unix man pages: doc/xmame.6 doc/xmess.6
There are various other files in the doc/ directory that contain information you may find interesting or useful.
Also you can check out the xmame/xmess homepage at: http://x.mame.net (Deutsche version: http://x.mame.net/german.html)
Q: How do I compile XMAME/XMESS?
A: The documentation (doc/xmame-doc.*) contains detailed instructions, including extra notes specific to particular hardware/OS combinations. READ THE DOCUMENTATION FIRST! Then edit the Makefile (it contains lots of helpful hints). Then run make. No, there is no configure script. Feel free to write one yourself and contribute it to the project. :)
Q: What platforms can I run XMAME/XMESS on?
A: Lots! :) Currently the following CPU bases are explicitly supported in the Makefile: i386 / ia64 / alpha / m68k / risc (various flavours)
The following OSes are also explicitly supported: Linux / FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD / Solaris / NeXT / MacOS-X / IRIX / AIX
The following display methods are explicitly supported: X11(R6) / SVGAlib (Linux only) / GGI (only tested on Linux) / XGL (i.e. X with OpenGL) / XFX (i.e. X with 3Dfx) / SVGAfx (i.e. SVGAlib with 3Dfx) / OpenStep / SDL / Photon2
If your OS is not listed above, then there is also a "generic unix" compilation target that may work for you. The display method of choice is X11. If you have an X server on your system the xmame/xmess will talk to it. The other display methods are aimed at improving the framerate the xmame/xmess runs at, but may not be available on your system.
Q: When I tried compiling went wrong. Help?
A: Read the documentation. In particular the section of the main documentation that discussed compilation.
Q: OK, I've got the source and compiled it. How do I run a game?
A: Xmame/xmess are emulators. They make the hardware in front of you (an X86 box, say) pretend to be the specialist hardware that arcade machines contain. In this way the original game code can run on your PC. So to play a game you need that original game code as well. The documentation discusses this matter in some detail.
Q: I've got more questions!
A: Read the documentation. :)