Set up M.A.M.E.

Metropolis Launcher supports M.A.M.E. and it's built-in game database. The following steps show you how to set up the emulator including its games and media. You can download the emulator from http://mamedev.org, interesting unofficial builds can be found at http://insertmorecoins.es/. In this example we use an unofficial nonag-dinput-hiscore build.

0. Create the mame.ini file and edit it

   M.A.M.E. uses the mame.ini file as configuration. If you don't have a mame.ini already please create one by launching mame.exe -cc or mame64.exe -cc. Configure it with an editor e.g. Notepad.

1. Go to Settings and open the M.A.M.E. Configuration

2. Click the Button to browse the M.A.M.E. executable

  Metropolis Launcher allows mame.exe or mame64.exe. In this example we use mame64.exe

   After selecting the executable, the M.A.M.E. version field should show the selected version.

3. (Optional) browse a history.dat file

   You can download history.dat from http://www.arcade-history.com/?page=download.

4. (Optional) browse a mameinfo.dat file

   You can download mameinfo.dat from http://mameinfo.mameworld.info/.

5. Press the Scan! button

  Metropolis Launcher will now scan the mame database as well as your rom directory and build up the game list. If you provided mameinfo.dat and/or history.dat, Metropolis Launcher will for each game read the information from those files and write it to the game entry's information text field.

6. (Optional) Import Category files

   With Metropolis Launcher you can map categories of M.A.M.E. games from ini files to individual game attributes.

   Recommended category files:

   - NPlayers (http://nplayers.arcadebelgium.be/) - Provides categories for number of players and multiplayer game modes

   - Catlist (http://www.progettoemma.net/?catlist) - Provides categories for genres

   For example: The NPlayers category "2P alt" can be mapped to "Multiplayer Options: Hot Seat" and "Number of Players supported: 1-2 Players" and here is how it's done:

7.1. Decide wether to use Auto Import or not

      Metropolis Launcher ships with over 150 known categories and their respective mapping. If during the import of a category file the category is known and Auto Import is activated, Metropolis Launcher will perform the mapping for the individual files automatically. If Auto Import is deactivated or the category is unknown, you will be prompted with the Game Editor in Multiple Games mode and decide which attributes apply.

7.2. Press the Import button

7.3. Browse the category file

      In this example we use the nplayers.ini

      Metropolis Launcher scans the whole file.

7.4. On unknown category or deactivated Auto Import

      You are prompted with the Edit Game dialog in Category Edit mode for the category and decide which attributes apply.

7.5. On known category and activated Auto Import

      Metropolis Launcher performs the mapping for each individual game. Please be patient on categories which may contain up to 10.000 games.