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ID Category [?] Severity [?] Reproducibility Date Submitted Last Update
08819 Crash/Freeze Major Always Feb 12, 2024, 05:13 Feb 17, 2024, 08:42
Tester trj View Status Public Platform MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To Resolution No change required OS Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
Status [?] Closed Driver
Version 0.262 Fixed in Version Build 64-bit
Fixed in Git Commit Github Pull Request #
Summary 08819: megadriv: Game doesn't seem to run or freezes
Description Load game/ROM:
Mega Man - The Wily Wars (Europe)

Sits at blank black screen, never proceeds.

Validated hash of ROM matches current tables to ensure good ROM.
Tried command prompt, direct load from software list, and front end loading. None of these worked

Was able to load on much older version of MAME 0.211 that I had available and game begins like normal.
Steps To Reproduce
Additional Information
Github Commit
Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems megadriv
Attached Files
 
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Notes
7
User avatar
No.21961
Haze
Senior Tester
Feb 13, 2024, 13:29
works fine if loaded from the softlist

if you don't load it from the softlist it has no idea how to handle the extra hardware in the cartridge

I consider non-softlist loading to be unsupported, as to support any possible configuration you have to rely on nasty heuristics and guesswork, or non-communicated hash matching (which of course then breaks if the user modifies the ROM at all)
User avatar
No.21962
Robbbert
Senior Tester
Feb 14, 2024, 14:11
Tested fine from the software list

>mame megadriv megaman

and

>mame megadriv -cart megaman

both work.

Please check your setup.
User avatar
No.21967
trj
Tester
Feb 16, 2024, 05:30
Thank you for looking into this. I spent a few hours and was still unsuccessful until I located this particular rom in the MAME/Roms folder.

I have all my roms stored elsewhere (Let's just say F:\Games for short), and redirected via the .ini files. My other Genesis and MegaDrive ROMS have been ok. However this megaman ROM to be recognized seems to require it to be in a subdirectory in MAME.

Maybe this is the wrong place to discuss, but could it be because of the EEPROM nature aspect of the cartridge (Haze - you mentioned extra hardware so I assume this may be what you were referring to).

Note that my older MAME (02.11) did not require this ROM to be located within the MAME root directory. For instance I could use
>mame megadriv -cart f:\Games\megaman
and it would load fine. However under the newest MAME, this does not work and only locating it in the MAME\Roms first will work (but then requires >mame megadriv -cart megaman.

I also noted that use of:
mame -verifysoftware megadriv would locate all my roms except the megaman one located in the F:\Games location. If I then located megaman in the MAME\Roms directory (and the ini specifies both locations to search), it would then include megaman from the MAME\Roms while the others were all in F:\Games.

Any idea what is going on? There seems to be a path focus from the mame launch directory, but I'm only seeing it on the one Megadriv ROM.
User avatar
No.21968
Robbbert
Senior Tester
Feb 16, 2024, 09:05
edited on: Feb 16, 2024, 11:33
It would be best if you reorganised your software to what MAME expects.

For example I use E:\software\[swlist]\[software].zip - so, E:\software\megadriv\megaman.zip

In your rompath in your mame.ini file, you would just include the path E:\software, and then it will work for all the swlist software that you have.

Since you are doing non-standard things, you should expect the unexpected to occur.
User avatar
No.21969
Haze
Senior Tester
Feb 16, 2024, 13:21
edited on: Feb 16, 2024, 13:21
You're using the 'loose file loading' not the Software Lists

as I said, I consider loose file loading to be unsupported and liable to cause issues; it is generally incompatible with the way MAME expects things to work.

it probably 'worked by chance' before using the loose method, rather than by design.
User avatar
No.21970
StHiryu
Tester
Feb 16, 2024, 17:13
Better than eliminate things only because people don't know how to use, maybe add some display warnings could be useful or something like that.

Some people have a lot of software roms in no-intro or redump format, can't see the true reason for this to be unsupported.

Mame has a huge documentation page, again, no need to erase things only because people don't read it in first place.
User avatar
No.21971
Robbbert
Senior Tester
Feb 17, 2024, 08:41
Loose software has a place where the software isn't in a list, or the driver doesn't support the required list.

Anyway, this talk belongs on a forum.

Closing this report because there's nothing wrong with MAME as long as you use it properly.