+1 vote
in I have a screenshot by (4.6k points)
edited by

When i wanted to play the Sengoku rom, it gave me this error:

The selected game is missing one or more required ROM or CHD images. Please select a different game.

Press any key to continue.

======================

and for different versions of MAME or different game roms, they all gave this error.

4 Answers

0 votes
by (21.2k points)
 
Best answer

Finally, we got the best answer for this question - that's "ROM file also has a version"(i.e. you rom versoin must be the same with the emulator version you are using.), and this is the root problem.

So, the solution is - Try to download the corresponding version of ROM or make the version of the rom file is the same as emulator or lower at least, and things will be working well then.

In short, either change a different verson (older better) of MAME emulator, or change the ROM version to another (download your ROM from some other sites, then you will find most of time, this is the ROM's problem).

0 votes
by (21.2k points)
edited by

For this problem of MAME, there is not exactly solution, below are the main possbile reasons or solutions, i collected from the Internet:

0. download and try:

1.Different versions of MAME work with different versions of rom dumps, which is the one thing about MAME I don’t like. I guess they keep finding better versions or something.

2.The problem is that the mame developers are constantly changing the romsets of the games. Some of those romsets are hard to find on internet roms sites, so you have to update them using some tools or just try to find the on irc.

3.Maybe try a older release of it with the ROMS you have already ..

4.if the missing file was a bios file , you need try to find the newest bios. 

or the missing file was a rom file, unzip then try copy a similar file to that name, zip again and try. 

if doesn't work, you need find the newest rom or downgrade the sdlmame.

5.Use FBA emulator

6.I recomend you try MAMEUI out it's the same core program but uses a gui to pick your games aswell as audit features that tell you if you are missing any roms, should aslo tell you what you are missing, this will sort and organise your games you can also make it show only working games and other filters, you can even hame MameUI in the same folder as MAME if you like


www.mameui.info/

Older version can be aquired from

http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui_en they should have the MameUI32 1.4.1 version aswell as the MameUI64 1.4.1 (64 bit versions are lower down on the page)

7.Try to run it with MAMEUIfx

http://mame32fx.altervista.org/home.htm

0 votes
by (21.2k points)

Firstly, no rom requests its a breach of this sites AUP.

If mame says you're missing files then you're missing files. Either the site you're getting the roms from isn't hosting roms compatible with the latest version of Mame or you're missing Bios or Parent Roms. Explained Below.

As Mame is updated, roms are often updated as well, code sometimes changes, is added to, redumped or redundant code is removed as the emulation becomes more accurate. 
Basically this means that with each release of Mame a number of roms will need to be updated. Most sites hosting mame roms will specify somewhere what version number of mame they relate to and work with.

Bios files. Lots of Mame roms also require the system Bios rom for that arcade system. For example Neo Geo games require the Neogeo bios rom (neogeo.zip) to be in the Mame/roms folder or none of them will boot. 

Parents and clones. Lots of games in mame have a number of versions. These will be different regional versions of the game (US, EU, JAP etc) and revisions, updates and bootlegs. Rather than have multiple copies of all the game code, what Mame does is has a single 'Parent' rom that contains all of the game code, and all the other versions (called 'clones') just contain the small amount of code that's different for that version.

For games that have more than one version you must have the parent rom in the rom folder or no other versions of that game will work.
If you're using MameUI when you check the gamelist you'll notice there's a column called 'cloneof' if that field is blank then that version of the game is the parent rom, if however there is a romname in the cloneof column, then its that romname that is the parent rom.

CHD's. A few games encapsulated a Hard drive, CD Rom or some other form of Mass storage inside the original machine. What Mame does is use a single common format (CHD) to hold this data. For games that use CHD's there will be a game rom which is commonly a couple of Mb in size and a CHD image which can be anything up to several Gb's in size dependent on the game. You need both the game rom and the CHD to be in the Mame/Roms folder for any of the CHD games to work.
None of the games you mentioned above use a CHD, popular CHD titles are Street Fighter III, Killer Instinct and Carnevil to name a few.

In your case its almost certain that you're missing the system bios roms and/or the roms you're downloading are out of date or you're missing the parent sets.

0 votes
by (21.2k points)
Please be aware of the few harsh realities with MAME... 

1) It's not totally user-friendly. -- Using MAMEui can help by giving you a GUI interface to work with. 

2) You generally need to do a ROMset audit before you attempt to play any game on MAME. -- This will help show you what ROMsets will & won't work in your library. 

3) MAME ROMSET sites are generally geared for a specific version of MAME. -- If you're using a different version of MAME than what's noted, you're likely going to run into issues as files within the ROMsets may require a different name for one version than another. 


One tool that I highly recommend is CLR MAME Pro ( http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/ ), as it can help check for errors & even fix some errors within your ROMset library (as some files are used in multiple ROMsets). I'll note it's not that user-friendly, so it'll take you some time to figure it out. I've been able to increase my ROMset integrity by 10% with it as it eliminates some of the headaches trying to get the proper version. 

Please be aware that SOME ROMsets require BIOS ROMsets. Neo-Geo titles (like the Metal Slug series) are known to require a BIOS ROMset. 


You may want to visit a respectable gaming community with a healthy emulation / MAME group to help you pound out some of these issues.
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