> it says that it is running "/dmame.exe -listinfo"
> then it sits there and times out with a error.

Then you really got a problem ;)
Guess you tried dmame under Windows XP/2K/NT. Don't do that. These OSes don't have DOS and the DOS builds of MAME will fail. Use the official win32 build MAME binary from www.mame.net. They work flawlessly.


> ... how do i get the DAT
> files from 081/82 so that i can up date my romsets?

mame.exe -listinfo > my_cool_datfile.dat


Roman Scherzer
ClrMamePro