I've tried many times over the last couple of years to get ClrMamePro to work, but never succeeded. Its always the same: I point to the mame.exe file to create a datfile, click Load/Update and it says database update is needed. Run mame.exe -listxml. I click OK and get another: Found an incomplete datfile or bad exe output.
I know I'm using command-line mame, and during all my current and former attempts I have used a dozen or more versions both older and current. Several versions of Clrmame, and its always as above. Help would be appreciated! I'm trying to make a datfile to run older mame so I can view .inp files from M.A.R.P (ROMS rarely match the version)

> I've tried many times over the last couple of years to get ClrMamePro to work,
> but never succeeded. Its always the same: I point to the mame.exe file to create
> a datfile, click Load/Update and it says database update is needed. Run mame.exe
> -listxml. I click OK and get another: Found an incomplete datfile or bad exe
> output.
> I know I'm using command-line mame, and during all my current and former
> attempts I have used a dozen or more versions both older and current. Several
> versions of Clrmame, and its always as above. Help would be appreciated! I'm
> trying to make a datfile to run older mame so I can view .inp files from M.A.R.P
> (ROMS rarely match the version)
>


Be sure you're using an official build of MAME which doesn't crash when -listxml (or -listinfo for older MAME versions) is used. Try that from the commandline.

Be sure you got write-rights on cmpro's temp folder, and be sure enough diskspace is available (about 20-30MB) there.

Disable virusscanners which may interfear the process.

I can tell you what cmpro does. It runs the given MAME binary with -listxml option and redirects the output to cmpro's tempfolder. After that, the created file is parsed. If it's incomplete, you have a major problem. Maybe it's your harddisk write cache which doesn't work fine (Maxtor drives used to have faulty writecache options)

So...if you rechecked everything, you can still create a dat on your own...Redirect MAME's -listxml output to a file and use that in the profiler (e.g. mame.exe -listxml >c:\mymamedat.dat).


If you're using an old MAME version, you have to set the EMULATOR field to OLD_MAME of course, since the old MAME versions didn't use -listxml but -listinfo.



Roman Scherzer

> > I've tried many times over the last couple of years to get ClrMamePro to work,
> > but never succeeded. Its always the same: I point to the mame.exe file to
> create
> > a datfile, click Load/Update and it says database update is needed. Run
> mame.exe
> > -listxml. I click OK and get another: Found an incomplete datfile or bad exe
> > output.
> > I know I'm using command-line mame, and during all my current and former
> > attempts I have used a dozen or more versions both older and current. Several
> > versions of Clrmame, and its always as above. Help would be appreciated! I'm
> > trying to make a datfile to run older mame so I can view .inp files from
> M.A.R.P
> > (ROMS rarely match the version)
> >
>
>
> Be sure you're using an official build of MAME which doesn't crash when -listxml
> (or -listinfo for older MAME versions) is used. Try that from the commandline.
>
> Be sure you got write-rights on cmpro's temp folder, and be sure enough
> diskspace is available (about 20-30MB) there.
>
> Disable virusscanners which may interfear the process.
>
> I can tell you what cmpro does. It runs the given MAME binary with -listxml
> option and redirects the output to cmpro's tempfolder. After that, the created
> file is parsed. If it's incomplete, you have a major problem. Maybe it's your
> harddisk write cache which doesn't work fine (Maxtor drives used to have faulty
> writecache options)
>
> So...if you rechecked everything, you can still create a dat on your
> own...Redirect MAME's -listxml output to a file and use that in the profiler
> (e.g. mame.exe -listxml >c:\mymamedat.dat).
>
>
> If you're using an old MAME version, you have to set the EMULATOR field to
> OLD_MAME of course, since the old MAME versions didn't use -listxml but
> -listinfo.
>
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>

That was the problem! I was using -listxml instead of -listinfo. Since I don't know much about what I'm doing, I would have never figured that out. I redirected as you suggested and....hubba bubba--nooooo trubba. Thanks for clearing up a couple years of confusion! I'll probably run into more trouble down the line--ya might want to glance back in a day or so to see if I'm drowning.....