I have an iPAQ 3630, have installed MAMECE3 according to the instructions. I can see that it's installed fine, but on many of the games (digdug, galaxian, joust, etc.) the games show up through the self test and never reach the game screen. On some games, I get the black screen which then reverts to the MAMECE screen after a few seconds.

Based on what I've read in this newsgroup and other posts, this happens when you don't have enough RAM available. However, before starting MAMECE (not the large install, just the basic) I have about 10MB of storage and 10MB of 'Program'. This should be enough based on what I'm reading but maybe not.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on what I can do?

Also, can the exe file AND ROMS run on a storage card or must the .exe file stay on the local storage?

Thanks in advance. This rips over PocketNES and there are many reasons for wanting this to run but I can't seem to get it going.

Thanks.

> I have an iPAQ 3630, have installed MAMECE3 according to the instructions. I
> can see that it's installed fine, but on many of the games (digdug, galaxian,
> joust, etc.) the games show up through the self test and never reach the game
> screen. On some games, I get the black screen which then reverts to the MAMECE
> screen after a few seconds.
>
> Based on what I've read in this newsgroup and other posts, this happens when you
> don't have enough RAM available. However, before starting MAMECE (not the large
> install, just the basic) I have about 10MB of storage and 10MB of 'Program'.
> This should be enough based on what I'm reading but maybe not.
>
> Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on what I can do?
>
> Also, can the exe file AND ROMS run on a storage card or must the .exe file stay
> on the local storage?
>
> Thanks in advance. This rips over PocketNES and there are many reasons for
> wanting this to run but I can't seem to get it going.
>
> Thanks.
>

Sounds like you have plenty of free memory. Yes you can move the exe and roms to the storage card.
i'm not sure what the problem could be. Maybe you have an older set of roms(or a newer set)? Try doing a soft reset tehn starting the program and see what happens. Also try frogger, puckman, and tempest. Those are the games I know do not have any problems.
Let me know how you make out.

Cheers,
-Techmaster

Thanks Techmaster. I think your suggestion about the ROMs is what is part of the problem. I now have DonkeyKong, Tempest, SuperZaxxon, etc. running. Frogger, Galaxian and other games don't run though. Perhaps it depends on the ROMs. I had one ROM set of DKong that didn't run at all but found another one that does run.

What is the difference with the various ROM sets you find out there? Is it versioning or just buggy ROM sets?

Anyway, I'm slowly making some progress but am still not sure why Frogger and some others won't run. I'll keep trying. Great app - this is one of the coolest things I've seen yet.

> > I have an iPAQ 3630, have installed MAMECE3 according to the instructions. I
> > can see that it's installed fine, but on many of the games (digdug, galaxian,
> > joust, etc.) the games show up through the self test and never reach the game
> > screen. On some games, I get the black screen which then reverts to the
> MAMECE
> > screen after a few seconds.
> >
> > Based on what I've read in this newsgroup and other posts, this happens when
> you
> > don't have enough RAM available. However, before starting MAMECE (not the
> large
> > install, just the basic) I have about 10MB of storage and 10MB of 'Program'.
> > This should be enough based on what I'm reading but maybe not.
> >
> > Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on what I can do?
> >
> > Also, can the exe file AND ROMS run on a storage card or must the .exe file
> stay
> > on the local storage?
> >
> > Thanks in advance. This rips over PocketNES and there are many reasons for
> > wanting this to run but I can't seem to get it going.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
>
> Sounds like you have plenty of free memory. Yes you can move the exe and roms to
> the storage card.
> i'm not sure what the problem could be. Maybe you have an older set of roms(or a
> newer set)? Try doing a soft reset tehn starting the program and see what
> happens. Also try frogger, puckman, and tempest. Those are the games I know do
> not have any problems.
> Let me know how you make out.
>
> Cheers,
> -Techmaster
>

> Thanks Techmaster. I think your suggestion about the ROMs is what is part of
> the problem. I now have DonkeyKong, Tempest, SuperZaxxon, etc. running.
> Frogger, Galaxian and other games don't run though. Perhaps it depends on the
> ROMs. I had one ROM set of DKong that didn't run at all but found another one
> that does run.
>
> What is the difference with the various ROM sets you find out there? Is it
> versioning or just buggy ROM sets?
>
> Anyway, I'm slowly making some progress but am still not sure why Frogger and
> some others won't run. I'll keep trying. Great app - this is one of the
> coolest things I've seen yet.
>

I'm glad to here you are making progress.

The ROM sets have mutated over time. That is why some sets work and other dont. Older sets had roms that were not used or were hacked to be playable. Slowly as the MAME team figured out what the individual rom files did, they reintegrated them back into the Rom Sets. Also, rom sets are stored in a variety of ways. Some are fully merged (meaning that the game and all clones are stored in one zip file), some are partially merged(the clones are stored individually and the main game is stored with the common files), and finally some are complete split sets (each clone and main game has a full set of roms including the common rom files). The reason behind all this also varies but the most common is to save space.
MameCE3 uses the surce code from MAME final version 0.36 which is that last stable release. So most rom sets should work with it. With roms sites disapearing however, some of the roms you find might be left over sites that stopped maintaing their roms sets and have older versions.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Cheers,
-Techmaster

i also have a similar problem...not sure what is causing it...so far i am only able to get asteroids, circus, gladiator, lunar lander, missile command, qbert, and space invaders to work. cant get pacman and galaga among others. ive tried several different rom sets and sites...

> > Thanks Techmaster. I think your suggestion about the ROMs is what is part of
> > the problem. I now have DonkeyKong, Tempest, SuperZaxxon, etc. running.
> > Frogger, Galaxian and other games don't run though. Perhaps it depends on the
> > ROMs. I had one ROM set of DKong that didn't run at all but found another one
> > that does run.
> >
> > What is the difference with the various ROM sets you find out there? Is it
> > versioning or just buggy ROM sets?
> >
> > Anyway, I'm slowly making some progress but am still not sure why Frogger and
> > some others won't run. I'll keep trying. Great app - this is one of the
> > coolest things I've seen yet.
> >
>
> I'm glad to here you are making progress.
>
> The ROM sets have mutated over time. That is why some sets work and other dont.
> Older sets had roms that were not used or were hacked to be playable. Slowly as
> the MAME team figured out what the individual rom files did, they reintegrated
> them back into the Rom Sets. Also, rom sets are stored in a variety of ways.
> Some are fully merged (meaning that the game and all clones are stored in one
> zip file), some are partially merged(the clones are stored individually and the
> main game is stored with the common files), and finally some are complete split
> sets (each clone and main game has a full set of roms including the common rom
> files). The reason behind all this also varies but the most common is to save
> space.
> MameCE3 uses the surce code from MAME final version 0.36 which is that last
> stable release. So most rom sets should work with it. With roms sites
> disapearing however, some of the roms you find might be left over sites that
> stopped maintaing their roms sets and have older versions.
>
> Hope that clears things up a bit.
>
> Cheers,
> -Techmaster
>

What is the filesize and name of your rom files that don't work (the zip file size)? Also did you try them on the Mame32 or Mame for DOS and run an audit to see if the CRC is good?

> i also have a similar problem...not sure what is causing it...so far i am only
> able to get asteroids, circus, gladiator, lunar lander, missile command, qbert,
> and space invaders to work. cant get pacman and galaga among others. ive tried
> several different rom sets and sites...
>


Cheers,
-Techmaster