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# Xmame Frequently Asked Questions

## What is MAME?

MAME is an arcade machine emulator. Started in 1997 by Nicola Salmoria, MAME started out as a series of emulators for individual games. This series of emulators was combined into a simgle multi-game emulator. This is the current form of MAME; no longer a one-man show, there are over 100 contributors to the project.

MAME was created by Nicola Salmoria.

Also see the official mame readme file (readme.mame)

## What is MESS?

MESS is just like MAME---a virtual machine emulator, only it doesn't emulate arcade machines but rather computers and consoles.

Also see the official mess readme file (readme.mess)

## What is xmame/xmess?

Xmame/xmess are the Unix/X11 ports of the MAME and MESS projects. It makes MAME/MESS available on UNIX and similar systems using the X11R6 X-Window System (and SVGAlib/ggi/XF86-DGA/OpenGL/SDL too).

MAME was orginally ported by Allard Van Der Bas, Dick the Ridder, Juan Antonio Martinez, and Hans de Goede.

Xmame/xmess is currently maintained by Lawrence Gold.

## What are the differences between MAME/MESS and xmame/xmess?

None significant.

Xmame/xmess is based on the MAME/MESS source code. Due to technical reasons beyond the scope of this document, the MAME/MESS source may not compile under Unix. That's why the xmame/xmess project exists. Each time MAME/MESS is updated, the code is tested (and patched if needed) under Unix. This way xmame/xmess releases are always the same as their MAME counterparts.

There are no plans for the independent development of xmame/xmess.

## What hardware and operating systems are supported?

Xmame runs on both little-endian and big-endian CPUs, using aligned integer access if needed and is compatible with 64 bit CPUs. The current list of supported CPUs in the makefile is:

- i386 + gnu-asm

- i386 no asm

- alpha

- ia64 (merced)

- m68k

- generic risc (PowerPC, Sparc, HPPA, IBM)

- generic risc, lsb-first (RISC (Ultrix machines))

- mips (generic risc + SGI compiler bug workarounds)

Adding support for another cpu (if necessary) should be trivial.

The following Unix platforms are specifically supported:

- Linux

- FreeBSD

- NetBSD

- Solaris (SunOS)

- OpenStep (noasm only on i386)

- IRIX with sound using the dmedia package or the new al package (sound currently broken)

- AIX (sound currently broken)

- generic unix, no sound

The generic unix entry should work for any reasonable standard Unix variant, but lacks sound since there is no single Unix sound standard.

On all platforms, zlib is now needed since the core uses it. Ff you don't have zlib, use the included one by uncommenting the appropriate line in Makefile.

The following display methods are supported. X11 is the only one which works on all platforms, except for OpenStep which only works with Openstep bitmaps:

- X11 (X-Window System), including optional support for Xv, OpenGL, and Glide.

- SDL (Simple Direct Medialayer)

- svgalib

- GGI (Generic Graphics Interface)

- Glide using svgalib for input (3DFX)

- OpenStep bitmaps

- Photon2 on QNX

The following is a list of arch/os/display combinations, with maintainers, for arch/os/display combinations which are actively supported. Please mail the maintainer of the arch/os/display combination for compilation and other arch/os/display specific problems. Mail Lawrence gold@aros.net for generic (e.g., X11) problems.

- i386/linux/x11 (+DGA) -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- i386/linux/svgalib -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- i386/linux/xgl -> Sven Goethel `<sgoethel@jausoft.com>`

- i386/linux/xfx -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- i386/linux/svgafx -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- i386/linux/ggi -> Christian `<cpg@aladdin.de>`

- alpha/linux/x11 -> Christian `<cpg@aladdin.de>`

- alpha/digital unix/x11 * -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- powerpc/linux/x11 -> Andreas `<sid@skater.htu.tuwien.ac.at>`

- powerpc/linux/svgalib -> Andreas `<sid@skater.htu.tuwien.ac.at>`

- i386/freebsd/x11 -> Jacob A. Hart `<c9710216@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au>`

- i386/netbsd/x11 -> Dave `<dave@dtsp.co.nz>`

- alpha/netbsd/x11 -> Christian `<cpg@aladdin.de>`

- Sparc/Solaris/x11 -> Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`

- i386/Unixware7/x11 * -> Richard `<xmame@frogface.ddns.org>`

- i386/openstep -> Pete French `<pete@toybox.twisted.org.uk>`

- Sparc/SunOs -> Saga `<jolletx@cybercable.fr>`

- mips/irix/x11 -> Dingus Family `<ddingus@uswest.net>`

We are always looking for people willing to test and answer questions about xmame on a new arch/os/display. This takes very little work and could help other people tremendously. If you're interested, mail Lawrence `<gold@aros.net>`.

## My system is supported but xmame/xmess gives me errors and fails. Why?

Xmame/xmess should run on 16, 24 and 32bpp true color displays. If your X server does not support any of these display types, xmame/xmess will not run. Support for 8bpp pseudo color displays may return in future versions.

You can verify your X server support by starting your X server and running the xdpyinfo program. See the xdpyinfo manual page for more information.

## What is the role of the xmamerc/xmessrc file?

A normal xmame/xmess invocation looks like:

        xmame pacman -sound -nojoy -frameskip 2 -heightscale 3 \
            -widthscale 2

Most of the time, you will want to use the same configuration for each game. xmame/xmess will read this file for default values for the parameters that you can set. This way the only parameters you need to express on the command line are the ones you want to override.

Another reason for xmamerc/xmessrc is keyboard remapping. Some Unix keyboards are very different than their PC counterparts. To compensate for the changes, xmame/xmess allows you to remap keys that are not available on Unix keyboards to keys that are available.

## What is the syntax of the xmamerc/xmessrc file.

The syntax is quite simple:

       "keyword value"

See xmamerc.dist for most keywords. Allmost all commandline options can be used as keywords (without the -), use value 0 or 1 for commandline options which have a negating (-no[option]) counterpart. As usual lines begining with "#" are comments.

You can also generate a configfile with all the current settings to use as a template by typing:

       xmame -showconfig > ~/.xmame/xmamerc

## Where do roms, images, samples, highscores, configfiles, etc go?

### Roms/Samples

Xmame/xmess uses a ":" seperated rompath to find out which dirs to search for roms/samples.

The default rompath is XMAMEROOT as defined in Makefile during compile.

This is overwritten by any rompath in xmamerc/xmessrc, which can be overwritten again with the -rompath commandline option.

Xmame/xmess searches every dir in this path for roms/samples in the following way:

        <dir>/gamename.zip             (containing filename.ext)
        <dir>/gamename/filename.ext
        <dir>/gamename/filename.ext.gz (containing filename.ext)
        <dir>/gamename/filename.zip    (containing filename.ext)

So let's say that we are searching for rom0001.1, which is part of pacman. Then xmame/xmess would search every dir in your rompath for

        <dir>/pacman.zip               (containing rom0001.1)
        <dir>/pacman/rom0001.1
        <dir>/pacman/rom0001.1.gz      (containing rom0001.1)
        <dir>/pacman/rom0001.zip       (containing rom0001.1)

Note: If your neogeo games can't find neogeo.rom, put it in a dir called neogeo somewhere in your rompath, or put it in neogeo.zip somewhere in your rompath.

### Read/write Diskette Images

This section only applies to xmess emulations which support read/write diskette images and thus try to open the image read/write.

Xmess first searches for read/write images with the name specified on the commandline:

        <path>/image.ext

where path is the path specified with the image on the commandline. This way, absolute and relative filenames can be used directly on the commandline for an image which is not in the rompath.

Then xmess searches every dir in the rompath for roms/samples in the following way:

        <dir>/image.ext

Note that (g)zipped images are not supported for r/w images.

### Rom Cartridges/Read Only Diskette Images

Xmess begins by searching for cartdriges/disks from the current dir in the following way:

        <path>/image.ext
        <path>/image.ext.gz            (containing image.ext)
        <path>/image.zip               (containing image.ext)

where path is the path specified with the image on the commandline. This way, absolute and relative filenames can be used directly on the commandline for an image which is not in the rompath.

Then xmess searches every dir in the rompath for carts/images in the following way:

        <dir>/image.ext
        <dir>/image.ext.gz             (containing image.ext)
        <dir>/image.zip                (containing image.ext)

Finally, xmess searches the rompath as desribed above using the systemtype for gamename.

So let's say we want to play mario.nes on the nes emulation of xmess. We would then type: "xmess nes mario.nes". Xmess then begins by searching the current dir for

        mario.nes
        mario.nes.gz                   (containing mario.nes)
        mario.zip                      (containing mario.nes)

After that, xmess searches each dir in your rompath for

        <dir>/mario.nes
        <dir>/mario.nes.gz             (containing mario.nes)
        <dir>/mario.zip                (containing mario.nes)

And finally, xmess searches each dir in your rompath for

        <dir>/nes.zip                  (containing mario.nes)
        <dir>/nes/mario.nes
        <dir>/nes/mario.nes.gz         (containing mario.nes)
        <dir>/nes/mario.zip            (containing mario.nes)

Since xmess first searches for cartridges/disks from the current dir you can also specify cartridges/disks not in your rompath. For example:

        "xmess nes ../mario.nes"

Xmess then searches for

        ../mario.nes
        ../mario.nes.gz                (containing mario.nes)
        ../mario.zip                   (containing mario.nes)

and will also search the rompath as described above with ../mario.nes as the image name but this is not that useful.

### Artwork

Xmame/xmess searches every dir in the rompath for artwork in the following way:

        <dir>/artwork.png
        <dir>/artwork.png.gz           (containing artwork.png)
        <dir>/artwork.zip              (containing artwork.png)

Then xmame/xmess searches the rompath as in roms/samples.

So let's say we want to play foo which uses bar.png. Xmame/xmess then begins searching each dir in your rompath for

        <dir>/bar.png
        <dir>/bar.png.gz               (containing bar.png)
        <dir>/bar.zip                  (containing bar.png)

And then xmame/xmess searches each dir in your rompath for

        <dir>/foo.zip                  (containing bar.png)
        <dir>/foo/bar.png
        <dir>/foo/bar.png.gz           (containing bar.png)
        <dir>/foo/bar.zip              (containing bar.png)

### Xmame configuration

Xmame looks for the following configuration files and parses each one found. Files parsed later can overwrite options in previously parsed files:

        XMAMEROOT/xmamerc
        XMAMEROOT/xmame-DISPLAY_METHODrc
        ${HOME}/.xmame/xmamerc
        ${HOME}/.xmame/xmame-DISPLAY_METHODrc
        ${HOME}/.xmame/rc/<gamename>rc

XMAMEROOT is defined during compile time, see Makefile.

DISPLAY_METHOD is the display method for which xmame was compiled, and can be one of: x11, SDL, svgalib, ggi, svgafx, openstep, and photon2.

For xmess, of course replace “xmame” with “xmess”. ;)

### Game configuration

Game configuration files are kept on a per-user base in:

        ${HOME}/.xmame/cfg/<game>.cfg resp
        ${HOME}/.xmess/cfg/<game>.cfg

### Game state

Game state files are kept on a per-user base in:

        ${HOME}/.xmame/sta/<game>.sta resp
        ${HOME}/.xmess/sta/<game>.sta

### NVram

NVram files are kept on a per-user base in:

        ${HOME}/.xmame/nvram/<game>.nv resp
        ${HOME}/.xmess/nvram/<game>.nv

### Mem cards

Mem cards files are kept on a per-user base in:

        ${HOME}/.xmame/mem/<filename>.mem resp
        ${HOME}/.xmess/mem/<filename>.mem

Where <filename> is given by the game-driver.

### Screenshots

Screenshots, which can be made by pressing F12, are saved as png files in the directory from where xmame is started (cwd).

This can be overridden by the snapshot_directory entry in xmamerc/xmessrc, which can again be overridden by the -snapshot_directory command line option.

They are saved as:

        <snapshotdir>/<game>xxxx.png
        Where xxxx is a number.

### High scores

High scores are stored in XMAMEROOT as defined in Makefile when building. This can be overridden by the hiscore_directory entry in xmamerc/xmessrc, which can again be overridden by the -hiscore-directory command line option.

So only give a

        drwxrwsr-x root games <highscoredir>

permission and setgid xmame/xmess to “games” to get it to work. Note this doesn't work with suid root versions (svgalib and XF86 DGA); suggestions are welcome.

For now, use

    ${HOME}/.xmame

or

    ${HOME}/.xmess

as the high score dir in xmamerc/xmessrc for suid root versions.

Note: For high scores to work, xmame must also be able to find hiscore.dat.

### hiscore.dat

If you want to use high scores, xmame needs to load hiscore.dat to get high score info.

The default is XMAMEROOT/hiscore.dat. XMAMEROOT is set at compile time; see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the hiscore_file entry in xmamerc if present, which can again be overridden by the command line option -hiscore_file.

hiscore.dat is available from the MAME homepage: http://www.mame.net

### cheat.dat

If you want to use cheats, xmame needs to load cheat.dat to get cheat info.

The default is XMAMEROOT/cheat.dat. XMAMEROOT is set at compile time; see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the cheatfile entry in xmamerc if present, which can again be overridden by the command line option -cheat_file.

cheat.dat is available from the MAME homepage: http://www.mame.net

### history.dat

If you want to display some nice background info on games, xmame needs to load history.dat.

The default is XMAMEROOT/history.dat . XMAMEROOT is set during compile-time, see the Makefile. This can be overridden by the history_file entry in xmamerc if present, which can again be overridden by the command line option -history_file.

history.dat is available from the MAME homepage: http://www.mame.net

### Input logs

Input logs are saved/read under the name specified after the -record / -playback option; this name is relative to the current path.

### Xmame/xmess still can't find files/store high scores

Type "xmame/xmess -showconfig | more" and check that the rompath and hiscore_directory shown are correct and readable and writable. Otherwise, recheck xmamerc/xmessrc. Remember that xmess also searches the current dir.

## How do I start xmess/xmame ?

To start xmame, type

        xmame [options] <gamename> [more options]

For xmess, type

        xmess [options] <systemname> [more options] \
        <disk/romimage(s)> [more options]

All options are optional. ;)

Xmame/xmess supports most dos command line options (see doc/mame/windows.txt and doc/mess/windows/main.htm) as well as a few of its own: Type xmame -help | more for a complete list.

With xmess, some systems don't require a disk/romimage, but most do.

## What are the command line parameters for xmame/xmess?

To see a list of available parameters, type:

        /usr/games/xmame -help | more

Xmame/xmess supports most of the same command line parameters as the Windows version as well a some of its own.

See the file doc/mame/windows.txt / doc/mess/windows/main.htm for more information about the command line parameters.

## What keys does xmame/xmess use?

Xmame/xmess uses the same key bindings as the Windows version of MAME: The following keys work in all emulators:

    `  or ~      Enter On screen display to change volume, brightness etc.
    Tab          Enter configuration menu. Press Tab or Esc to get back to
                 the emulation.
    P            Pause
    F3           Reset
    F4           Show the game graphics. Use cursor keys to change set/color,
                 F4 or Esc to return to the emulation.
    F8           Reduce frame skip
    F9           Increase frameskip
    F10          Toggle speed throttling
    F10 + shift  Toggle idle sleeping
    F11          Toggle speed display
    F11 + shift  Toggle profiler display
    F12          Save a screen snapshot
    ESC          Exit emulator

Xmame's X11 display target allows you to switch between different modes and to toggle fullscreen using the following key combos:

    Key combo:             Switches to:
    left-alt + insert      Normal X11
    left-alt + home        Xv
    left-alt + page up     OpenGL
    left-alt + delete      Glide
    left-alt + end         XIL
    left-alt + page down   Toggle between windowd and fullscreen

You can also change certain settings in the X11 target:

    left-ctrl + delete                Toggle mouse grabbing
    left-ctrl + end                   Toggle keyboard grabbing
    left-ctrl + left-alt + insert     Toggle bilinear filtering
                                      (OpenGL and Glide only)
    left-ctrl + left-alt + home       Toggle cabinet view
                                      (OpenGL only)
    left-ctrl + left-alt + page up    Increase vector beam size
                                      (OpenGL only)
    left-ctrl + left-alt + page down  Decrease vector beam size
                                      (OpenGL only)
    left-ctrl + left-alt + end        Toggle antialiasing
                                      (OpenGL only)

Xmame has 2 different auto frame skipping algorithms. These can be selected with the -frameskipper option and with key combos:

    Key combo:             Gives you the:
    left-ctrl + insert     Standard DOS frame skipper
    left-ctrl + home       William Barath's frame skipper

Xmame's display scaling can be controlled on the fly with the following key combos:

    Key combo:             Result:
    left-shift + insert    Increase width scale
    left-shift + delete    Decrease width scale
    left-shift + home      Increase height scale
    left-shift + end       Decrease height scale
    left-shift + page up   Increase scale
    left-shift + page down Decrease scale

Video effects can also be altered on the fly:

    left-ctrl + page up    Select next display effect
    left-ctrl + page down  Select previous display effect

Under SDL, xmame can switch to and from different modes during runtime:

    Key combo:             Result:
    left-alt + enter       Toggles between windowed and
                           fullscreen modes.

## Why doesn't a game have sound?

- First check that sound is working in other applications.

- Check that sound is supported for the game that has no sound; not all games have sound.

- For xmame, take a look at doc/mame/gamelist.txt: Is the sound for the game emulated?

- For xmess take a look at doc/mess/windows/suppsys.htm: Is the sound for the system emulated?

- Check the operating system support chart in the earlier part of this file: Does xmame/xmess support sound on your system?

## My sound seems lagged. / My sound Clicks. / What does -bufsize do?

With the -bufsize commandline option or the bufsize configfile keyword, you can specify the number of frames of audio to buffer. The default is 2 frames.

This value should be ok for everyone, but if you still have problems, read on.

If the buffersize is to small, this causes the buffer to get empty between frames which in turn causes clicks/pauses in the sound. If this is the case, increasing the -bufsize value to, for example, 2.5 should help.

If, however, you make the buffersize too large, then so much audio becomes buffered, that the sound could become lagged. E.g., you would hear the coin drop sound 0.5 seconds after pressing the insert coin key. In this case, lower the bufsize to, for example, 1.5.

Please let me know if you need to change this setting, since I'm planning on removing it in a future release.

## Why doesn't a game work?

- Do you have the right roms or did you get checksum failures?

- Xmame version 0.34 and higher require PROM files that were not included in ROM images released before version 0.34. See the question on PROMs below for more information.

- For xmame, check the file doc/mame/gamelist.txt to see if the game is playable. Just because a game is included doesn't mean it is working yet.

- For xmess, take a look at doc/mess/windows/suppsys.htm. Maybe the system isn't emulated all that well yet.

- Some games require sound support. If you don't have sound support under your Unix installation or sound isn't supported by xmame/xmess for you, try the -fakesound command line parameter.

## What are PROMs?

PROMs contain game-specific information that used to be built into MAME in versions prior to 0.34. This information has been extracted and is now included with new versions of ROM files for games that require this information.

If you want to use your current ROM files, you can obtain just the PROM images in one large file at:

http://mame.retrogames.com/

## Why is xmame/xmess slow?

Xmame/xmess is a compiled C program that is emulating hardware. Software emulation of hardware always incurs a speed penalty. Here are some things you can do:

- Try using the -frameskip command line parameter.

- Try pressing F8 while running xmame/xmess to alter the frame rate.

- Try disabling the throttle with the -nothrottle command line parameter or by pressing F10 while running xmame/xmess.

- While running xmame/xmess, press F11 to check the speed of xmame/xmess. If you never get a display of 100%, you need a faster computer.

You can also try recompiling xmame/xmess with more optimal settings. The following suggestions may not work or may not be appropriate on some machines and in some installations. However, in cases where they do work, there can be a noticeable increase in overall performance of xmame/xmess.

These "enhancements" simply require editing the Makefile that is distributed with xmame, and then recompiling the source. If you are compiling the source for the second time you will need to do:

        make clean
        make
        make install

after editing the Makefile to set your new settings.

### SPEEDUP # 1 - Inline compiling

Try enabling inline compiling by commenting and uncommenting the following lines:

        # IL    = '-DINLINE=static inline'
        IL     = -DINLINE=static

### SPEEDUP # 2 - Direct Graphics Access

For a big boost, try enabling DGA by uncommenting the following line:

        DGA = 1

Then start xmame as root, and press left-alt + home to switch to dga mode; that should be a lot faster, and doesn't need/use xsync. ;)

To get back to a window without exiting, press left-alt + insert.

The benefit of DGA is that it is Direct Graphics Access and therefore writes directly to the framebuffer (think DirectX versus GDI under MS Windows). So it should be a tad faster, unless you've got a really really well accelerated X server, which could be just as fast. Try pressing F11 to see the actual framerate, although it might be hardly noticable (visually, at least), it should give you some speed increase.

Besides that, it automatically switches to the right mode and removes any window manager stuff, but that can be done without DGA too. (I might add such a feature later, since it allows easy fullscreen without running as root.)

Adding a 320x240 mode will most definitely get you a very nice fullscreen display at scale = 1. ;)

Don't forget that you still need to set up the Modes line of the "Display" subsection of the "Screen" section in your X11 config file if you want the games to fill the screen in DGA mode. Xmame will pick the best mode it can find, so if you have a line like

        Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "320x240" "256x224"

then any game which fits into a 320x240 screen can be displayed in that resolution, and so on. Don't forget your X11 config file might have a number of different "Screen" sections in it, and you will need to add Modes to the one that is actually active with your Xserver is running. And of course it's not always that easy, since you also need to tell X which monitor settings are required for these resolution modes. This is done through Modeline entries in the "Monitor" section of your X config file.

You can check out the /contrib/tools/modelines file for a set of crazy modes made especially for xmame in DGA mode. They should work on any reasonable multisync monitor, but don't use them on an old fixed-frequency monitor. (And if you can't resist trying, I won't pay for a new one!)

### SPEEDUP # 3 - NASM

You can also try installing nasm and compiling the asm core, that helps a bit too.

### SPEEDUP # 4 - ICC

If you are running on an intel architecture machine, you could try to compile xmame with the Intel C Compiler. Some people have reported speed gains from +10%.

## I've got a dual processor machine. What can I do to take full advantage of this?

Not much. Xmame is a single-threaded port of a single-threaded DOS app. Some degree of speedup will hopefully be found on an SMP machine since xmame is more likely to get to hog its one CPU for longer. But of course the same applies to any CPU-intensive program. And all the things one would normally do to any application to give it more CPU time (higher priority, kill or renice unecessary process, etc.) will work with xmame.

Now you may at this point be thinking, “Surely you could have one thread doing emulation and another thead doing graphics to get a speedup.” Yes, but there are some serious issues to consider. The first is synchronisation between the threads, which needs to be pretty tight. If not done smoothly. the overhead will blow most of the benefit away. Also, it needs to be implemented with a portable threads interface ... which basically means POSIX threads. In a nutshell, it's a lot of effort for probably not much gain. But of course if you are feeling particulary energetic and in the mood to code, then patches can always be submitted to the xmame devel mailing list ... :)

## Why doesn't my joystick handle diagonal movement correctly on my Intel x86 system?

Xmame/xmess uses autocalibrating, but you could try to use specific programs to calibrate it (jscal that comes with joystick module works fine....).

## How do I enable XinputExtensions X11 based joystick in Xfree86?

You need to edit XF86Config to enable the XInput section. See the manual page for XF86Config.

## How do I read a manual page?

Easy. If you want to read the manual page for XF86Config, type: man XF86Config

## Why do I get gz_open symbol not found while compiling?

Xmame/xmess versions newer than 0.35 use zlib for some compression routines. Unfortunately, a lot of Linux distributions have an old version of zlib installed as /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a, and the new version installed as /usr/lib/libz.a. If this is the case, it's harmless to remove /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a. If you're not sure whether this is the case, just move /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a to another location.

Removing or just moving /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a should fix this problem.

Also see: FAQ: Why do I get zlib.h not found?

## Why do I get zlib.h not found?

Xmame/xmess versions newer than 0.35 use zlib for some compression routines.

Zlib is standard on most Unix versions. For those whose platform doesn't ship with zlib or ships with a version that is too old, you can use an included version of the library by uncommenting “BUILD_ZLIB = 1” in the makefile.

## When I run xmame.x11, nothing happens---no window pops up or anything. Help!

Are you running a recent version of KDE, such as 2.1.1? It appears that there's a bug with KDE's window manager that prevents some X11 apps from popping up their main window. You can either run the SDL version of xmame, or try the following workaround, which several people have reported as being successful:

    xmame.x11 -rid `xwininfo -root | grep xwininfo: | awk '{print $4}'`

## Can I run xmame fullscreen?

Yes, of course you can. There are several ways to accomplish this, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

To enable the fullscreen support, you will need to change some settings in the makefile and recompile xmame.

Besides the x11 and SDL drivers, the FX and GL drivers are also capable of playing games full screen. There is a separate chapter for these later on.

### xmame.x11/DGA

First, before recompiling, make sure you have an xserver with the “xfree-dga" extension enabled (do a “xdpyinfo” and see if you've got the “xfree-dga" extension); any recent release of XFree86 should have it.

Select “DISPLAY_METHOD = x11” and uncomment the line “X11_DGA = 1" in the makefile.

Now build xmame and give the xmame.x11 file permanent root permissions so that you don't need to start xmame as root (do a “chown root xmame.x11" and a “chmod u+s xmame.x11").

If you want to start immediately in fullscreen mode, start xmame.x11 with the "-fullscreen" argument or specify "fullscreen 1" in your xmamerc file.

During play you can switch between windowed and fullscreen mode. See What keys does xmame/xmess use?

### xmame.x11/Xv

Xv is the X Window System video extension. Among other things, it supports hardware scaling if your graphics card (and X driver) is capable of doing so. You can achieve a very nice fullscreen display without taxing your cpu very much because the scaling will all be done by your video card.

To determine if your video card supports the Xv extension, you may use this command:

    xvinfo

If you don't see a message indicating “no screens found”, then the Xv extension is supported by your machine.

To compile this into xmame, select “DISPLAY_METHOD = x11” and uncomment the line “X11_XV = 1” in the makefile.

Build xmame, and use the -fullscreen parameter when loading a game to get a nice fullscreen display.

If the colors seem messed up and/or you only see half of the game image, try using “-yuv” or “-yv12”. By default, the Xv extension attempts to use RGB mode if your driver supports it, but some cards' drivers are broken.

If your screen goes blank or gets full of little green vertical lines, then your graphics card does not support the Xv extension and you're out of luck.

### xmame.x11/OpenGL

To use OpenGL, you must have:

- An OpenGL implementation

- libjpeg

- hardware 3D acceleration (if you want any kind of decent framerate)

Select “DISPLAY_METHOD = x11” and uncomment the line “X11_OPENGL = 1" in the makefile. Follow the general instructions for installing xmame. There are some additional makefile options:

- For runtime printed debug info, add “-DGLDEBUG” to the “GLCFLAGS" variable.

- GLU version 1.2 is recommended (e.g., from SGI). If you use Mesa's GLU, you may have to add “-DGLU_VERSION_1_2” to the “GLCFLAGS”.

The OpenGL driver also adds several command-line options:

        -[no]gldblbuffer        Enable/disable double buffering
                                (default: enabled)
        -gltexture_size <int>   Force the max width and height of one
                                texture segment (default: autosize)
        -[no]glbilinear /       Enable/disable bilinear filtering
        -[no]glbilin            (default: enabled)

        -glbeam <float>         Set the beam size for vector games
                                (default: 1.0)
        -[no]glantialias /      Enable/disable antialiasing
        -[no]glaa               (default: disabled)
        -[no]glantialiasvec /   Enable/disable vector antialiasing
        -[no]glaav              (default: disabled)
        -[no]cabview            Start/don't start in cabinet view mode
                                (default: don't start in this mode)
        -cabinet <cabname>      Specify which cabinet model to use
                                (default: glmamejau)

Three cabinet models are provided. The default, "glmamejau", is designed to look like a standard arcade cabinet, like "glmame". The last one, "trans", is a box with a transparent game screen.

Note that in order to display the game options or the fps display in vector games, the game's bitmap is overlaid above the vector display. Drawing the bitmap is a big cpu hog for some low-end hardware accelerated OpenGL implementations, so you'll notice that the game slows down when the bitmap is overlaid.

Because bitmap overlaying is the default, you can toggle it on and off by pressing the "RIGHT_ALT-O" key, or turn it off at startup by using the command line option "-noglbitmap".

A problem with vector games and the cabinet mode is that some vector points do not reside within the screen coordinates, so you may see some vectors outside of the cabinet's MAME display.

*** IMPORTANT! ***

If you have trouble with GLmame, or it is slow, read the "Common Questions" section. Most of the questions people email me are answered here.

#### Cabinet Models

Cabinet model information is stored in the "cab" subdirectory of the directory you specified with the ROMPATH variable in the Makefile. Path information specified in xmamerc or with the 'rompath' shell environment variable is currently not used. Each cabinet model has it's own subdirectory. GLmame will first try to load either the user-specified cabinet model (using the -cabinet command-line option), or a model corresponding to the current game name. Failing that, it will use the generic "glmame" model.

A cabinet model directory must contain a geometry file <modelname>.cab, and any .jpg files used for textures on the model. The format of the .cab file will be familiar if you have ever programmed using OpenGL -- it looks much like an OpenGL display list. The format is as follows:

        cabv1.1

This header must be the first 7 characters of the file.

        #<text>

Comment lines begin with '#'

        begin <type>

Begins a geometry object, where type is one of (points, polygon, quads, quad_strip, screen). Each "begin" must be paired with an "end" statement. A "polygon" is specified using one vertex per, well... vertex. "quads" are four-sided polygons, each specified by four vertices in order around the polygon. A "quad_strip" is a series of four-sided polygons, each of which shares an edge with the polygons before and after it in the strip. A "screen" is a quad that defines the actual area in 3D space where the game will be displayed. only one of these should be defined. For more info, look at any description of OpenGL geometry.

        end

Ends the geometry object begun with "begin".

        pointsize <s>

Changes the current pointsize to the corresponding size value (specified as a floating point number between 0.0 and, e.g., 20.0). Note: You cannot use this statement between begin and end!

        color4 <r> <g> <b>

Changes the current color to the corresponding rgb value (specified as floating point numbers between 0 and 1).

        color4 <r> <g> <b> <a>

Changes the current color to the corresponding rgba value (specified as floating point numbers between 0 and 1).

        shading <type>

Sets the shading type. available types are "smooth" (which blends colors from one vertex to the next) or "flat" (which doesn't).

        vertex <x> <y> <z>

Specifies a vertex for the current geometry object as a point in 3-space.

        numtex <num>

Specifies the number of different textures to be loaded. This declaration must precede any "loadtex" call.

        loadtex <num> <width> <height> <filename>

Loads texture number <num> from .jpg file <filename>. The .jpg file *must* be <width> by <height> pixels, and both <width> and <height> must be powers of two (and must conform to the hardware requirements of any 3D card you want the cabinet to work with -- 256x256 for 3Dfx).

        texcoord <xcoord> <ycoord>

Sets the texture coordinate of the next vertex. This specifies where in 2D texture space the vertex lies.

        enable texture

Enables texture mapping (using the currently-selected texture).

        disable texture

Turns off texture mapping.

        settex <num>

Select texture <num> for doing texturing. The texture must previously have been loaded using "loadtex".

        camerapan <num>

Starts the camera pan definition that will be followed by <num> camera transistions. After the last transision definition, the pan sequence must be ended with an "end" statement.

        goto <lx> <ly> <lz> <px> <py> <pz> <nx> <ny> <nz>

Relocates and reorients the camera. The arguments are the same as are used by the OpenGL command "gluLookAt()". The camera is positioned at point <lx,ly,lz>, pointing along vector <px,py,pz>, with "up" normal (the direction that is "up" for the camera) <nx,ny,nz>.

        moveto <lx> <ly> <lz> <px> <py> <pz> <nx> <ny> <nz> <frames>

Moves the camera to a new location (specified as in "goto"). The transition occurs over <frames> frames.

All commands must be on separate lines. Use the (somewhat) commented glmamejau cabinet as an example to work from.

#### Present Limitations/Bugs

- No clipping of vector games (most noticeable in cabinet mode).

- No preservation of game aspect ratio in cabinet mode.

#### Future Work

- Fixing existing bugs .. are there any ? Or are there some unknown features only ;-) ?

- Optimize the drawing code to update only the changed portions of the game bitmap. Optimizing the dirty code ..

#### License

The GLmame code is based upon Mike Oliphant's GLmame code version 0.6.

The GLMame code is Copyright 1998 by Mike Oliphant. It may be used and distributed under the terms of the MAME license.

Since GLmame version 0.7, the code has been changed and improved heavily by Sven Goethel --- no license change, of course!

#### Version History

v0.83 -- March 29th, 2001 ---------------------------

- Changed the code heavily to improve compatibility and speed. The new code is a re-merge of the GLMame32 code, which is a branch of Mike Oliphant's GLmame code version 0.6.

- For a detailed list, please consult the file changes.opengl within the distribution's documentation directory! You can also view the current changes.opengl here: http://www.jausoft.com/glmame.html

v0.6 -- December 14th, 1998 ---------------------------

- added support for systems that do not support paletted textures (SGI and solaris OpenGL implementations, for example)

- merged source with xmame b8.1

v0.5 -- October 30th, 1998 --------------------------

- fixed a bug with texturing being left on in bad places

- added 3Dfx gamma adjustment

v0.4 -- October 21st, 1998 --------------------------

- updated to work with xmame v0.34b5.2

v0.3 -- October 12th, 1998 --------------------------

- fixed verticle screen centering in fullscreen mode

- moved cabinet and camera panning information into a user-editable configuration file

- added 'trans' cabinet model o added double buffer, view type, and cabinet selection command-line options

v0.2 -- October 6th, 1998 -------------------------

- adding missing 'cab' directory

v0.1 -- October 5th, 1998 -------------------------

- first public release

#### Authors

Since GLmame version 0.7: Sven Goethel (sgoethel@jausoft.com) http://www.jausoft.com/glmame.html

Till GLmame version 0.6: Mike Oliphant (oliphant@ling.ed.ac.uk) http://glmame.linuxgames.com

FXmame, a glide driver for xmame

The latest version of this driver can be obtained at http://glmame.linuxgames.com.

### xmame.x11/GLIDE

To run with 3Dfx support, you must have:

- A 3Dfx card

- Glide 2x or 3

- The xmame distribution

Select “DISPLAY_METHOD = x11” and uncomment the line “X11_GLIDE = 1" in the makefile. For Glide 2x support, also uncomment “GLIDE2 = 1”.

The Glide driver adds several command-line options:

        -fxgama <value> 3Dfx gamma correction value

#### Common Questions (FAQ)

Q: When I run with Glide support, it just dumps core.

A: Make sure you are running xmame as root. Root privileges are required to access the 3Dfx hardware

Q: When I run with Glide support, it just hangs at the initial game screen.

A: Are you running KDE? For some reason, I can't get keyboard input under KDE. If you have this problem, switch window managers or use xmame.svgafx instead.

#### Present Limitations/Bugs

- Antialiasing isn't working quite as well as it should

- Input problems under KDE

#### Future Work

- Optimize the drawing code to update only the changed portions of the game bitmap.

#### License

The FXmame code is Copyright 1998 by Mike Oliphant. It may be used and distributed under the terms of the MAME license.

#### Version History

v0.5 -- December 11th, 1998 ---------------------------

- implemented long copies in screen update

- added dirty handling. this greatly increases the speed of games that support the dirty update strategy (although most of them are older games that already ran at full speed on modern hardware)

- merged source with xmame b8.1

v0.4 -- October 30th, 1998 --------------------------

- improved alpha handling in vector games - now bitmapped overlays do not dim the screen o added svgalib support (xmame.svgafx) o fixed a tiling bug that gave artifacts on texture tile boundaries

v0.3 -- October 29th, 1998 --------------------------

- got rid of extra lines in vector games o added bitmap overlay in vector games to show options/fps o added antialiasing in vector games

v0.2 -- October 28th, 1998 --------------------------

- added screenshots o added 3Dfx gamma adjustment o added direct acceleration of vector games (still buggy)

v0.1 -- October 27th, 1998 --------------------------

- first public release

### Authors

Since fall of 2004: Hans de Goede

Original author: Mike Oliphant (oliphant@ling.ed.ac.uk) http://glmame.linuxgames.com

### xmame.SDL

The SDL library was meant to make it easy for programmers to make full screen applications. To start SDL in fullscreen mode, just run xmame.SDL with the option '-fullscreen'. If you want to know the resolutions that SDL can use, run “xmame.SDL -listmodes”, choose the resolution you want, and start ”xmame.SDL -modenumber <insert chosen number here>”.

You can add “fullscreen 1” to your xmamerc file if you want SDL to start fullscreen automatically; the modenumber line can also be used in the xmamerc.

Most problems experienced by people who are trying to use SDL for fullscreen are related to the section fullscreen has a large border

During play you can switch between windowed and fullscreen mode. See What keys does xmame/xmess use?

## I am only getting a few frames-per-second in xmame.x11/OpenGL. This sucks! What gives?

- You're probably running Mesa in software mode. You should read the "README.3Dfx" file in the Mesa distro. Specifically, you need to "setenv MESA_GLX_FX fullscreen".

- You don't have a 3D graphics card. Go buy one (see below)!

## When I run xmame.x11/OpenGL, it just dumps core. That's not as much fun as 3D Pac-Man, now is it?

- If you are using a 3Dfx card, make sure you are running xmame.x11 as root. Root privileges are required to access the 3Dfx hardware.

- If you're using Mesa and haven't upgraded to v3.0, do so.

## When I run xmame.x11/OpenGL, everything is messed up.

Read the above experiences, and try

- switching your X server's bpp value, e.g., switch from 32bpp or 24bpp to 16bpp;

- the command line option "-bpp 16";

- the command line option "-noglaa".

## xmame.SDL / fullscreen has a large border around the game.

If the game runs in fullscreen but occupies only a small area in the center of the screen, then your xserver does not have access to low resolutions (320x240, 400x300, and 512x384, for instance). In the case of SDL, the window will be in the resolution of closest matching resolution that SDL can switch to for full screen display.

In this case, you have to add "Modelines" for these resolutions in your XF86config file and add these resolutions to the resolutions list of your display somewhere in your XF86config file (you know, the list of resolutions you can switch to using ctrl-+).

You should find modelines that works with most graphic cards in the xmame contrib subdirectory.

If you don't want to alter your XF86config file, another solution is to run xmame.x11 with the "-scale 2" argument. In this case, the emulator will use 640x480 instead of 320x240, 800x600 instead of 400x300, etc. But I don't recommend it. The scaling uses cpu and the games will run more slowly.

However, if your cpu is fast enough, a better option is to use the effects, e.g., ”-ef 1”. This introduces advanced render methods to create a nicer looking effect than the simple scaling. On the website you can see screenshots of the different effects.

## I only use some of the emulation parts (Neo Geo / CPS-2 /...). Do I need the entire xmame?

There used to be targets such as “cpmame” and “neomame”, but these have been removed from the core.

## Why does xmame freeze and lock up when I hit <ESC> to exit the game or P to pause the game?

There appears to be a bug in the "timer-based audio" code that xmame/oss uses on at least one motherboard that we are aware of. Specifically, the ATX 845Pro (Intel Pentium 4 processor) with an integrated i810 soundchip.

To get around this bug use EsounD (Enlightened Sound Daemon), found as esd with Gnome distributions, instead of the oss sound drivers.

Compile ESOUND support into the xmame executable by uncommenting the appropriate line in makefile.unix. Tell xmame to use esound by specifying "esound" on the "dsp-plugin" line in xmamerc, or use the -dp command line parameter to select esound. Also see the next section below.

## Why does xmame report “can't resolve host name '/dev/dsp'” when trying to use esound?

Remove the words "/dev/dsp" from the "audiodevice" line in xmamerc. In other words, you want to have the word "audiodevice" on a line all by itself, with no audiodevice specified.

## Where can I get the latest version of xmame/xmess?

The xmame/xmess Home Page always has the most up-to-date version. The address is

http://x.mame.net/

## I upgraded xmame and now some games do not work anymore.

This can happen, especially if the drivers are in full development or some internal core routines have changed and the drivers have to be updated to accomodate for these core changes. Sometimes a new romdump has been made from the game and you still have the old version, or the zipfile has changed names and you need to rename yours (or any combination of these factors :-).

Here are some things you can do:

1. Clear all the old configuration files, nvram files, etc. Also delete the content of the directories mem, nvram, cfg, and try to run the game again. Don't forget to delete the default.cfg file!

2. If that fails, check to see if the name of the zipfile is still in the list of supported games. If you enter an invalid game name, xmame will take a guess to determine which game you wanted; look at the first lines of output to see if it tries to load a different game than the one you want. To know if your game is still supported, try 'xmame.x11 -list gamename'. If you do not pass a game name, the complete list of supported games is printed, and you can search for the new game name (better use 'xmame.x11 -listfull').

3. If the name hasn't changed, check to see if you have the correct romdump. Run 'xmame.x11 -verifyroms gamename' to check your romset. If this fails you will need to download a newer romdump. Also check your parent roms as a possible cause of this romset failure.

4. Read the documentation!! Or like the experts would say, “RTFM!” :-) Chances are that if the driver is broken, the developer has noted this in the documentation.

5. If the above steps don't solve the problem, then check to see if it is a known problem; if necessary, report it to the MAME Testers project.

If none of these fixes the problem, then try using the older version of xmame you have backed up somewhere to play the game. (You did back-up, didn't you?)

## Where can I send fixes, bug reports, suggestions, or money? :-)

See Mail of this document.

## What if my question is still not answered?

Please check the offical MAME and MESS readme files to see if that answers your question:

- The official mame readme file (readme.mame)

- The official mess readme file (readme.mess)

If that doesn't help, then ask your question on the mailing list or send it to the xmame/xmess maintainer, see Mail for contact information.

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