MAME Questions

[ReyVGM]

Wow, where you living under a rock? How is it possible that you've never posted on a forum before? Did you give up games and now decided to come back to your happy childhood?

[Helder]

Rey how about giving him/her (not sure) a break, not everyone has had access to a computer as long as many members here not to mention OldSchoolGamers history or personal background.

[ReyVGM]

I'm not giving him any heat. I'm genuinely curious on how he managed to stay away from forums or emulators after all this time.

[OldSchoolGamer]

After college there was graduate school, work, and other responsibilities of getting older than didn't leave much time for it. I remember hearing about emulators years ago but never really looked into it. I never knew something like MAME existed though. Finding that out was crazy. As for forums, I guess I never got into that sort of thing. I'll just read news/sports articles and be done with it. If I felt the need to discuss what I read, I would do so with family or friends. The last game system purchase was PS2 and was only purchased to play Madden, SoCom Navy Seals, & Medal of Honor. I never got into any of the newer game systems. I did stop playing video games for years and then one day I broke out my NES/SNES/Genesis and started playing all the great games and the games that I always wanted to beat when I was younger.

[ReyVGM]

I did stop playing video games for years and then one day I broke out my NES/SNES/Genesis and started playing all the great games and the games that I always wanted to beat when I was younger.

Oh you just ruined your life if that's why you entered the wonderful world of emulators. Next you're going to lose your job, family and probably your mind. Just ask me and several other members. Luckily I caught up with the ruse and I'm getting out of the emulator business. But of course, I've been saying that for a couple of years now :P

I won't be here, but a few years from now you'll know what I mean.

[OldSchoolGamer]

After recently discovering them, I haven't slept much the first few days... staying up all night lol

[ReyVGM]

It has started. A few months in, you'll start taking in little projects, then you'll get involved in something bigger. 10 years later, you'll wonder what the hell happened with your life :P

[OldSchoolGamer]

At the end of a ROM title, what does "Set 1", "Set 2", "Set 3", or "Set A", "Set B" etc. mean? Also at the end, what does "AAA", "EAA", "JAA", "JAC", "EBD", "JBD", "EAC", "UDA", "EBC" etc.? (Are they countries and if so, what 3 countries are an example like "AAA"? And what does "Rev. 1", "Rev. 2" "Rev. 3" etc.? (I'm assuming it stands for Revision, so would it be better for someone to play a "Rev. 3" over a "Rev. 1"? And if so, why do they even offer a "Rev. 1" if there is a "Rev. 3" available? And does the same go for "v2.0" vs" "v4.4" etc.? Or is the best one to use the title that has no "Rev" or "v" after it. Example: "Flinstones" or "Flinstones v2.0/Flinstones Set B/Flinstones rev 2"... which Flinstone would be best to use?

[ReyVGM]

Don't worry too much about that. It's just a way of being thorough with the ROM dumps.
When companies release games, they usually do revisions or use different chips on future productions. That's there are so many rom dumps of the same game.

Set 1, 2, etc. just mean that a dump came from different set of chips. The game itself is the same. At least visually. Only developers care about actual differences in the game's code.
AAA, EAA, JAA, etc. means America, Europe, Japan and other regions.
Rev 1, 2, V2.0, etc. means a Revision or Version. In Arcade games, when games had bugs or glitches, the companies would produce a new revision or version to replace the previous ones. That was also a good way to add new content, like new characters or moves. Revisions or Versions were used a lot for Fighting games.

Like I said, don't worry too much about that. The differences between versions is barely noticeable unless you play the games inside out. If in doubt, just play the latest revision or just play the parent ROM.
The parent ROM is the main ROM of the game, usually the one with the biggest zip size. Don't go crazy downloading every single version of a game, just download the main zip (the parent rom) and enjoy.

Also, don't go crazy downloading every single MAME rom, because not only will you probably fill your harddrive with all those crappy mahjong and bootleg games, but also because the MAME team is constantly changing the rom names and adding or deleting rom files from the zips. So if you download a new MAME version, your old rom zips might not work. So just download what you want to play.