MAME Reference Sets

From Retro Arcade Guides

The MAME Reference Sets are listed below:

Reference Set Year Emulators
MAME 0.37b5 2000 mame4all-pi, lr-mame2000
MAME 0.78 2003 lr-mame2003, lr-mame2003-plus
MAME 0.94 2005 AdvanceMAME 0.94
MAME 0.106 2006 AdvanceMAME 1.4, AdvanceMAME 3
MAME 0.139 2010 lr-mame2010
MAME 0.160 2015 lr-mame2015
MAME 0.174 2016 lr-mame2016

Emulators starting with lr- are libretro cores, so they enjoy all the benefits of that: centralized controller configurations, many customization options, netplay, shader/overlay support, etc.

In general these modified older versions of MAME were created for smaller systems with underpowered processors such as the Raspberry Pi.


Guide

To create any of the Reference ROMs and CHDs sets listed above (or any previous version not listed above as well), you need the corresponding DAT File to be used with a ROM Manager:

ROMs (non-merged) sets can be built using the recent "MAME ROMs" and "MAME Rollback ROMs" source sets with a ROM Manager, the (non-merged) dat-file and the guide linked to the sets.
CHDs (merged) sets can be built using the recent "MAME CHDs (merged)" and "MAME Rollback CHDs" source sets with a ROM Manager, the (merged) dir2dat dat-file and the dir2dat guide linked to the sets.
N.B. using the dir2dat dat-file for CHDs ensures building the correct CHD version (v3, v4, or v5).
Sound samples can be built using the "MAME Reference Set Samples" set with a ROM Manager, the dat-file and the guide linked to the sets.

The dat-files are not available to be downloaded currently.

The guide on how to create the Reference Sets is at MAME ROMs Set Creation using a dir2dat (With ClrMamePro).

Merging Explained

It's recommended reading MAME Split Merged and Non-Merged Sets.


See also