U S E R ' S . G U I D E

1. Info options
2. Video options
3. Audio options
4. Misc options
5. Keys
6. Configuring Controls
7. Misc
8. Preferences
9. High Scores & Dipswitches
10. Sound Samples

When you launch MacMAME, you'll be presented with the front end dialog, which looks like this:

On the left is the list of games MacMAME found in the ROMs folder which it supports. Non supported games or those with incorrect filenames are removed. The correct filenames are listed in the "readme.txt" file that is in the Documentation folder.

There are two ways these ROMs can be stored:

1.The .zip file. This type has a ".zip" extension on the name. It is the preferred format to use, not only because it's much smaller than the others, but it helps speed up loading of the front-end.

2.The "folder". This is a folder whose name matches one of those listed in the "readme.txt" file. You will get these if you unzip any of the ROM sets on the 'net. Save yourself some hard drive space and leave them zipped.

Additionally, you can group the ROM files within the "Roms" folder into subfolders. For example, if you want, you can group all the Pac-Man clones into a sub-folder called "Pac Junk". Better yet, you can force MacMAME to keep this folder closed in the front-end by adding a dash ("-") to the end of the name, so that "Pac-Junk-" will always appear closed and you won't have to look at the ROMs inside. Double-clicking on a folder in the front-end will open and close it, so that you can see or hide the ROMs inside. These sub-folders have an arrow in the icon telling you if they are opened or closed.

On the right are four tabbed panes, the first of which is labelled "Info". Let's look at the options. (Most of the options listed below have equivalents in the menu bars, so I won't cover the menu options here.).

.:1. INFO:.

The Info tab has a pull-down menu which displays a variety of information about any game currently selected in the game list. See above for picture.

Screenshots: The big empty box is where MacMAME will load a screenshot of the game you have selected in the front-end. For MacMAME to find the screenshot, it must be in a subfolder called "Screenshots" and it must have a name which matches the 8-letter ROM set. For example, if you want to see a screenshot of "Donkey Kong", you must have a file called "dkong.pic", "dkong.jpg" or "dkong.gif" in the Screenshots folder.

Hardware Info: Selecting this option displays information about the selected game's arcade hardware, manufacturer, date of manfacture, and what type (if any) of analog control is used for a game.

Credits: Lists the names of the people who have contributed to the MAME driver for the selected game.

Mini Audit: Gives a quick list of the status of your set of ROMs for a selected game compared to a known good set.

(back to top)

.:2. VIDEO OPTIONS:.

The second tab is labelled "Video".

Here are the options available.

Full Screen: This checkbox determines if MacMAME will run in a window or hide the desktop and menubar. It's purely cosmetic, but I find that Full Screen mode is less distracting and more immersive.

Enable Auto-frameskipping: You can get the best performance out of some games by letting MacMAME take care of increasing or decreasing the frame skip settings to keep pace with the emulation. This options will adjust the frameskip (up to 5) to keep the emulation running as close to 100% as possible.

Display sizes:

* Actual size: This means that every pixel in the game is one pixel on the Mac screen. Quite a lot of games only had resolutions of 256x256, which is quite small by today's standards. Because the screen size is smaller, this mode can be fast.

* Double size: For every pixel in the original, 4 are drawn on the Mac screen to effectively double the screen size. This mode works nicely on today's 640x480 and especially 800x600 screens.

* Double size, Scanlines: Every other vertical line is skipped, giving the impression of "scanlines" that were present in the original machines low-quality TV-like monitors. Less data is pumped to the screen, so this mode is slightly faster than plain Double-size.

* Triple Size: The image is triple the size of the default.

* Triple Size, Scanlines: The image is triple the size of the default. Every third row is skipped, fiving the impression of a thin scanline. If you have a large monitor or can support very high resolutions (1024x768 or higher), this option will give the best-looking and most realistic video at the expense of some speed.

* Note: Although you can specify sizes larger than 1x1 in the front-end, MacMAME will drop them back down to Actual Size if the game window is too large for your screen. That is, if you are running a game with a 256x256 screen, it will double to 512x512. If your Mac screen is set to 640x480, this obviously will chop off lines on the top and bottom. You can force it back to a double size by hitting the appropriate menu-bar shortcuts - Command-2, Command-3, Command-4 or Command-5 during gameplay.

Standard Rotation: This checkbox tells MacMAME that you want the image on the screen to always be rotated so that the top of the game screen is at the top of the Mac screen. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Keep reading...

If you uncheck Standard Rotation, you have the ability to adjust the game window in a variety of manners. This is primarily useful if you'd like to squeeze more of the game on the screen by turning your monitor sideways and playing the game that way. It's also useful if you run MacMAME from within a real arcade cabinet hooked to a monitor and you've got an obscure set-up.

* Rotate left/Rotate right: Does what it says. The game image is rotated 90 degrees left or right.

* Flip x-axis/Flip y-axis: The game image is mirrored along one of these 2 axes.

* No rotation: The game image appears exactly as it does in the arcade. Some games are "vertical" games, like Pac-Man, and were originally played on monitors turned on their side. By playing the game like this, turning your monitor on it's side and playing with double-size & scanlines, you will have authentic vertical scanlines. Neat, eh?

Vector options: These are only enabled if a vector game is selected in the list.

* Flicker: Controls the amount of 'flicker' visible in the vector lines. Crank it up for a more authentic experience, at the cost of some speed.

* Beam width: Think the vector lines are too skinny? You can adjust them here so they are nice and fat.

* Anti-aliasing: This option smooths out the vector lines, resulting in a more accurate emulation of the original vector monitors. The cost is speed. Turn this off to get more oomph out of the vector games.

(back to top)

.:3. AUDIO OPTIONS:.

The third tab is labelled Audio.

Here's a breakdown of the options present.

Sound: Checking this box tells MacMAME to emulate the sound chips and audio CPUs in some games. Most of the time,you'll want to leave this checked. Some games will run a lot faster if this is unchecked, particularly those with a special 2nd CPU dedicated entirely for sound. For example, play Donkey Kong with this checked and unchecked and you'll notice the top speed is much higher when it's not emulating the audio CPU. The downside is that some games require the audio to work properly. Experiment with this if speed is an issue for you.

Emulate FM: Checking this box tells MacMAME to emulate specialized FM sound generation chips. These chips produce advanced sound effects for some games, but they can be quite CPU intensive. If you're having speed problems with some games, you might want to uncheck this to see if it helps. For example, Rastan uses FM sound for its music. Turning it off will speed it up.

Use 16-bit audio: 16-bit audio produces better-quality sound, but at the cost of speed.

Stereo: Enables stereo for games that support it, at the cost of faster speed.

Sample rate: You have a choice of 3 sample rates, from decreasing to increasing quality: 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz and 44100 Hz. Like 16-bit audio, the tradeoff is accuracy vs. Speed. Pick the one that works best for you.

Volume: The slider represents the volume used by MacMAME. This is completely independent from your Mac's system volume so keep that in mind. Changing the system volume won't affect MacMAME and vice versa.

(back to top)

.:4. MISC OPTIONS:.

The last panel, labelled "Misc", allows control over some of the gameplay features in MacMAME.

Generate debug log: You'll want to leave this unchecked, unless you

a) want to fill up your hard drive with a file called error.log or
b) are perversely curious about the internal workings of the emulation. This is primarily of use to those writing new drivers for MacMAME.

Speed Throttle: When checked, MacMAME holds the game speed to 100%. Unchecking this will allow some games to run faster, depending on the speed of your Mac. It's quite a trip to play Pac-Man at 300%. You'll want to keep this checked unless you're bragging to PC users about the speed of your Mac. :)

Allow Cheats: Enables in-game cheats (if a cheat file is present in the Cheats folder for a particular game).

Ignore other applications: You'll want to keep this option checked in most cases. It allows MacMAME to steal as much time as possible to run as fast as it can. As a result, if you're running in a window, you'll notice the clock in the menubar doesn't update while you're playing a game with this option checked. MacMAME can only steal so much though, so if you're connected to a network or the internet while it's playing, it will run slower than if you are disconnected. This option is also called "Hog CPU" in the Options menu.

Load/Save Replay: MacMAME supports creating "replay" files which are essentially recordings of your keystrokes as you are playing a game. You can use the replay options to record a high-score-breaking session of Warp Warp, then send this recording to your friends to show them what a stud you are. Of course, it's hard to look like a stud when playing Warp Warp.

Save list of All Games/Samples/ROMs/Info: These are merely informative lists that MacMAME can generate to tell you more about which games and sounds it supports.

Audit ROMs: Tells you how your ROM sets stack up. If any are missing or invalid, you'll know about it.

Analyze Romsets: For advanced users who want every scrap of info about their ROMs they can get their hands on.

Audit Samples: Same as above, only with the sound sample files.

Configure Joystick: If you have a joystick that has Input Sprocket support (and the Input Sprockets extensions from Apple) you can custom configure your joystick from within MacMAME.

(back to top)

.:5. KEYS:.

Here's a quick breakdown of the keys:

The keys may be configured for each game. Most games use the arrows to move and control, option and space to fire.

(back to top)

.:6. CONFIGURING CONTROLS:.

Hit the TAB key. It will bring up a menu like this:

Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select Keys (this game).
Hit RETURN.

You'll get a menu like this:

The left column are the arcade controls, the right column are the Mac keys used for those controls. Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select a control you want to change. Hit RETURN and the item in the right column will disappear. Hit the key you want to assign to that control and its name will appear in the right column. Repeat the process for other controls. When finished, hit TAB a couple of times to you get back to the game.

(back to top)

.:7. MISC:.

There are a few other features which need to be documented.

Preferences. MacMAME will look first in the same folder as the application for a file called "MacMAME Prefs" and use this file. If it's not found, it looks in the Preferences folder. This is useful mainly if you keep multiple versions of MacMAME around and don't want your prefs to get out-of-sync.

High Scores and Dipswitches. The high scores are stored in a folder called "Scores" while the Dipswitches are stored in a folder called "Config". Both of these are located in the same folder as the MacMAME program. If you were using an older version of MacMAME and have your files in a folder called "Settings", MacMAME will look there first and migrate these old settings into their new locations. This was changed so that scores and dipswitch files can be exchanged with PC users with little hassle.

Sound Samples. Some games don't emulate all the sounds, rather they play sample sound files. In these cases, the sounds are placed in a folder called "Sound Samples" which is found in the same folder as the MacMAME application. Like the ROM files, they can be .zip files or folders. There is no equivalent to the "Super ROM" format for samples. Also, the .zip and folder names must match those of the ROMs. For example, the Asteroids samples must be named "asteroid.zip" just like the ROM file.