Hello and welcome to Mame32, this quickdoc provides a checklist to get started and up to date troubleshooting techniques.

Ensure you have at least DirectX6 for Win95/98.  SP3 or greater for NT4. (both available for download at www.microsoft.com)

1. Download the zipfile of mame32.

2. Create a directory/folder on your hard drive i.e. c:\mame

3. Open this directory and copy the mame32 zipfile into it.

4. Using an archive program like WinZip or Pkunzip, extract the contents of the mame32.zip (ensure you use the -d option in Pkunzip to get recursed subdirectories).

5. Place your game roms (readily available in convenient zip format) into the sub-directory called c:\mame\roms [note game roms are not distributed w/ Mame32].  It's easiest to leave the roms in their zip format, and just dump them into the \mame\roms directory.

6. Place your sample zip files into the sub-directory called c:\mame\samples [note that the sample zips will have the same name as the game roms] Donkey Kong's roms are called dkong.zip and Donkey Kong's samples are also dkong.zip.

7. Double click Mame32.exe, select your game and press play!  Insert coin with key 3, start 1 player game with key 1.  If installing over the top of an  existing Mame32 install, press F5 in game to refresh the GUI list.

8. Starting with version 0.33, you can now have a background image for your details view.  This can be any color depth up to 32bpp, but is quicker with 8bpp.  It should be called bkground.bmp and reside in your \mame\bmp directory.  You can also have icons for each individual game on the list, they must be the same name as the game driver, i.e. dkong.ico.  If a game doesn't have an icon it will default to using one of the four 'base' icons, roms.ico, noroms.ico, unknown.ico and warning.ico.  As you might imagine this makes your personal view of Mame32 quite customizable.  You can get the art packs and icons for Mame32 by going to this site: http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa

Suggested sound settings: 
Without the beta SEAL .dll, the new suggested sound settings are for both NT and Win9x:
Midas/DirectSound, 22050, 8b, stereo.

Graphic suggestions: Through testing on a variety of platforms it appears that the fastest mode would be fullscreen/bestfit with none of the doubling options selected.  GDI is usually faster in the windowed modes at most color depths, things bog down above 16bpp  desktops for some of the newer games.

Troubleshooting, also see: http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa
The Mame QA/Test & Art Dept. for up to date info -
The Troubleshooting Checklist:

Always, prior to reporting a problem, ensure it does NOT happen in the DOS version.

Some non-working games as of b8: Burning Fight, Wonderboy in Monsterland, Toki no Senshi, Sengoku 2, Viewpoint

Roms not being seen:
F5/Refresh in the GUI. (do this anytime you alter your roms, renaming etc.)
Ensure you have merged/renamed roms & proms. (people still don't get this, re-d/l, or get bigproms.zip)
Ensure you have show all games toggled. (this is new, and is missed on the menu sometimes)

Games not Working
Delete the .hi and .cfg files for the game that's troubling you.
Delete this reg. key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Mame32
See if it works with zipped roms in the \roms directory instead of freestanding files.
Check to see that you have a valid zip file and it's not corrupt.
If crashing, try disabling running background apps, viruscans, office bar, Intellimouse, etc.
Ensure you have the latest DirectX video drivers for your cards, install the latest DirectX from MSoft.
Get the multiple neogeo bios files and put them in neogeo.zip, place that in your \roms directory.

Misc. Troubleshooting
Some games (Amidar/MakeTrax have trouble with screen painting, do not check 'draw only changes'.
Icon colors corrupt on the GUI returning from fullscreen games?  Try going to 24 or 32bpp color on your desktop.
Seeing a *severe* slowdown in the latest Mame32?  Make sure 'enable profiler' is not checked.
Joystick trouble?  Did you turn it on in the default options?  Does it show in the game controller .cpl?
Joystick trouble 2: if it shows in the control panel as working, we should handle it. Update the drivers.

John IV, Seattle, WA 
http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa
mame32qa@hotmail.com
98.12.16
