Getting Started

Of course this is just a quick'n dirty way to start ClrMamePro. Please read the documentation about the different modules carefully. You'll learn a lot about the powerful features of ClrMamePro. Anyway...here we go:

Basically it's always the same procedure:

  1. Load a DatFile (Profiler)

  2. Setup valid ROMPaths (Settings)

  3. Scan your Sets (Scanner)
     

Double click the ClrMamePro icon to start it. If everything works fine you will see the 6 main buttons

If you run ClrMamePro the first time, you won't see these 6 buttons but the Profiler Dialog (you may see it without the right part of the window. You can toggle that by clicking on the ">" button in the lower middle of the window.

 

If not, you may see one of the following error messages:

ClrMamePro needs a engine.cfg file (which is normally part of the ClrMamePro archive). This file has to be a valid one and has to be placed in the ClrMamePro folder.

You should consider to update your system. Maybe installing a new mfc42 will help. To do this, get the file: http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vc/mfc42.cab This is a cabfile. You have to decompress the mfc42.exe from it (e.g. with WinZip) and finally you have to run this executable. It will update your system.

If none of the rare upper errors appeared you can configure now ClrMamePro.

 

#1 Loading a DatFile

If you start ClrMamePro for the first time you automatically see the Profiler Dialog.

This is the point where you should read more about the Profiler.

As mentioned before, ClrMamePro needs some kind of data about the roms. Like romnames, setnames, romsizes etc. These information are stored in so called DatFiles. You should use the correct DatFile for the correct emulator. Like a Nebula DatFile for the Nebula Emulator.

There are some Emulators who can provide a romlist directly. So you don't need a DatFile but the Emulator executable.
MAME, MESS, RAINE, PINMAME can do that for example.

So let's setup a DatFile for MAME which is based on the binary of the emulator:

Let's assume your binary is a MAME binary and it is stored in 'd:\temp\mame.exe'. In the lower part of the profiler window you see this section:

The filename is the filename of your binary, the executable type (Emulator) is the type of the binary. For MAME it's of course MAME :o). You have to enter a short description for your binary. With this name it will be listed later.

Click on Create Dat and ClrMamePro will create an exe-based datfile which will be listed in the datfile list. Now you have to load that datfile...

  1. Select the DatFile by clicking on it. Press the Load/Update button.
  2. ClrMamePro will now receive the ROMdata from the binary.
  3. The profiler loads the data and exists.

If ClrMamePro can't receive data from a binary you should check if it's a valid binary which is compatible with ClrMamePro.

 

Using a 'normal' DatFile:

 

After receiving the data you'll see the main window with the 6 buttons.

 

 

#2 Setting up ROMPaths

You should setup some ROM paths now. Go to Settings to setup paths.

 

You should only use ROMPaths which really contain ROMsets for the Emulator you want to check. ROMPaths should only contain roms, no other files like the emulator executable. You can drag&drop folders in the Settingswindow to add rompaths, or click on "Add" to add some.

 

#3 Scanning your sets

A little information about how roms, samples and diskimages should be stored:

<rompath>\<setname>.zip (for compressed sets)
<rompath>\<setname\ (for not compressed sets)

<samplepath>\<setname>.zip (for compressed sets)
<samplepath>\<setname>\sample 1 .... sample n (for not compressed sets)

 

You can go to the Scanner to check your roms.

And now the difficult part...How do you store your roms ?

You have to specify your merged mode. If you don't know what merged ROMs are and what the three possible merge modes are, take a look at the Merger. It's extremely important to specify the correct mode. For your first scan you should disable all fix options. Hit scan and watch what ClrMamePro reports. For further information you should read the Scanner Dialog documentation. If you don't know your used mergemode, you should use "split-merge".

While scanning, ClrMamePro will show you all possible "wrong things" in a separate window:

By enabling the fix options, ClrMamePro will try to fix the problems. Note: Not all problems are fixable, but most are.

So much for the quick'n dirty start. Now spend some time and read the chapters about the different modules.