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:
Before starting ClrMamePro for the first time, you should check the following:
If you want to use M.A.M.E. and its ROM/sample path settings you should edit your
'mame.cfg'. Search the ROM- and samplepath entries and set it to your ROM- and samplepaths. If you don't have any
roms/samples in the '.\' path you should remove this entry. To make it clear: You should only use valid paths which contain ROMs or
samples.
Ok...Let's start it !
Double click the ClrMamePro icon. You'll see some information about the legal usage of ClrMamePro. If you accept the statements ClrMamePro will finally start. Don't care about wrong placed windows. This will happen at the first start. Place them correctly. The next time ClrMamePro will use the last windowpositions.
Normally you should see a window which informs you about the following steps. If not, an error happened:
Check the ClrMamePro folder for the file zip32.dll. Use the one which is included in this package. Copy it to your ClrMamePro folder.
you're using a wrong version of the zip32.dll. Use the one which is included in this package.
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.
Someone (or you) already started ClrMamePro on your pc before and set some profile options. Close ClrMamePro, remove six icons the registry key (see deinstallation) and try again.
If none of the rare upper errors appeared you can configure ClrMamePro now.
You should go directly to the settings dialog to configure the parser-engine and engine-filename. Let's assume that you want to use a DOS MAME binary. The Parser-Engine should say MAME and the enginefilename should point to your DOS MAME binary (e.g. c:\mame\mame.exe). After that you should setup your ROM- and samplepaths. The easiest way is to import the mame.cfg. You can do that by clicking on the Import Paths at the upper right part of the settings dialog. If you don't have a mame.cfg file you can enter the ROM and samplepaths by hand.
Well...That's it. Press OK and ClrMamePro will receive a ROMlist from the MAME executable. If something goes wrong while receiving data you should check if you have:
After receiving the data you'll see the main window with the 5 buttons. If you want to check your sets you should go to the Scanner.
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.