MAME

With MAME, a small Lua plugin reads the values from the game's RAM and hands them to ArcadeDMD. It only reads. It changes neither the game, nor the controls, nor MAME's settings.

Installing the plugin

install.bat copies the plugin into MAME's plugins\arcadedmd folder. MAME 0.227 or newer is needed, the installer shows your version. MAME loads the plugins of its plugins folder by itself, mame.ini and plugin.ini are not touched.

The frontend (LaunchBox, BigBox, HyperSpin...) needs no setting. MAME loads the plugin every time it starts.

Checking the plugin

Start a game, press Tab, then go to "Plugin Options". You should see ArcadeDMD with the detected game and the values read live.

If it does not appear, check in MAME's Plugins menu that it is enabled, or add the line arcadedmd 1 to plugin.ini (in the MAME folder or in ini\). If it appears but nothing shows on the marquee, the root path in MAME\plugins\arcadedmd\settings.json must point to the ArcadeDMD folder (see Troubleshooting).

What MAME gives that RetroArch does not

• The credits of every Neo Geo game. They live in the MVS backup memory, which MAME reads and RetroArch's FinalBurn Neo core does not share.
• Any MAME game. With "takeover": "all", a game without a file of its own gets the generic scene (its title, and its Pixelcade marquee behind on a Pixelcade).

Learning a game under MAME

For a game whose score or credits nobody documented, the plugin takes RAM captures. Press Right Ctrl + D when the score is stable (or Tab, Plugin Options, ArcadeDMD, the RAM capture entry), at three or four moments, then quit MAME and run learn.bat. See Learning Addresses and the example of After Burner II in Other Games.

With DOFLinx

MAME runs several plugins at once. The DOFLinx and ArcadeDMD plugins do not get in each other's way, and ArcadeDMD does not touch the output setting of mame.ini that DOFLinx needs. See OBS and DOFLinx.

Turning it off

Add the line arcadedmd 0 to MAME's plugin.ini, or delete the plugins\arcadedmd folder.