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Emulator MAME

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digdat0 edited this page Jul 23, 2026 · 2 revisions

Systems: arcade (arcade) · Runs as: homebrew NRO · Get it: lantus/mame-nx releases

Best effort: this guide is community-maintained and may lag behind new releases. The emulator's own site (linked above) is the authoritative source — if anything here doesn't match what you see, trust their instructions.

MAME-NX is lantus's Switch port of MAME 0.72 — the classic-era MAME, not the current one. That version number is the single most important fact on this page: it decides which romsets work, and it's why this emulator behaves differently from everything else on this wiki.

Honest framing up front: MAME-NX saw its last release (v2.3) in April 2020 and targets a 2003-era MAME core. For most arcade games, pFBN or the FBNeo / MAME 2003-Plus cores in RetroArch are better maintained and easier to feed. MAME-NX earns its slot for games those don't cover and for people who specifically have MAME 0.72 sets.

Install

  1. Download the latest release from the GitHub releases page.
  2. Create a folder named sd:/switch/MAME-NX/ (upper case, as shown) and put the .nro in it.
  3. Create a roms subfolder: sd:/switch/MAME-NX/roms/ — this is where game zips go. The ROM path is not configurable.
  4. Launch in full-memory mode: in the homebrew menu, hold R while opening a game (title takeover) and keep holding until the menu appears, then start MAME-NX. Launching as an applet doesn't leave MAME enough memory.

Point it at your HaulNX library

MAME-NX only reads its own roms folder, so this is a copy job rather than a config change:

  1. Download arcade sets with HaulNX — they land in sd:/roms/arcade/.
  2. Copy the zips into sd:/switch/MAME-NX/roms/ with HaulNX's file browser (Settings › Manage data) or from a PC.

Don't point HaulNX's ROM Download Folder at the MAME-NX folder — that setting moves your whole library root, not just arcade.

Romsets: version-locked, and to an old version

  • MAME-NX needs MAME 0.72 romsets. Sets built for current MAME will show as missing or fail to start — this is the same version-lock rule as pFBN, just anchored to a much older version.
  • Note that RetroArch's MAME 2003-Plus core uses 0.78-based sets — close in era, but not interchangeable with 0.72. Keep the collections separate and labeled.
  • The usual arcade rules apply: never unzip or rename the zips, keep BIOS sets (e.g. neogeo.zip) in the same folder, and keep parent sets alongside clones.

Tips

  • Tested-good drivers include CPS-1, CPS-2, Konami, and Midway boards. Late-90s 3D boards are beyond what a 0.72 core on Switch can do.
  • If a game is flagged missing, suspect the romset version before the download — exactly as on the pFBN page.
  • Since the project is dormant, don't expect fixes; if a game misbehaves here, try it under FBNeo or MAME 2003-Plus in RetroArch instead.

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