mame chd files download CHD files. CHD is a lossless compression format originally developed for MAME, for the hard-drive contents of certain arcade machines. It has since been used in several other emulators as a means of storing CD-ROM game data. For CD-based games, it compresses the contents of a disc image ( .cue + .bin files) to a single .chd file. Creating CHDs from CD-ROMs. CHD files can be created using the chdman program, developed by the MAME project. It is a commmand line application and creating a .chd file from an existing .cue is performed by running: To compress every file in a directory, use: To compress every file in subdirectories within a folder, use: Windows. The following archive contains a MAME 0.205 version of CHDMAN and Windows batch files that can be used to quickly convert your PSX games to CHD (V5): Download. Run the appropriate batch file in the same folder as the ROM(s) you wish to compress, and it will search subfolders for .cue files to compress. If a .chd is not generated after running the appropriate batch, then something is wrong with the ROM(s) .cue . MacOS. In MacOS, chdman can be installed through Homebrew, with the following command: Linux. On Debian based systems, including RetroPie, chdman can be found in the mame-tools package and can be installed with: MAME ROMs Explained and Where To Download Them. To play arcade games on your computer you will need to use the MAME emulator. You can either download this as a stand-alone program or use it from within one of your front-end emulator systems, such as RetroPie or LaunchBox. Getting the MAME software installed, and running is very straightforward. Just install the downloaded software or enable the emulator core and you’re all set to go. Please check out my Arcade emulation tutorial for full details. But when it comes to getting games working it can be a bit tricky and very confusing. MAME ROMs don’t work the same way as other emulators. To get a game to work you need a few different ROM files and it’s not always obvious which ones you need. In this post I’ll show you how MAME ROMs work, what you need to get games working, and where you can download the files you need. How Do Emulators Work? To understand ROM files, we first need to understand how emulators work. An emulator is a piece of software that runs on your pc or laptop that simulates the hardware of some other computer system, for example an arcade cabinet or a games console. The hardware of the computer you’re trying to emulate consists of several electronic circuit boards with various microprocessors and support chips which are in turn connected to the controls, speakers and display. The emulator must model each of these processors and support chips in software. Once that’s all being emulated we can use a copy of some original game software and it will run as if it were using the real computer hardware. For most games consoles and home computers, the electronics inside the box didn’t change for different games. So, emulators for these systems know which microprocessors and support chips they need to emulate. The emulator can be built around this specification needing only the game software to change to allow you to play all the games. Arcade cabinets are different. Quite often specialised cabinets were built for specific games. Once a cabinet was built for one game it would then be reused for a number of other games, with possibly a few modifications to the internal workings. Arcade cabinets also tended to have more complicated circuits having multiple processors handling different parts of the system. The MAME emulator must be able to account for all these differences and put together the correct combination of processors and associated circuitry for each arcade cabinet before it is able to run the game software. MAME ROMs are therefore split into several different types. As well as the actual game software ROMs you also need device ROMs, which simulate different parts of the arcade cabinets, and BIOS ROMs which contain the base system software for specific circuit boards. So, multiple ROM files are required to run a single game. This collection of files forms a ROM set . What Are MAME ROM Sets? An individual ROM file is simply a dump of the information stored in a read only memory chip on a circuit board. It contains the software that drives that component of the computer system. As we’ve seen in the previous section an arcade cabinet needs a number of these pieces of software, together with the hardware emulators to run any arcade cabinet. A MAME ROM set simply gathers all the files required to emulate a game into a single archive file. When you load a game into MAME it knows which files it needs to emulate that arcade cabinet. It then looks for these files in the ROM set archive file. So, to get any game working in MAME you need a complete ROM set . What Are Split ROM Sets? Although arcade cabinets were often specialised to a specific game, they were of course reused for other games. Many of the circuit boards were built in a modular fashion so that parts could be swapped in and out to customise the system. This does mean though that there were a lot of common parts between different games. When arcade machine emulation started back in the 1990s computer storage was expensive. Reducing the amount of data you had to store was particularly important. As you’ve just seen a lot of the files needed to run a set of games are duplicated across the different ROM sets. This is why the concept of a split ROM was developed, to stop this unnecessary duplication. Parents and Clones. Arcade games can be grouped together based on the original arcade cabinet they were developed for. The game that ran on the original cabinet can be thought of as the parent of all the games that were developed using the same cabinet. These child games are termed clones in the MAME system. A parent ROM set contains all the files that are common to both the parent and all the clones of that arcade cabinet. It also contains the parent game files which allows that game to run from just the single parent ROM set. Clone ROM sets only contain the specific files needed for that clone, along with the actual game software itself. A clone ROM set can’t run without the parent ROM set. This system using parent and clone ROM sets is called a split ROM set , common files have been split out to parent sets. BIOS and Device ROM Sets. Most of the files required to run a game are contained in the parent and clone ROM sets. But most systems also require BIOS and device ROM sets to completely emulate any particular arcade cabinet. Different parent games may use different arcade cabinets but again several the components are common across a number of systems. These common component files were again split out of the full ROM set files into the separate files for the BIOS and device ROM sets. What Are Merged ROM Sets? If you’ve managed to follow along this far you will now understand that any single arcade game requires a parent ROM set and a clone ROM set, and that games can be grouped together by their parent. The MAME emulator finds files by first looking in the ROM set that you ask it to emulate, and if it can’t find some of the files it then checks to see if there is a parent ROM set. The thinking behind a merged ROM set is that if MAME expects to find the files it needs in the ROM set that you ask it to run, then why not put all the files for all the games in a particular group into one single ROM set. This ROM set will include the parent ROM set files and every single clone ROM set file. When you then ask MAME to run a game it will have every file needed in this single, multi-game ROM set. So, a merged ROM set file lets you run a parent game and every single one of its clones. And Don’t Forget CHD Files! Just to add one more layer of complication MAME also makes use of CHD files. Newer arcade machines didn’t have all the software built into ROM chips on the circuit board. Like modern consoles they had hard disks, DVD drives, CD drives and LaserDiscs. The data stored on these types of media tends to be large, so MAME uses a different file format to compress and store this data. These files are Compressed Hunks of Data files, CHD . So on top of the various ROM set files you may also need a few CHD files to get a game to work. What Are the Best Types of MAME Files to Download? There isn’t really a right or wrong answer. If you’re downloading individual games, you’ll most likely be downloading split ROM sets. So, your games won’t run until you’ve also downloaded any other ROM sets that they depend on. This can sometimes be an awkward process and you can spend a lot of time trying to piece together the files you need to get a game working. Merged ROM sets will give you a group of games in one go with all the associated ROM files so these can be a better bet if you can find them. My advice for the easiest way to get your arcade games up and running is to download a full reference set. These contain all the ROM set files for all of the arcade games that MAME supports. It will be a big download, upwards of 50 GB for just the ROM set files without any CHD files, but you’ll get everything you need to start playing your games in one go. MAME Versions. Another confusing part of the MAME system is versioning. The MAME emulator is continually being updated to improve compatibility and expand the number of games that can be emulated. With each new version of MAME some of the ROM files get updated. Perhaps a better version of the ROM image is created, errors are fixed for the new version just simply requires some modifications. Whatever the reason it means that not all ROM set files will work with all MAME versions. Usually, a reference set is created each time a new version of MAME is released. My best advice is to always use the reference set that matches the version of MAME you’re using. You can mix versions, but you’ll find some games won’t work. If you’re using a standalone version of MAME, you will already know the version number. If you’re using something like RetroArch or RetroPie, you’ll probably be using a libretto core which is sometimes versioned by year. Again, you need to make sure that you use the correct reference set for your core. If you have a look at, you’ll see a list of which MAME version goes with which libretto core. Where to Download MAME ROMs. As with any ROM download, you’ll need to have a search around to find the ones you want. Emuparadise has a great archive but can be a bit hit and miss depending on which version of MAME you’re running. As I’ve already mentioned my advice is to download a full reference set. I found the best place to find these is at https://archive.org. Just use the search box to search for MAME followed by the version number you want. For example, I needed some MAME ROMs for my RetroPie installation where I was running the lr-MAME-2003 core. This required MAME version 0.78. Searching for this on archive.org gives a few options. There are a few options on how you download the files from archive.org, but by far the best way is using BitTorrent which will hopefully decrease your download time from a couple of days (yes, I do mean days) to a few hours. BitTorrent uses the community to supply the files you need, but in a safe environment where it keeps tabs to ensure the files are valid and untampered with. Again I’ll put links below so you can find out more. Where to Find Your Missing MAME ROM Files. If you’ve been downloading individual games or using a reference set that doesn’t match your MAME version, you might get error messages telling you about missing ROM files. It can be hard to work out which ROM set you need to download to fix these errors. The Arcade Database can be a great help in working this out. If you search for the game you’re having problems with you’ll find a page which gives you all the information about that specific ROM set along with which parent ROM set that belongs to and which platform ROM sets (BIOS and device) you need to run it. From here you can start working out which other ROM sets your game ROM set depends on. Get Playing! So hopefully you now understand everything about MAME ROM sets. The only thing left to do is to install MAME, download a reference set and start playing. MAME CHD Files. MAME, which is short for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is one of the most compatible emulators for arcade games. It is widely popular among vintage arcade game fans. But while it is an extremely versatile emulator, it isn’t the most user-friendly options out there. If you aren’t familiar with the basics of using MAME, you probably won’t be able to figure it out as you go along. In this article, we will explain the most important MAME terminology, from ROMs to CHDs. Once you have mastered these concepts, you can dive in and enjoy all your favorite games. MAME Terminology You Need to Know. Before we begin to explain the key concepts that all MAME users have to be familiar with, you should know which MAME to install on your computer. MAME is completely open-source, so not only is the entire emulator free to download but its source code is free for developers as well. That said, the best place to download MAME from is their official website. From there, click on the Downloads tab and select the Latest Release in order to get the best MAME software version. The software is constantly getting upgraded, so if you want to keep in touch with all of the latest features, you should check for recent updates on their official website. Once you have clicked on the Latest Release option, select the appropriate software for your computer. It’s easy to make a mistake here and download a version that’s not meant for your operating system. Check whether your computer is 64-bit or 32-bit and then download the right version. Now that that’s taken care of, we can explain the most important MAME concepts. MAME ROMs. In essence, ROM files are the code that has been dumped and stored in a ROM chip. If we take simple systems such as SNES or NES, the entire game can be stored in one ROM file. But arcade games are more complicated than that, as they have several ROM chips and most of them are packed with data and code. Without the data located on those chips, the game can’t run. For the emulator to run the game on your computer, a great deal code has to be dumped. Luckily, you can easily find and download all the ROMs that you need. To wrap things up regarding ROMs, you should know that MAME ROMs are actually 7z or zip archives that contain all of the ROM files for the particular game that you want to play. They are commonly referred to as ROM sets. The Parents and Clones Concept. This concept came to be when developers figured out that most of the dumped ROM files matched the dumped ROM files from other games. The parent set contains the files that are necessary for running the main (master) version of the game. Clone sets are nearly identical to their Parents but they have some minor changes. For example, the same game can have two versions. One version can be in English and the other one can be in Japanese. Without Clone sets, you would need to get the entire ROM set for each version separately. Keep in mind that they are almost identical, so you would store two nearly identical dumps of code on your system. Since this isn’t efficient and you would constantly be running out of memory, the Clone concept came to life. With Clone sets, you would only need the Parent set and one ROM that differs from the Parent, in order to play both of those versions while taking up less memory storage. MAME CHD Files. Arcade machines, computers, and game consoles had to keep evolving because there was a demand for them to store far more data than their predecessors. The need for storage space is why external hard disk drives, CDs, and DVDs were so popular for a while. Although technology made CDs and DVDs go almost completely extinct, they are still important when it comes to MAME games. Most MAME games support mass media storage devices through files called CHDs. CHD is short for Compressed Hunks of Data. Since they have already been compressed, you won’t see them zipped or archived. For the game to work properly, you need to put the CHD files into the correct ROM path. This means that these files have to be stored in the ROM set folder that they belong to. Some games are not based on hard drives, so you don’t need to worry about CHD files and their storage. If that’s the case, you would load the game normally. However, there are still plenty of hard drive-based games, and in order to load them successfully, you need to take some extra steps. First, make sure that you have everything that you need for running that kind of game (the Parent ROM and the hard drive file – CHD). You can find and download CHDs online. After that, here’s what you need to do: Place the zipped ROM folder into the correct MAME ROMs folder. Create a new folder in the ROMs folder and give it the same name as the ROM you have just placed. Place the CHD file into the new folder. Open MAME. Go to File and then select Audit All Games (or just press F5). Your game should be loaded, so just double-click to play. Enjoy Your Arcade Games. The more you use MAME, the more you’ll learn about it. Have you used it before or considered looking into it? Share your experiences with the emulator, or reminisce about your favorite arcade games in the comments. What Are CHD Files and How Can You Use Them? If you are into retro gaming, you may have come across files with a “.chd” extension. In most cases, those files have some things in common: they have cryptic names, are (relatively) large, and don’t seem to be useful in anything. What Are CHD Files? In short, CHD files are arcade game disk images used by MAME. This explains why they are so big in file size. Nowadays, they have become quite popular among many emulators that use relatively large ROMs. This includes emulators like some of the PlayStation Libretro cores in Retroarch and, by extension, all the popular emulation-oriented distributions for the Raspberry Pi series of microcomputers. If your CHDs are MAME ROMs, they should (usually) be stored in folders with the same name under MAME’s main ROM folder. If they are backups of games for the original PlayStation or some other console that used optical discs, they should, in most cases, be placed directly in the emulator’s ROM subdirectory. In the case of console emulators, CHD files usually contain the whole game, so you can “open them” in the emulator and start playing. In MAME, though, they are only part of the game because MAME primarily emulates arcade machines. Unlike gaming consoles, arcade games usually had dedicated hardware and software that differed from game to game. The software part of the equation was typically stored in ROM chips. At some point in time, with ROM chips being expensive and games getting larger with more impressive visuals, their developers started using CDs or hard disk drives. They used them to store the most substantial assets of games – graphics, audio, music, animations – while keeping the smaller “core parts” of a game on the ROM chips. The reason we mention all this is because, CHDs on their own are usually useless with MAME. You will need the actual ROM files that accompany them to be able to use them. The CHD files themselves contain the game’s assets but not the game itself. You will have to find the ROMs that go with your specific CHD file and any extra files related to the hardware on which the game ran. For that, since it remains a legal gray area, we can only say that Google is your friend. Place those ROMs in MAME’s ROM subdirectory, place your CHDs in the same spot but in sub-subdirectories with their own name, and then try running the ROM with MAME. If you’re not using a command-line but a GUI-based variant of MAME, you might need to run a scan/audit of your ROMs first. Check CHD Files’ Contents. The best (and, from what we know, only) tool for working with CHD files comes from their source, from MAME itself. It’s called chdman . Depending on your MAME set up, it’s either already installed, or you can bring it on board with the command: Where do I put CHD files in MAME? The “rom file” should still be placed with all other rom files (ie: in the mame/roms folder). Then all the CHD specific image files should be placed inside a new folder (which you create) located within the “mame/roms” folder. Where do I put CHD files in Retropie? Open your advance folder. Make a folder named image if one is not there. Make sure your folder is name the SAME name as your chd file (without the . chd extension of course.) Place your chd file into the folder area51. (as mediamogul has said) Now place that folder into the media folder. How do I add roms to MAME emulator? How to Use MAME For Playing Arcade Games On Your Windows PC. Download MAME Binaries. Extract the files. You will want to download roms to use with MAME. When you download MAME Roms, they come in ZIP format. Bring up a DOS command prompt. Type “cd\” to go to the root directory. What can a Raspberry Pi 4 emulate? Dreamcast, PSP, Saturn, and even PlayStation 2 cores via Retroarch v1. 7.8 have all made their way onto Raspberry Pi 4. Granted the bulk of these systems do not run at full-speed quite yet, but there are some real overachievers still in their nascent beta forms. Can Raspberry Pi run Windows programs? Out of the box, Windows desktop software won’t run on the Pi. One option is to use ExaGear Desktop, which provides an emulated x86 system you can use to run Windows apps, as well as a broad range of x86 Linux software that wouldn’t otherwise work on the Pi, ranging from Skype to Spotify. Can Raspberry Pi replace desktop? If you’re wondering whether you can replace your desktop PC with a Raspberry Pi, the answer is a tentative yes. Although most tasks will run just fine, it’s a slightly different experience for those coming from a high-end or even mid-range Linux, Windows, or macOS computer.