forums.marpirc.net

Can someone tell me if there are step-by-step instructions(Preferrably with pics) somewhere on theinternet showing how exactly to play back an INP?

There is a sticky here titled, "How To Playback Recordings", but it doesn't tell you how to play back recordings. ???

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

good point! I'll post this quick and try to put together something with pictures later.

You still need to know the 5 points in the How to Playback recordings sticky, so assuming you know all of those CLI=CommandLineInterface GUI=GraphicalUserInterface:

1. Extract the mame version by unziping it or runing it if it is a self extractor

2. Extract the inp from the zip. This is the movie file that will playback the arcade game you are looking for. You want to extract this file to the INP subdirectory under where mame is installed. For a ficitious example: we have a marp file called ceh_gamename_100_wolf106.zip, this file will probably contain a file called gamename.inp recorded from the game "gamename". Extract and/or copy this file to your mame\inp dir.

3. Remove the nvram file if one exists
CLI: del nvram\gamename.nv
GUI: open a file browser like windows explorer and delete the nvram file in the nvram directory of mame.

4. playback the recording
CLI: run "mame.exe gamename -playback gamename.inp" or "mame.exe gamename -playback gamename"
GUI: File->PlaybackInput, Navigate to the inp file you extracted in #2

And you should be playing back the inp recording. If you have any problems, this forum is the place to post them.

playing back old replays using old mame versions
under windows XP and Vista (possibly windows 7)...

============================================
problem : you see a great replay, but its on old
version of mame..

example : jr. pac-man (mame 35-b13),
http://replay.marpirc.net/r/jrpacman

crystal castles (version 4) - (mame35)
http://replay.marpirc.net/r/ccastles


there's a lot of great games, which people played and their high scores haven't
been beaten, and there's no new recordings...
==================================================
answer : there's a lot of steps here..

1) download the replay file
example crystal castles - http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/1/6/9/wpc ... mame35.zip
jr. pac-man - http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/d/5/8/rf_ ... m35b13.zip

keep these until you have downloaded the mame version, and once done, unzip it
into the INP directory...

2) download the version of mame -> note, there are mame32 versions (these probably won't work),
and windows mame versions , these WILL probably work [however, playing
them will probably be full screen, since you get an error about old dll]...

once you get the DOS version of mame, DO NOT TRY TO RUN IT IN A DOS window, you will get an error,
even if you try to run it without sound.. (option 0)..

NOTE : i think you can substitute the DOS mame version for the Windows ones.. eg WIN61->MAME61 should work

DO NOT TRY TO RUN any MAME32-xx versions, they will fail on the audiow32.dll

3) download the free DOSBOX program ... 0.73 is the latest
http://www.dosbox.com/

(this program MAY work under other operating systems, i haven't tried them out)

once you get this, run and install it..

4) you NEED to download, CWSDPMI.EXE from http://clio.rice.edu/cwsdpmi/

this allows mame to access more memory..
unzip it, and put in the same directory you have unzipped the old version of mame..

5) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT VERSION OF THE ROM, in the roms directory..
you will have to do some research at MAWS or datObase http://www.arcadehits.net/datObase/search.php
see if there have been any rom name changes.. if you have extra files, you might be ok..

for example jr. pac-man needs some files renamed in order to work (viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11790&start=15 )


6) run dosbox, and open a window in it...
type in : MOUNT <drive name>: <directory>
for example : MOUNT C: C:\GAMES
this will let you 'change' to your physical c drive.
then you can type in regular directory commands:

change to the directory you have mame in:
example : cd\emulate\mame\mame35
then create a batch file(or you can type it manually)..

<replace %1 with the game name>, and put any other options on the line
c:>mame34 -playback %1 -noscanlines -soundcard 1

this will playback jrpacman with no scan lines, and a virtualized sound blaster card..

NOTE : SOME games will not work in this video mode (720,and escape from the planet of the robot monsters, etc)..

7) at this point you will see mame check the roms, and load the input file, and then you press enter again..

enjoy the great playback!!!

i was very frustrated in not being able to watch a lot of the classic recordings here, and instead of
digging up an old machine, or trying to find a sound blaster emulator.. this does the job with a
lot of them..

the biggest problem is finding the old romsets..and some video modes...
good luck... hope you can learn a lot from them..

later
-1

Should point out that DOSBOX does emulate the PC CPU and hardware, so you will need a fairly beefy system to run MAME well within it.

I second the remark concerning old ROMsets.
Is there no way to get them ? I tried some p2p programs but the results were disappointing. I also searched a few sites (can't remember the names) and it wasn't much better, the oldest sets were missing.

roms can't be asked for here, only way is just more googling, they are out there somewhere.

The truth is out there - google it

Well...turns out some time ago I searched for at least an hour with no success. I'm sincerely surprised just now I found something which seems of interest rather easily (if there are sources left).
Tip : include the word "rollback" in your search.

Anyway sorry about asking publicly for roms, I forgot every rom request is forbidden even those hard to find.

It does suck this way, Maybe there will be a statute of limitations on older games, where by the time that no one is alive to want to play them (and that no one can make money on them) then they might be ironically put into the public domain.

if i record an input file ,the folder names it .inp
if i rename it according to the specific rom title ,it is possible.
However , the delema lies in the replay option.
by the way good work skito with the simple 1k playback and 1k record files.
when i playback a recording, skybump for example, the emulator accepts it
my own files will not load unless the file remains un-named.
if i rename the file i get a dos box that says something to the effect that
no file is found and if i name a .inp file then try to go back to the no name .inp
windows requests a specific title for the file.
the emulator will not allow a renamed file of my own to replay.

barry deserves credit for the bat files. I think what you are saying is that you can't rename an inp file to say skybump.inp and have the playback.bat file play it back? Can you try this in your dos box and then after it fails to playback, go to the top of the dos window, right click it to get a popup menu that should have an Edit Menu Item. Click that and then click Select all. Then click the top of the dos window again to click Edit->Copy.

Now paste all that stuff and post it, we might be able to find out why ".inp" files are being created only.

in What way do you people record and replay Wolfmame141 input files.?
i simply created shortcuts to the record & playback batch files that are in the mame folder .
need to learn proper procedure.
skito wrote

popup menu that should have an Edit Menu Item. Click that and then click Select all. Then click the top of the dos window again to click Edit->Copy

I open a bash window (openning command (cmd) window is the same).
Go to mame directory with a cd command.

% cd c:/mame

then run mame with record option

% mame pacman -record pacman.inp

I hit uparrow and then the left key tilll I get to the record word and then type playback over it and hit return

% mame pacman -playback pacman.inp

A pacman.inp is created in the mame inp folder, and i can hit up arrow (to get to the record cmd line) and hit return to record again. You can add what ever options you want to the command line "-window -noautofs -frameskip 0" once and you never have to type them again, because the up arrow feature remembers the last command line and you just keep doing the same for each recording attempt.

http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/d/0/e/tar ... olf106.zip
guess what ifigured out?
if you go into the game and set overclock cpu0 to 95% , then leave game and go back into it to replay .inp file , it works.
Tab key

c === hard disk where your mame versionis installed
jogos\wolfmame0146 === folders path of your mame.exe
sfex2p.inp == your inp file that you want run, it must be in the same folder than mame.exe
playback== to view your inp files
record = to create inp files or record.
----------------------------
open command prompt
write this

dir c:\jogos\wolfmame0146
mame.exe sfex2p -playback sfex2p.inp
mame.exe sfex2p -record sfex2p.inp
--------------------------------------------
works well with me.