MAME Integration

Tools for auditing, rebuilding, and managing MAME ROM sets, CHD files, and audio samples.

Path Configuration

Configure the standalone MAME executable in the Settings view.

Action Description
Browse Manually select the MAME executable (on macOS you can select the .app bundle directly)
Auto-Detect Automatically find MAME on the system PATH or common install locations
Download Opens the official MAME download page in a browser
Clear Removes the stored MAME path

The configured path is stored in settings.json and persists across sessions.

What MAME Enables

  • ROM Browser — launch Arcade ROMs directly in standalone MAME via the 🕹️ MAME toolbar button or Launch with MAME context menu item.
  • Big Picture Mode — an additional Launch with MAME button appears in the detail panel when an Arcade ROM is selected.

Auto-Detection Locations

  • Windows — %ProgramFiles%\MAME, C:\MAME, Scoop installs
  • Linux — /usr/bin/mame, /usr/local/bin/mame, /usr/games/mame, /snap/bin/mame, system PATH
  • macOS — /Applications/mame, Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin/mame, /usr/local/bin/mame), system PATH

MAME XML Database

All MAME tools share the same XML database. Export your MAME database with:

mame -listxml > mame.xml

Or use a Logiqx-format DAT file from sources such as Progretto-SNAPS.

ROM Set Auditor

Audits MAME ROM sets against a MAME XML database for completeness and correctness.

What It Checks

  • Completeness — all required ROMs for each machine are present in the ZIP archive.
  • CRC32 checksums — each ROM file matches the expected checksum.
  • File sizes — each ROM matches the expected byte count.
  • Optional ROMs — identified and reported separately (not required for a “good” status).

Status Categories

Status Meaning
Good All required ROMs present with correct checksums
Incomplete Some ROMs present but others missing
Bad All ROMs missing or checksums do not match

Options

Option Description
Search subdirectories recursively Scan ROM ZIPs in the selected directory and all its subdirectories

Additional Features

  • Identifies clone / parent ROM relationships.
  • Detects machines that are completely missing from the ROM directory.
  • Detailed per-ROM status for each machine.

Usage

  1. Load a MAME XML database.
  2. Select the directory containing your ROM set ZIPs.
  3. Optionally enable recursive search to include subdirectories.
  4. Click Audit ROMs to begin.

CHD Verifier

Verify MAME CHD (Compressed Hunks of Data) file integrity.

What It Checks

  • Reads and validates CHD v3, v4, and v5 headers
  • Reports SHA-1 and raw SHA-1 checksums, compression type, logical size, hunk size, and unit size
  • Detects parent CHD dependencies
  • Single file or batch directory verification

CHD Converter

Convert disc images to or from CHD format.

Compress to CHD

  1. Select an input disc image (ISO, CUE/BIN, GDI, etc.)
  2. Click Compress to CHD — the tool runs chdman createcd and reports progress.

Decompress from CHD

  1. Select a CHD file.
  2. Click Decompress — the tool runs chdman extractcd to produce the original disc image.

Requires: chdman from the MAME distribution must be available on your system PATH or in the application directory.

DAT Editor

Edit MAME DAT files (Logiqx XML format) directly.

  • Load and save DAT files
  • Add, edit, and remove machine entries
  • Edit ROM entries per machine (name, size, CRC32, SHA-1, MD5, status)

ROM Set Rebuilder

Rebuild MAME ROM sets from scattered or loose ROM files (similar to CLRMamePro Rebuilder).

How It Works

  1. Load a MAME XML database.
  2. Select the source directory (contains scattered ROM files or ZIPs to rebuild from).
  3. Select the output directory for the rebuilt ROM sets.
  4. Choose a rebuild mode:
Mode Description
Split Clones reference parent ZIP — smaller total size
Non-Merged Each ZIP is fully self-contained
Merged Parent ZIP includes all clone ROMs
  1. Optionally enable Rebuild only complete sets to skip sets with missing files.
  2. Choose whether to overwrite or skip existing ZIP files.
  3. Click Rebuild to start.

The rebuilder indexes the source directory recursively by CRC32, supporting both loose files and files inside ZIP archives.

Dir2Dat Creator

Create a DAT file from a directory of ROM files (similar to CLRMamePro Dir2Dat).

How It Works

  1. Select the source directory containing ROM ZIPs.
  2. Optionally enable Include loose files to include non-ZIP ROMs.
  3. Set DAT metadata (name, description, author).
  4. Click Create to generate the DAT.

Output

  • Exports in Logiqx XML format compatible with CLRMamePro and other ROM managers
  • Computes CRC32, SHA-1, and MD5 checksums
  • Reads CHD file headers for disk entries

Sample Auditor

Audit MAME sample audio files against a MAME XML database.

What It Checks

  • Verifies that sample ZIP archives contain the expected WAV files for each machine
  • Reports good, incomplete, and bad sample sets with missing file details
  • Handles shared sample sets (sampleof attribute)
  • Detects missing sample sets
  • Optional recursive subdirectory search