Mame Compiler 100% Automated

[Rain]

QuickMame 2.x (Released)

As many of you already know, I am a real big fan of bringing projects back from the brink of extinction, and with the help and coaxing of a friend of mine this time it is no different. I have not been very active on the forums here of late, but please don't take that as a sign of productivity being slow or halted. Today I am officially very proud to announce the release of QuickMame 2.x (post-beta.) This version of QuickMame has been specifically designed to run on Microsoft Windows 8, though it will run on other operating systems (see below for instructions.)

Why would you want to use QuickMame?

That is a very relative question, and the only answer that I can think of is simplicity. When you use QuickMame you will get a hassle free Mame compile in no time flat. QuickMame does all the work for you, it downloads and automatically sets up your compiling environment, the latest source code, high score patches and even allows you to add your very own patches right from the easy to understand interface.

Creating a Mame installation:

Open up QuickMame, select a destination folder, select your processor add in a few other options and click build, its that easy! I don't feel as though I need to go into a ton of detail on how to use the application, as its interface says it all:

Very Important Stuff (for non Windows 8 users.)

If for whatever reason you still have not upgraded to the far superior Windows 8 operating system then you will need to open up QuickMame, click on Reinstall MinGw and then click on Pre Win 8 Package to update the toolchain to a pre Windows 8 environment (see photo below.)

Also Note: You need to have the full version of Microsoft .NET 4.0 installed see here.

So, there it is guys - I really do hope that you enjoy it if you have any problems or questions please feel free to post here on this thread!

Download Here: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=5280

Become Platinum Today!

[Rain]

This section is reserved for tutorial and links, scheduled for publication on 12/19/2011.

[Rain]

*reserved

[bent98]

Awsome work rain! I will be compiling a new mame and let you know how it works!

Can you post a link?

This tools is just what I needed as I always look to compile a new mame every build.

[Darkdragon5325]

I say go for it i could really use something like this

[Drakin]

Yea...I think it's a great Idea.

[jeepguy81]

the more tools out there the better, i will give it a go as well!

[rooroosta]

Looks great..i'd like to give this one a go too.

[gypsyshred]

I recently tried to do just this, and failed miserably. So if you can make an easier way to do so, I'd definitely appreciate it.

[djvj]

This would be a godsend for many. I've always found it pretty easy the normal way, but like the above poster said, the more tools the better. Being mostly automated, this would probably be the favorite tool.

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[Lashek]

Doesn't MAME Compiler 64 already do this? O.o

[Rain]

Doesn't MAME Compiler 64 already do this? O.o

As stated in the first post:

I saw that a few compilers are out there already such as the one over at Headsoft but I found it lacking in many key features that users desire. The application is not very "noob" friendly, and it requires that you build your own developmental environment. Since you already built your own developmental environment you would honestly be better just inserting three commands into a DOS shell and compile the application yourself.

Yes, Mame Compiler 64 does already do this. However, all Mame Compiler 64 is; is simply bloatware. The application is 50+ MB, and it still requires that you download hundreds of Megs of data just to use. I have used Mame Compiler 64 many times and all it actually is doing is sending a command prompt to the make.exe file (do I really need a +50MB just to send a command prompt?)

Mame Compiler 64 is nice, but it has many shortcomings and offers highly limited options and has to be updated for every major Mame release and it is not backwards compatible with Mame versions < 0.117.

Plus with Mame Compiler 64, you have to download and install your own development environment, with this application it has all been integrated. Make & Bake could actually be considered an integrated IDE as it will have it's own built in editor and other programming tools (if needed, or wanted.) Or, you can simply select the version of Mame you want, the options and click compile. There is no need to download anything, or setup any type of environment at all - as Make & Bake is the programming environment.

Hope this clarifies the difference between Make & Bake and Mame Compiler 64.

Mame Compiler 64 = DOS Shell; Make & Bake = One Click IDE

Thanks for your post, and thanks to everybody else for submitting their views and responses!

[bent98]

I think you got your answer. Go for it rain!

[Rain]

I think you got your answer. Go for it rain!

Yeah, I think you are right bent! Did not expect this program to receive such an audience this early on. Well, I have decided to go ahead and finish the application and release it into the wild (pending a lot of additional builds.) I did manage to work on the user interface a little last night and this morning and this is what I have come up with so far:

Right now I am in the process of compiling Mame for my machine, an experiment of sorts. I also added the option for users to add additional patches to Mame if they find some out there they want to bake in (such as menu color, global fonts, etc...)

Not sure when this program will see daylight but it should be out in less than two weeks. Of course, I will post any & all updates here on this thread!

Thanks for all of your support guys!

[bent98]

looking foward to it.

[rondar]

Woohoo!

[djvj]

Can you also add support for mess? When you build mess, you only copy the source over the same version mame and make, so should be easy to integrate.

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[Rain]

Can you also add support for mess? When you build mess, you only copy the source over the same version mame and make, so should be easy to integrate.

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Yeah, compiling Mess would not be that much of a problem actually. There is very little done in the way of programming to add it into Make and Bake, I will look into that today! Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit:

I looked at the Mess compiling instructions and see no reason whatsoever that it cannot be included within Make & Bake (consider it done!)

[brolly]

I agree this looks like a great idea, mame compiler 64 does it's job fine, but this will surely be much simpler and everyone should be able to use it. I was about to mention MESS, but djvj beat me to it

Nice work.

[djvj]

Yeah, compiling Mess would not be that much of a problem actually. There is very little done in the way of programming to add it into Make and Bake, I will look into that today! Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit:

I looked at the Mess compiling instructions and see no reason whatsoever that it cannot be included within Make & Bake (consider it done!)

Awesome, this is really turning into a complete solution!

[Tipus4u]

Great idea Rain.

This should cut down searching the net for all the other files needed to compile.

I will say that it will be used by me if it will cut down time compiling.

[Rain]

Awesome, this is really turning into a complete solution!

Thanks, I am trying my best to build an expand the program further and further and will try to satisfy everybodies needs in doing so.

Okay, so I have been digging around even further and looking at the Mame source code with a microscope and I now have a question that I must ask the community. Certain features of Mame can only be built on a machine running Windows 7. I am not going to go into detail describing these elements, but they are mostly for the compiling environment.

So, what I need to know from the community is: would you be satisfied with a compiling solution that only runs on Windows 7 builds?

Mame would not be phased by this at all, as you would still be able to run it from DOS or any other operating system of your choosing. What I am talking about is the actual compiler environment would only be able to run on Windows 7 & higher versions (due to certain API procedural calls.)

So, now is your chance to voice your opinion. Is this good bad or indifferent? The way I see it is that Windows XP as great as it is, is a dead horse. Windows XP is gone, beaten (rather crushed) by Windows 7. But I just wanna know the communities take on it.

[Rain]

Thanks, I hope I build it good enough so that you will enjoy using it!

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[Hypnoziz]

While I would be inclined to say "yeah keep it on Windows 7 only...that's all we need these days", I know that there are users out there who only have XP machines.

NOTE: One important thing to note here for anyone that doesn't understand already: what Rain is talking about is that you would have to run the compiling process on a Windows 7 machine. That doesn't mean you can't take the compiled result and transfer it to Windows XP.

Sorry, I felt that was necessary, even though you already covered it. I think my point here is that keeping it on Windows 7 alone should suffice, but some people are bound to feel left out and sooner or later you're going to get requests for backwards compatibility. Might as well plan for it while you're still in development stage so you don't need to tackle your source code again in the future.

[djvj]

Every machine in my house is already on win7. So no problem here. I think it's best to state in bold letters somewhere what hypnoziz said.