Well, I'm through struggleing and thought I'd come to the experts. I was running Slackware 12.0 on an old HP Laptop. I ran XMAME and KXMAME. They compiled easily and ran fine. I also ran fakeNES and generatorgtk. No problems.

Now I'm running SlamD64 on AMD64. I got XMame to install but I can't get the screen to adjust. On top of that I have installed KXMame which crashes everytime I try to access my Rom dir. No matter where I move it. Once it finds it and scans the games it crashes. So I tried GXmame. It works ok after updating to the latest rev but most of the screens are so small and there is no"full screen" mode I've since install SDLMame. KXMame runs as a frontend but has the crashing issue and GXMame won't see SDLMame. Also Im trying to install SDLMess given that FakeNES and genratorgtk won't install. I got Mess to install but I have no frontned. I tried to install QMC2 but is has 3levels worth of dependancies that I can't get up and running.

IN SHORT... I need to know of any good front ends for SDLMame and SDLMess. I've never had this issue before but I have spent the weekend installing pkgs that didn't work right or required installing several dependancy pkgs that ended up not installing. Thank God for Stella, it installed easily and works great with it's own GUI (Atari)

Thanks All
Ace

Well,

For the megadrive, generator-gtk works ok on 64-bit, the sound may be off at times, just download it from here:
http://www.squish.net/generator/cbiere/generator/
and build it with '--with-cmz80'

For NES, why not use fce ultra:
http://fceultra.sourceforge.net/
It works fine for me.

I used to use SDLMAME, but it required some weird hacks to get it to compile last time I tried. So instead I use AdvanceMAME AdvanceMESS, they seem to work a lot better:
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/download.html

If generator doesn't work, you can run MEGASIS through wine, it works very well. In a few weeks I'll try to compile a 32-bit static version of gens that may be a better and higher quality solution, not sure if it will work tho.

EDIT: Or an even better way:
Make a package of only the libs in the Slackware packages of sdl and svgalib. Install these packages. Download gensgs:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Gens/GS
the ubuntu version is fine, then run ./gens, it will work just fine.

TexMex,

Sounds cool I'll look into it. I tried to run 32mame in wine today but it just wouldn't come up. It didn't error. Wine just crunched and crunched and stopped.

I appreciate the help.
Ace

Try advancemame, as H_TexMex_H suggested. It definitely works.

Well Advance Mame did install but I can't get it to see any roms. Do I have to have them all uncompressed?

Also I installed Advance Menu but it can't find roms so it won't bother coming up. Plus it gives me two errors for missing libs. I haven't had the time to dive into it just yet. I'm enjoying linux but it is getting just a little tiresome that I constantly have to "troubleshoot" and reinvent the wheel just to get something to run. But I guess it's a learning experience.

I do have a question that you guys may know. When mame updates does it simply include newer games, consoles, or does it change how it looks at previous roms? I have an older MAME for Windows and the newer Linux versions won't play the same roms. I get a missing file error? Just curious.

Thanks
Ace

You can change the rom directory in the config file at '~/.advance/advmame.rc'.

The roms must be compressed as zip. What missing libs ?

Well, it's true it would be nicer if it just worked, but more often than not, you still have to edit the configs to get things to work the way you want them to. Usually MAME adds/drops support for various ROMs, although I think it only drops support as a side-effect not on purpose. But in many cases there are changes in the files that need to be inside the zipped rom directory. Unfortunately this means you have to search until you find one that works with your version.

SOunds good. Thanks for the .rc file heads up. I'll try it tonight. I'll also find out if my lib files are missing (only 2 errors) or if they are not where adv thinks they should be.

As for the dropped roms. I still have my Windows MAME32 from a long while back. I can use it. It just takes out the spontinaity because I have to shutdown and reboot. Also I am trying to get where the only time I boot to Windows is because I have to work on something that is compatable with a friend.

Time will tell Thanks Again.

Don't use Slackware if you don't like command line and resolving dependencies by yourself.

About your question about the roms. Yes, they change. Bad dumps are replaced and new dumps are made. Even the BIOS change, e.g. neogeo bios was recently changed to the proper one. MAME is made to work with actual versions not hacked to work or content missing roms. That would be silly if MAME would stop developing because some ripped rom is working, but not the real version. Yeah, you might be right that newest MAME might not work with your current roms and you can't find working archive in the web, but on the other hand MAME was made to work with the roms you own and not leech from there or there.