[TUTORIAL] Ripping from MAME

[O Ilusionista]

Ripping from MAME is not an easy task. I will show some ways to do it, each one has its advantages and disvantages. Choose the one which fits better to you.

If you wanna rip a CPS-1, CPS-2 or NEO-GEO games, try to use Kawaks, Nebula, Final Burn or any other emulator, it will be easier.

1- the Debug Method

Some games, like Denji Makai II, have a debug mode, which let you go into the debug mode.
This may change from game to game. In Denji Makai 2 case, its the F1 key



2- The F4 method

This works better with background images, but you can get many of the game sprites with patience. I advise you to set the screen to its own correct size, or your rips will be blurried. To capture the images, use ALT+PRINTSCREEN, since F12 doesn't works. Left Shift + F12 makes MAME record a animated gif. Hit it again to stop recording.

When you are at the game, hit F4. It will bring you the palette screen.



Hit enter and it will bring you the tile viewer.



Commands:

<- or -> to cycle between the palettes.
Up and down scroll the lines.
+ or - change the tile size.
{ or } , on ISO 105 keyboards (USA, for example) change the graphic table. You can check the almost every sprite with that method, if the game's graphic data isn't encrypted.

full control list: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MAME/Special_Keys#F4




Hit ENTER again and it will bring you to Tile Map viewer, where you can get background images. Animated sprites will vary depends on which game you are using. Some will be rendered frame by frame, and you will need to capture each frame (by using animget, or Screenget (which is better). Some games uses the animated sprites as sprites per se (entities), so you will need to check each game



3- The Custom MAME method

There is a custom MAME version, made by Maximilianjenus, which let you disable EACH tile on the game. It works great, but its works only with CPS-1, CPS-2 and CPS-3 games, mainly the fighting games. Its a command line tool, check which games are supported on the readme files.

http://www.streetfighter.cl/Misc/20070828mame.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/?2bsw7yv3at9c1

4- The Artmoney method

The most complex of all. You can rip almost anything with it, but its hard to handle, the program crashes often and its a lot of trial-and-error.

I won't cover it here, but you can check some tutorials at Youtube, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYpmWNF3kg

Fervicante, and old friend of mine, had made a complete artmoney tutorial, but I don't remember if there is an english version, just portuguese. You can use the google translator: http://www.mugenarok.com.br/add_ons.php