hey dudes, i'm a new member here, and, for the past few weeks i've been having trouble getting some neo geo games to start on the arcade program final burn alpha. an error message pops up and the details given for it say that the asia-s3.rom is required, which is not in the neogeo.zip folder i have. help please?

It means exactly as it says. You don't have a ROM it needs to run the game(s). You will need to locate that ROM.

okaaaaay..... thanks. i guess

can anybody tell me a website where i can download the file easily or would that be considered, ahem, a nonprohibiting part of this site?

Dump a real NeoGeo or use Google to find it. No ROM begging on the message board.

ha! i knew it. rom begging, what a laugh!

what makes this a mame forum site if i can't locate but one rom for mame itself?

If you can't find working MAME ROMs with Google you aren't trying. I see them on the first hit with extremely obvious search terms.

You can get MAME ROMs. Here's my simple guide, with less than ten steps:

Step 1: get some games.

I bought a CPS2 board and an SF Zero 2 Alpha cartridge, a NeoGeo KoF2000 cartridge and a couple of SKNS cartridges for very good prices once they weren't making much money in the arcades any more (ArBee, I know you have no respect for any of these games - I don't care what you think ;-).

I also have two friends who are arcade operators and don't mind occasionally lending me a board or two. They see how much money I drop in arcade machines and figure they stand to gain more by keeping on good terms with me by indulging my ROM dumping hobby.


Step 2: get the chips out of the boards.

This is simple if they're in sockets - just use an IC extraction tool. If they're soldered on, it's more difficult. It requires patience and care - make sure you don't damage anything.


Step 3: dump the chips.

You'll need a universal programmer and appropriate adaptors for the chips you want to dump. This is quite expensive, but I've been able to use the gear at work (during my lunch break or after hours, of course).

Use the software that comes with your programmer to read the chips. My software gives me the choice of JEDEC, Intel hex or Motorola hex output. You can write simple Perl scripts to extract the raw data that MAME likes.


Step 4: put the chips back on the board.

This is the reverse of the second step. Make sure everything goes back where it belongs, around the right way. Difficulty varies depending on the kind of chips and how they're attached.


Step 5: give back borrowed boards.

Keep on good terms with your friends. Always good advice.


Step 6: if it doesn't work, adapt MAME.

If MAME doesn't accept your ROMs and you're sure they're good dumps, you can add an entry to one of the drivers.


Step 7: enjoy!

You've done the work, now it's time to play...


(If you can't, or don't want to do that, you can still get ROMs easily. I know of two US sites and a Chinese bulletin board where you can easily get pirate ROMs. All of them can be located easily with Google, and it doesn't require a great grasp of US English, French or Chinese to find what you want once you get to the site. Try harder.)

so in orderfor me to get information about where to go to get the files, i would have to email you rather than post it because of copyright infridgement or something?

You'll probably have more joy asking people who know something about Final Burn Alpha. As this is the MacMAME forum, about MAME for Macs, it's not something we're going to be able to help with.

Requesting and providing information about where to obtain ROMs illegally is also specifically prohibited on this forum . There isn't a secret club in the background emailing information to each other; those who want to obtain files are quite smart enough to be able to find them without help from others.

As R.Belmont says, if you can't find 'em yourself, you're not trying.

Simon

Mame and Final Burn Alpha are both played on my comp, but depending on the games I play for some reason, both play differently with a different game I have. When I load Metal Slug 3, the files that are needed load, then all of a sudden when asia-3 comes up, the loading stops and a message says that the file is missing. Anyway, what's the use of having a Mame site if you guys can't even offer to help tell me which sites I can find Mame roms for? I have parental controls.

This is not a ROM exchange board. If you want a ROM exchange board, search Google for one. It's not that hard.

If you read a couple of other topics, you should understand the purpose of this forum...
And once again, you are not on a general "Mame" site but a MacMAME oriented forum.

It's also not a "whiny give me everything because I'm a newbie and rude" board.

Show some respect -- the guys answering are the guys who code MacMAME and other versions of MAME that run on a Mac. Without them, you wouldn't be whining about a ROM you couldn't download, you'd be whining that there's no MAME on you Mac at all...

LOL :duh:

Like if a parental control was giving you the legal copyrights ...

Read again the FAQ of this board.

I think I get it: you mean your system has controls installed by your parent(s) that limit the searches you can do?

As a guy who had parental controls myself (40 years ago) I sympathize. But the only thing I can suggest is to ask the parent(s) to help you do the searches if the controls don't let you do them on your own.

The Internet really does have some bad neighborhoods.

Regards,

Ps

the internet was around 40 years ago...? 0_0

well ok i'll see what that can do