These are some of my personal preferences to setting everything up with Floobs image (or your own AM image based off of RetroPie). I like to use RetroArch with MAME-2003 since it supports the most games, skips the nag screens, can save high scores and can be stretched to 16:9 if you want a full screen look.
1. prepare to create a correct and fully populated MAME romlist
a. obtain a mame.xml (generate it from your Window's MAME install or download one) and place it in /home/pi/.attract/mame-config folder
b. modify the following two lines in your the MAME-2003 emulator to read
info_source
import_extras /home/pi/.attract/mame-config/mame.xml;/home/pi/.attract/mame-config/catver.ini;/home/pi/.attract/mame-config/nplayers.ini
2. setup MAME 2003 to save high score information
a. run any game using the MAME 2003 emulator (this will cause the /home/pi//RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2003 folder structure to be built)
b. download the dat files at
http://highscore.mameworld.info/download.htm (top link)
c. unzip the file
d. copy hiscore(pre_mame0133u1).dat to /home/pi//RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2003/hsdb folder
e. rename /home/pi//RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2003/hsdb/hiscore(pre_mame0133u1).dat to /home/pi//RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2003/hsdb/hiscore.dat
3. setup the history information for the MAME 2003 games
a. download the history.dat from
http://www.arcade-history.com/?page=download b. unzip the file
c. copy the file history.dat to /home/pi/.attract/mame-config/ folder
d. in AM Configure-->Plug-ins-->History.dat-->
Enabled = Yes
File Path = /home/pi/.attract/mame-config/history.dat
Generate Index--> <execute>
e. restart AM to be able to see and use this information
4. setup filters if you use a full MAME 2003 rom set (0.78)
a. in AM Configure-->Displays-->MAME 2003-->Add Filter-->
b. enter the following filters
filter "Clean List"
exception Name equals pacman
rule Title not_contains bootleg|prototype
rule Year not_contains ?
rule Manufacturer not_contains bootleg
rule Category not_contains Mature|Casino|Mahjong|Multiplay|Quiz|Rhythm
rule Players contains 1|2|3|4
rule Control contains joystick
rule Control contains 2-way|4-way|8-way
rule Status equals good|imperfect
rule DisplayCount equals 1
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter Favourites
rule Favourite equals 1
filter "2 Player Simultaneous"
rule Players contains sim
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "No Clones"
exception Name equals pacman
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Adult Games"
rule Category contains Mature
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Fighting Scrolling Games"
rule Category contains Fight
rule Category contains Scrolling
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Fighting Versus Games"
rule Category contains Fight
rule Category contains Versus
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Maze Games"
exception Name equals pacman
rule Category contains Maze
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Platform Games"
rule Category contains Platform
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Shooting Games"
rule Category contains Shooter
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Sports Games"
rule Category contains Sports
rule CloneOf not_equals .*
filter "Most Played Games"
sort_by PlayedCount
reverse_order true
rule PlayedCount not_equals 0
5. run RetroArch games in full screen (16:9)
a. run any game using the MAME 2003 emulator
b. press "F1" on the keyboard
c. Settings-->Video-->Aspect Ration Index = 16:9