Hobie-wan wrote:Wow guys... download Mame, unzip, drop in roms. Play. I'm not understanding what you guys are doing that's making it difficult. The most difficulty I've had on a few games was finding a good dump.

Not trying to be a jerk, I just really can't understand how you guys are having issues beyond finding working roms.
the first build I had was ShmupMAME 3.0b. It worked fine. Until about 3 days later when it refused to open. At all. The program gave me an error code something like cx0000005 if I remember. I google'd and found this was a weird Win7 security issue and and found a walkthrough to fix it. Hours wasted. Didn't work. Other forums had people saying the same thing. 3.0b will selectively work or not work at all on Win7 64-bit.
Second I tried WolfMAME. It didd'nt have a ROM folder like you mention. So I put one in there. But it woulndn't find the ROM's. 20 mins later I went looking for something else.
I believe I next tried a diff build of WolfMAME found on the Twin Galaxies site or somehow connnected to TG. It had a self-installer and was meant to be easier. It launched Strikers 1999 and froze.
So then I dug through the 1999 thread on Shmups and found another MAME build mentioned and raved about (forget what it was called... MAMEUA or something?) and downloaded it. Installed. Launched.... froze up altogether.
Finally found that using ShmupMAME 2.2 has been working for Strikers and this game, but without sound on V-V. But after you can read the night I wasted above just trying to Start a fucking game, there's little appealing to me about trying another build of MAME just for a month-long contest.