Updated 27th July, 2005.
Welcome! I would like to add my contribution to the MAME community by helping others with the configuration of MS-DOS, ArcadeOS2.52 and MAME.
I am assuming you have knowledge of the MicroSoft Windows Operating System only. I shall guide you through the setup and configuration of MS-DOS and try and explain what the commands actually do.
Red text is for commands I want you to type.
Green text is for tips and extra information.
Why did I choose MS-DOS? Well, I wanted my cabinet to be fast and painless for all members of my house (children included!). I tried with freedos, but found it's memory manager too slow. I will try it again in the future, as it has some pretty neat features!
Getting Started
Start by getting your hardware organized. I used parts I had laying around, nothing special:
As MAME supports VESA, video drivers are seldom needed in MS-DOS. The only driver I needed to get was for the sound. Fortunately, VIA still support MS-DOS for drivers. I have successfully loaded DOS drivers for my Sound Blaster Live!, PCI128, AWE64, AWE32 and VIA sound cards. I cannot guarentee that your sound card will have DOS drivers, so have a good look on the Internet for support.
You will have to download my boot disk image and WinImage. Unzip both files and run WinImage, no installation is necessary. Select File, Open and select my boot disk image ( KegRaider - Arcadeboot.IMZ ), click Open. The file contents will now be displayed.
Insert a floppy disk into your drive and click the little pink and blue icon 
to create the disk.
*You may have to enter your MAME computers' BIOS to get it to boot from a Floppy Disk.
Partitioning and
Formatting the Hard Disk Drive.
I use DOS every day, my day job is a computer technician,
which is also my hobby (I lead a very boring and sheltered life!), so DOS to me
is very easy. It was my first real
Operating System (after the C64’s basic).
Most of you would know or have heard of fdisk.exe and format.com. I stopped using them around six years ago,
once I discovered Symantec’s “gdisk.exe”.
Gdisk will partition and format the hard drive in one swoop, instead of
fdisk (delete/create partitions), reboot, then format (damn slow).
WARNING!! THIS WILL ERASE THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF YOUR HARD DRIVE!! SERIOUSLY! BACKUP YOUR ROMS NOW!
Once you have booted with the floppy, you will be presented with the A prompt (A:\>). From here, type
‘GDISK 1 /DEL /ALL’ ( Erases ALL existing partitions )
‘GDISK 1 /CRE /PRI /FOR /Q’ ( Creates a FAT32 partition and formats the hard drive )
You can now press ‘CTRL+ALT+DEL’ to reboot your computer.
A brief overview of gdisk.
The /1 = hard drive 1, the /del= delete, the /all = all partitions.
The /cre = create, /pri = primary, /for = format, /q = quick(ly).
To get more information about gdisk, type ‘gdisk /?’
Creating our DOS environment
Type the following commands at the A:>
sys c:
c:
md dos
md mame
md mame\arcos252
copy a:\*.* c:\dos
copy d:\*.* c:\dos
The above commands make c drive (c:) bootable, change to c:, make a directory (folder) called dos, and copy the entire contents of A drive (a:) to the c:\dos directory.
Now we need to get the computer to start some programs automatically.
Startup files
MS-DOS uses two files to start programs, AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. You create these files easily with DOS’s EDIT.COM. The files in DOS are NOT case sensitive, so you can type in all caps if you wish. At the C:\> type
edit autoexec.bat
(then add the following lines of information)
path=C:\DOS;C:\MAME
set temp=c:\temp
set tmp=c:\temp
echo The following command is to support FM Music in Legacy
DOS Game
LH C:\DOS\VIAFMTSR.COM
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330
LH C:\DOS\CWSDPMI.EXE -P
LH C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
CD \MAME\ARCOS252
ARCADEOS.EXE
** TIP! To save the file, press the ALT key, then press ENTER, use your arrow keys to get down to SAVE. Do the same to exit the edit program, but selecting EXIT ;). Also, you will notice on line 5, my sound driver. If you have managed to find a DOS driver, add the files to your C:\DOS directory and load the driver here.
Now for the config.sys file.
edit config.sys
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
DOS=HIGH,umb
LASTDRIVE=F
BUFFERS=20
FILES=60
All done. I don’t load any cdrom drivers with my hard drive boot. I only use the floppy for that, as I don’t want to waste any ram unnecessarily. Hard drive boot is for gameplay, floppy is for maintenance.
Next we have to get mame and arcadeos on the hard drive. This is simple if you can hook the drive up to your main computer with the IDE interface, or with a USB to IDE converter (I use the USB way) and then use Windows drag and drop files and folders to your MAME drive. Or, you can copy the files needed to a CD and boot from the floppy disk and copy the files we need via the command prompt with the ‘copy’ command.
Your MAME folder should be exactly the same as the way it is in Windows. I make MAME in the root of C:\ so my directories look like this:
C:\ --
|-DOS
|-MAME
|-CONSOLES
My MAME directory is pretty standard.
C:\ --
|-DOS
|-MAME
|- ARTWORK
|- ARCOS252
|- CABINETS
|- CFG
|- CTRLR
|- INI
|- HI
|- NVRAM
|- ROMS
|- SNAP
|- STA
|- TITLES
|-CONSOLES
Next step is editing your arcadeos.cfg file, and making a groovy startup screen. I always make a backup of the original files BEFORE modifying files, just in case I break them. Now, if you have the external USB adaptors you can use windows to do this, or in DOS we use the edit command again.
cd \mame\arcos252
copy arcadeos.cfg arcadeos.bak
edit arcadeos.cfg
This is what my config file looks like, I have only shown a couple of lines, these are the most important lines at the moment. Feel free to edit the file later when you get the initial “Hard stuff” working.
#############################
# ArcadeOS 2.52 Config File #
#############################
#path for mame
mamepath=C:\mame\
#executable for mame
mameexe=mame096.exe
#executable used to get game and clone list
infoexe=mame096.exe
#configuration file used by mame executable
config=mame.cfg
#Type of soundcard to use
#0=Silence
#1=Sound Blaster
#2=Sound Blaster AWE32
#3=Pro Audio Spectrum
#4=Ultrasound Max (CS4231 Codec)
#5=Ultrasound
#6=Windows Sound System
#7=Ensoniq Soundscape
soundcard=1
#Sample rate to use
samplerate=22050
Once you have this all sweet, exit the editor saving your changes. Time to try it out!
cd \
copy c:\dos\logo.sys c:\logo.sys
cd \mame
mame –createconfig
cd arcos252
arcadeos
Arcadeos should load after it creates it’s xml file, don’t worry about the speed, it will only do this once (per mame version change too!) Line 2 adds a groovy startup image instead of the boring Win98 splashscreen. ;) For the clever ones that have been paying attention, I don't actually use DOS 6.22's command.com. Windows98 has a more 'modern' kernel so it seems natural to take advantage of it.
You will be presented with ArcadeOS's menu system. The navigation is done with the joystick (or arrow keys), to access the options press the 2P start, and selection is done with the 1P start. There are other buttons used too, but all we want to do is play a game! Select a game from the list, and press the 1P start. That's it! When you are done playing, hold 1P and press 2P. (shortcut to 'ESC)
Cabinet Shortcuts
ArcadeOS uses the default MAME keymap, plus it also has a "Shift" key, which is the 1P start button. These are the keys I use constantly, for further information, please read the arcadeos readme file. Holding the 1P start and pressing other buttons do the following:
TODO!
Troubleshooting Section.
Q. ArcadeOS takes forever to load every time!
A. This is because it is scanning for new games every time it starts. Look for the following line in the configuration file
#don't check for new games at startup
instantstart=0
And change the 0 to a 1.
If you add more roms to the directory, change it back for
one start only.
*** THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. ***
*** If you find any problems please let me know ***
*** For all MAME ROMS Pleasuredome is the place to go ***
27th July 2005 - Fixed boot disk problems. Sorry about that.