4

Background

I discovered Ms. PacMan some time ago, but you don't see many of that game in arcades. Then I did find out about mame (version 0.145), available on my Linux (Ubuntu) machine and about running Ms. PacMan and that works.

Problem

When I save a game (so I don't have to start from the beginning every time (so to improve more difficult levels) and then restore the game, the game in MAME resets and I have to start from the beginning.

I have read here about games being updated to support save state and also somewhere that saving was removed from MAME .100. I also tried to compile an older MAME version 0.99 (which should support saving), but it has no Linux support. And AdvanceMAME (1.2) does not compile because of configuration file problems that don't seem easy to solve.

Question

Should I try harder to get an old MAME compiled, or is this saving of Ms. PacMan not going to work on Linux anyway?

slm
  • 369,824
Timo
  • 53

1 Answers1

3

Compiling and setting up mame or advancemame, with svgalib or newer replacements is not easy. You should stick with the working version of mame that you have.

If you get the message that the game is properly restored, the first thing to try is restoring from the same position a second time, do this while the system is 'resetting' the game. That often helps (but not always).

What should almost certainly solve the issue is saving a game while you are playing (and not at the beginning of a new level), the latter never worked for me without having problems reloading, the former always worked.

When saving in the middle of a level, make sure Blinky & co are not too close, so you have time to get your hands back in position on the keyboard/joystick after restoring.

Anthon
  • 79,293