MAME Command Line Options

If you've gone through the pages before you'll know that MAME uses the command line to run. That's not to say you cant just click the MAME file, you can. There's a basic menu system built into MAME that lets you run games but you have no control over MAME's setup. To give full control over how games are run you need to add options to the command. If you want to affect all the games in MAME you can edit the mame.ini file. I'll talk about that below.

You need to open a command prompt by opening the Windows start menu, selecting programs, accessories and then Command Prompt. In Vista type cmd into the Start Search box and click the icon that shows up. You'll get something like this...

Type CD\ to get to the C prompt. If you've followed the installation page you need to type CD Mame to get to MAME's folder.

MAME follows a simple structure at the command prompt. It goes...

mame <gamename> <option 1> <option 2> <option 3>

You can add as many options as necessary. The available options are listed below...